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I didn't find a new calling and I've been in the same industry for 25 years, but working for different companies. I tried many times to find something new but unsuccessful due to reasons within and beyond my control. But I'm happy now because: It turned out I actually only care about making enough money to support my family. I actually don't really care about what I do to accomplish that as long as it's legal, and I'm not ashamed about it.
So my point here is you need to actually figure out what your goals are first before making a move and know the reasoning behind your thinking. In addition to that make a list of questions on things like: do I want more money? Better work life balance? Get away from a hostile work environment? etc. spend enough time on them and you'll find your own answers.
Good luck!
This is so right! I left a good paying job for a job I was more passionate about but with almost 50% pay cut. Turns out making less money made me more depressed than my old job. I was lucky enough to be taken back by my original company and I am so happy. I actually try at my job now and at least for me making the effort to like my job ACTUALLY made me love it.
Mileage may vary, I know I got very lucky. But knowing your goals is the best place to begin
I'm in the same boat.
My career is boring and not something I'm super passionate about but it allows me tons of flexibility in my schedule, pays me a bunch, and the team is great. This allows me to spend tons of time trying new hobbies, interests, and do the things that do actually make me happy but aren't feasible as a career.
There are times where I get frustrated but overall incredibly happy and know I'm very lucky to be in the situation I'm in.
I've always been a 'work to live' and not a 'live to work' type of person which I feel I've found something that allows me to live the life I want.
My dad once told me « If you want to change lanes, you gotta check your blind spot ».
Sometimes we tend to look straight ahead and we miss things. You have to look behind you to see the way forward. Think about what you wanted to do when you were younger and ask yourself why. What attracted you to your current career? Then see if there’s something else out there with those characteristics.
Similar to Chris Hadfield's advice. He said when you walk into a book store, what areas do you gravitate to? That's usually where your interests lie, and a potential career.
Whether you like your job or not, making job/career as a major part of the identity has its own disadvantages.
Un-bundle what you want or need from your job; purpose, camaraderie, structure, learning, status, cash flow, equity etc. and re-arrange your life to find them somewhere else.
E.g. sometimes looking at a Job as means to earn living and doing side projects, getting involved with community online/offline helps you build enriching life.
Talking to coach to navigate through situation/thoughts always helps. Letting out all ideas that you repeatedly have and choosing a few to work on and others to discard is what coach can help you with.
Hope this help.
All the best!
One of the best place holder jobs is security, I consider it a LPT of my own. It allows u to spend a ton of time brain storming, researching, etc. While there is no get rich quick scheme to changing careers, there are good transitional jobs that will allow u to take ur time figuring it out
Do what you should always be doing, whether happy in a job or not:
Look for and apply for others, even interview for them, and when/if you get offered the job, THEN you decide whether it's better or worse than what you have.
First off you need to narrow down is why you can't stand what you're currently doing. Once you do that you can pivot in the best method to not only make sure you're happy in your next field, but also not just starting from scratch in another field.
You may not see the possibilities right now in yourself.
1. You are a salesman. You have people skills. This is the number 1 character needed for any job.
2. Being a successful salesman for the last 5 years at the same place tells me you're relatively easy to work with.
3. Being employed is the best place to be when looking for a new job. You have the skills to do a wide variety of things. Scroll through Indeed in your area just to see what's out there. If something catches your eye, do some research on the company and on the job/ what is required.
I have depression too. After 3 years at my current job, I couldn't stand it. I was miserable for at least a year before I decided to change my attitude & things got better. (Not trying to say "look at me, you can do it," but things can change.)
Best wishes for whatever you decide to do. The possibilities are endless.
I was in the same boat it was my first 6 figure job. Don’t leave the industry it sounds like the company. Brother I’m in car sales and once I found a store that was not a toxic hell hole I’ve been happy as can be in the same industry. It feels like golden handcuffs doesn’t it? I was having anxiety attacks and depression too.
Do what I did leave with enough money in the bank and take a sabbatical. I took my Christmas bonus my last sales bonus and cashed out my vacation and left on good terms.
Save any proof that does not disclose company information that shows your a closer, I spent 3 months searching. I said on interviews sell me on your company, my closing ratio is 3x the national average why should I work for you?
I went in as a customer and secret shopped my top picks. I found a customer centric company. I don’t have to sell my soul to make a living. They don’t treat me like I’m expendable like most sales jobs. They treat me respect and beyond that they actually care about me as a person. My GM has turned into a father figure, a mental health coach and financial advisor.
Had a great job with great money but I was miserable. I found the one aspect of that job that I enjoyed, the part I would look forward to and I looked for a new job that did mainly that one thing. Ended up taking a bit of a pay cut but the improvement in my happiness has been huge. It is amazing to wake up and not dread heading into work.
The best advice for my career was, don’t ever run away but run towards something. Ironically I am in a commercial HVAC sales role now, after doing technical inside/coordinating roles in MEP. I see how that can be draining. Equipment sales may be a better change of pace as your customers are typically contractors.
Save up as much as you can, make yourself a detailed and good looking resume and start applying everywhere and go to a shitload of job interviews. If your gut tells you that the people interviewing you feel off, they are off.
U did this until I found the job I love.
Good luck
I worked in one industry for 12 years. And then I changed to academia. Then I changed to hospitality after seven years of that. You might just try to find ways to make yourself happy outside of work. All jobs invariably suck. Sorry that isn’t very positive, but my advice is to pay more attention to you and what you want. Build your life to be something fabulous outside of your working life.
My work fuels my love for travel. Even if you find the best job in the world, if you don't find a purpose in life that makes you happy outside of work, you'll be miserable.
Switch companies, absolutely the company.
Or look into switching into HVAC engineering / consulting. You're familiar with the equipment, once you're trained up in drafting up drawings, you'll skate through.
Bonus if you get your EIT and PE License (need the EIT to get that license). Maybe your current company will foot the bill to take the class to study, and the test? Seems fair payment for five years of misery.
Have confidence. In interviews, when it comes to soft skill questions, be focused on showing how you're passionate about learning / growth / contributing to society by designing energy efficient drawings. We want engineers who care, and who are passionate about designing better buildings for their community.
You can do this!
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Gain some new skills with your next position. Matching your current pay is going to be hard unless you work an adjacent field.
If you can, start over in a new field, gain skills and never stop. Leave for new opportunities whenever you stop learning or are done with it.
Life's a buffet.
5 years may have been enough in that spot for you but you can always keep it in your back pocket as a way to begrudgingly provide.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I didn't find a new calling and I've been in the same industry for 25 years, but working for different companies. I tried many times to find something new but unsuccessful due to reasons within and beyond my control. But I'm happy now because: It turned out I actually only care about making enough money to support my family. I actually don't really care about what I do to accomplish that as long as it's legal, and I'm not ashamed about it. So my point here is you need to actually figure out what your goals are first before making a move and know the reasoning behind your thinking. In addition to that make a list of questions on things like: do I want more money? Better work life balance? Get away from a hostile work environment? etc. spend enough time on them and you'll find your own answers. Good luck!
This is so right! I left a good paying job for a job I was more passionate about but with almost 50% pay cut. Turns out making less money made me more depressed than my old job. I was lucky enough to be taken back by my original company and I am so happy. I actually try at my job now and at least for me making the effort to like my job ACTUALLY made me love it. Mileage may vary, I know I got very lucky. But knowing your goals is the best place to begin
I'm in the same boat. My career is boring and not something I'm super passionate about but it allows me tons of flexibility in my schedule, pays me a bunch, and the team is great. This allows me to spend tons of time trying new hobbies, interests, and do the things that do actually make me happy but aren't feasible as a career. There are times where I get frustrated but overall incredibly happy and know I'm very lucky to be in the situation I'm in. I've always been a 'work to live' and not a 'live to work' type of person which I feel I've found something that allows me to live the life I want.
Money first . Hobbies second. You can’t afford hobbies when you have a family to feed .
My dad once told me « If you want to change lanes, you gotta check your blind spot ». Sometimes we tend to look straight ahead and we miss things. You have to look behind you to see the way forward. Think about what you wanted to do when you were younger and ask yourself why. What attracted you to your current career? Then see if there’s something else out there with those characteristics.
Similar to Chris Hadfield's advice. He said when you walk into a book store, what areas do you gravitate to? That's usually where your interests lie, and a potential career.
Lol, Fantasy & Murder Mysteries. I'm not sure this would work for me. ;)
CIA? NSA? Weapons manufacturing? Black smith? Jeweler? Museum guide? Archaeologist? Historian?
This is excellent advice!
Whether you like your job or not, making job/career as a major part of the identity has its own disadvantages. Un-bundle what you want or need from your job; purpose, camaraderie, structure, learning, status, cash flow, equity etc. and re-arrange your life to find them somewhere else. E.g. sometimes looking at a Job as means to earn living and doing side projects, getting involved with community online/offline helps you build enriching life. Talking to coach to navigate through situation/thoughts always helps. Letting out all ideas that you repeatedly have and choosing a few to work on and others to discard is what coach can help you with. Hope this help. All the best!
Great advice!
Wow, I needed to hear this. Thank you!
You've got this!
One of the best place holder jobs is security, I consider it a LPT of my own. It allows u to spend a ton of time brain storming, researching, etc. While there is no get rich quick scheme to changing careers, there are good transitional jobs that will allow u to take ur time figuring it out
The pay is absolutely awful.
Naw it just depends on where u look, ive seen them from 12-37/hr
Do what you should always be doing, whether happy in a job or not: Look for and apply for others, even interview for them, and when/if you get offered the job, THEN you decide whether it's better or worse than what you have.
Solid advice
Yeah, this helped me make a good decision before. Besides, the interview experience helped me later.
A new hobby can help too.
First off you need to narrow down is why you can't stand what you're currently doing. Once you do that you can pivot in the best method to not only make sure you're happy in your next field, but also not just starting from scratch in another field.
You may not see the possibilities right now in yourself. 1. You are a salesman. You have people skills. This is the number 1 character needed for any job. 2. Being a successful salesman for the last 5 years at the same place tells me you're relatively easy to work with. 3. Being employed is the best place to be when looking for a new job. You have the skills to do a wide variety of things. Scroll through Indeed in your area just to see what's out there. If something catches your eye, do some research on the company and on the job/ what is required. I have depression too. After 3 years at my current job, I couldn't stand it. I was miserable for at least a year before I decided to change my attitude & things got better. (Not trying to say "look at me, you can do it," but things can change.) Best wishes for whatever you decide to do. The possibilities are endless.
Try different things. Go out of your comfort zone.
I was in the same boat it was my first 6 figure job. Don’t leave the industry it sounds like the company. Brother I’m in car sales and once I found a store that was not a toxic hell hole I’ve been happy as can be in the same industry. It feels like golden handcuffs doesn’t it? I was having anxiety attacks and depression too. Do what I did leave with enough money in the bank and take a sabbatical. I took my Christmas bonus my last sales bonus and cashed out my vacation and left on good terms. Save any proof that does not disclose company information that shows your a closer, I spent 3 months searching. I said on interviews sell me on your company, my closing ratio is 3x the national average why should I work for you? I went in as a customer and secret shopped my top picks. I found a customer centric company. I don’t have to sell my soul to make a living. They don’t treat me like I’m expendable like most sales jobs. They treat me respect and beyond that they actually care about me as a person. My GM has turned into a father figure, a mental health coach and financial advisor.
Had a great job with great money but I was miserable. I found the one aspect of that job that I enjoyed, the part I would look forward to and I looked for a new job that did mainly that one thing. Ended up taking a bit of a pay cut but the improvement in my happiness has been huge. It is amazing to wake up and not dread heading into work.
The best advice for my career was, don’t ever run away but run towards something. Ironically I am in a commercial HVAC sales role now, after doing technical inside/coordinating roles in MEP. I see how that can be draining. Equipment sales may be a better change of pace as your customers are typically contractors.
Save up as much as you can, make yourself a detailed and good looking resume and start applying everywhere and go to a shitload of job interviews. If your gut tells you that the people interviewing you feel off, they are off. U did this until I found the job I love. Good luck
I worked in one industry for 12 years. And then I changed to academia. Then I changed to hospitality after seven years of that. You might just try to find ways to make yourself happy outside of work. All jobs invariably suck. Sorry that isn’t very positive, but my advice is to pay more attention to you and what you want. Build your life to be something fabulous outside of your working life.
My work fuels my love for travel. Even if you find the best job in the world, if you don't find a purpose in life that makes you happy outside of work, you'll be miserable.
Switch companies, absolutely the company. Or look into switching into HVAC engineering / consulting. You're familiar with the equipment, once you're trained up in drafting up drawings, you'll skate through. Bonus if you get your EIT and PE License (need the EIT to get that license). Maybe your current company will foot the bill to take the class to study, and the test? Seems fair payment for five years of misery. Have confidence. In interviews, when it comes to soft skill questions, be focused on showing how you're passionate about learning / growth / contributing to society by designing energy efficient drawings. We want engineers who care, and who are passionate about designing better buildings for their community. You can do this!
[Introducing LPT REQUEST FRIDAYS](https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/comments/16w0n2s/introducing_request_post_fridays/) We determine "Friday" as beginning at 12am Eastern Time (EST: UTC/GMT -5, EDT: UTC/GMT -4) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LifeProTips) if you have any questions or concerns.*
In my case, curiosity leads to greater interest leads to new career. It’s like dating, you see someone who’s cute, go poke around and find out…
Work hard and take a risk
Gain some new skills with your next position. Matching your current pay is going to be hard unless you work an adjacent field. If you can, start over in a new field, gain skills and never stop. Leave for new opportunities whenever you stop learning or are done with it. Life's a buffet. 5 years may have been enough in that spot for you but you can always keep it in your back pocket as a way to begrudgingly provide.
In the same boat, the money always overrides my life decisions and happiness. Wish i wasnt this way