I agree. I have also always been in the camp of finding something while I have something. I find that while I am looking for a new gig it makes me evaluate what I am really looking for and what isn’t currently working. There are always going to be bad days so make sure you are not making emotional rash decisions.
Also sometime hard situations help you grow. I always evaluate them to see if there is opportunity to be had before jumping ship. Example: I recently changed categories moving from consumer products into financial services. There is no design. There is no understanding of design. There is a eagerness to learn, but everything has to be built. That sounds exciting but it is HARD work. Everyone in the organization has to be educated. All supplies and tools need to be purchased, which means getting crazy and ridiculous approvals for things as simple as post-it notes. Even our environment for working needs to be created. There are days I go home and say to myself “WTF, I don’t know if I can keep doing this”. But I keep going because if it works out, it will be huge. If I get to a point that I don’t think it is going to get there, well it will be time to make some decisions.
As far as not getting paid enough… You signed an offer letter and made that decision. Yes I agree you should be getting paid what you are worth but as designers, we should also stop accepting jobs that pay shit.