This post was borrowed from Coaching Programmers, an excellent blog by Bruce Taylor (author of Working with Programmers) that sadly hasn’t been updated recently.

Unbidden, your mind starts thinking, “Maybe it’s time to move on.” So how can you make this rather momentous decision in a way that won’t leave you second guessing in a month.

First, let’s talk about some distracting thoughts:

• “But all my friends are here!”
First of all, there’s no guarantee that they’ll stay in a depressing job, so you might be left alone. Besides, you’ll make new friends wherever you go.

• “But the company has been so good to me – I owe them my loyalty!”
I’m sure that you’re working for a good company, but the concept of loyalty between company and worker is just about gone. They would lay you off if they had to, and you should feel free to move on if it’s to your benefit.

• “This just isn’t a good time in the project to leave.”
Your professionalism does you credit, but it will never be a good time to leave, so you might as well wrap up what you’re working on now and make a clean exit.

Now, the easy part of the decision – the “plus and minus” analysis.

• Write down everything positive you can think of about the job, and everything negative about it. Don’t censor yourself as you’re writing the list – feel free to put down petty things or half-formed ideas. If you don’t fill a full sheet of paper you’re not trying hard enough.

• Put the paper aside for at least 24 hours.

• Now cross out all the pluses and minuses that don’t seem important enough anymore.

This should take care of about a third.

• Now cross out all the pluses that are likely to be true at a new job – things that you wouldn’t really be giving up. “My good friends” is probably in this category.

• Do the same thing with the minuses – cross off the ones that are likely to remain problems whatever job you work in.

What you have left are the real logical issues to analyze in your decision. For each of them make a decision and write down your answer:

• Is there anything I could do to make this minus better in my current job?

• How likely am I to find a job that has this plus?

• Is there anything I could do to offset the minuses with more pluses in this job?

• Now read the list once a day for at least three days.

Now, here’s the hard part. Up until now you’ve been using your logical, analytical part of your mind, but choosing to leave your job is also an emotional decision, so you’re going to have to listen to the right side of your brain. Here are some things you can do to get your emotions involved:

• Imagine yourself in the new job in as much detail as you can manage and try to notice your emotions. In this vision, do you feel excited and energized, or does it feel pretty much like the current job?

• Talk to friends about the choice, emphasizing how you feel about the pluses an minuses and the scary risk of making a move like this. Don’t ask their advice, just ask them to listen while you talk and ask questions if they want you to go deeper.

• Talk to people who have left your company about their emotions – do they miss the place, do they regret their decisions, or are they happier and more contented in their new job?

Above all, don’t over-analyze and don’t force a decision. Keep reading the list of pluses and minuses and things you can do, keep envisioning the new job, and keep thinking about conversations with friends. In a little while, your subconscious will hand you a decision that just feels right either stay with your company (perhaps making some changes) or go find a new job.

You’ll know this decision because there won’t be any doubt that this is the right thing to do, but you might be surprised because it’s not what you were expecting to decide. Trust this decision and don’t try to second-guess it: just start acting on it, because it’s the right thing for you to do.

So there you have it – the decision whether to stay at your current job and try to improve things, or to go try and find a job that suits you better is a combination of analysis and pure emotion. If you let one dominate over the other, or if you make the decision on a timetable, you’re likely to be saying “I wish I had…” for a long, long time.