Job change.. what made you decide?

[DKREDT]

I have been with the same company for 9.5 years since earning a BS in Business Administration. I have earned numerous promotions and earn plenty of money. I am bored and fed up at the same time.

Recently we had new upper mgt change a bunch of things that has made it harder to lead and motivate my team of 30+ employees.

This past week I had two of my star employees bolt to a competitor because of thier frustrations.

I feel blessed to have such a well paying job that allows me to provide for my wife and kids, but at the same time I am way past burnt out. I used to love my job and all the challenges it threw at me. Now I just keep waiting for the next crisis to come up. It just real old.

Not going to name the company, but basically sales and service.

What made you walk away and do something different?

 

[GN One Day...]

There's more to life, even your working life, than money. Gotta be happy. There's no torture like the day in, day out of a job you hate. If you make a change, take the time to do it on your own terms. Don't quit and then look, find the job worth leaving for, lock it in, and then quit. I guarantee that you'll enjoy your current job 100% more knowing what you are doing in the background. Just taking the steps to a job change will liven things up for you. Also, the best way to make more money, these days, is with a job change. You probably know some other companies like yours that you have heard good things about. Check into it, but keep it quiet. You don't want to be found and and be asked to go ahead and leave before you're prepared to do so (happened to me).

Just remember that with wife and child(ren), security comes first. You already know that, but just be careful and put your feelers out. Most people change jobs 4 or more times these days before finding a good "home". We work for money, not work just to fulfill your life, so do what you need to do and don't fall for any upper mgmt. BS about job loyalty. They'd be letting people go in a second if it was necessary, no loyalty there.

Have fun with it.

 

[TurboJim]

I changed jobs because I came home angry every day. Some say I was angry to the point of being abusive to my family/friends. Overworked, underpaid, dealing with a clientelle that didnt belong in out niche, just to make an extra dollar, instead of weeding them out and making 20 more.

I've since moved on from that job of 17 years. I have an extra day off, I make 10/hr more, I like the guys I work with. I like the guy I work for. I like the clientelle we have. (We're very expensive, and that weeds out the "dont-wants" and "can-you-do-better-on-the-price" people. I'm working on getting back to the point I was at in my last job. A wrench AND a writer, so my worth increases (I hope) and I dont even mean money, I mean the fact I will be more indespensible....dreaming? Maybe.

Anyway, I come home tired, but happy. I spend an extra day with my family and friends.

Only drawback is I had to start buying tools again and the extra money in my check is gone before I see it... but I'm almost there.

If you hate your job, its gonna eat you alive bro.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Don't ask me! I am in the same position, found another job that interviewed for and was offered it over the many other people that applied. It was for LESS money but also 2 less departments to supervise and probably less stress. I wussed out and ended up turning it down. Now, stressed to the max every day, I always wondered if I made the wrong decision. It's really hard to leave the security of a job that you have been at for a long time, just wish I had the backbone to do it.

I just bought a house in January with a hefty mortgage and kept second guessing myself in making the decision. What if the new job doesn't work out, then what? Didn't like the office/shop situation I would be working out of, etc, etc. Hopefully the next time an opportunity comes up I will finally go for it. Good luck to you, just remember, you aren't the only one out there that feels that way and you can always count on the support of your fellow board members!

 

[John Larkin]

I left after 13 years. Toward the end, my wishes to advance were falling on deaf ears due to a buyout from another company. At that point in time, my manager was more worried about his own golden parachute than continuing to build the company and work with employees. So I shopped and found a more intriguing position for a little less pay (10% less but better bonus) and took it. Then this new opportunity started crumbling 6 months later; talk about ironic and scary!

A few weeks after finding that the new job is crumbling, I intercepted an email from a customer looking for persons to fill some jobs. This customer job had been my dream for the last 10 years (good pay, good bennies, good company). I had applied for this customer job with the same customer the year prior when there was only one position available and didn't get it so now I applied again. They actually remembered me. I went through a long interview (took a long weekend and flew to their TX headquarters from FL where I lived at the time). Six weeks later I was made an offer (found out later that I got it on the spot but they had to wait for HR to approve it). You bet I took it!

Someone told me once "There are times when you have to back up to get where you're going". I truly believe this happened to me. I wouldn't have known of the opportunity had I stayed with the 13 year job. Lucky? Maybe, but now I am very happy and secure with my career; I work daily to be the best. My current managers say I'm one of their best and consider me to be "a keeper". It shows in how they treat me as well as how they compensate me. That part isn't luck but I still knock on wood.

I made a leap of faith, a leap based on knowing my own capabilities. I knew there was something out there but was having a hard time finding it. To do it over again, I should have stayed and not acted out of frustration. If you really want to change your career, spend your time researching opportunities until you are sick of the research. Be very sure of what you are getting into and giving up.

 

[Gr82baGN]

Since 1998 I've been teaching network technologies, CISCO, Novell, Windows NT4, 2k and a few others as a full time job. All I have to say is I feel I've been on vacation since 1998. Now I really enjoy my job, before that I worked as a technical sales rep at a company for 14 years. The worse 14 years of my life. It paid the bills and earned me a modest living but I was stressed all the time. So I decided to go back to college and earn my BS in CS. I still have 28 credits to go. While in school I decided to get technical certifications MCSE, CCNA, CNA and that led to teaching. Getting into adult education was the best decision of my life. My students are my clients and as long as they are learning they are happy. You can't beat it. What I'm trying to say is if you don't like your job and you feel you need a change then it's up to you to make it happen. It may sound corny but it's the truth. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. Good luck.

 

[PNYKLR]

I left after 12 years after finally realizing that I wasnt really going to get much further in the department I was in (I had been ain a few other departments) On a good note, the company paid for 95% of my education and I didnt have to pay them back nada
I miss all the people I knew and met over all those years, but I definetly dont miss my old boss (who retired right after I left)

 

[MeanBuicks]

OK. Considering a job change can be stressful and it's Monday to boot. This calls for a little job levity.

This is even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad day at work...think of this guy. Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.


Hi Sue,

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all.

Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet-suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this:

We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose. Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet-suit. This floods my whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi.

Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn. I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit.

Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate. When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically. Needless to say I aborted the dive.

I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut.

So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt. Now repeat to yourself," I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.


Now, back to our regularly scheduled thread...

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Thanks Greg, that helped out today. Another crappy day in the nursing home industry.

 

[DKREDT]

Thanks for the posts guys! I appreciate it!

I have spoken with my boss about some new positions with my current company that would offer new challenges with a change of scenery and less direct reports to babysit.

I have slowly been trending to this decision over the last year. I am blessed to be in a position to be compensated well, but at the same time I am tired of all the bs that goes with it.

Mark like you I am getting ready to move into a new house in three weeks that more than doubles our current mortgage, but gives me the 3 car garage that I need for my T. I also have two little ones and a wife that stays at home to look out for and this is not just about me.

I think I will dust off the old resume to hedge my bets... it has been over 9 years since I worked anywhere else.

Thanks for all the encouragement! I will keep you posted.

Joel

 

[WakkoSS]

I went to college to be a radio disc jockey. While a junior, I landed a job with the local Christian station...but this is no slouch station. It won the Christian equivalent to a Grammy, called a Dove Award. That means it's the best station in the country. Even though it was great to work for a top station (had the Friday night slot too) I was bored with the job within a very short period of time. I immediately took on a second major and after college started substitute teaching while in the application process to be a teacher. I really liked it but found it extremely difficult to live on 11/hour with zero benefits. After two years of this, I got frustrated working hard for no pay (the school board said I needed more school and wouldn't pay me full time until I completed it). I'd always wanted to be a cop but finally decided to man up and try it. I'm a pretty spiritual guy, so I put God in control...told Him I was going to apply to one department and if that's where he wanted me to be, then make it happen. I was hired in 40 days. To put that in perspective, other people in my academy class applied to 3, 4 or 5 departments and took 3 or 4 months to get hired.

I'm happy with my job, look forward to going to work and make decent money (for a single 28 y/o). I'm still going to go back to school for teaching in case this job doesn't work out...but for now I'm happy...and that's where it's at!