Career Change Thoughts?

[WoodBow]

Man yall dug up an old thread!

Coincidentally, last week was my first week at my new job. Since I created this thread, my old job just got progressively worse and I grew more and more unhappy. I finally got the nudge I needed when the company approached me and wanted to reduce my bonus structure, to the tune of about a 25% reduction in overall income. Clearly they did not understand that I was ready to quit at full pay. They just made the decision easy.

I now commute 25 mins each way with zero traffic, ever. I have no job stress. When I complete the training period I will work 3 12s and be off 4 days. I did take close to a 50% cut in pay but I crunched the numbers and we can still get by on that. We have lived on less in the past. Luckily we did not take on more debt when we were able to afford it. We still live in the same house and have the same lifestyle as when I was making 50k fresh out of college.

A week in, I am significantly happier. A reasonable commute and no stress related to work, goes a long ways.

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[fngTony]

Man yall dug up an old thread!

Coincidentally, last week was my first week at my new job. Since I created this thread, my old job just got progressively worse and I grew more and more unhappy. I finally got the nudge I needed when the company approached me and wanted to reduce my bonus structure, to the tune of about a 25% reduction in overall income. Clearly they did not understand that I was ready to quit at full pay. They just made the decision easy.

I now commute 25 mins each way with zero traffic, ever. I have no job stress. When I complete the training period I will work 3 12s and be off 4 days. I did take close to a 50% cut in pay but I crunched the numbers and we can still get by on that. We have lived on less in the past. Luckily we did not take on more debt when we were able to afford it. We still live in the same house and have the same lifestyle as when I was making 50k fresh out of college.

A week in, I am significantly happier. A reasonable commute and no stress related to work, goes a long ways.

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If you don’t mind me asking what was your old job and is the new one just a different company or something completely different?

 

[CorbLand]

Hell yea dude. I am a few years behind you and did the same thing. I got started, climber the ladder chasing money (part greed, part necessity) and ended up in position that I hated. Wanted to die in a car wreck in my 10-15 minute commute kind of hate. Luckily, I was able to transfer within the same entity I worked for and kept the same pay.

Such a relief to drive to work and not hate every second of it.

 

[WoodBow]

If you don’t mind me asking what was your old job and is the new one just a different company or something completely different?

For 14 years I was treating kidney stones with a non invasive surgical procedure called extra corporeal shockwave lithotripsy. That involved me moving 2,000 pounds of equipment in and out of facilities every day, dealing with facilities, waiting on doctors, lots of wasted time, and constant frustration with the situation. My degree is in radiology. That is the prerequisite because we utilize xray to localize the stone to be treated.

Now I'm back to just doing diagnostic xray and CT scan. I have so much more time at home in the evenings and I'm not filled with dread about going back to work constantly. The situation has given me a lot of perspective on life.

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[ElkJunky]

I am in a similar boat as well. Burnout is a real thing. I have two forms of advice: you get one life, set yourself up to enjoy the one you have. The other, it’s a lot easier to find a job when you have a job. Keep on keeping on!

 

[Bearwhisky]

Thanks for all the replies. I read every one of them.

Some more info.

We do not have much debt. We owe 58k on our house. Wifes car is a lease. I owe about 20k on a brand new truck. That's it. No credit card nonsense. We pay an extra 25% to principal on the house every month. I'm on pace to make 140k this year. We got by just fine when I was making 85k. But 140 sure gives you more wiggle room and let's you start saving. We have enough cash to get by for 6 months if I had to. But I am not a risk taker in general. There is a 0% chance I would quit my job without having already gotten another one.

What I like to do is repair things and build things. Just need to figure out how to make similar money doing that. The firemen schedule has a lot of appeal to me. I have lots of fireman friends. But the actual job does not interest me at all.

I live in a town of 3500 people. Wife and I were born and raised here. Both of our families are within 2 miles of us. We have good relationships with them. I do not see us ever living in the city. I work in the medical field so city is pretty necessary for work. I would not live within about 45 mins of the areas I currently work. Seems silly to uproot my family to shave 30 mins off a commute each way. It helps some that I get up so early to go to work. I feel like that is just my time wasted. Everyone else is asleep.

Mental fatigue is the real problem. I just don't have much left for the wife and kids when I get home. Which is not ok.

Changing schedule is somewhat out of my control. I do not have a normal job. I am salary plus bonus. I do not get paid overtime. I'm frequently on the losing end of that but the bonus makes up for it mostly.

I'm terrified of changing jobs only to realize that I'm not happy there either. I feel like I was happier when I had hope of things improving. I was always chasing the next step. Then I got to the end of the rainbow and was like this is it? Now what?

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Shaving 30 minutes off of your commute each way gives you about 250 hours of extra time with your family each year if you work 5 days a week. That is over 10 days worth of time not spent “working”. Just food for thought for anyone considering their career choices.


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[WoodBow]

Shaving 30 minutes off of your commute each way gives you about 250 hours of extra time with your family each year if you work 5 days a week. That is over 10 days worth of time not spent “working”. Just food for thought for anyone considering their career choices.


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Read on down to the bottom. I just started a new job that shaved a minimum of 580 hours of commute time off. That's the equivalent of 14.5 40 hour work weeks.

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[Bearwhisky]

Read on down to the bottom. I just started a new job that shaved a minimum of 580 hours of commute time off. That's the equivalent of 14.5 40 hour work weeks.

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Good for you man, hope that has made life better for you and your family!


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[czgunner]

Good for you man, hope that has made life better for you and your family!


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The best thing we did was move to a small town so work is 5 minutes away. Yes there was a pay cut, but quality of life is WAY better.

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[TaperPin]

15 years ago I had a chance to do the same work for less pay and jumped at it for the privilege of dating a crazy woman in a different town for 6 months. I could have found a crazy woman in my old location. Lol

 

[WoodBow]

Good for you man, hope that has made life better for you and your family!


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It is difficult to express just how much better it has made life.

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[JeffRaines]

I have a similar-ish story.

I've been turning wrenches for the last 10 years. Last year, after a change in leadership at my old place me and the new boss had a big blowout. It was around February-March of last year. Thing is, I had like 3 weeks worth of vacations planned last summer that I didn't want to sacrifice. I was honestly ready to give up and switch careers, and I had planned to after summer. I went back to work after my week off(post blowout, given to me by my bosses boss), kept my head down and started looking around and planning.

The nail in the coffin was being brought in for my yearly review, being shown how much money I make the company every month and being offered a paltry $1 raise when I was already being paid well under industry average.

I had some friends who I used to work with that kept trying to get me to go to work for the county transit. Raved up and down about how it was easy going, good benefits, good pay, etc.

Summer came and went, and in September I don't remember the exact thing that happened, but I got off work and immediately applied. I figured if I still wanted to give up on wrenching and do something else I always could, but it would get me the hell out of there.

I'm 4 months in now. The work environment is great. I'm making over $32k MORE a year than I was making at my last place. Working a similar shift, driving 54 miles less a day, and paying less than half of what I was paying for insurance. Due to all the ergonomic tooling, the work is less strenuous. Theres no boss looking over your shoulder rushing you through crap. No broken or missing shop tools that you need to do the job right.

I might stay awhile.

 

[WoodBow]

I have a similar-ish story.

I've been turning wrenches for the last 10 years. Last year, after a change in leadership at my old place me and the new boss had a big blowout. It was around February-March of last year. Thing is, I had like 3 weeks worth of vacations planned last summer that I didn't want to sacrifice. I was honestly ready to give up and switch careers, and I had planned to after summer. I went back to work after my week off(post blowout, given to me by my bosses boss), kept my head down and started looking around and planning.

The nail in the coffin was being brought in for my yearly review, being shown how much money I make the company every month and being offered a paltry $1 raise when I was already being paid well under industry average.

I had some friends who I used to work with that kept trying to get me to go to work for the county transit. Raved up and down about how it was easy going, good benefits, good pay, etc.

Summer came and went, and in September I don't remember the exact thing that happened, but I got off work and immediately applied. I figured if I still wanted to give up on wrenching and do something else I always could, but it would get me the hell out of there.

I'm 4 months in now. The work environment is great. I'm making over $32k MORE a year than I was making at my last place. Working a similar shift, driving 54 miles less a day, and paying less than half of what I was paying for insurance. Due to all the ergonomic tooling, the work is less strenuous. Theres no boss looking over your shoulder rushing you through crap. No broken or missing shop tools that you need to do the job right.

I might stay awhile.

That's great man. Turns out there is a whole world out there and we get pigeon holed and forget about it.

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[czgunner]

I have a similar-ish story.

I've been turning wrenches for the last 10 years. Last year, after a change in leadership at my old place me and the new boss had a big blowout. It was around February-March of last year. Thing is, I had like 3 weeks worth of vacations planned last summer that I didn't want to sacrifice. I was honestly ready to give up and switch careers, and I had planned to after summer. I went back to work after my week off(post blowout, given to me by my bosses boss), kept my head down and started looking around and planning.

The nail in the coffin was being brought in for my yearly review, being shown how much money I make the company every month and being offered a paltry $1 raise when I was already being paid well under industry average.

I had some friends who I used to work with that kept trying to get me to go to work for the county transit. Raved up and down about how it was easy going, good benefits, good pay, etc.

Summer came and went, and in September I don't remember the exact thing that happened, but I got off work and immediately applied. I figured if I still wanted to give up on wrenching and do something else I always could, but it would get me the hell out of there.

I'm 4 months in now. The work environment is great. I'm making over $32k MORE a year than I was making at my last place. Working a similar shift, driving 54 miles less a day, and paying less than half of what I was paying for insurance. Due to all the ergonomic tooling, the work is less strenuous. Theres no boss looking over your shoulder rushing you through crap. No broken or missing shop tools that you need to do the job right.

I might stay awhile.

Nice, I left wrenching after 11 years. I'm back in school again studying business mgt. VA CH31.

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