Steve Mossop has spent his entire career in market research, starting with his first job in 1990 at Angus Reid (later bought by Ipsos). He worked at that company for 17 years, eventually becoming manager for the western region.
However, when the company acquired Synovate and suddenly grew to 20,000 employees from 10,000, Mossop began to feel unhappy in his job. He knew it was time to make a change.
“I was pressured to take a job I didn’t want, and move from an old position to a new position,” he said. “Ultimately, I said, ‘No, I’m not going to take that new position,’ and they had to package me out.”
Mossop knew what he wanted to do next: start his own market research firm, which he called Insights West. The company now has 15 employees and annual revenue of around $2 million.
Mossop said he knew it was time to make the change when the pros of his job no longer outweighed the cons.
“Be acutely aware of what you love and hate about your job,” he said, advising that even people who are happy in their jobs should make a list and be aware of when the scales tip to the negative.
Mapping out his exit plan and next career move well in advance also helped him make a smooth transition, Mossop said. That includes continuous networking and keeping up your LinkedIn profile – not waiting until you know you are going to leave.
“As soon as the merger happened I had my exit pretty well planned out ... a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about how they’ll get into a company, but they don’t really think about how they would leave.”
Mossop also believes that employees, not human resources departments, should decide when and how they tell team members they are leaving.
“Figure out how you want to communicate it with your colleagues, acquaintances, partners and, in some instances, clients, and do it on your own terms,” he said. “Your loyalty to a company ends when you leave or are in the process of leaving.”
