Hope it works out for her.
I've always counselled my kids to employ this thought process when deliberating whether to look for a different job. I tell them to honestly answer four questions:
1. Am I quitting this job for the right reasons?
2. Am I quitting this job for the wrong reasons?
3. Am I accepting this new job for the right reasons?
4. Am I accepting this new job for the wrong reasons?
I know that sounds simplistic. But I tell me kids to answer AND write down each and every reason they can think of (for each question). Then go back and see what trends emerge. All too often the lure of more money/time off offered by a prospective employer masks the unhappiness that new job may bring. And similarly, "wrong reasons" may actually give insight how to resolve those reasons without quitting.
And if that next, new job happens to be in a different field, that brings even more challenges. I've counselled folks to take the Myers Briggs personality test -
https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test - then go to the Ball State University website where those Myers Briggs test results are matched to careers - some which require degrees and some which do not -
https://www.bsu.edu/about/administrativeoffices/careercenter/tools-resources/personality-types )
Myers Briggs-type tests don't tell what career the test-taker should pursue. Rather, Myers Briggs tells what careers would be most satisfying based on the personality of the test taker. That's a huge difference. Job satisfaction is a much more powerful motivator for job performance than compensation.
There are other tests similar to Myers Briggs, and other universities that correlate their degree offerings to test results. I gave Myers Briggs and Ball State just to illustrate the concepts. The Myers Briggs test can be taken for free if you search around for it on the internet.
[The Myers Briggs website charges a fee - $50 last time I looked - to take their test AND link to Myers Briggs relatively short list of careers by personality type. Not a good value at all. Ball State does a much better job. Nevertheless, the concept of identifying personality type and matching it to satisfying careers is absolutely valid.]
Another key to career satisfaction is determining whether you have a "project" or a "process" mentality. Process people like to do the same job over and over, and look to refine that process. They don't get bored with this repetitive activity.
Project people, on the other hand, relish the challenge of doing something brand new. They'll enjoy doing it a second time, too. But quickly they become bored and want a new challenge. Careers can be segregated into a "project vs process" listing. A project person will not likely be happy with a career whose basis is performing a repetitive process.
My 3 kids (age 44, 42 and 34) took Myers Briggs in their 10th grade and 12th grade of public school. Sure enough, they are in exactly the types of careers Myers Briggs predicted they'd enjoy doing. Better yet, each of them has been in his/her current employment ever since they started work: one for 21 years as a career army Blackhawk pilot, one for 23 years as a senior administrator in a large school district, and the last for 13 years as a CPA for an international accounting firm. It is highly unusual for adults their ages to have stayed with a single employer their entire career. I believe the insights about careers each of my kids gained from Myers Briggs testing contributed to their career selections.
Just a thought.
