Is it time to leave my job? It’s a good question. In these guides, we’ve focused on various aspects of how best to conduct yourself across the process of applying and interviewing for a new job. But how do you know when it’s time to set out on that journey? A lot of people face frustrations in their jobs, and no workplace is perfect, but what are the signs that you should start looking for a new position elsewhere?

Sometimes a situation is clearly not working. If you work with un-cooperative colleagues and managers who you don’t get on with, there’s really no other option than to get out of that toxic work environment and leave your job. One person can’t change an entire office’s culture, and if you notice you’re spending a lot of time outside of work venting to friends and family about your co-workers, it’s time to get new ones.

For many people, the key thing that incites them to want to leave their job is being repeatedly passed over for promotions or denied pay rises. Initially, this might seem like something that can be addressed within your current role – if you make a clear case to your manager about why you deserve the progression or the increase in pay, highlighting how long you’ve been in the role and what you’ve achieved, you may finally be able to get a step up from your starting level. But a management team that isn’t prioritising your career progression and doesn’t value your contributions isn’t going to suddenly change how they approach their staff, and you may find yourself once again stagnating for a long time without moving up the ladder. It’s worth thinking about looking for an organisation that invests more in its staff. You should also other forms of professional investment that aren’t purely monetary too – is your current job supporting you in getting new professional qualifications, attending industry events and expanding your knowledge and skills? Despite the big changes in Governance, Risk and Compliance over the last 20 years, there are still businesses that see it as a box-ticking exercise of no great value – and if you’re in an organisation that treats you that way, it might be time to move on.

Some things are not so obvious. If you’re in a job that you’re good at, it’s easy to end up coasting without realising it. When was the last time you faced a new type of problem at work? When did you last have to think creatively to tackle a task? If you’re struggling for an answer, then it might be time to think about getting into a role where you’ll be challenged more. Most of us are much happier in a role where we’re frequently expanding and pushing our skills, instead of being bored and operating on autopilot.

Many small issues in your job can be solved with open communication and making reasonable requests to the right people – but you also need to recognise when your workplace is no longer working for you. That’s when it’s time to leave – although we always recommend securing your next position before you hand in that notice.

If you’ve made the decision, read our Career Corner on how to resign the right way for some hints and tips on making the process as smooth as possible.

Are you considering leaving a permanent role to begin contracting? We took a look at the pros and cons you should consider in another Career Corner entry.

You’ve invested in your career within Governance, Risk & Compliance. Maybe you’re in your second or third position within your specialism and you’ve built up a good bank of technical skills and knowledge, but you’re not sure where to go next. This is the ideal time to find a Business Mentor.

Not to be confused with a coach or a consultant, a Business Mentor is someone who works with a mentee on their personal development, utilising their lived experience, industry expertise and professional network to aid the mentee’s career. A good mentor will help you to fully develop to the maximum potential within your current role and set you up for your next move up the career ladder. Your mentor will be the first person you go to when you need to discuss a difficult decision facing you in the workplace – whether they’ve been in a similar situation earlier in their career and can tell you how the choice they made played out, or if they simply act as a confidential sounding board, having that resource immediately makes those daunting fork-in-the-road moments in your job easier to navigate.

Every industry has its own unwritten rules and accepted ways of doing things, and a Mentor with good knowledge of Governance, Risk & Compliance and the wider worlds of Financial Services & Banking will be an invaluable resource in navigating the business. If you have an issue involving your direct superior, or staff in your business who are more senior than you, or perhaps a fundamental issue with the work environment, you can take that problem to an experienced Mentor to get an informed second perspective on the problem and how to approach it, before you initiate a difficult meeting in the office.

Now that you understand just a few of the benefits of a Business Mentor, you need to find the right one for you. Attending industry events and building your network is the best starting point here – even if someone isn’t in a position to be your dedicated mentor, there will be things you can learn from every GRC professional who you meet. Look out on LinkedIn for dedicated networking events in your city but also relevant conferences or one-off talks and speeches on Governance, Risk and Compliance topics. If you already have a person in mind, someone in your field who you admire, reach out to them via e-mail or social media – it may well be that they don’t have the time to take on a one on one mentee but they might be able to direct you to one of their peers who can.

However it is you find this person, you should try to get to know them a little, make sure you have compatible ideas and communication styles and are a good fit before you put the word “mentor” out there and propose regular meetings or similar. It helps to have a clear idea of what career goals you’re looking to achieve, and to put these goals to your mentor with a timeframe – it’s much easier to advise somebody on specifics than to just say you want to “be better” at your job or “advance your career” in vague terms.

There’s a tendency to view successful people in business as “self-made” but in reality, almost nobody reaches great success without the help and advice of others, and finding a trusted Business Mentor within your industry is a great way to make sure you have someone you can rely on in your corner.

Being the right candidate for a job is about a number of factors. You need to have the right experience, built up across a career in relevant positions. You need to have developed the skills, honing your abilities and expanding your knowledge. You can have the perfect CV (read our guide on building a better CV right here) but you also need to demonstrate a crucial skill which is helpful for any job you’re applying for: interviewing well. How can you make sure you stand out from other applicants?

It starts with the preparation. Do your research. First, on the company. Don’t just glance over the basic facts, dig deep, learn everything you can online about the history of the company, their current market position, their subsidiaries or their parent company. Social media has opened up new paths here for job seekers – you can have a look at what kind of interactions the business has on their LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Facebook accounts to get a sense of their culture before you even walk into the office.  You won’t necessarily need to reference all or even very much of this in the interview, but it can inform your approach and what questions you ask of the interviewer. A really good interview should feel more like a free-flowing conversation, and thorough preparation can separate you from candidates who ask stilted, obvious questions. Second, ridiculous as it may sound, research yourself. Make sure you are thoroughly familiar with everything you mention on your CV, so you’re ready to discuss any aspect of it in further detail without having to look back at the document. If the interviewer has asked for your Linkedin, again, read closely over the information you’ve put on your profile before you head into the meeting – and have a quick read of our guide to managing your social media presence during your job search.

Next, consider punctuality and timing. Obviously not being late is critical, but there are other factors to take into account here. We always recommend that when possible candidates do a practice journey to the interview location ahead of the actual date so they have a good idea of how long it will take them to get there in real-world terms. Travel at a time that allows plenty of room for error – late and cancelled trains can throw off your arrival by a significant margin. Aim to arrive 10-15 minutes before your interview time; any earlier and you may seem disorganised or as if you’ve taken down the interview details wrong.

Once you’re in the interview, try to maintain a conversational rhythm while maintaining a confident, professional demeanour. Make sure you’ve got STAR examples rehearsed and ready to go – almost all interviews for Governance, Risk and Compliance roles at the moment will involve at least some competency-based questions. These are questions in the style of “Describe a time when you led or worked in a team”, “Tell me about a time where you made a difficult decision” or “Give an example of an example of a time you’ve solved a problem at work”. If you’re not prepared, the open-ended nature of these questions can leave you fumbling for minutes as you try to recall and structure a relevant memory, so, be ready. Look up examples of popular competency-based questions ahead of the interview and come up with STAR answers for them – Situation, Task, Action, Result. Most popular competency-based questions are variations on just a few themes; leadership, teamwork, problem-solving and time management, so we recommend preparing answers on all of those potential topics.

Remember that the interview may be your only chance to impress your potential new employer face to face – if you feel that you haven’t demonstrated all of your relevant qualities as your time draws to a close, don’t be afraid to ask if they have any reservations about you as a candidate. This shows confidence and will allow you to directly address any perceived gaps in your CV.

Finally, end on the right note. Re-state that you’re really interested in the position, that you would love the opportunity to join this company, that you’re looking forward to working together. Keep it warm and specific – let them know that, based on what you’ve learned in the interview, you are surer than ever that this is a good fit for you. Make sure to ask about what happens next in the recruitment process, but be tactful about how you phrase it -“What’s the next stage of the process?” shows you’re serious but “When will I find out if I’ve got it?” makes you sound entitled and aggressive.

Interviews can be nerve-wracking but remember that it should always be a two-way conversation about establishing if you are the right candidate for the job and if the job is right for you. If you feel like you’re being interrogated and facing a series of frosty silences when you try to open up the discussion, chances are that company culture isn’t going to be a good fit for you. Interviewing well is a skill just like any other and it takes practice to improve it, so treat every interview as an opportunity to work on your abilities.

Preparing for your first video interview? We’ve got some more tips on the specific things to think about before your call.

If it hasn’t gone to plan, read our tips on bouncing back from interview rejection.

Studies have suggested that recruiters and hiring managers will sometimes look at a CV for as little as six seconds before deciding if the candidate is worth keeping. So how can you make sure you clear the very first hurdle of the job application process? Here are a few tips to give yourself the best possible chance:

1. Keep the format clean, consistent and easy to read. Over-designing your CV won’t do you any favours; it may seem like putting your experience into grids and expressing your skills as graphs would make your CV stand out but generally hiring managers are looking to see the most relevant information expressed in the most straight forward way.
2. Edit your CV for each role you submit it to, approaching the application with a problem-solving mindset. A company posting a job is looking to solve a problem, not just fill a gap, so highlight and edit your experience to show how you can help with that problem. Cut down the descriptions of your less relevant roles, make it clear where and when you’ve gained the specific experience and skills they need while giving an overview of your wider career history. You’re only going to get a limited amount of time and attention, and it’s much better to give a detailed look at your recent and relevant roles than to present the hiring manager with in-depth breakdowns of everything you’ve ever done.
3. It helps to get very specific about your past impact on the businesses you’ve worked for. Saying you’ve designed multiple Compliance procedures and policies is good – having concrete numbers that show your work reduced Compliance incidents is better. Quantify your achievements whenever possible – a bullet-pointed example with a number or statistic is often more effective than a block paragraph.
4. If you’re including a link to your LinkedIn profile or a personal website, make sure the information on there matches your CV and is both up-to-date and informative.
5. Keep it concise. Some people will tell you that a good CV must be no more than two pages but if you work in a complex technical field like Governance, Risk and Compliance, that can be an impossible target. It is however definitely a smart move to keep it as brief as possible with only the most relevant and impressive information. If you’ve worked in two or more roles within your chosen field, you don’t need to still be telling potential employers that you were a prefect at school. Similarly, with qualifications, keep it to ones that are relevant to the role. If you make every line count, you can keep the hiring manager reading even if you can’t contain your job history within two pages.

We talk a lot about making a good first impression at interviews but the real first impression you make as a candidate is the first time someone sees your CV. While we like to hope that the person with the best experience and most relevant skills will be the one to get the job, you can give yourself a better shot by fine-tuning your CV to make sure your application survives those crucial first six seconds.

Has your CV already secured you an interview? Read our guide on how to prepare for and succeed at this next stage.