{"id":7831,"date":"2017-02-27T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/?p=7831"},"modified":"2018-08-16T13:07:05","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T17:07:05","slug":"why-i-quit-my-job-and-went-on-a-cross-country-road-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/2017\/02\/27\/why-i-quit-my-job-and-went-on-a-cross-country-road-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I Quit my Job and Went on a Cross-Country Road Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Past<\/a>
Past National Committee members Heather Harder and Victoria Lewis in front of Mt. Rushmore. Photo courtesy of Heather Harder.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last summer I did something crazy. In the midst of a heated job search, I quit my existing job, put my belongings in storage and embarked on a cross-country road trip with a fellow PRSSA National Committee alumnae. Fortunately, this alumnae knows me well enough not to question my seemingly out of character actions and was willing to join the adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n

While I do not recommend everyone quit their jobs and take a cross-country road trip, I do think it\u2019s important to listen to your instincts and take big risks while you\u2019re young. This experience taught me valuable lessons I continue to apply in my new career. I hope other PRSSA members will find them useful in getting to where they want to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take strategic risks. <\/b>Quitting my job without a new one was a big risk, but it was also a calculated one. At the time, I was averaging at least one interview per day and trying to relocate to a larger city. It was more strategic to make interviewing a full-time job than it was to waste my employer\u2019s time during the process. Taking the risk was nerve-wracking, but it led to an unforgettable adventure that helped me get to where I am today. Given the choice, it\u2019s a risk I\u2019d take again.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to take a break.<\/b> If you aren\u2019t even 25 and already feel burned out, that\u2019s a problem. Temporarily pulling myself away from work was like hitting a reset button. I went back to doing the things I loved: Traveling, running, exploring, writing. It became clear these were things I could have been doing all along had I just taken a step back from my career-driven mentality and taken some time to enjoy being a young professional.<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to quit your job to hit the reset button. Just make sure to continue taking time to do the things you love. <\/span><\/p>\n

Build a support network through PRSSA.<\/b> I could not have picked a better road trip partner than someone I met through PRSSA. Rather than questioning my decision to quit my job and travel across the states, Victoria fully supported my decision and embraced the adventure. Whether I was doing a job interview from the side of Mount Rushmore or sampling beer in Billings, Montana, our PRSSA connection kept me motivated and confident that everything would be OK.<\/span><\/p>\n

This story reveals an important lesson about your time in PRSSA. You may be hyper-focused on launching your career right now, but don\u2019t forget to build relationships with your peers. They\u2019re the people you\u2019ll lean on the most during your first years as a professional because they\u2019ll be the only ones who truly understand what you\u2019re going through. Who knows? One of them might even end up riding shotgun in your car on a cross-country adventure. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span>
\nHeather Harder is a senior account executive at Prosek Partners, a financial communications firm based in New York. She serves as membership co-chair of the PRSA New Professionals section and is a past PRSSA National President. Contact her at <\/span><\/i>HeatherLHarder@gmail.com<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last summer I did something crazy. In the midst of a heated job search, I quit my existing job, put my belongings in storage and embarked on a cross-country road trip with a fellow PRSSA National Committee alumnae. Fortunately, this alumnae knows me well enough not to question my seemingly out of character actions and was willing to join the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,642,15,40,2647],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7831"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7833,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7831\/revisions\/7833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}