Should I Wait Or Resign?

[HappyJack832]

A little bit background, I graduated 2 years ago. I got my 1st job in a big corporation. It's a bank. First started as a contract worker, I then became full time roughly 6 months later.

Working as an administrative assistant, I have to do tasks that are quite frustrating sometimes, like booking the conference room after receiving a short notice from my manager or buying everyone lunch or afternoon snacks when I don't even have time logging papers piled up on my desk (all those credit and legal documents!).

As my manager knew that I did not major in finance or accounting, he told me it's hard to become a client representative or even relationship officer. After discussing with him a few times about my study (supply chain mgmt) and how I wanted to put my knowledge into use, he began to assign short projects to me from time to time. I helped figure out the time of the month to order things like A4 papers, warehouse boxes, pantry's snacks. I also pushed to change the habit of many colleagues (who still likes to write on papers) to record data electronically (at least to my department!). This led to consuming less papers, allowing the budget to use on other areas. I even stayed after work to train everyone using Excel and Access and even bank soft applications (because nobody likes to read the user guide). Still, I could not leave my daily tasks of making cups of coffee and moving tons of boxes in the storage room.

Everyone in my department has a team (2 to 4 people depending on the company size of the customer they are dealing with), but I'm only by myself. So I don't think I can afford taking a day off because nobody's covering my work during my absence. When I was out for a 2-week annual vacation, they did everything incorrectly and ended requiring me staying behind for extra 4 hours each day for a month to clean up the mess. So about a month ago I had received my 2nd annual performance review, which I continued to earn "Outstanding" in all assigned objectives. However, I didn't get a pay increase for 2 years in a row. My manager explained to me that the bank was not doing very good, so he said I should be lucky that my pay did not go down.

Considering cost of living plus I'm not the only working person in my family, I decided to find something else. I actually tried to apply for a position in another department, but they ended doing things similar to what I am doing right now (coffee, boxes. . .) and the title is "Analyst", which is 3 levels above me. Yet, they rejected my transfer as 1) I was not a finance/accounting major, 2) I must have at least 5 years of experience (for making coffee and manual labor?!), and 3) they said I have to be promoted to "Specialist" not an "Admin". I followed up with them a few times and even discussed with HR, but I was just not selected. And one time I went to that department to give out some letters, the new hired complained her time was wasted in making coffee and counting documents because she got 2 master degrees and still misled by the vague job description.

I want to quit and find another job, but I'm planning to do so after my annual vacation. I have 3 weeks this year including rollover from previous year. I'm thinking maybe I will start posting my resume or find a job agency after that and quit after I get a firm offer. However, my manager also told me a while ago that I might get a pay raise next year (1 year later) if everything goes as anticipated in the FY2018 business plan.

Should I maybe wait another year to see if things may change? Or resign as planned after I find another job after vacation. Hopefully, it's not going to take me 1 year to find my next job. . . Any thoughts? Thanks!

[david small]

Here we go again. Periodically we have a very long post pertaining to require opinions upon lifestyle questions.
Strange it’s always from first time posters. Coincidentally the style of writing is very similar.
BUSTED......

[Buenchico]

^^^ David is more suspicious (or should that be 'cynical'?) than I am.

Welcome to AB, Jack.

As this website is based in the UK, don't expect too many answers here within the next few hours (as it's about 2am here at the moment). Further, things might be a bit different here (with regard to employment issues) than they are in the USA (where I assume that you're based through you're use of terms like 'major').

However, for what it's worth, I'd suggest staying in your present post for the moment, while actively seeking another job. If you resigned now, other employers might be suspicious of a candidate who's only held their post for a fairly short while. They could well suspect that you were 'jumping before being pushed' after failing to come up to standard. (It's no use having excellent references if your application has already been thrown into the bin before the potential employer gets to see them).

All over the world there are graduates working in McDonald's after quitting their 'professional' jobs on the assumption that they'd easily get another one, so it would seem silly to risk ending up in a similar position.

Your present post might not be to your liking but it's not as if you're being required to do tasks that are dangerous (as, no doubt, some employees are in their jobs) or being subjected to massive harassment from senior colleagues (as lots of people are). Such things might provide good reasons for getting out at the earliest opportunity but you're simply one of the billions of people around the world who don't like their job. Put up with it for now but get out when you're sure that you've found something better.

[Jackdaw33]

I agree. The golden rule is that it's much easier to find another job when you've already got one than when you haven't.

[jno]

yes, the key question is how easy it is to find another job - and whether it would be better (whether measured by job satisfaction, pay or prospects) than the one you have now. Really, those are questions only you can answer. But I'd be scouting out alternative opportunities right now if I were you.