 I quit my job during a hiring freeze. It was so scary and so stressful, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions I made. Do you also feel like you're stagnant in your current job and there's no growth? Or maybe you didn't like the culture of the company, or you feel like you're burned out in your current job. I feel you. You also feel like there's a recession coming so you're so afraid you do not have a job at all. And maybe you should just stick to it and wait until the recession is over. Today, I'm going to share with you behind-the-scenes stories why I made a decision to quit my job and the decision-making process I used because I want you guys to use the same methodology to make a wise decision for yourself as well. Hey guys, this is Dr. Nian C. Lee, a director of product. I have helped hundreds of people lending their dream PM job offer in fan companies and unicorn startups and continue to get promoted as a product leader. If you want to achieve the same kind of success, go to this website PMxarcher.io to learn more. Please also subscribe to the channel and turn on the bell button so that you'll be notified every time I turn on a new video every Wednesday. And make sure to check out our behind-the-scenes stories on our Instagram. You're able to see so many inspiring stories from people with very similar background like you. I made a very bold decision to quit my job during the hiring freeze and eventually I was able to land four offers through the results of a director product offer. Actually, that was one of the best decisions that I was able to change myself and see how much I can reach. The outcome totally blew my mind. Today, let me share with you why I made the decision and what exactly happened. I'm not here to ask you to quit your job or not quit your job. I'm here to help you to think through the process so that you have a peace of mind. When I was thinking about whether I should quit my job or not during the hiring freeze, first of all, I decided to access the impact of recession and hiring freeze or the beginning of the pandemic. And here is how I did it. And I knew the pandemic is not going to recover for a short amount of time. This is how I estimate at the time because it looks like everybody's freeze-hiring and I don't think it will just bounce back within two months or three months. And therefore, I made a strategic decision and really asked myself, do I want to wait and write out the entire pandemic or do I want to just immediately jump a new ship before the economy gets worse and worse? And now let's talk about the latest recession. I know all of you guys thinking about recession. I personally have went through two recessions or two hiring freeze. One is 2008 recession. The other one is the beginning of the pandemic when company already freeze-hiring. And specifically, you guys may be thinking, hey Nancy, everything is hiring freeze and slow hiring. Yeah, we heard those news for example, Palitons announced that they're going to lay off 2800 employees and also Robinhood laid off 23% of their employees. And Microsoft announced that they're going to lay off 1% of the employees as well. So extremely scary. I totally understand you. I feel scared as well. But I want you to understand this that this is not the true recession yet where we are right now. My prediction is that we're going to have double recession, which means double dip and it's an inflation on top of normal recession. As we all know right now the inflation is 9.3%. It's going through the roof and too high. I personally think currently the government is doing a good job reducing the inflation and I think the making seems even worse. So therefore actually once we hit double recession and it's going to be really really bad. And on top of that Warren Buffett also makes some predictions that he's predicting the true recession might hit between 3 months to 16 months from today. So therefore right now we're not in the recession yet. But I want you to understand that the best time for you to really make decisions is right now. Okay so you can ask yourself the following question which is would you be able to have internal growth within your current company if you're seeing a stagnant or no growth of your career opportunities. And let's say if there are like opportunities within your current company you can still grow and then I suggest you to stay in your current company. But at the time when I was looking around at the beginning of the pandemic I didn't see any growth opportunity within my current company at the time that was Verizon. And I talked to my mentors and leaders and everybody just told me that there is no new opportunities for a long period of time for me to continue to grow and even moving around within the company is just kind of difficult at the moment. And then I also asked my boss very important question given there's no opportunities is there anything I can work on myself to get ready for the next director opportunities that's coming up. And guess what the answer I received was a little bit shocking and my boss said you are just too green you need more years in the business before you are able to jump to directors. At the time I really don't understand what does this mean regarding I need to spend more time within my company and then I look around majority of people within my company they're like 15 years older than me and then they become a director and all of a sudden I had a woke up moment I was like huh maybe they're looking for people who are older it's not because my skills I'm not qualified for director it's more about they prefer someone who is more mature. So I was a little bit confused but on top of the like hiring freeze at the moment we just found out there is definitely no opportunities anyway regardless I'm too young or regardless of opportunities or not just like to me there's nothing I can grow within my current company even if all my vps and mentors they see me as the young and new potential to grow into leadership position at the moment just the timeline for me to grow it is way too long and comment below do you also feel stagnant in your current job and feel like no passion no drive and everyday doing the same type of work comment down below and tell me how you feel as well and the third thing I did was really ask the most important question that like changed my mindset immediately I asked myself this question would I feel happy if I stay in Verizon for another two to five years at the time I know the pandemic will last for a little while and was also doing family planning because I knew once I have a baby it will slow down my career especially at the first year or so so which means that if I do not jump ship beginning a pandemic I will stay in Verizon for another two years that equals to six years in total in one company to me that's so long ridiculously long I need to get out now ask yourself the same question because we know a double recession is coming I personally believe that if you really hit double recession it will take the entire economy at least two years up to five years to get out of the entire recession which means that you might have to be stuck in your current job for another two to five years ask yourself would you be happy if that happens if the answer is no you need to take massive actions right now because you need to land a job before the true recession hits and even if you stay in your company once the true recession hit the bottom people will get eliminated anyway so which means nobody will have a security of the job anyway once the recession hit you better jump to a new company with better perspective and better growth opportunity and then you are at a better place mastering all the new skills even if recession hit you know how to react if you're not in a hurry to really get out of your current company in the upcoming two to five years I think you should stay because it might be comfortable for you to wait and see for another two to five years but personally just my personality I cannot wait for that long so I leave the decision for you to make and number four which is also very critical if you're thinking of quitting a job right now which is having a backup plan when I decide to quit my job like two years ago the backup plan is very simple which is I stay in my current job so it's very easy so instead of quitting my job right away I start to poke around and see if I can land any job opportunities so I start to look for a new job in April 2020 even if 99% company freeze hiring but there's still some companies that are looking for directors so I was so excited let me just give it a try you never know it's okay got rejected but I was able to land four offers three of those offers are director product offers so I was like damn it this is like totally best outcome ever but I talked to myself as a time even if I failed in all the interviews I can just improvise them for another two to five years and they just stuck there but at least I have one job and that job sponsors my h1b so that was my backup plan so everything else is a bold decision I just need to try and see how far I was able to reach but that turned out to be my best decision to really execute the job hunting strategy very efficiently and that's just jumpstart my career as a director and also leading to my own coaching business later on so by now have you decided do you want to quit a job or you fail the same way how I failed two years ago when I quit my job during a hiring freeze so comment below let me know what kind of feelings you have right now I'm happy to hear from you and if you actually made decision to take actions before double recession hit please make sure to download this dream p.m resume template which has been used by over 7000 product managers to lend their dream p.m job offer please go ahead and go to this link in the description so that you're able to achieve the same kind of success as well I made a new video about the recession proof strategy to help you to navigate this challenging economy usually you go to this video right now and start learning for free right here I'm also going to link the video in the description of this video if you like this video please make sure to share it with any product managers who are thinking about quitting a job or thinking about different kind of recessions how it's going to impact their personal life and their career as well and make sure to give a thumb up I'm going to see you next time this is Dr. N. A. C. B. Bye