diff --git a/src/job.rs b/src/job.rs
index 9419e11ef..95fbf959b 100644
--- a/src/job.rs
+++ b/src/job.rs
@@ -891,9 +891,7 @@ pub fn perform_sentbox_jobs(context: &Context) {
 }
 
 fn job_perform(context: &Context, thread: Thread, probe_network: bool) {
-    let jobs: Vec<Job> = load_jobs(context, thread, probe_network);
-
-    for mut job in jobs {
+    while let Some(mut job) = load_next_job(context, thread, probe_network) {
         info!(context, "{}-job {} started...", thread, job);
 
         // some configuration jobs are "exclusive":
@@ -1167,7 +1165,7 @@ pub fn interrupt_smtp_idle(context: &Context) {
 /// IMAP jobs.  The `probe_network` parameter decides how to query
 /// jobs, this is tricky and probably wrong currently.  Look at the
 /// SQL queries for details.
-fn load_jobs(context: &Context, thread: Thread, probe_network: bool) -> Vec<Job> {
+fn load_next_job(context: &Context, thread: Thread, probe_network: bool) -> Option<Job> {
     let query = if !probe_network {
         // processing for first-try and after backoff-timeouts:
         // process jobs in the order they were added.
@@ -1209,14 +1207,13 @@ fn load_jobs(context: &Context, thread: Thread, probe_network: bool) -> Vec<Job>
                 Ok(job)
             },
             |jobs| {
-                let mut ret: Vec<Job> = Vec::new();
                 for job in jobs {
                     match job {
-                        Ok(j) => ret.push(j),
+                        Ok(j) => return Ok(Some(j)),
                         Err(e) => warn!(context, "Bad job from the database: {}", e),
                     }
                 }
-                Ok(ret)
+                Ok(None)
             },
         )
         .unwrap_or_default()
@@ -1249,15 +1246,17 @@ mod tests {
     }
 
     #[test]
-    fn test_load_jobs() {
+    fn test_load_next_job() {
         // We want to ensure that loading jobs skips over jobs which
         // fails to load from the database instead of failing to load
         // all jobs.
         let t = dummy_context();
-        insert_job(&t.ctx, 0);
         insert_job(&t.ctx, -1); // This can not be loaded into Job struct.
+        let jobs = load_next_job(&t.ctx, Thread::from(Action::MoveMsg), false);
+        assert!(jobs.is_none());
+
         insert_job(&t.ctx, 1);
-        let jobs = load_jobs(&t.ctx, Thread::from(Action::MoveMsg), false);
-        assert_eq!(jobs.len(), 2);
+        let jobs = load_next_job(&t.ctx, Thread::from(Action::MoveMsg), false);
+        assert!(jobs.is_some());
     }
 }