Suze Orman Money Matters

Building a satisfying career requires a commitment to playing offense rather than defense. Take control of your job destiny and make the moves that will put you in a position to actually enjoy your work. Simply waiting for things to work out, or sticking with a bad situation -- playing defense -- is a breach of self-respect.

You deserve to enjoy your job, to feel appreciated and challenged by it, and to be fairly compensated for your work. If that's not how things are playing out at the moment, it's time to take responsibility for your future.

Now I'm well aware of how daunting it can be to contemplate changing your job, let alone changing careers. And it can take time. But you can't afford to just suck it up and stay in a job or industry that bores or frustrates you. Professional dissatisfaction is bound to seep into your personal life: You -- and your loved ones -- shouldn't be resigned to having you spend the majority of your time unhappy.

Deep inside, you probably already know if you need a new job. But let me provide the final nudge: If any of the following scenarios ring true, it's time to make a change.

1. Friday Is Your Favorite Day

If all you can think of Monday morning is how many hours until Friday, quitting time, you've got a problem. You don't have to love every minute of every working day, nor every colleague all the time -- let's be real -- but if your overriding approach to the work week is dread, don't stay where you are. Especially since a normal work week has seemingly morphed from 40 hours to 50 or 60, spending all that time unhappy is unacceptable.

2. You're Bored

If you still have another 10, 20, or 30 years of work ahead of you, coasting is not an option. What seems "easy" now is actually very dangerous. Rather than growing in your career, you will stagnate. You won't get the promotions -- and raises -- you want, and you won't acquire the skills to keep professionally growing.

That will make you incredibly vulnerable. An unmotivated and lazy worker is the easiest to let go. And if you're forced out of a job where you have underachieved, it's going to be that much harder to impress future employers.

3. Stress Is Your Middle Name

Yes, every job comes with stress, but it's up to you to measure the magnitude of what your work takes out of you. If you feel incredible pressure throughout your time at the office, take your work home with you, and then can't sleep because you're wound up so tightly, you need to rethink what you're doing to yourself.

I'm all for working hard, and meeting project deadlines will always require extending yourself from time to time, but if you're constantly in work mode, you're selling yourself short. Where's your life?

4. You're Underappreciated (and Overworked)

You deserve respect. It's that simple. If you have a boss that doesn't value your work, or your company doesn't treat its employees well, it's probably time to move on. Of course, it always makes sense to try and turn around a bad situation. Talk to your boss about how you can better work together, or look for other opportunities in the company. But please don't play martyr and suffer through a work atmosphere that makes you feel "less than."

5. You Keep Saying, "If I Could Do It All Over, I Would Be a ...."

Don't sell out your dreams so fast. If you're constantly thinking about doing something else with your work life, you owe it to yourself to see if you can make a go of it.

I'm not suggesting you quit your job tomorrow and go after your dream. Switching careers can take years of planning, both in terms of scoping out the new work and preparing for the financial changes the switch can entail. But it can be done. The career you start with is not necessarily the one you must end with. I tell you this from experience: Until the age of 29, I was a waitress earning less than $5,000 a year.

While I'm all for chasing dreams, you're not to use the going-back-to-school excuse to get out of a job you dislike. Going back to school is not a career plan. Scoping out a job or industry that truly interests you, and then researching what it will take to both start and succeed in that field is a career plan. If, after all that research, it's clear that you need to go back to school, then go for it. But simply using education as a shelter from the work world is a lousy move.

Don't Wait Till You Hit Breaking Point

Recognizing you need a new job is the easy part. What's hard -- and often paralyzing for so many -- is how to move forward. Being stuck seems to have become a career stage. Let's get you moving forward in your career.

The most important step is to take responsibility for your future. Whether you're the victim of a horrid boss, office politics, or lousy industry prospects is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what you're going to do to change your situation.

You also don't want to wait until you're pushed to your breaking point. No one can make good decisions when they're angry and under pressure.

The idea here is to strategize and plan. Think about where you want to be one year or three years from now. Let your boss know your career goals -- don't assume he or she can read your mind. Make an appointment to talk about what work you need to do and skills you need to acquire to put you in a position for a promotion. Check in every month or so to discuss your progress.

If your boss isn't interested in your career progress but you like the company, scope out other opportunities at the organization. Because you're being proactive and thinking about your future, you have the luxury of networking and investigating over months. A division you really want to work with may not have a job for you today, but if they know you're interested, you may get a call a few months down the line.

Looking before you really need to is even more important if you'll be searching among new companies that have no idea who you are. It's going to take time. So please get started looking for a job now if you want to make a move within the next six months.

It's your job to make your career work for you.