[Misc] The Great Resignation and career changes

Cotton Socks · Sep 16, 2021

Someone I know in his 40's, completely changed career about 6 years ago. He hated his job and his shifts and while out one day he literally saw someone doing a job he thought would be great. He started part time (self employed) while doing the other job and slowly built up enough customers to just about manage to pay the bills when he gave up his old job. He loves his job and has built it up so that he can easily pay his bills with some leftover. Most importantly he's the happiest he's been for years and actually has a work/life balance. Do you have any hobbies?

dazzer6666 · Sep 16, 2021

Barnet Seagull said:
I've also been in IT for 20 odd years, however, I've come to the realisation that I'm never really going to enjoy work, (regardless of what it is) and what I do now pays the bills, gives a reasonable work/life balance and is in a good company and among good people.
With jobs and moves I weigh up 5 things.

Remuneration,
Manager,
Work/Life Balance,
Career,
The Work itself.

As long as I'm positive about 3/5, I stay. As soon as I feel it's tipping to 2/5, I'm done.

Good list, but need to bear in mind that the weighting/priority of each of those changes with personal circumstances……..and even 1/5 can mean the job is miserable despite the other 4 being ok.

jakarta · Sep 16, 2021

Work always depends on how you are doing finance wise, a few years back Mrs Jakarta's Mum died and her house sale paid off our mortgage (a huge relief).

Mrs Jakarta was a Head Teacher and her pension can keep us afloat.

I'm still doing some Consultancy work, which I stilll enjoy and also Hourly University Lecturing which I am increasingly not enjoying but all helps me to get to do the Sainsbury's every week...

Also got an aging Uncle with no children who has property in Cheshire and once he passes on in a couple of years time we will either have £250K or so or a good rental property.

We haven't got any small Jakarta's and eventually our dosh will head down under to Mrs J's God Children (who have met us twice!)

Think we had better do some bucket list travel, especailly now Mrs J is in remission from her breast cancer.

mikeyjh · Sep 16, 2021

rbridd said:
To counterpoint some of the other answers… I didn’t move when I was seriously thinking about it when I was in my early 40’s.

Out of the subsequent 16 years working, I maybe had 2 or 3 which I enjoyed working at the job I had.

I retired as early as I could.

I now look back at those years and consider them wasted. (Except for the pension which I built up in those years).

Similar - I probably realised a little earlier though that working for the particular multi-national (erm, the big employer in Brighton and Burgess Hill) had such an institutionalising affect on people. I set my sights when I was about 40 on milking whatever I could, paying off mortgage (done by 43), making sound investments and retiring as soon as I could. I managed it by 47, (2.5 years ago), it definitely made me happier.

Strangely though, I'm not sure this particular institution has a problem retaining people - As I alluded to, they're brainwashed to an extent. Watching people essentially do f all but spend 10+ hours in the office managing to do so was such a depressing experience. In fairness, said company does also pay essentially incompetent people a lot of money because they happen to have an accounting qualification so I guess that helps the retention!

WATFORD zero · Sep 16, 2021

I always worked in the same sector as you (IT), but during the nearly 30 years I was in it, I worked in a number of very different organisations, from the Big Banks, to other Large Financial Organisations, Logistics, Insurance, dot.coms, Software Houses etc. I found that it was the constantly changing environment that kept me interested. In my early career I tended to undertake big projects (or take over overrunning ones) so once each was done, I was looking for a move for the next challenge and in my later years I was involved with acquisitions, start-ups and sell-offs, so although I stayed longer in organisations, they were changing constantly.

It was always based on my IT background, but every organisation gave me something different to learn. I found that changing the environment allowed me to move onwards (and upwards) without the need to find a completely new set of skills and start again and I was rarely doing the exact same thing for longer than a few months or early on, a couple of years on the Biggest projects.

Good luck with whatever you decide :thumbsup:

Baker lite · Sep 16, 2021

I’m fortunate enough to have absolutely loved all of my jobs, I’ve had two main main career jobs with a year in between in the mid 90s backpacking around Australia. I consider myself very lucky, life is to short to be unhappy at work.

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Barnet Seagull · Sep 16, 2021

dazzer6666 said:
Good list, but need to bear in mind that the weighting/priority of each of those changes with personal circumstances……..and even 1/5 can mean the job is miserable despite the other 4 being ok.

Of course, but rarely is it one issue in isolation. It's always subjective and the relative importance of each area naturally shifts over time and with circumstances but I use it as a basic barometer and it's done me no harm

BBassic · Sep 16, 2021

Cotton Socks said:
Someone I know in his 40's, completely changed career about 6 years ago. He hated his job and his shifts and while out one day he literally saw someone doing a job he thought would be great. He started part time (self employed) while doing the other job and slowly built up enough customers to just about manage to pay the bills when he gave up his old job. He loves his job and has built it up so that he can easily pay his bills with some leftover. Most importantly he's the happiest he's been for years and actually has a work/life balance. Do you have any hobbies?

My main hobbies are writing and video production. Both of which can lead to good careers but with a mortgage and all that they're not the most financially stable to get a start in. Whereas my current role comfortably pays my share of the bills.

One thing I've considered is freelance work on the side, much like your mate; build up contacts and a portfolio and then start hawking that around for permanent / contract work.

Guinness Boy · Sep 16, 2021

Trufflehound said:
You have a very particular set of skills?

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Baldseagull said:
I have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.

I won't find you, or kill you, but I might promise to turn up at 9 on a Monday to fix something and then just not bother and turn my phone off. Nightmare.

I really should have said "I can't do anything else"

Badger · Sep 16, 2021

Barnet Seagull said:
I've also been in IT for 20 odd years, however, I've come to the realisation that I'm never really going to enjoy work, (regardless of what it is) and what I do now pays the bills, gives a reasonable work/life balance and is in a good company and among good people.
With jobs and moves I weigh up 5 things.

Remuneration,
Manager,
Work/Life Balance,
Career,
The Work itself.

As long as I'm positive about 3/5, I stay. As soon as I feel it's tipping to 2/5, I'm done.

Good post.

I'm a similar age to the OP and it's actually the first time in my career where I'm not really looking to move.

I had those thoughts 6 years ago when I didn't renew my contract and decided to move to Toronto and do a Master's degree. After all that I ended up in a very similar job to the ones I did before. Just in another country with a somewhat changed lifestyle.

I definitely wouldn't say I love my job but it ticks enough boxes for me. I'm a software developer and my company really values my skills and gives me a very healthy payrise every year. I really like my boss and get on well with my team (now that we've finally got rid of the people I didn't get on with). The work/life balance is great too. I pretty much work 9-5 every day and there's plenty of flexibility in that. They've also told us we won't need to come back into the office when it reopens unless we want to.

The work itself can be somewhat tedious at times but I think that's just the nature of most jobs. Career progression is possibly an issue though. I'm still effectively in the same role I was when I joined 5 years ago, just with "senior" in front of my title and a lot more input on what the rest of the team does. There's going to be a point in the future where I want something else and I'm not sure if that means a management role in the same industry or looking for something completely different. I'm not even sure which country I'll be in either.

Simster · Sep 16, 2021

BBassic said:
My main hobbies are writing and video production. Both of which can lead to good careers but with a mortgage and all that they're not the most financially stable to get a start in. Whereas my current role comfortably pays my share of the bills.

One thing I've considered is freelance work on the side, much like your mate; build up contacts and a portfolio and then start hawking that around for permanent / contract work.

I've taken this to the next level. I'm actually holding down two jobs. Neither are particularly difficult and both pay a few grand less than I was earning in London. But my employees are both happy for me not to come into the office, there is a good deal of flexibility around when I get the work done, and neither knows that I'm doing two jobs. Long may it continue because my earnings are now significantly higher.

Cheeky Monkey · Sep 16, 2021

A colleague of my dad’s, customs officers back in the days long before Border Force, was instructed on one shift by the powers that be to allow a particular drugs consignment to pass unhindered through a UK port, which he did, the shit then hit the fan as to why this had been allowed to happen and he was hung out to dry at 45 years old, lost everything, signed up to a law course at Uni and went on to have a stellar legal career. Here endeth the ripping yarn. If life gives you lemons make lemonade (or similar)

Barnet Seagull · Sep 16, 2021

Badger said:
Good post.

I'm a similar age to the OP and it's actually the first time in my career where I'm not really looking to move.

I had those thoughts 6 years ago when I didn't renew my contract and decided to move to Toronto and do a Master's degree. After all that I ended up in a very similar job to the ones I did before. Just in another country with a somewhat changed lifestyle.

I definitely wouldn't say I love my job but it ticks enough boxes for me. I'm a software developer and my company really values my skills and gives me a very healthy payrise every year. I really like my boss and get on well with my team (now that we've finally got rid of the people I didn't get on with). The work/life balance is great too. I pretty much work 9-5 every day and there's plenty of flexibility in that. They've also told us we won't need to come back into the office when it reopens unless we want to.

The work itself can be somewhat tedious at times but I think that's just the nature of most jobs. Career progression is possibly an issue though. I'm still effectively in the same role I was when I joined 5 years ago, just with "senior" in front of my title and a lot more input on what the rest of the team does. There's going to be a point in the future where I want something else and I'm not sure if that means a management role in the same industry or looking for something completely different. I'm not even sure which country I'll be in either.

I made the leap into leadership around 2010 having been hands on technical for years. There are days when I'd love for the simplicity and isolation of doing technical work. I realise now that I'm probably as senior as I want to be. Any further up the chain and effectively I'm a slave to work. There are good rewards to making the switch, as you are paid better and more able to influence strategic direction. However, the ability to do task-based work and switch off, shouldn't be underestimated.

Happy Exile · Sep 16, 2021

Would love to change my career but can't afford, for now, to start lower down a salary level. Putting together a rough plan for retraining though so when my costs go down in a few years I'll be in a position to switch, and it gives me a sense of a route out which makes death by process-overload easier to handle in the meantime.

Cotton Socks · Sep 16, 2021

BBassic said:
My main hobbies are writing and video production. Both of which can lead to good careers but with a mortgage and all that they're not the most financially stable to get a start in. Whereas my current role comfortably pays my share of the bills.

One thing I've considered is freelance work on the side, much like your mate; build up contacts and a portfolio and then start hawking that around for permanent / contract work.

That seems like a good place to start tbh. What have you got to lose by trying it while staying in your job?

Badger · Sep 16, 2021

Barnet Seagull said:
I made the leap into leadership around 2010 having been hands on technical for years. There are days when I'd love for the simplicity and isolation of doing technical work. I realise now that I'm probably as senior as I want to be. Any further up the chain and effectively I'm a slave to work. There are good rewards to making the switch, as you are paid better and more able to influence strategic direction. However, the ability to do task-based work and switch off, shouldn't be underestimated.

Yeah, this is my concern. My boss spends most of his time in meetings and there's a lot of very opinionated/argumentative types in the management team. Healthy discussion and debate is one thing, but from what my boss tells us these meetings often achieve very little and end up with shouting matches. Then we get given some stupid requirements to work with and my boss just shrugs and says "that's what the senior managers want". It's not something I'm rushing to get involved in.

Lethargic · Sep 16, 2021

I don't quite fit the OP but at the start of the pandemic I was laid off from my job, this was an IT consulting role but for a company that had no scruples and only chased the next contract happy to send me anywhere on a whim, apart from the financial position it was great they got rid of me and in hind sight the job was sending me down a rabbit hole towards depression. After that I was resolute that I would only take a job that suited me not the other way round, it took almost a year before I accepted another full time role (did some self employed work to keep the cash coming in). After 5 months in the new role I am sure I have chosen the right path the company care about me I have much more control of my work/life balance and I am happy.

Not quite a career change but certainly a priority change and I (the family) are much happy for it.

banjo · Sep 16, 2021

I’m 55, mortgage almost paid, just waiting to be made redundant, which hopefully will be within the next 2 years. Then happy days.

southstandandy · Sep 16, 2021

Enjoyed my job and put in nearly 60 hours a week so I could retire early. Managed to do that at 47 with mortgage paid off, although the wife worked until she was 50. Ironically never now been so busy as we help with community volunteer work and supporting the local food bank which pays nothing but certainly gives me more satisfaction than when I was in paid work. It helps too that the kids has moved out as well!

dejavuatbtn · Sep 16, 2021

I spent 37 years in a job I hated but liked the salary and pension. I’m glad I saw it out because I can now do what I want in retirement.

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[Misc] The Great Resignation and career changes

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