"Vice President" - Should I get this title & THEN quit?

[B L I S S]

Sometime last year, I decided that I would work until June 2021 and then quit and go to a couple countries I like to learn specific music and dance I'm into for 6-10 months. Plan shifted slightly as I thought i had a good offer lined up but they couldn't meet my salary requirements so that died. Now im back to this original plan.  Waiting until June 2021 would give me a chance to get promoted to Vice President in January 2021 and save $30K from now to then. With that title on my resume, I'm guessing it would be easier to jump back into the workforce when I come back (currently just equivalent of manager).   I'll know if I'm on track for it by October. I'f im not on track, not a chance i stay another year to try for it.

I'm 29 now though. Total cash is about $90K, net worth about $130K. No debts. And if you frequent the forum enough & have incredible memory you may remember my last post stating I hate this job tremendously. My financial situation is good so I'm thinking why wait another year? I think i could make it to June 2021 if I absolutely had to..but do i need to?

Do you think it's worth it to wait to try and get the promotion? In order to come back to the workforce with a "strong" title after my travels? Or is life too short to play those guessing games?

[ender]

What industry?

VP means many different things in different industries. In mine, it'd definitely be worth it.

[norajean]

VP of a bookstore is different from VP of Exxon.

[B L I S S]

I'm in healthcare, but working as a management consultant. So would be VP in a consulting firm. There's really no levels in between between manager and VP. (like senior manager, or director). So in a way it feels almost fraudulent, but not complaining.

[scottish]

So your resume would have you listed as a VP for 6 months and resigning...   Would that raise questions if you tried to get back into the workforce?    Of course, you could always omit the title and just put down manager if it becomes a problem.

IMO, if you really hate the work, life is too short to suck it up for a job title.     Take a break and then try to figure out what you like doing.   You've got a good 50 years left!

[dummy]

In property management everyone is a VP. So it depends.

[auntie_betty]

So your resume would have you listed as a VP for 6 months and resigning...   Would that raise questions if you tried to get back into the workforce?

My thoughts exactly. Could (would????) lead to thoughts of '6 months - couldn't hack the pressure' or '6 months then quit - unreliable'.

[soccerluvof4]

Everyone that worked for me was a VP in sales. Titles mean nothing unless as other said it is with a well know established type industry/business. I wouldn't title chase and leave after 6 months and VP for consulting I dont think would impress as much as simply your accomplishments.

[Michael in ABQ]

Everyone that worked for me was a VP in sales. Titles mean nothing unless as other said it is with a well know established type industry/business. I wouldn't title chase and leave after 6 months and VP for consulting I dont think would impress as much as simply your accomplishments.

In the commercial real estate world most of the brokers with more than 5-10 years of experience were Vice Presidents. Some were Senior Vice President or First Vice President, but there were thousands of VPs in the company. Same thing with appraisers. Had I earned a professional designation (one requirement away when I left that job) I too would have been a VP. It just meant a 5% bump in commission rate. The actual managers were managing directors, etc.

[mizzourah2006]

In property management everyone is a VP. So it depends.

Same for banks.

[Dicey]

So your resume would have you listed as a VP for 6 months and resigning...   Would that raise questions if you tried to get back into the workforce?

I'm wondering the same thing. Could you characterize it as a long-planned sabbatical? That you had a plan and got promoted, but the company let you take the sabbatical anyway? This might have other pitfalls, like "Why didn't you go back afterwards?" It's something to think about.

[ixtap]

In an industry where no one says "everyone is a VP," it would likely be harder to get a job having had the VP title. Everyone assumes you don't want to downgrade and there are only so many VP positions out there.

[B L I S S]

In an industry where no one says "everyone is a VP," it would likely be harder to get a job having had the VP title. Everyone assumes you don't want to downgrade and there are only so many VP positions out there.

Everyone's made such valid points but this right here is the one that scares me the most. In my mind, a VP in my industry = no sleep live to work. I can't imagine there are many of us reading this now who want to eventually fall in that category. I worry that if i did get that title, that's the only position i would be hearing from recruiters for making my re-entry into the market that much harder ( if I wanted something more chill...)

[trollwithamustache]

This requires a lot of judgement about your industry and company, but to quit after a promotion might be taken badly if it wasn't discussed the right way with the new boss first. Do you see a possibility of the promotion conversation being your opening to say you want to take XXX time off and want to come back and have a path to that VP job?

If you do get the VP job and quit, don't *worry* about being leveled out of jobs, do something about it. When you do your job search, send out resumes both with and without the promotion too see how they hit. Since you are on this board, my assumption is you have your shnowzers together and can hang out for a bit while the job search runs its course.

[mozar]

I vote for quit now.

[dd564]

If you are VP for less than a 2 year period, in most industries it will look like you got in over your head.
If you plan to have a long down-period with no job directly after it, it will look worse.

[Maenad]

In my industry it would be harder to find work again once you had a VP title, since there are a lot fewer job openings for VPs than Managers.

I'm at a Principal Engineer level (high), but the largest group of openings by far is at the Senior level, one step down. If I go back for a contract it'll almost certainly be at Senior.