I just passed on a tech job offer. It's not a bad job and I would have been good at it, too, but its just not what I want to do.
will I regret this after my other applications fall through? Yeah. I would also regret it if I had to work 40 hours a week doing that job.
I know lots of people working jobs they hate, so what am I doing turning a good one down, right?
Man. I don't know. i followed my instinct on that one. My instinct is fallible as fuck
I keep to the "best time to apply for a new job is when you already have one" strategy, which feels clutch in the states since healthcare access and the basics of material survival are tied to employment. i struggle to negotiate in the best of circumstances, so when I'm desperate I just roll over.
that said, it fuckin blows to be applying for jobs like it's a job when you already have a full time job that sucks.
I just went through this and am at a better new job now after 10 years with a previous employer. the earlier job was fine for several years, but had steadily gotten worse and worse from a non existent job ladder/step system and institutional rot. so what I would do, is when my frustration would spike, I would hop on indeed at work and job hunt for half a day, update my resume/CV, and toss out applications.
after like a year or so, something really good hit, I beat out the competition, and got a good offer. and then I got to pull the rug out from my shitty former boss, which has made all those frustrating times sweeter.
but really, I'm too much of a coward to turn down an offer while unemployed, or even to be unemployed. I did it some times in my 20s, but it sorta fucked me up, mentally.