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Should I Stay or Go—Advice on a Complicated Workplace Choice

We make workplace choices every day—how much prep you do for a meeting, which recommendation you’ll make to leadership, which direct report is ready for promotion. But as you build a career, there are some big fork-in-the-road moments that come along the way. One you’ll be faced with: Should I stay with this team or with this company, or should I leave and build my career elsewhere?

In my 25+ years in the workforce, building my career from financial analyst to Chief Financial Officer at Insight Global, I’ve had plenty of “stay or go” moments. Let’s detail two of them, then we’ll talk about what I’ve learned when making these decisions.

A Time I Stayed

During the 2007-2008 financial crisis, I was working at BrandSafway (then known as Brand Energy & Infrastructure Services). Leading up to the crisis, part of my role was helping take the company public. But once the crisis hit, taking the company public with an IPO wasn’t really an option. Capital market completely dried, and I wasn’t sure what my role would be moving forward. My entire role turned on a dime.

I very quietly started looking for financial roles outside of the company and eventually closed in on a good opportunity. I didn’t know what my career would look like at Brand during these tough financial times. But the CEO saw my potential and created a role to maximize it. It was in operations—an area I didn’t have experience—creating the company’s first global supply chain organization. I was going to report directly to the CEO!

I stayed because the CEO valued my abilities and what I could do. Not just what I’ve done. He knew I’d figure it out and lead the company well. I didn’t know it at the time, but he had even bigger aspirations for me. Two years later, I was appointed as CFO.

A Time I Left

Before I started at Brand, I was at General Electric, where I built my core career skills. After 10 years there, the CEO changed. Naturally, that comes with different business priorities, potential culture changes, and organizational structures. GE was what I knew professionally, and I loved the environment, but I grew to think that it wasn’t the best place for me moving forward shortly after Jack Welch retired. I didn’t feel I could thrive and be my personal best there, so I left for a place where I felt I could.

I landed at Brand (mentioned above), and my 12 years there became the most exhilarating and rewarding of my career. I took those core skills I learned at GE and started to build something—and I became accountable for its success.


I want to talk about three primary things I’ve learned when deciding to stay or leave an employment situation.

You Have to Know Who You Are & What You Want

When are you at your best? What does that environment look like? Are you at a workplace now that reflects that? What are you working on in that ideal environment? And what do you want out of a role?

These answers may change year to year. My choice to leave GE and grow at Brand came when I had the runway to build something new. As I’ve come to Insight Global, that career runway is a bit shorter. My professional goals are a lot different than when I left GE.

But once you know who you are and what you want professionally, you must be discerning as you make your decision. The last thing you want to do is think you’re making the right decision to move—for the next title, for the next fancy company, for the next pay bump—and discover it’s not an improvement, or worse, it’s nothing like you expected. But now’s the time to ask: Have you done your due diligence whether your current situation is the right position or company for you? Or is a new position really giving what you want out of a career? Or is it simply someplace different.



My Decisions Were Rooted in Environment

I’m at my best when I’m in an environment that embraces the full me.

I’ve loved the culture and shared values at so many of the places I’ve worked. The best of them allow diverse voices to be in the room and safely speak their opinion. Diversity of thought creates conversation as everyone shares those opinions and makes space for more open evaluation. It can foster positive tension as different perspectives and feedback are considered. And it allows for creative decision-making as everyone comes to alignment.

I didn’t always have the language to define my workplace environment must-haves, but now I know, and I seek it out. But first and foremost the best places have allowed me to be Chi—not someone the company wants me to be. This has made my “stay or go” decisions easier to make. They were rooted in the environment I knew I wanted.

Sometimes It’s Not You Who’s Changed

Executive leadership changes. Market demands take the company’s focus elsewhere. A new manager takes a team in a different direction. But you’re still the driven, skilled employee you’ve always been.

Sometimes your interests and goals aren’t what are nudging you to leave a company—it’s the environmental changes.

A mentee I worked with experienced an overhaul of leadership structure at her company, and she suddenly started to be in fewer high-level meetings. Her voice wasn’t in the room like it used to be. She didn’t change—her leadership environment did. She didn’t do anything wrong. But I suspect it felt that way some days, and many of us can relate to that feeling.

She’s a CFO now.

It’s hard not to take moments like that personally, but they can be catalysts for new opportunities. There are environments that want and need your skills, your solutions—that want and need you.


Me with my FP&A team, who were nominated as one of the top corporate teams at Insight Global in 2023. So happy I came to IG!

What I Learned Through All of This

A couple of takeaways from my “stay or go” experiences:

  • You’re going to have plenty of these decisions to make over your career. They might happen within a company (team to team) or from company to company. You’ll find success if your decisions are well thought out and are rooted in what makes you, you.
  • Sometimes organizational change leads you to an answer. Environments change, and they may deviate from the workplace you want or the goals you want to achieve. Do you stay and try to adapt to see what comes, or do you move on to something that better fulfills your needs?
  • If you do enter the market, don’t always take the first opportunity that comes to you. Remember that due diligence! Sometimes that first opportunity is a great one. Mine was with Insight Global. But take time to vet each position and company and make sure they line up with who you are and what you want now and for your future. Would future you thank you for the decisions you’re making now?

These are tough choices, but they’re only yours to make. I’ve had experiences both in staying the course and forging a new path. It’s taken plenty of thought, intention, and getting to know myself and what I want out of work and life.

Whether your next step is to stay or to go—or create a third option on your path to success—knowing who you are and what you want will help you find your way.

Chi Nguyen is the Chief Financial Officer at Insight Global. Connect with her on LinkedIn.