Is fear stopping you from getting the career development you deserve? There are plenty of practical reasons people give for not moving jobs, and I've covered the common objections elsewhere. But this piece is for people who are genuinely fearful of moving. In my experience it always boils down to two core concerns: job security, and the quiet question of "am I good enough to cut it elsewhere?" Let's pick both apart.

Fear 1: Job Security

We always seem to be in "turbulent times," and yet the industry ticks along nicely. I don't get any impression we're on the edge of a precipice, and as a recruiter I'm a decent barometer: I'm very busy with clients looking to hire, and companies that are recruiting are companies confident about their future workload.

Still, people worry about being "last in, first out" if a downturn comes. Let me get on my soapbox: I genuinely do not believe in this theory. Having lived through two economic cycles, I can categorically tell you that in 2008 and 2009 it was not the recent joiners who went first. The two groups most affected by redundancy were, first, trainees and graduates (a tragedy every time; the industry sets itself back a decade with each round of it), and second, individuals with longer tenure, the people seen, and I hate the phrase, as dead wood, no longer of use to the business going forward. That included people with ten, twenty, thirty years of service.

So staying put is hardly a guarantee of security either. In fact, here's an exercise worth doing: look at the history of the organisation you're in and see how it behaved last time. How many jobs did it cut? And if you're in one of the many newer firms, particularly in the London QS world, where startups have multiplied over the last decade, remember that the people at the helm of your business now were often at the helm of organisations that slashed hundreds of jobs back then. Some cuts were genuine necessity. Others, in my humble opinion, were made to protect partner profits for the year. That may sound severe, but some organisations cut far deeper than they needed to, purely to protect the interests of existing shareholders. Do the history lesson.

And suppose the worst did happen, whether you'd moved or stayed. My genuine experience from the worst recession in modern global history is that most good individuals found work again pretty damn quickly. Some had to make short term compromises, but the vast majority got back to where they wanted to be in fairly short order. And that was then. Today, the industry has huge skill shortages that are getting worse, not better. If you're a good QS, PM or building surveyor, you will remain in demand even through economic uncertainty, simply because there aren't enough of you to go around.

One more thing: be careful about the rhetoric coming out of some employers' mouths. I spoke recently to a chartered QS in his late twenties whose senior management, at an independent London consultancy, were essentially telling staff they should be grateful to have a job because "it's so tough out there." What a load of rubbish. Individuals at that level are in enormous demand in London right now. Any organisation feeding that line to its team is being frankly laughable, and I don't know how they say it with a straight face.

Which brings me to the question I always come back to: even if you grant your fears some validity, is it worth it? Is it worth staying in a job you fundamentally hate for the illusion of security? Or is it better to take a measured risk, join a business where you'll be happier, and take your destiny into your own hands?

Fear 2: "Am I Good Enough to Cut It Elsewhere?"

Here's my response every time: the day job is 80 to 90% the same from one business to another. What differs between companies is the culture and environment. If you're a chartered QS doing a good job at one consultancy, whether in London, Leeds or Birmingham, the job at a competitor will be broadly identical. If you're cutting it in one organisation, what makes you think you can't do the same in another?

And if you still have doubts, let me give you a statistic. In 20 years of recruiting, I can count on one hand the number of people I've placed who didn't pass their probationary period. That's less than 1%. And in those rare cases, it was almost always extenuating personal circumstances, someone in a difficult place in their own life at the time, rather than a lack of capability. It happens so infrequently that this fear is, to a large extent, irrational.

There is a real phenomenon of becoming a little institutionalised after too long in one organisation, fearing a big wide world where things are done differently. If that's you, speak to ex colleagues who've moved on and ask how their journey went. You'll likely find that beyond the standard rocky first three months that almost everyone experiences after a move, the story is overwhelmingly positive.

And consider the logical endpoint of this fear: if you genuinely believe you can't cut it anywhere else, then the only conclusion is that you must stay where you are for the remainder of your career. If you're unhappy and not progressing at the pace you want, that thought alone should be depressing enough to challenge the premise.

The People Who Moved Were the Ones Who Advanced

One final observation from the years following the last recession. Those who were brave, who moved to more ambitious organisations, were in my opinion the ones who fast forwarded their careers over the following five to ten years. Those who stayed put out of fear, often in organisations feeding them that "be grateful for your job" rhetoric, largely stagnated at the same level for years.

Good individuals will always find employment. That's been true forever and will continue to be. Don't let fear over job security, or doubt in your own ability, keep you in an organisation where you're fundamentally unhappy. Take the leap.