Should I quit a job?
polycounter lvl 3
When is good to quit comfy, safe studio and start doing new things? I asking that question myself very often last time. First of all I wish to be anonymous here.
I'm 3d artist with about 4 years of experience working in game dev. When I was young, I was learning 3d art so hard that I manage to get first job soon after I finished 19 years but I quit it after few months because of financial problems in studio. I hadn't any plans for studying art because it was a bit expensive for me and I heard a lot that this is completly not worth the weight. When I got my first job I was still trying to improve my skills in home doing some 3d assets, I knew that this is important for me. I didn't wanted to to rest on one’s laurels, I had a clear plans that I wanted to achieve. That was just small studio and I wanted to work in bigger place full of great people. So after quiting job I had a small break and soon after posting few of my new artworks in web I manage to find a new job in bigger and much safer company (from financial perspective) as junior 3d artist. It was the best time in my life. It was a big and unexpected push for me starting in small company and moving forward to place where I always wanted to be, and I was still young then.
First year was really great. I was really happy working here and I couldn't believe that I manage to get work in that place full of great people. At start I got good pay, flexible hours, great benefits, almost no crunch, and what is most important, good managers that are really often kind for coworkers, for example if you needed to do some stuff during your time-work outside work place, that wasn't a problem to quit for hour or more and came back later, or make up those ~1-2 working hours in other day. You just felt like this is a "safehouse" for you because they treat you really well. And I really like it even today.
Second and third year was ok but It wasn't really that great as I excepted. I got promotion, good position and I proof my skill and people noticed me, but I started see problems that couldn't let me working in normal way. A lot of coworkers decided then to quit that job but studio was able to find new people really fast - some of them are great but not every one ... not exactly with skill, but whatever.
Things are changing, and also people. I can speak about it for long time but in short: really bad management, amatourish way of producing things, there is almost no way to decide a path in which you want to develop specialization that you really wish to do in future because "if you want to do cool pretty things, then every 3d artist here will wish to do the same", a lot of iterations, putting away things for later, a lot of people who have "last word" juding your work, lack of trust for people with skill and passion, for people who have some ideas etc, often not listening coworkers. You just do what they say that need to be done and you need to accept that without questioning. If there are some tasks that you know that need to be done and no one is interested in that part, you need to talk a lot trying to proof your word. I see it like this: studio have great skilled artists, but they don't know how to use them to make a better product. Sometime it works, sometime it doesn't works.
So during those 2-3 hard years I had 2 interviews with different studios because I wanted to see if I am capable for working in different place. In first I didn't pass it but in second interview they accepted my offer but finally I decided to stay in place where I'm ... because I was kind of scared. I was questioning myself "is it good to quit job during project?", "is it good quit job that fast?", "should I quit job or maybe should I try to improve my skill in my free time and maybe someday move completly on freelance?", "what if I get a job in new place, but after a few months I wish to came back to place where I was because of some reasons?"
After that I started to ask myself "why I need to change a work place, this studio isn't really THAT BAD?! ofcourse there are SOME PROBLEMS but you have almost everything you need". I'm addicited to be here and I'm worried that any other place will be worst than this. It's safe here, good, funny, and I met a lot of friends here with great passion that pushing my forward everyday. Studio have a clear good future. I meet a close friend who quit that job and she always telling me that there is a lot things to do in the world and I shouldn't stick to one studio forever. 4 years are passing really fast and I still want to do something different, I want to be specialized 3d artist, I want to do COOL PRETTY THINGS that will be recognizable.
Summarizing now I'm standing in position when I need to decide - should I stay and try to improve my skill in my current work place, or should I take another offer which I get a lot on Artstation or Linkedin, or maybe should I wait untill current project will be finished and then change a job? I love a city where I living, and I wish to come back here some day and build a family.
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