Over the years I have been in a variety of positions in a variety of companies, sometimes very content, and other times ready for a change. Over the years I have developed my own criteria for evaluating how good a job is and I have narrowed it down to 4 attributes:
- Location – How far/close to home is your job? are you working from home, if so, do you enjoy that?
- Pay – How much money are you making, including health insurance benefits, 401k, etc.
- Work – How much do you enjoy doing the daily tasks at your job? how much autonomy do you have?
- Atmosphere – How well do you get along with your boss? your co-workers? Do you have enough vacation/sick time? Is there a window in your office?
Most people are pretty lucky if they are happy with 3 out of 4 of these attributes, although they have to take into account how bad the 4th one is.
Although this seems like a very quantitative way to decide on whether you should stay where you are at or start looking for a new job I have found a lot of it comes down to emotional.
I hope this help you in determining when to stay or leave a job as well as if you should take a new job offered to you.