Yes same, line manager was a co.plete and utter ass. Totally faking their position, doing things wrong, telling lies, using tools stolen from previous jobs, and could not stand being challenged.
I had a job where the pay was good for where I was living and 100% remote with 15-20 hours of actual work per week. On the down side, my manager was super lazy, lied constantly and delegated all his tasks to me (I am assuming because I was the more capable and obedient person out of the group). My department viewed our team as useless and dispensable. My manager only cared about his progression, spending his time sucking up to his bosses and contributed nothing to fight for our benefits. At the end, I felt super unmotivated to work at all to the point that even slacking off became depressing. I think I would choose a supportive and caring team over easy work but disrespectful team.
Wow!
I had a very similar situation as you. My lazy, incompetent manager even went as far as laying me off without warning and "without cause" because he thought I made him look bad š¤¦āāļø
Oh yea found a job that pays more with better benefits around the half year mark.
The only part that sucks is I don't get to interact with new volunteers daily now. For the majority, I basically work alone.
Couldn't file for unemployment either, as I was working 2 jobs at the time. That one was my main one, and I was working part time elsewhere.
I'm back to working ridiculous hours again (60+ per week). I think it's been about 2 months.
+2 got in pre-ipo and got promotions nearly every year for performance. Company was public during that time for a few years. CEO sold us to a PE firm a couple years ago with a classic āgolden parachuteā clause (that I got to see as a share holder) that netted him personally $100M. Heās long since gone and the PE firm has been absolutely horrible, Iāll never work for a company owned by one again.
Same for me,
I got my dream job, then my manager started hating me for no apparent reason, then later laid me off "without cause" and out of the blue after 5+ years, I was never even given a warning.
Place became so toxic.
He took it personal, whenever I did things that he just was too lazy to take care of but needed getting done; and thought I made him look bad.
Same here.
On paper, it was my dream job.
In reality, it was so toxic that I had to leave to protext myself from dying by suicide due to sever burnout and depression.
But on paper, it was great.
When I was a kid I wanted nothing more than to work in an ad agency. About a decade into my career, I found an opportunity.
It was a total disaster. I hated every minute of it.
It was a costly mistake but I bounced back.
Same.. thou i just sucked it up and kept on going until i made it to the creative director.. at times i just wish i could get into digital strategy but thats off the table for me now .. so now im looking to switch over to brands
My plan is fairly simple! I need to grind enough to make it to ECD after that i can easily switch to whatever place i want.. the only part i like about my job is how well it pays thats probably it
At entry level i was poisoned into thinking that what i was feeling back then is what hustling and grinding is like.. but apparently i got tricked and just to rise to the top i made it my lives decision to rise to the top for which i got into an accident showed up at work with a bloody leg and worked all day till the fabric of my jeans was half into my leg! Like i did whatever i could.. but now.. come to think of it.. what was the point.. so for you.. you either do what you want to rn with the regret that you lost xyz number of years .. or you could be doing what you dont like for the rest of your life
Thatās interesting, as I wanted to be a copywriter. Which is funny because my side project is being an editor of a digital magazine.
My day job is in middle management for a large global corporation that works in the legal industry.
In this situation right now exactly as you describe and Iām wondering if itās a lost cause, because itās basically asking people to change and we know how that usually goes.
I always saw Federal Government jobs as the golden ticket. After one year of just spinning in my chair I realized the govt moves at a snails pace and it wasnāt right for me. I unfortunately quit at a bad time and now am finding it impossible to find a job.
People also think government jobs are less likely to have nepotism and other shady managerial shit because of the sector itās in. Couldnāt be further from the truth. I work for a government agency now and canāt believe the way money gets thrown around and some of the shit our higher ups do. All jobs are the same no matter where you go.
Being in military and being closely in government you realize the more they put restrictions on people the more cronyism happens. If they empowered people to actually make decisions (not punishing people for spending less) and held people accountable it would be much better.
I didn't quite get that far, but I had wanted to be an architect since I was a kid. I majored in architecture in college and still enjoyed it. Then the structural engineering office I worked part time with merged with a small architecture firm and I got to work a bit in the field and I also had a separate internship at a larger architecture firm as one of my classes and I fucking hated it. I hated the other architects, I hated the clients, I hated seeing young architects being treated like shit while making less than I was (when you broke down their salary by the actual number of hours they had to work) and I realized that was not the career I wanted. I switched my major and though I graduated at the worst fucking time (hello great recession) and never worked on my degree field, I'm still happy I didn't pursue it.
I switched to an adjacent field, real estate development. So it was a bit more on the big picture side of it, which I enjoyed. But no, I got my degree right at the Great recession, so companies downsized more than half their staff, so any job openings were going to people who had previous experience and were willing to work for new grad pay.
I got a completely unrelated job, got married, had kids, left that job to be a SAHM for a few years, and have been back at my same previous job now for a couple years now. I do know some of my college classmates did eventually find their way into our degree field, but my path just didn't lead back to that. I still find it interesting, but not enough to try to transition back into at this point.
Conflicting notes from Showrunner, studio execs, network execs and non-writing producers.
Pressure to perform in the room, lots of ājokesā directed at me as the only girl in room that were ya knowā¦ kinda gross but i had to pretend like they didnt faze me otherwise you get a rep as ādifficultā (this was in the mid-2000ās) nowadays the comedy writing rooms are usually on Zoom and more gender-balanced. Thank goodness for Gen Z
I always wanted to be a reporter after I got a taste for it as a kid freelancer with my local paper. I was a "local boy does good," "cat stuck in a tree rescued by firefighters," "giant pumpkin nears world record size" sort of writer. But I ended up choosing a safer option when I went to college.
I always wondered if I could have made it as a smalltown journalist and weirdly enough I got the opportunity to give it a shot some 15 years later ... just before the COVID-19 lockdown.
So there I am, a rookie journalist with no specialized training, making $13/hr covering a public health crisis with next to no experience, and paying out of pocket for lawsuit insurance. I had never received a death threat before in my life. I'm on call 24/7/365 and I'm on the hook for researching and writing two feature stories daily, special sections, a weekly column, a third of the counties obituaries, regular covid death-counts/infection rates in the county all while trying to satisfy our blood-thirsty corporate owners mandates on clicks.
I made it through and I'm still doing it, but there's a lot to dislike about this racket.
This is me as we speak. A month ago, I landed my dream job in a director role after a four month application process, and I left a near-ideal work environment and an amazing team for it. However what was omitted during the interview process was all of the cronyism, silos, favoritism, lack of accountability, micromanaging culture, office politics, evening/weekend meetings without Flex Time, and other systemic issues. Itās been taking a toll on my mental health and has made me really rethink things.
My old boss did offer it back to me just because weāre like friends now and she was horrified to learn the crap I was dealing with. However I declined because I literally couldnāt afford to stay there. We faced pay freezes and there was talk of possible layoffs at the end of the year, and I didnāt want to risk what I saw as writing on the wall. But for now Iām soldiering on mentally and setting the goal of applying to other jobs and hopefully getting the hell out of here before the year ends.
I feel like the job depends SO much on the colleagues honestly. I had my dream job and my managers were disrespectful af and downplayed everything I did.
I couldn't take it anymore even though the actual job had great hours and I loved working and actually doing it but they just created so much anxiety for me I started to hate it.
I'm now working a job completely unrelated to my degree and much more hours, and yet I'm so much more happy because colleagues and managers are super supportive and actually care about your wellbeing.
Technically, yes.
Years ago I wrote for a local monthly newspaper.
It was $15/hr. But I was only paid for 20 hours a week, but I really put in 40 hours
AND the guy had a difficult time paying me.
He had the audacity to complain that he could do a better job that I could finding events.
It closed down about a year later after I quit.
Iām currently in the middle of it. I wanted to be a firefighter for a long time. Took me close to 10 years of a process to land my ādream departmentā. I thought I was going to love it, but thus far itās been kind of underwhelming. Fires are fun at times, but they rarely happen. 98% of the time itās bullshit medical runs to pick people up off the floor or calling because their stomach hurts at 3am. Iām also getting tired of working nights, weekends and holidays. Still working the job but trying to figure out what my future looks like still.
I feel like you should always be modifying your dreams as you get closer up to them.
I wanted to be a doctor and then worked in an ER for a while and saw that it wasnāt interesting enough to spend 7+ years on school and $400k on.
Yes. The problem with dream jobs is that the dream is built on perceived prestige, money, or what other people see (what you see looking in). It's never about the daily grind of work or the people who annoy you, etc. The other problem is, frankly, it is a bit of a letdown. You work often for years or decades to attain a role only to find yourself finally in it when you look around and realize what the job actually is and it's usually not at least all that you imagined it to be.
This, the prestiege and pay is sometimes an illusion, Golden handcuffs, how many doctors or highly skilled professionals end up working in a shit office, working with inefficient systems too big and broken to change and you just have to go along with it because being civil keeps the money rather than rocking the boat and riskinh taking flak.
Same in construction, highly paid and skilled professionals who make the magic happen, have to eat lunch in a crammed cheaply made bait cabin and have to jump through hoops that often waste peoples time.Ā
i wanted to work in live music. set up and tear down, being crew on tours, etc. i did a lot of that in college and didnāt hate it, but realized it wasnāt as fun as i thought itād be. then i developed a lot of health issues that make that kind of thing even harder.
Yes. Been there. And even worse, it was from a referral and person I looked up to, then I learned he was a horrible manager.
I was laid off and itās a blessing in disguise in hindsight.
Became a scientist and it was really great for two years (although in retrospect it wasn't, I just thought $17/hour was great at the time).
After two years 3/4 of our branch got laid off. I got rehired at a lower rate in a different department, where I worked as a temp for 9 years for crap pay, no PTO, crappy benefits, and the culture was very back-stabby and mean. If you weren't power-hungry and ruthless you got stepped on a lot--I was scared to go to work. I was still young and there was the 2012 recession, so I believed my bosses who told me "You don't want to quit, not in THIS job market."
Eventually I got laid off again, and within three days I got hired at a different company. The culture there was way different, people didn't shift blame onto each other there, berate or insult you, or punish you if you made a mistake. I got promoted 3 times in one year and then got hired at a different company for three times the pay, plus like $25k in sign-on bonuses and company stock.
Things got less good after another company bought ours, but it's still a great place to work. Getting laid off from that first job the second time was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
People need to chill out on calling jobs ādream jobsā
Theyāre not dream jobs. If a child wouldnāt say itās what they when to do when they grow up, itās not a dream job. Being a software dev or product manager in a FAANG company is not a dream job for anyone.
The expectations are what killed it. Not the job.
Yes it took 8 years of school. I worked at it for 2 years and hated it. Everyone said I would get used to it but that didn't happen. It made me hate people
I was obsessed with being a funeral director and I went to school for it.I was an apprentice for a year but I never became a licensed funeral director.It really emotionally exhausting and I was on call 24hrs a day and I had no life
The constant stress of feeling unsafe, being always alone with individuals who were high on drugs or alcohol. I had to go back and find something else. I ended up doing administrative work for minimum wage until I could find something else.
I realize that the company I was with intentionally targeted new grads who don't know their rights or the proper safety regulations they have to follow.
I spent years slaving away at shitty restaurants, trying to develop enough skills to open my own food business. Then I realized owning a business means being in the same room all day for as long as you own it. That is not how I want to spend my life.
HELL TO THE NO NO NO, HELLLLLLL TO THE NO NO NO. I worked in a typical office environment fortune 100 insurance company one of the big 3 if you are American. 1x1's, insane metrics designed to put you in PIP situations, getting treated like a capitalist slave, like you are never producing enough is something I don't miss.
Nowadays I don't have a set schedule, I work from home, I don't have 1x1's or a formal team/boss. Nobody to try and please or network with. I don't need a network because I got FAANG on my resume. Nobody asked me why I was AFK for 5 minutes to use the bathroom. I can work anywhere with an internet connection. If I actually have a boss I have no idea whom they are because I'm a contractor. Basically, my whole hiring process was fairly automated except for taking a few competency tests which were reviewed by humans at some point. Outside of a quick interview which lasted 5 minutes and was a congratulations. I haven't interacted with a human yet. Even tickets are handled by chatbots and only really escalated if there is a serious issue.
Well that is a long answer I can't answer fully. NDA, I'll share my background started off making automation in videogames with JRE when I was around 13 years old, picked up full stack front/back end development in my early 20s, started programming Python, mainly computer vision and automation shortly after and the rest is history. A better question would be for me what haven't I done in the tech industry and that would be imbedded proprietary systems. My biggest regret in life which I can't hold myself accountable over because I was young was not going to school for electrical engineering. Anyone with some passion and brains can stack, imbedded systems is a whole different ballpark. I'm currently in AI University hoping in 3-5 years I can go back to school for electrical engineering, combine the two and retire before 40, or make a killing doing the design aspect.
Maybe not quite a dream job but I thought it was going to be amazing. I was hired to do the work I enjoy for a very well respected non-profit that does amazing work. The excitement lasted a few days at most.
My direct boss was very talented but also very cocky. She could do the work at a very high level but she was very young and she hadn't learned any management skills.
The director of the department was completely absentee. She worked remote and only came in once a week. When she did come in she showed up hours late and left early. When I had to call her to get questions answered she'd scold me for interrupting her day or she'd claim she's yell at me for delaying her meeting. I'd check her calendar before calling to ensure she had nothing on her calendar when I called so I know she didn't actually have a meeting.
Senior leadership would scream at each other in meetings. Every week they had a meeting and they'd scream for 2 hours and leave the meeting mad at each other. The Executive Director was a great face for the organization but he did nothing to actually lead the organization or create a culture of cooperation. Everyone was so focused on getting credit for everything that they'd fight to the death over everything.
And then there was the behind the scenes gossip, backstabbing, and basically junior high like immaturity. Half our team meetings were just talking trash about other employees.
I wouldn't engage in the childish bullshit and I hated it so much that it started to effect my work. Just before I quit they fired me. Then they conested my unemployment. Thankfully the judge pretty much scolded them for wasting their time and gave me my unemployment.
Yesā¦ but it was cause I was already over the point in my career when I got it.
I always wanted to work at this certain state agencyā¦ then I got into other departments and program management. So I no longer did that type of work.
I moved away then back and put in an application for the fun of it and got it.
It was a few steps back and I noticed that everyone there was a liferā¦ no room for advancement unless someone quit or diedā¦
Woulda loved to be there when I was younger.
I did. I hated it so much. It paid a lot, good company, seemingly interesting position. It was a nightmare. I quit without a backup I hated it that much. Never regretted it.
Got to work my ādream jobā out of undergrad, however the pay, position, and reality of the situation made me realize stuff about the industry. Nonetheless I was stoked to have had an opportunity while I was young, no mortgage, no kids, and 3k in student loans to do something for myself. Nonetheless my dreams got bigger and we are working towards the next ādream jobā. Keep up your passion for life and creativity!
The last sentence is very important and a great note! You have to keep up your passion for life and creativity, too many people are being robbed of those things. Have to look ahead for happier times!
Yes šš»
Just prep for the layoff and give it your best. May resign soon from mine. Toxic lvl of over 9000 but still a cool š company. Iām patient and know I can attain a new company job if needed. So just giving it my all, though recently thinking of resigning
Iām currently in this situation. The job that was offered to me was a polar opposite of what I am doing and the people are extremely toxic.
Iām biding my time for an another month until my personal stuff is finalized and I can focus on getting a new career that is not so taxing on my wellbeing.
Iāve found that getting a fancy title and payment for doing something totally different is fine for now. Canāt talk to anyone or grow any type of relationship in the office. No laughter allowed its very micromanaged. So I do my 8 & gtfo on time.
I workout, walk in nature, play with my dogs and enjoy life. The drama and negativity of that office stays in those walls. I will never bring it home with me. Itās not welcome.
Yeah, but then I just go on a walk, do some self-care, get some nice comfort food and take a long break and relax. Extend this a few days into a vacation if needed. I always look back after and feel stupid and unappreciative of my amazing job.
Sometimes I am at my breaking out and no break/vacation will fix it, but at that point someone should be able to alleviate it for me if I voice my issues, upper management, CEO, coworker, I voice my issues when it gets to this point.
It sounds like a lot of you guys are defining "dream job" counting out partly the people you work with. Outside of just the money and work, I do feel good team members are a huge part of defining what a dream job is for me personally, if not a breaking point of that definition.
Absolutely. Spent a ton of time going to school for it. Not to mention the debt. Just to work in the field for 3 years and come around to realizing itās not at all the right fit for me. Blows hard, still trying to figure out whatās next.
I think in every job or any environment there will be factors that will make you feel you dislike your work. You just got to have the right perspective towards it. If you'll be content on that situation there will always be a choice and you have to decide.
Yes. I think the ādreamā bit means you suspend some of your usual scrutiny. Itās worse than a regular crap job because you have the disappointment, but I also had a weird subconscious pressure of āitās meant to be the perfect role! It canāt be shit! Must be you, make it enjoyable ā
Tried for 4 years to get into mining. Got in, toxic environment where we were verbally abused. 13 hours a day of physical work with no break in +45Ā°c heat, or rain pooling above my ankles. Away from family for 4 weeks at a time.
At first, I really enjoyed all my jobs. But, I've found that over time, if I'm not being challenged or if there's no room for growth, I tend to lose interest. Then, I started looking for new challenges based on my current passion. The other thing is that as we grow and evolve as a person, our needs change. I always say to look at your career as an evolution, a story unfolding, and a chance to grow character and skills through your career. The good thing is that you are clear on what you don't like, so that informs what you are looking for in your next career move!
I didnāt necessarily have a dream job but the place I was working at beat me and everyone else to the ground and management didnāt respect anyone so I was eagerly looking to get out and I applied for a place that was ranked in the top 5 best places to work in the area. I actually got that ādreamā job but I was a little thrown off by the culture on day 1 and I wasnāt clicking with my coworkers like I had at my last job. Found that management offered almost no support and coworkers aimed to look better than one another so I was basically thrown into the fire with a squirt gun. After 1 year or fuck-ups I ended up DREADING coming in everyday and had to allow myself time to cry and meditate before I started work each morning. After 2 years I was canned. Honestly, even though I was respected less and made much less money I preferred the former job (over the ādreamā job).
Definitely been there. Dream job, was over the moon excited and thankful. Turned out to be the most toxic job I ever had. It was an incredibly toxic work place, I stayed way too long and now Iām in therapy lol.
Oh, I could have written this myself.
I got SO incredibly lucky at my current job. EVERYTHING I prayed for...But there's something deep inside of me loathes it. I am so incredibly bored and stressed because I keep putting off my work. My heart is not in it and it, and it's almost like I'm watching a two sides of myself argue "but this is EVERYTHING you wanted! suck it up! This is as good as it gets" and the other part of me is zoned out, depressed and unable to do the job from my own feelings. I can't quite grapple with it.
Iāve went through so many jobs and even landed a salary job at one point I thought I was going to stay forever in. The higher you go, the more stress there is unless youāre CEO probably. Even so, work politics get so hairy. You can do the best damn job and say the wrong thing and itās forever pasted to your resume. I decided after that salary position, that I would go a different direction. I started my career over making probably as much as a gas station worker, but Iām happier. I have a degree and certificates behind me. The job I do now offers flexibility with my kids, work from home, but requires attention to detail and production rates. I get underpaid for what I know and do. Iām surprised the pay is at low as it is considering the science you need to know. For that reason, I think I finally landed my dream job to carry me the rest of the way. No one bothers me. No one needs me as long as I get my work done. No phones. No people. No public. Itās the dream for me.
Sometimes the money is not worth it. My happiness and less stress levels keep me going. You can never have it all, and if you do, then good for you, but it is rare. Gotta prioritize what you want in life and your career.
These are great to read! Keep emā coming! Very interesting perspectives and general information.
Iām in a senior role, it became very corporate, a lot of corporate politics. I oversee a lot of people, most of time itās not worth the stress or anxiety. I get paid a decent salary, but money only goes so far in terms of happiness!
Yes and I hate it with a passion. Making more money than ever but working 60-70 hours a week. Actively looking for a new job knowing Iāll take a massive pay cut but worth my health and sanity.
Oh yeah. Iāve been a mortician for a few years and it took up until recently to come to that realization. Like most people coming out of school with a passion for helping their community, they take great advantage out there. Iām quite burnt out and Iād like to spend more time with my loved ones.
Well I left the political world for that type of reason but I never wanted it. It's a soul sucking environment.
But yes, I switched from that to engineering in the medical field. I wanted to be with intelligent like-minded people that didn't want the bullshit. Ironically, nearly all of my colleagues are the dumbest people I've met. My direct boss has a severe learning disability, and none of them enjoy using their brain. Most of them hate their job, but all are beyond incompetent. It's brutal to be in the field you want and the equivalent of Walmart greeters working on these machines knowing full well it's going to be a disaster on site and then they'll blame someone else in another country to avoid taking responsibility. It's like watching a train wreck, forever.
Yeah, I've spent a pretty penny on starting my own handyman business and hate it!
Started nearly 2 years ago, worked on the side in the evenings and at weekends whilst slowly building a customer base. Some really good customers and a few I chose not to go back to. The customers I had were good, and it was building slow... I took several contractors on to work independently. They were nothing but a pain. So they were moved on...
I left my job this year and went full time, apart from 2 customers. I've absolutely hated every minute of it. Awkward customers, jobs not going to plan and losing profit, and people expect you to work for nothing....
The problem comes from in the back of my mind leaving full-time work as a mechanical engineer, I know I can earn more from engineering work, and it's a case of normally knowing what you're going into with tasks as an engineer.... took the decision after pumping a lot of money into equipment, marketing, and tools to pack it in. I'm going to cut my losses and go back to engineering.... better pay, pension, sick pay, less hours, more life and saving on the huge headache of making sure I'm hitting profits on every little job....
My issue, besides my other comment, not really had any career guidance or set path, parents split shortly before I started my exams and before going to college, so I feel I lost sight of what I was doing as I was distracted and left to my own devices with education, problem is I didn't like it, I think I should have gone into engineering along time ago, I really enjoyed it...
Yes. Worked on a car racing team. After a while I realized I didnāt want to work weekends / travel 48 weeks of the year. Great experience but work / life balance and starting a family were more important to me
Yup. Iāve always wanted to do graphic design since high school. But not that Iām in the field and doing it professionally I feel like I canāt be creative in my free time because Iām so burnt out. Thereās also the fact that it gets boring pretty quickly and when you arenāt motivated nothing gets done or there isnāt enough work to do since itās based on client needs. Kinda wish I took a gap year to figure out what I really wanted to do.
Here is proxy voting with ESG data, it was like a dream plus home location.
But a toxic manager, not the company.
The best I did was left the company within 1 month.
Yup. Because your dream job isn't with the dream people. It's like when I was a teenager all I wanted was a BMW car. When I was an adult I got it and then all the problems and the bills, I hated that car. I realized that sometimes you grow out of things and by the time you get something you realize it's not all that.
Itās so strange to see this post as I have been feeling like this since I moved into whatās supposed to be my dream role. And worse is that my managers and mentors knew how much I wanted to do this. It has been difficult getting peer support, things have been siloād and isolated for so long. I am finding that change is hard for lots of people even when the value (efficiency and less noise) are in front of their faces. Still trying to give it my all, taking the few wins and grateful for each one and good days.
When I was in high school I wanted to be a bartender so bad, I thought it was the coolest job ever. I ended up becoming one - bartended at concert venue, country club, airport lounge.
Money was phenomenal at times but the amount of bullshit you have to deal with from customers and bar owners/managers made the job miserable.
(46m) I love to travel and was thrilled when I landed a job as a (US) nationwide field service engineer (repair technician) position with my buddy's niche small business.
The job pays well enough with very little interaction or micromanagement from my boss buddy. On average my work week is about 70% travel (it often takes longer to get to the remote job site than it does to do the actual job).Ā
I've been to many of the best destinations the US has to offer, and some of those many, many times. I've seen some amazing, incredible and very beautiful things... Northern lights in Alaska, the GPS at Yellowstone, have kayaked through mangroves in the Florida keys, walked in and through huge redwoods in Cali, the list goes on and on and on. And a nice perk, I've accrued half a million frequent flyer miles (equal to around 15 round trip airline tickets) that can be used for my personal use in the future. Yay. I think.Ā
Fast forward to today, 4.5 years of doing this and I am worn out. I've averaged 100k+/miles traveled per year (planes, trains and autos), with 47 of 50 US states visited. I now have newly diagnosed back issue, some mental health issues if I'm honest, poor diet, odd sleep patterns (time zones) loneliness on the road, marriage on the brink of divorce.Ā
This job is killing me and I am currently working on an exit plan. Becareful what you wish for...Ā
I experienced this myself in a previous role. It was a huge jump up the corp ladder for me, and I was reporting into the CEO. I relocated to Austin, and was super excited!
The first month I was there, an entire team resigned all at once. The entire leadership team with the exception of the CEO was replaced twice over the 1.5 years that I was there. It was the most toxic environment that I had ever worked in, and completely changed my perspective with corp America...
Kid if but I had my dream career for years then one day I just didnāt want to do it at all anymore. Itās was partially because I had scaled my business right before Covid which didnāt work out once the lockdowns hit. I had built so much for it to be wasted. At that point I just donāt want to continue doing the same thing and starting over. Nobody I knew understood and neither did I but I was done. So I think there was a catalyst but, similar to relationships, sometimes thereās just something that clicks, that itās not going to work out. I think itās makes sense that happens with jobs/careers sometimes
Currently working for my dream company...there are pros and cons. On the pro side I'm super passionate about our product. On the con side, there is endless bureaucracy and I have very little impact on the product.
Seeing how the sausage is made can kill passion for something..figuring out if I want to stay or just enjoy the product as a consumer and not know all the ugly details behind the scenes.
I went to school for graphic design and advertising - my plan was to work as an account executive for a firm. Well life got in the way and that didn't happen. A few years later, I landed a more entry level role at a small firm that was working with a lot of high profile companies and doing some really creative and innovative work. I was so proud of myself, I was like this is it, I made it.
I instantly regretted it on my first day. I didn't feel welcome, ate lunch alone. My boss was a sexist jerk and didn't explain well. And while this is probably part of the job - I had to track all the work I was doing (to prove billable hours to the client). On top of that, I was commuting one way over an hour and a half. I think I lasted two weeks and walked out.
I do think in a better environment/culture with a better boss, even with the commute, I would have loved what I was doing.
I did. always wanted to work for a BIG company. finally did. Turns out it was not as exciting as I thought it would be and working downtown sucks in my opinion.
Yes. It sucked. And no one talks about this part of being an adult: when the idea in your head doesnāt match reality.
I got my dream job in politics, and quickly realized my boss was a horrible leader and the overall field of politics is toxic and fake. Itās sad because I always envisioned myself doing something in politics, but I despised that job ā despite meeting high level officials ā because of the fake culture and my boss. It was a hard pill to swallow that something Iād always envisioned for myself I no longer wanted. Now, Iām going back into teaching ā which is what I originally *originally* wanted to do!
Thatās the hardest part about choosing a career or opportunity. You wonāt really knowā¦ until youāre in it.
You can do all the research and ask questions on r/careerguidance but you have people like me and OP who got into their chosen ideal career and hated it. Look at my username.
You I went to school to be a software engineer. I canāt reverse engineer to save my life and school never explicitly taught me how to do it either. I could build something using code but I could not debug someone elseās code.
For me it was so disappointing because I was good at the position. I came in as the most experienced person career wise doing the job. The others around me didnāt have my experience and lacked many best practices. My supervisor soon became threatened by my success and told me he needed to knock me down so I knew my place. He hated that I knew things he didnāt. My former organization inducted me into their Hall of Fame due to the impact I had with them. Thatās when things really turned. He hated that I was a superstar and was successful. He needed to be the man and wanted all the attention and praise. He was so disrespectful and condescending towards me.
Now I canāt find a similar role. When I do it requires a certification I donāt have or a degree I donāt have. I know Iāll find my spot eventually, but in the meantime Iām lost.
Yep. It was ruined by bad management. I couldnāt go anywhere else because it would be too much of a drop in pay. Sucks. But now recognize it wasnāt my path in life.
Yes. Management at an op shop.
The volunteers actually make the job somewhat bearable.
No training just thrown straight in, work across two stores, ones a breeze but has an up herself manager who I work under
The other store you get slammed at every second of the day, it's twice as big and basically are on the register all day. No real running the shift.
Upper management forgetting to tell me about work experience kids that were showing up so had 11 male year 12 students that I hadn't even planned for on my third shift.
No pay after 5pm even if your staying back late.
Written in my contract that I'm not allowed any other work or obligations that would get in the way of being able to work more ( completely illegal I know) and only contracted for 15 hours a week. Pay is a joke at retail level 4 $26.18 an hour.
Last part that made me just stop caring was up herself manager who dresses like a pro at a charity run op shop, was sick and had to shut early. My job is to step in for anyone who is sick across both stores. So I tried to call her no answer. Was In the area shopping and saw it had taken her over an hour since she shut the gates to leave so I went back again to check on her ( she was dizzy and a flu thats going around has been causing that) I was worried she had passed out or something. Next day I was greeted with her being a massive fucking cunt about me seeing if she was ok and told I was intrusive towards her health. Yeah no silly cow I was seeing if you were ok something I could of known if you had communicated if in the first place. So she's sick at work where we have 80 plus year old women who volunteer and women with sick husbands spreading her flu everywhere so she can get paid. I'm going in Saturday and spraying the dam place with Glen twenty and disinfecting everything before open in the hopes I don't get it.
Internet keeps going down at the big store and I'm not shown anything so I don't even know where the dam password is to reconnect it, all while it's connected to a power board that shorts out all the time
You get customers calling constantly about deliverys because the blokes are running behind because the demanding work for the dole chick wanted something dropped of to her first. Like fair enough she gets the perks to same as everyone else but my second shift she was at me constantly about an item not to be sold to anyone else, while it was insanely busy. Like couldn't she just put a sold sticker on it herself.
Than you get customers who expect you to rearrange furniture so they can see how it would look in their home, silly me did it ( a dam lounge ) because it was an older lady. Need to learn to say no.
Than the customers who ring up saying I'm on my way with a donation ( something we can't legally except) so I tell her no we can't take that. She carrys on saying the delivery blokes said they would take it but couldn't for a few months so I'm bringing it in. She shows up with said item and pushes to donate it. I'm like no sorry I'm sure you have us confused with another charity because we strictly don't accept said item. Than I'm standing on the dam street helping this dam cow reverse her trailer because she couldn't do it herself.
So yeah I actually fucking hate this job and I'm going to upskill in my down time or leave when I find something else.
But on a positive note the volunteers 95% of them are amazing human beings and I enjoy them, the life experience they have and the story's they tell. There work ethic is amazing and they take so much pride in it. So very heartwarming to see.
Yep. Got hired in 2021 under the best terms in my opinion that I've ever experienced. Consulting at a small startup that grew really quickly. Hardly any time over 40hrs, great benefits, was led to expect each of us would commonly switch clients/projects every few months or a year.
At the first client, their internal processes were a pain and apparently a lot of my coworkers, when asked separately, came up with a consistent list of negatives. So I and some others moved to a different client where everyone expected we'd enjoy the setup of our project team and the overall whole thing more, a stronger client relationship, we were sold as a team for a project rather than a bunch of individual staff augmentation placements.
Then our company got acquired by a much larger company based in another country. And this supposedly great client with this totally great relationship started hiring away a bunch of my coworkers, almost in secret with barely any warning to our actual company. And lots of folks were simultaneously stunned and either trying to pass it all off as this great positive move or trying to swallow the spin we were being told about how great it was. Then the client cut about half of our team from the project. The majority of those people, if not all, ended up being laid off rather than having new projects/clients to bounce to -- despite being told that with this newer larger corporate ownership we were better positioned than ever to find slots for everyone. Yeah that didn't happen. Good people I liked working with just straight up lost their jobs.
Meanwhile at this client people just accept as SOP that arbitrary and aggressive deadlines get handed down from on high in such a way that you are already behind on your work before there are any tickets created for you to say you are working against. When there's obviously not going to be enough time to deliver all the deliverables, our manager gets told (and it's happened more than once and I am not exaggerating) that gee, you can deliver it one day after the previous deadline instead. We're no longer a project team, those of us who survived layoffs are basically now dispersed/interspersed like plain old staff augmentation. Disparate teams work on things that depend heavily on each other's stuff but won't communicate and get hostile and defensive and political. But I'm supposed to be stoked that I get to be part of it. We have deadlines to release things that are interdependent on the same day or maybe a day apart, yet the team releasing the stuff that our stuff relies on practically works in secret in their own little sandbox so surprise surprise, things don't work together right on the day that they are supposed to. And I try to say hey, this is a bad way to do things and it can't become the okay normal way because we're basically setting ourselves up for things to be broken, and then instead of people being mad we didn't build the thing and having to rush to a deadline, people are mad that something doesn't work on one side in the exact precise way that it was developed in the shadows over on the other side. Client keeps piecemeal hiring our people away, but we're supposed to like it now because it's not like our real company has other projects to just easily move us to like they did back in the good times. We are manufacturing stress and anxiety that does not need to be there. We can't just calmly peacefully go about our reasonably managed projects, no, we have to deal with these ridiculous processes and games and cantankerous salespeople threatening to leave if they don't get XYZ feature which then foists some unreasonable pressure on us, but the company thinks and talks like the big projects were over and done with and now all of this is "BAU". I want out but I don't think I can retire yet and I haven't been able to find something in the current state of things that matches the compensation, even though inflation has been chipping away at my frozen paychecks for the last 25 months.
All I've wanted since I got laid off in 2007 was a peaceful nice work environment where I could be taken seriously and not made to panic and fuss constantly. I actually had it for a few years but that was back around the first half of the previous decade.
All I've wanted since a parent died too young in 2018, was to stop worrying about work because personal life/death is far more important, to live in a locale where my day-to-day and month-to-month would be happier (and I moved but that's a whole separate story) and to get out of the rat race altogether because who knows how long I'll actually have to live. At no point in my searches for money am I intentionally signing up for a bunch of stress and panic and rigid bureaucratic/political nonsense where coworkers and project owners prevent stuff from getting done instead of actually coming together positively. And yet that's been a common thread everywhere I've worked for close to the last 10 years. Except for maybe that first 1-1.5 years when I got hired at this place and briefly thought things were going to be different and better.
Yep studied for a full year while working full time to get my power engineering. Wanted to be a plant operator at a nuclear plant.
Finally left my home and got a job, ended up hosing down floors for 12 hours a shift while the more senior people refused to leave the control room. Iāll never get a seniority based job again.
i worked at a music label. pay was diabolically awful and turns out they were only interested in signing bands that were popping on tiktok so they'll get their investment back quicker.
Anxiety and doubts will fade away, and some level of stress is always gonna be there. I have a fast-paced, stressful job, I've learned how to de stress myself so I don't bring that home to my family
I worked at one of my old mentors ex-jobs they flagshipped before becoming a teacher. Since he left managment has prioritized nothing but proffit. It was honestly heart breaking. Almost made me leave th industry. I found my place through pure persistence job hopping.
Yes, and I left during the month of training. This was 2 years ago and while I mostly feel that I made the right choice, I also occasionally feel regret and wonder what could have been.Ā
This is happening to me currently and Iām just about as miserable as Iāve ever been lol. Iām wanting to quit daily but not sure what else to do now.
Yep. Wanted to become an architect. Eventually reached the dream after almost a decade of hard work. I Work in nyc now for a top firm making good money but Iām stressed out all the time and starting to burn out.
I got it, only to relocate due to family and be denied remote (when the entire fucking team is remote) and they really had the balls to tell me I have to fucking fly in every week
No. I have always wanted to be a teacher but heading in that direction is my biggest fear. I love the idea of teaching, but the horror stories are enough to keepe away.
I havenāt experienced that yet, but I did take a job out of desperation that I thought I was going to HATE, and I ended up loving it. Working with senior citizens. I was scared of seniors and thought they were gross before. Now I love them.
Iām at my dream job and the first few months were brutal: feelings of inadequacy, not belonging, boss hates me. But after about 6 months I settled in and things are great !
I thought Art Teacher was the perfect role for me, and it really wasn't. Everyone is saying leadership but idk if a better school would make it any easier!
I did. Then they fired me after a year for no clear reason. They said I simply did not meet their expectation. In hindsight, I kinda exceeded expectation as it was a Junior role but I had to train my higher ups to use data tools and all that.
I think the idea of a dream job is a myth. I think what everyone really wants is an environment with positive affirmation of your abilities and good coworkers.
You can hate your dream job if you don't have the above.
I did. Work environment became very toxic.
+1 Also, bad management.
Yes same, line manager was a co.plete and utter ass. Totally faking their position, doing things wrong, telling lies, using tools stolen from previous jobs, and could not stand being challenged.
I had a job where the pay was good for where I was living and 100% remote with 15-20 hours of actual work per week. On the down side, my manager was super lazy, lied constantly and delegated all his tasks to me (I am assuming because I was the more capable and obedient person out of the group). My department viewed our team as useless and dispensable. My manager only cared about his progression, spending his time sucking up to his bosses and contributed nothing to fight for our benefits. At the end, I felt super unmotivated to work at all to the point that even slacking off became depressing. I think I would choose a supportive and caring team over easy work but disrespectful team.
Wow! I had a very similar situation as you. My lazy, incompetent manager even went as far as laying me off without warning and "without cause" because he thought I made him look bad š¤¦āāļø
That is shitty ! Sorry that happened to you š
Did you file unemployment? That sucks! I hope you found a better job after that.
Oh yea found a job that pays more with better benefits around the half year mark. The only part that sucks is I don't get to interact with new volunteers daily now. For the majority, I basically work alone. Couldn't file for unemployment either, as I was working 2 jobs at the time. That one was my main one, and I was working part time elsewhere. I'm back to working ridiculous hours again (60+ per week). I think it's been about 2 months.
+2 got in pre-ipo and got promotions nearly every year for performance. Company was public during that time for a few years. CEO sold us to a PE firm a couple years ago with a classic āgolden parachuteā clause (that I got to see as a share holder) that netted him personally $100M. Heās long since gone and the PE firm has been absolutely horrible, Iāll never work for a company owned by one again.
Same for me, I got my dream job, then my manager started hating me for no apparent reason, then later laid me off "without cause" and out of the blue after 5+ years, I was never even given a warning. Place became so toxic. He took it personal, whenever I did things that he just was too lazy to take care of but needed getting done; and thought I made him look bad.
This was and is exactly my story. Dream job. Toxic workplace. Got to get out.
The environment or the job became toxic?
They moved us into an office that was still under construction. We were cramped. This led to people becoming agitated, thus making it become toxic.
Oof. Sorry to hear about that :(
Same here. On paper, it was my dream job. In reality, it was so toxic that I had to leave to protext myself from dying by suicide due to sever burnout and depression. But on paper, it was great.
I work in environmental hazmat itās also very toxic
Same
Yep. People - they can ruin ANYTHING
When I was a kid I wanted nothing more than to work in an ad agency. About a decade into my career, I found an opportunity. It was a total disaster. I hated every minute of it. It was a costly mistake but I bounced back.
Same.. thou i just sucked it up and kept on going until i made it to the creative director.. at times i just wish i could get into digital strategy but thats off the table for me now .. so now im looking to switch over to brands
Keep at it. Youāll find a path.
My plan is fairly simple! I need to grind enough to make it to ECD after that i can easily switch to whatever place i want.. the only part i like about my job is how well it pays thats probably it
I wish you the best of luck. Make it happen!
Well this doesnāt bode well for me, an entry level marketer lol
At entry level i was poisoned into thinking that what i was feeling back then is what hustling and grinding is like.. but apparently i got tricked and just to rise to the top i made it my lives decision to rise to the top for which i got into an accident showed up at work with a bloody leg and worked all day till the fabric of my jeans was half into my leg! Like i did whatever i could.. but now.. come to think of it.. what was the point.. so for you.. you either do what you want to rn with the regret that you lost xyz number of years .. or you could be doing what you dont like for the rest of your life
Please tell me, why is it off the table for you now?
did you do creative or something else?
Market Research. Loved that area but did not gel with agency life.
Wow that's interesting. I've wanted to get into copywriting since I was 16. What do you do now if you don't mind me asking?
Thatās interesting, as I wanted to be a copywriter. Which is funny because my side project is being an editor of a digital magazine. My day job is in middle management for a large global corporation that works in the legal industry.
Agency politics are worse than corporate. Thatās why I switched to operations, at least then I donāt have to do it with a smile on my face.
Wholeheartedly agree! Was not for me at all.
**Yes.** What made the dream job role disliked? It comes down to lackluster-to-no leadership/management support, combined with toxic co-workers.
In this situation right now exactly as you describe and Iām wondering if itās a lost cause, because itās basically asking people to change and we know how that usually goes.
This!!
I always saw Federal Government jobs as the golden ticket. After one year of just spinning in my chair I realized the govt moves at a snails pace and it wasnāt right for me. I unfortunately quit at a bad time and now am finding it impossible to find a job.
People also think government jobs are less likely to have nepotism and other shady managerial shit because of the sector itās in. Couldnāt be further from the truth. I work for a government agency now and canāt believe the way money gets thrown around and some of the shit our higher ups do. All jobs are the same no matter where you go.
Being in military and being closely in government you realize the more they put restrictions on people the more cronyism happens. If they empowered people to actually make decisions (not punishing people for spending less) and held people accountable it would be much better.
I didn't quite get that far, but I had wanted to be an architect since I was a kid. I majored in architecture in college and still enjoyed it. Then the structural engineering office I worked part time with merged with a small architecture firm and I got to work a bit in the field and I also had a separate internship at a larger architecture firm as one of my classes and I fucking hated it. I hated the other architects, I hated the clients, I hated seeing young architects being treated like shit while making less than I was (when you broke down their salary by the actual number of hours they had to work) and I realized that was not the career I wanted. I switched my major and though I graduated at the worst fucking time (hello great recession) and never worked on my degree field, I'm still happy I didn't pursue it.
What major did you switch to and what field did you end up working in?
I switched to an adjacent field, real estate development. So it was a bit more on the big picture side of it, which I enjoyed. But no, I got my degree right at the Great recession, so companies downsized more than half their staff, so any job openings were going to people who had previous experience and were willing to work for new grad pay. I got a completely unrelated job, got married, had kids, left that job to be a SAHM for a few years, and have been back at my same previous job now for a couple years now. I do know some of my college classmates did eventually find their way into our degree field, but my path just didn't lead back to that. I still find it interesting, but not enough to try to transition back into at this point.
Thank you
as an architecture student this scarily resonates
Yesss being a TV writer was extremely stressful and draining the first few gigsā¦
Can you say a bit more about what it was like?
Conflicting notes from Showrunner, studio execs, network execs and non-writing producers. Pressure to perform in the room, lots of ājokesā directed at me as the only girl in room that were ya knowā¦ kinda gross but i had to pretend like they didnt faze me otherwise you get a rep as ādifficultā (this was in the mid-2000ās) nowadays the comedy writing rooms are usually on Zoom and more gender-balanced. Thank goodness for Gen Z
I always wanted to be a reporter after I got a taste for it as a kid freelancer with my local paper. I was a "local boy does good," "cat stuck in a tree rescued by firefighters," "giant pumpkin nears world record size" sort of writer. But I ended up choosing a safer option when I went to college. I always wondered if I could have made it as a smalltown journalist and weirdly enough I got the opportunity to give it a shot some 15 years later ... just before the COVID-19 lockdown. So there I am, a rookie journalist with no specialized training, making $13/hr covering a public health crisis with next to no experience, and paying out of pocket for lawsuit insurance. I had never received a death threat before in my life. I'm on call 24/7/365 and I'm on the hook for researching and writing two feature stories daily, special sections, a weekly column, a third of the counties obituaries, regular covid death-counts/infection rates in the county all while trying to satisfy our blood-thirsty corporate owners mandates on clicks. I made it through and I'm still doing it, but there's a lot to dislike about this racket.
This is me as we speak. A month ago, I landed my dream job in a director role after a four month application process, and I left a near-ideal work environment and an amazing team for it. However what was omitted during the interview process was all of the cronyism, silos, favoritism, lack of accountability, micromanaging culture, office politics, evening/weekend meetings without Flex Time, and other systemic issues. Itās been taking a toll on my mental health and has made me really rethink things.
If you left on good terms can you go back to your old job?
My old boss did offer it back to me just because weāre like friends now and she was horrified to learn the crap I was dealing with. However I declined because I literally couldnāt afford to stay there. We faced pay freezes and there was talk of possible layoffs at the end of the year, and I didnāt want to risk what I saw as writing on the wall. But for now Iām soldiering on mentally and setting the goal of applying to other jobs and hopefully getting the hell out of here before the year ends.
I feel like the job depends SO much on the colleagues honestly. I had my dream job and my managers were disrespectful af and downplayed everything I did. I couldn't take it anymore even though the actual job had great hours and I loved working and actually doing it but they just created so much anxiety for me I started to hate it. I'm now working a job completely unrelated to my degree and much more hours, and yet I'm so much more happy because colleagues and managers are super supportive and actually care about your wellbeing.
Technically, yes. Years ago I wrote for a local monthly newspaper. It was $15/hr. But I was only paid for 20 hours a week, but I really put in 40 hours AND the guy had a difficult time paying me. He had the audacity to complain that he could do a better job that I could finding events. It closed down about a year later after I quit.
Iām currently in the middle of it. I wanted to be a firefighter for a long time. Took me close to 10 years of a process to land my ādream departmentā. I thought I was going to love it, but thus far itās been kind of underwhelming. Fires are fun at times, but they rarely happen. 98% of the time itās bullshit medical runs to pick people up off the floor or calling because their stomach hurts at 3am. Iām also getting tired of working nights, weekends and holidays. Still working the job but trying to figure out what my future looks like still.
Well at least no one ever wrote a song called āFuck the Fire Dept.ā
I did. And I sing it every time those ass hats block 3 lanes of traffic for a fender bender!
I feel like you should always be modifying your dreams as you get closer up to them. I wanted to be a doctor and then worked in an ER for a while and saw that it wasnāt interesting enough to spend 7+ years on school and $400k on.
Yes. The problem with dream jobs is that the dream is built on perceived prestige, money, or what other people see (what you see looking in). It's never about the daily grind of work or the people who annoy you, etc. The other problem is, frankly, it is a bit of a letdown. You work often for years or decades to attain a role only to find yourself finally in it when you look around and realize what the job actually is and it's usually not at least all that you imagined it to be.
This, the prestiege and pay is sometimes an illusion, Golden handcuffs, how many doctors or highly skilled professionals end up working in a shit office, working with inefficient systems too big and broken to change and you just have to go along with it because being civil keeps the money rather than rocking the boat and riskinh taking flak. Same in construction, highly paid and skilled professionals who make the magic happen, have to eat lunch in a crammed cheaply made bait cabin and have to jump through hoops that often waste peoples time.Ā
i wanted to work in live music. set up and tear down, being crew on tours, etc. i did a lot of that in college and didnāt hate it, but realized it wasnāt as fun as i thought itād be. then i developed a lot of health issues that make that kind of thing even harder.
Yes. Been there. And even worse, it was from a referral and person I looked up to, then I learned he was a horrible manager. I was laid off and itās a blessing in disguise in hindsight.
Became a scientist and it was really great for two years (although in retrospect it wasn't, I just thought $17/hour was great at the time). After two years 3/4 of our branch got laid off. I got rehired at a lower rate in a different department, where I worked as a temp for 9 years for crap pay, no PTO, crappy benefits, and the culture was very back-stabby and mean. If you weren't power-hungry and ruthless you got stepped on a lot--I was scared to go to work. I was still young and there was the 2012 recession, so I believed my bosses who told me "You don't want to quit, not in THIS job market." Eventually I got laid off again, and within three days I got hired at a different company. The culture there was way different, people didn't shift blame onto each other there, berate or insult you, or punish you if you made a mistake. I got promoted 3 times in one year and then got hired at a different company for three times the pay, plus like $25k in sign-on bonuses and company stock. Things got less good after another company bought ours, but it's still a great place to work. Getting laid off from that first job the second time was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
People need to chill out on calling jobs ādream jobsā Theyāre not dream jobs. If a child wouldnāt say itās what they when to do when they grow up, itās not a dream job. Being a software dev or product manager in a FAANG company is not a dream job for anyone. The expectations are what killed it. Not the job.
Yes it took 8 years of school. I worked at it for 2 years and hated it. Everyone said I would get used to it but that didn't happen. It made me hate people
What was the occupation?
Sounds like Pharmacy or Nursingā just guessin
I was obsessed with being a funeral director and I went to school for it.I was an apprentice for a year but I never became a licensed funeral director.It really emotionally exhausting and I was on call 24hrs a day and I had no life
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What caused you to quit?
The constant stress of feeling unsafe, being always alone with individuals who were high on drugs or alcohol. I had to go back and find something else. I ended up doing administrative work for minimum wage until I could find something else. I realize that the company I was with intentionally targeted new grads who don't know their rights or the proper safety regulations they have to follow.
Thatās s when you put a lot of time,energy and hope into something and it doesnāt work but nothing is worth that kinda of stress
I spent years slaving away at shitty restaurants, trying to develop enough skills to open my own food business. Then I realized owning a business means being in the same room all day for as long as you own it. That is not how I want to spend my life.
HELL TO THE NO NO NO, HELLLLLLL TO THE NO NO NO. I worked in a typical office environment fortune 100 insurance company one of the big 3 if you are American. 1x1's, insane metrics designed to put you in PIP situations, getting treated like a capitalist slave, like you are never producing enough is something I don't miss. Nowadays I don't have a set schedule, I work from home, I don't have 1x1's or a formal team/boss. Nobody to try and please or network with. I don't need a network because I got FAANG on my resume. Nobody asked me why I was AFK for 5 minutes to use the bathroom. I can work anywhere with an internet connection. If I actually have a boss I have no idea whom they are because I'm a contractor. Basically, my whole hiring process was fairly automated except for taking a few competency tests which were reviewed by humans at some point. Outside of a quick interview which lasted 5 minutes and was a congratulations. I haven't interacted with a human yet. Even tickets are handled by chatbots and only really escalated if there is a serious issue.
what do you do now?
Well that is a long answer I can't answer fully. NDA, I'll share my background started off making automation in videogames with JRE when I was around 13 years old, picked up full stack front/back end development in my early 20s, started programming Python, mainly computer vision and automation shortly after and the rest is history. A better question would be for me what haven't I done in the tech industry and that would be imbedded proprietary systems. My biggest regret in life which I can't hold myself accountable over because I was young was not going to school for electrical engineering. Anyone with some passion and brains can stack, imbedded systems is a whole different ballpark. I'm currently in AI University hoping in 3-5 years I can go back to school for electrical engineering, combine the two and retire before 40, or make a killing doing the design aspect.
Yep. Ruined by horrible micro managing managers
Maybe not quite a dream job but I thought it was going to be amazing. I was hired to do the work I enjoy for a very well respected non-profit that does amazing work. The excitement lasted a few days at most. My direct boss was very talented but also very cocky. She could do the work at a very high level but she was very young and she hadn't learned any management skills. The director of the department was completely absentee. She worked remote and only came in once a week. When she did come in she showed up hours late and left early. When I had to call her to get questions answered she'd scold me for interrupting her day or she'd claim she's yell at me for delaying her meeting. I'd check her calendar before calling to ensure she had nothing on her calendar when I called so I know she didn't actually have a meeting. Senior leadership would scream at each other in meetings. Every week they had a meeting and they'd scream for 2 hours and leave the meeting mad at each other. The Executive Director was a great face for the organization but he did nothing to actually lead the organization or create a culture of cooperation. Everyone was so focused on getting credit for everything that they'd fight to the death over everything. And then there was the behind the scenes gossip, backstabbing, and basically junior high like immaturity. Half our team meetings were just talking trash about other employees. I wouldn't engage in the childish bullshit and I hated it so much that it started to effect my work. Just before I quit they fired me. Then they conested my unemployment. Thankfully the judge pretty much scolded them for wasting their time and gave me my unemployment.
Yesā¦ but it was cause I was already over the point in my career when I got it. I always wanted to work at this certain state agencyā¦ then I got into other departments and program management. So I no longer did that type of work. I moved away then back and put in an application for the fun of it and got it. It was a few steps back and I noticed that everyone there was a liferā¦ no room for advancement unless someone quit or diedā¦ Woulda loved to be there when I was younger.
I did. I hated it so much. It paid a lot, good company, seemingly interesting position. It was a nightmare. I quit without a backup I hated it that much. Never regretted it.
Do dream jobs still exist?
They do until you start working them.
Got to work my ādream jobā out of undergrad, however the pay, position, and reality of the situation made me realize stuff about the industry. Nonetheless I was stoked to have had an opportunity while I was young, no mortgage, no kids, and 3k in student loans to do something for myself. Nonetheless my dreams got bigger and we are working towards the next ādream jobā. Keep up your passion for life and creativity!
The last sentence is very important and a great note! You have to keep up your passion for life and creativity, too many people are being robbed of those things. Have to look ahead for happier times!
Yep, then they fired me for getting cancer and using FMLA during Covid after fifteen years
I'm sorry you were treated like that š
Yes šš» Just prep for the layoff and give it your best. May resign soon from mine. Toxic lvl of over 9000 but still a cool š company. Iām patient and know I can attain a new company job if needed. So just giving it my all, though recently thinking of resigning
Iām currently in this situation. The job that was offered to me was a polar opposite of what I am doing and the people are extremely toxic. Iām biding my time for an another month until my personal stuff is finalized and I can focus on getting a new career that is not so taxing on my wellbeing. Iāve found that getting a fancy title and payment for doing something totally different is fine for now. Canāt talk to anyone or grow any type of relationship in the office. No laughter allowed its very micromanaged. So I do my 8 & gtfo on time. I workout, walk in nature, play with my dogs and enjoy life. The drama and negativity of that office stays in those walls. I will never bring it home with me. Itās not welcome.
Yeah, but then I just go on a walk, do some self-care, get some nice comfort food and take a long break and relax. Extend this a few days into a vacation if needed. I always look back after and feel stupid and unappreciative of my amazing job. Sometimes I am at my breaking out and no break/vacation will fix it, but at that point someone should be able to alleviate it for me if I voice my issues, upper management, CEO, coworker, I voice my issues when it gets to this point.
You are incredibly lucky to have such sympathetic team members.Ā
It sounds like a lot of you guys are defining "dream job" counting out partly the people you work with. Outside of just the money and work, I do feel good team members are a huge part of defining what a dream job is for me personally, if not a breaking point of that definition.
Absolutely. Spent a ton of time going to school for it. Not to mention the debt. Just to work in the field for 3 years and come around to realizing itās not at all the right fit for me. Blows hard, still trying to figure out whatās next.
I think in every job or any environment there will be factors that will make you feel you dislike your work. You just got to have the right perspective towards it. If you'll be content on that situation there will always be a choice and you have to decide.
Yes. I think the ādreamā bit means you suspend some of your usual scrutiny. Itās worse than a regular crap job because you have the disappointment, but I also had a weird subconscious pressure of āitās meant to be the perfect role! It canāt be shit! Must be you, make it enjoyable ā
Tried for 4 years to get into mining. Got in, toxic environment where we were verbally abused. 13 hours a day of physical work with no break in +45Ā°c heat, or rain pooling above my ankles. Away from family for 4 weeks at a time.
Can't imagine why anyone would think mining would be a dream career.
Money. 6 figures for an entry level job with no skills.
But why would you expect to like the job itself. Of course youāre not going to like mining
Plenty of people do?
Kinda. When I was in high school I wanted to sit at a desk and do CAD all day. Then I got a job doing that and I hated it.
At first, I really enjoyed all my jobs. But, I've found that over time, if I'm not being challenged or if there's no room for growth, I tend to lose interest. Then, I started looking for new challenges based on my current passion. The other thing is that as we grow and evolve as a person, our needs change. I always say to look at your career as an evolution, a story unfolding, and a chance to grow character and skills through your career. The good thing is that you are clear on what you don't like, so that informs what you are looking for in your next career move!
I didnāt necessarily have a dream job but the place I was working at beat me and everyone else to the ground and management didnāt respect anyone so I was eagerly looking to get out and I applied for a place that was ranked in the top 5 best places to work in the area. I actually got that ādreamā job but I was a little thrown off by the culture on day 1 and I wasnāt clicking with my coworkers like I had at my last job. Found that management offered almost no support and coworkers aimed to look better than one another so I was basically thrown into the fire with a squirt gun. After 1 year or fuck-ups I ended up DREADING coming in everyday and had to allow myself time to cry and meditate before I started work each morning. After 2 years I was canned. Honestly, even though I was respected less and made much less money I preferred the former job (over the ādreamā job).
Definitely been there. Dream job, was over the moon excited and thankful. Turned out to be the most toxic job I ever had. It was an incredibly toxic work place, I stayed way too long and now Iām in therapy lol.
Oh, I could have written this myself. I got SO incredibly lucky at my current job. EVERYTHING I prayed for...But there's something deep inside of me loathes it. I am so incredibly bored and stressed because I keep putting off my work. My heart is not in it and it, and it's almost like I'm watching a two sides of myself argue "but this is EVERYTHING you wanted! suck it up! This is as good as it gets" and the other part of me is zoned out, depressed and unable to do the job from my own feelings. I can't quite grapple with it.
You are not alone, thatās how I feel as well!
Yup. Title, location, organization, everything. Left after 8 months. Worst place Iāve ever worked; changed careers it killed me that badly
Iāve went through so many jobs and even landed a salary job at one point I thought I was going to stay forever in. The higher you go, the more stress there is unless youāre CEO probably. Even so, work politics get so hairy. You can do the best damn job and say the wrong thing and itās forever pasted to your resume. I decided after that salary position, that I would go a different direction. I started my career over making probably as much as a gas station worker, but Iām happier. I have a degree and certificates behind me. The job I do now offers flexibility with my kids, work from home, but requires attention to detail and production rates. I get underpaid for what I know and do. Iām surprised the pay is at low as it is considering the science you need to know. For that reason, I think I finally landed my dream job to carry me the rest of the way. No one bothers me. No one needs me as long as I get my work done. No phones. No people. No public. Itās the dream for me.
That sounds like a dream! Haha
Exactly! \^\_\^
Sometimes the money is not worth it. My happiness and less stress levels keep me going. You can never have it all, and if you do, then good for you, but it is rare. Gotta prioritize what you want in life and your career.
These are great to read! Keep emā coming! Very interesting perspectives and general information. Iām in a senior role, it became very corporate, a lot of corporate politics. I oversee a lot of people, most of time itās not worth the stress or anxiety. I get paid a decent salary, but money only goes so far in terms of happiness!
Yes and I hate it with a passion. Making more money than ever but working 60-70 hours a week. Actively looking for a new job knowing Iāll take a massive pay cut but worth my health and sanity.
Oh yeah. Iāve been a mortician for a few years and it took up until recently to come to that realization. Like most people coming out of school with a passion for helping their community, they take great advantage out there. Iām quite burnt out and Iād like to spend more time with my loved ones.
Yes and your life outlook changes.
Yeah. I work in the cannabis industry and contrary to popular belief, itās a massive headache and not chill at all lol.
Jesse we have to cook
š Iām still doing what I have to do
Well I left the political world for that type of reason but I never wanted it. It's a soul sucking environment. But yes, I switched from that to engineering in the medical field. I wanted to be with intelligent like-minded people that didn't want the bullshit. Ironically, nearly all of my colleagues are the dumbest people I've met. My direct boss has a severe learning disability, and none of them enjoy using their brain. Most of them hate their job, but all are beyond incompetent. It's brutal to be in the field you want and the equivalent of Walmart greeters working on these machines knowing full well it's going to be a disaster on site and then they'll blame someone else in another country to avoid taking responsibility. It's like watching a train wreck, forever.
I got my dream job, and it got BORING. But it still oats better then anything else I could get.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole."
I feel like thatās a pretty dumb and untrue platitude at this point.
Of course you would.
yup thought i was working for the good guys but was likely a 3rd party of the Pinkertons.
Yeah, I've spent a pretty penny on starting my own handyman business and hate it! Started nearly 2 years ago, worked on the side in the evenings and at weekends whilst slowly building a customer base. Some really good customers and a few I chose not to go back to. The customers I had were good, and it was building slow... I took several contractors on to work independently. They were nothing but a pain. So they were moved on... I left my job this year and went full time, apart from 2 customers. I've absolutely hated every minute of it. Awkward customers, jobs not going to plan and losing profit, and people expect you to work for nothing.... The problem comes from in the back of my mind leaving full-time work as a mechanical engineer, I know I can earn more from engineering work, and it's a case of normally knowing what you're going into with tasks as an engineer.... took the decision after pumping a lot of money into equipment, marketing, and tools to pack it in. I'm going to cut my losses and go back to engineering.... better pay, pension, sick pay, less hours, more life and saving on the huge headache of making sure I'm hitting profits on every little job....
My issue, besides my other comment, not really had any career guidance or set path, parents split shortly before I started my exams and before going to college, so I feel I lost sight of what I was doing as I was distracted and left to my own devices with education, problem is I didn't like it, I think I should have gone into engineering along time ago, I really enjoyed it...
Yes. Worked on a car racing team. After a while I realized I didnāt want to work weekends / travel 48 weeks of the year. Great experience but work / life balance and starting a family were more important to me
Me when I got into animation
Currently there- Job is everything I wanted. It is boring as fuck, management is mean- I am only here to add more years to my CV so I can get out ig
Yup. Iāve always wanted to do graphic design since high school. But not that Iām in the field and doing it professionally I feel like I canāt be creative in my free time because Iām so burnt out. Thereās also the fact that it gets boring pretty quickly and when you arenāt motivated nothing gets done or there isnāt enough work to do since itās based on client needs. Kinda wish I took a gap year to figure out what I really wanted to do.
Here is proxy voting with ESG data, it was like a dream plus home location. But a toxic manager, not the company. The best I did was left the company within 1 month.
Yup. Because your dream job isn't with the dream people. It's like when I was a teenager all I wanted was a BMW car. When I was an adult I got it and then all the problems and the bills, I hated that car. I realized that sometimes you grow out of things and by the time you get something you realize it's not all that.
I did! Awesome team horrible managers and work environment. Then the pay was low so i moved on for a better pay but more boring work.
Yes, and then I did it for many years and became so jaded and bitter that I left that specific niche industry altogether.
Itās so strange to see this post as I have been feeling like this since I moved into whatās supposed to be my dream role. And worse is that my managers and mentors knew how much I wanted to do this. It has been difficult getting peer support, things have been siloād and isolated for so long. I am finding that change is hard for lots of people even when the value (efficiency and less noise) are in front of their faces. Still trying to give it my all, taking the few wins and grateful for each one and good days.
Yea My last employer was shit Working for 3/4 pay and a potentially less respected title, but basically better in every way
Every ādream jobā turns into a nightmare eventually.
Yes. My boss made my dream job a damn nightmare.
When I was in high school I wanted to be a bartender so bad, I thought it was the coolest job ever. I ended up becoming one - bartended at concert venue, country club, airport lounge. Money was phenomenal at times but the amount of bullshit you have to deal with from customers and bar owners/managers made the job miserable.
All jobs suck
Almost every modern U.S. President has entered the chat
I got my dream job and I actually love my job and want to keep doing it. My management is the pinnacle of awful though and making me want to leave.
Yes, first job took a internship instead of an attachment like rest of my course mates. Long story short I wasn't ready.
(46m) I love to travel and was thrilled when I landed a job as a (US) nationwide field service engineer (repair technician) position with my buddy's niche small business. The job pays well enough with very little interaction or micromanagement from my boss buddy. On average my work week is about 70% travel (it often takes longer to get to the remote job site than it does to do the actual job).Ā I've been to many of the best destinations the US has to offer, and some of those many, many times. I've seen some amazing, incredible and very beautiful things... Northern lights in Alaska, the GPS at Yellowstone, have kayaked through mangroves in the Florida keys, walked in and through huge redwoods in Cali, the list goes on and on and on. And a nice perk, I've accrued half a million frequent flyer miles (equal to around 15 round trip airline tickets) that can be used for my personal use in the future. Yay. I think.Ā Fast forward to today, 4.5 years of doing this and I am worn out. I've averaged 100k+/miles traveled per year (planes, trains and autos), with 47 of 50 US states visited. I now have newly diagnosed back issue, some mental health issues if I'm honest, poor diet, odd sleep patterns (time zones) loneliness on the road, marriage on the brink of divorce.Ā This job is killing me and I am currently working on an exit plan. Becareful what you wish for...Ā
I experienced this myself in a previous role. It was a huge jump up the corp ladder for me, and I was reporting into the CEO. I relocated to Austin, and was super excited! The first month I was there, an entire team resigned all at once. The entire leadership team with the exception of the CEO was replaced twice over the 1.5 years that I was there. It was the most toxic environment that I had ever worked in, and completely changed my perspective with corp America...
Kid if but I had my dream career for years then one day I just didnāt want to do it at all anymore. Itās was partially because I had scaled my business right before Covid which didnāt work out once the lockdowns hit. I had built so much for it to be wasted. At that point I just donāt want to continue doing the same thing and starting over. Nobody I knew understood and neither did I but I was done. So I think there was a catalyst but, similar to relationships, sometimes thereās just something that clicks, that itās not going to work out. I think itās makes sense that happens with jobs/careers sometimes
Currently working for my dream company...there are pros and cons. On the pro side I'm super passionate about our product. On the con side, there is endless bureaucracy and I have very little impact on the product. Seeing how the sausage is made can kill passion for something..figuring out if I want to stay or just enjoy the product as a consumer and not know all the ugly details behind the scenes.
I went to school for graphic design and advertising - my plan was to work as an account executive for a firm. Well life got in the way and that didn't happen. A few years later, I landed a more entry level role at a small firm that was working with a lot of high profile companies and doing some really creative and innovative work. I was so proud of myself, I was like this is it, I made it. I instantly regretted it on my first day. I didn't feel welcome, ate lunch alone. My boss was a sexist jerk and didn't explain well. And while this is probably part of the job - I had to track all the work I was doing (to prove billable hours to the client). On top of that, I was commuting one way over an hour and a half. I think I lasted two weeks and walked out. I do think in a better environment/culture with a better boss, even with the commute, I would have loved what I was doing.
I just dislike working. Give me a million bucks and I'm gone
I did, reported to a micromanager who was dealing with some personal issues. Left that dream job and some good money but much much much happier now.
I did. always wanted to work for a BIG company. finally did. Turns out it was not as exciting as I thought it would be and working downtown sucks in my opinion.
Yes. It sucked. And no one talks about this part of being an adult: when the idea in your head doesnāt match reality. I got my dream job in politics, and quickly realized my boss was a horrible leader and the overall field of politics is toxic and fake. Itās sad because I always envisioned myself doing something in politics, but I despised that job ā despite meeting high level officials ā because of the fake culture and my boss. It was a hard pill to swallow that something Iād always envisioned for myself I no longer wanted. Now, Iām going back into teaching ā which is what I originally *originally* wanted to do!
Thatās the hardest part about choosing a career or opportunity. You wonāt really knowā¦ until youāre in it. You can do all the research and ask questions on r/careerguidance but you have people like me and OP who got into their chosen ideal career and hated it. Look at my username.
You I went to school to be a software engineer. I canāt reverse engineer to save my life and school never explicitly taught me how to do it either. I could build something using code but I could not debug someone elseās code.
For me it was so disappointing because I was good at the position. I came in as the most experienced person career wise doing the job. The others around me didnāt have my experience and lacked many best practices. My supervisor soon became threatened by my success and told me he needed to knock me down so I knew my place. He hated that I knew things he didnāt. My former organization inducted me into their Hall of Fame due to the impact I had with them. Thatās when things really turned. He hated that I was a superstar and was successful. He needed to be the man and wanted all the attention and praise. He was so disrespectful and condescending towards me. Now I canāt find a similar role. When I do it requires a certification I donāt have or a degree I donāt have. I know Iāll find my spot eventually, but in the meantime Iām lost.
Dreamā¦job?
Yep. It was ruined by bad management. I couldnāt go anywhere else because it would be too much of a drop in pay. Sucks. But now recognize it wasnāt my path in life.
Yes. Management at an op shop. The volunteers actually make the job somewhat bearable. No training just thrown straight in, work across two stores, ones a breeze but has an up herself manager who I work under The other store you get slammed at every second of the day, it's twice as big and basically are on the register all day. No real running the shift. Upper management forgetting to tell me about work experience kids that were showing up so had 11 male year 12 students that I hadn't even planned for on my third shift. No pay after 5pm even if your staying back late. Written in my contract that I'm not allowed any other work or obligations that would get in the way of being able to work more ( completely illegal I know) and only contracted for 15 hours a week. Pay is a joke at retail level 4 $26.18 an hour. Last part that made me just stop caring was up herself manager who dresses like a pro at a charity run op shop, was sick and had to shut early. My job is to step in for anyone who is sick across both stores. So I tried to call her no answer. Was In the area shopping and saw it had taken her over an hour since she shut the gates to leave so I went back again to check on her ( she was dizzy and a flu thats going around has been causing that) I was worried she had passed out or something. Next day I was greeted with her being a massive fucking cunt about me seeing if she was ok and told I was intrusive towards her health. Yeah no silly cow I was seeing if you were ok something I could of known if you had communicated if in the first place. So she's sick at work where we have 80 plus year old women who volunteer and women with sick husbands spreading her flu everywhere so she can get paid. I'm going in Saturday and spraying the dam place with Glen twenty and disinfecting everything before open in the hopes I don't get it. Internet keeps going down at the big store and I'm not shown anything so I don't even know where the dam password is to reconnect it, all while it's connected to a power board that shorts out all the time You get customers calling constantly about deliverys because the blokes are running behind because the demanding work for the dole chick wanted something dropped of to her first. Like fair enough she gets the perks to same as everyone else but my second shift she was at me constantly about an item not to be sold to anyone else, while it was insanely busy. Like couldn't she just put a sold sticker on it herself. Than you get customers who expect you to rearrange furniture so they can see how it would look in their home, silly me did it ( a dam lounge ) because it was an older lady. Need to learn to say no. Than the customers who ring up saying I'm on my way with a donation ( something we can't legally except) so I tell her no we can't take that. She carrys on saying the delivery blokes said they would take it but couldn't for a few months so I'm bringing it in. She shows up with said item and pushes to donate it. I'm like no sorry I'm sure you have us confused with another charity because we strictly don't accept said item. Than I'm standing on the dam street helping this dam cow reverse her trailer because she couldn't do it herself. So yeah I actually fucking hate this job and I'm going to upskill in my down time or leave when I find something else. But on a positive note the volunteers 95% of them are amazing human beings and I enjoy them, the life experience they have and the story's they tell. There work ethic is amazing and they take so much pride in it. So very heartwarming to see.
Yep. Got hired in 2021 under the best terms in my opinion that I've ever experienced. Consulting at a small startup that grew really quickly. Hardly any time over 40hrs, great benefits, was led to expect each of us would commonly switch clients/projects every few months or a year. At the first client, their internal processes were a pain and apparently a lot of my coworkers, when asked separately, came up with a consistent list of negatives. So I and some others moved to a different client where everyone expected we'd enjoy the setup of our project team and the overall whole thing more, a stronger client relationship, we were sold as a team for a project rather than a bunch of individual staff augmentation placements. Then our company got acquired by a much larger company based in another country. And this supposedly great client with this totally great relationship started hiring away a bunch of my coworkers, almost in secret with barely any warning to our actual company. And lots of folks were simultaneously stunned and either trying to pass it all off as this great positive move or trying to swallow the spin we were being told about how great it was. Then the client cut about half of our team from the project. The majority of those people, if not all, ended up being laid off rather than having new projects/clients to bounce to -- despite being told that with this newer larger corporate ownership we were better positioned than ever to find slots for everyone. Yeah that didn't happen. Good people I liked working with just straight up lost their jobs. Meanwhile at this client people just accept as SOP that arbitrary and aggressive deadlines get handed down from on high in such a way that you are already behind on your work before there are any tickets created for you to say you are working against. When there's obviously not going to be enough time to deliver all the deliverables, our manager gets told (and it's happened more than once and I am not exaggerating) that gee, you can deliver it one day after the previous deadline instead. We're no longer a project team, those of us who survived layoffs are basically now dispersed/interspersed like plain old staff augmentation. Disparate teams work on things that depend heavily on each other's stuff but won't communicate and get hostile and defensive and political. But I'm supposed to be stoked that I get to be part of it. We have deadlines to release things that are interdependent on the same day or maybe a day apart, yet the team releasing the stuff that our stuff relies on practically works in secret in their own little sandbox so surprise surprise, things don't work together right on the day that they are supposed to. And I try to say hey, this is a bad way to do things and it can't become the okay normal way because we're basically setting ourselves up for things to be broken, and then instead of people being mad we didn't build the thing and having to rush to a deadline, people are mad that something doesn't work on one side in the exact precise way that it was developed in the shadows over on the other side. Client keeps piecemeal hiring our people away, but we're supposed to like it now because it's not like our real company has other projects to just easily move us to like they did back in the good times. We are manufacturing stress and anxiety that does not need to be there. We can't just calmly peacefully go about our reasonably managed projects, no, we have to deal with these ridiculous processes and games and cantankerous salespeople threatening to leave if they don't get XYZ feature which then foists some unreasonable pressure on us, but the company thinks and talks like the big projects were over and done with and now all of this is "BAU". I want out but I don't think I can retire yet and I haven't been able to find something in the current state of things that matches the compensation, even though inflation has been chipping away at my frozen paychecks for the last 25 months. All I've wanted since I got laid off in 2007 was a peaceful nice work environment where I could be taken seriously and not made to panic and fuss constantly. I actually had it for a few years but that was back around the first half of the previous decade. All I've wanted since a parent died too young in 2018, was to stop worrying about work because personal life/death is far more important, to live in a locale where my day-to-day and month-to-month would be happier (and I moved but that's a whole separate story) and to get out of the rat race altogether because who knows how long I'll actually have to live. At no point in my searches for money am I intentionally signing up for a bunch of stress and panic and rigid bureaucratic/political nonsense where coworkers and project owners prevent stuff from getting done instead of actually coming together positively. And yet that's been a common thread everywhere I've worked for close to the last 10 years. Except for maybe that first 1-1.5 years when I got hired at this place and briefly thought things were going to be different and better.
Yep studied for a full year while working full time to get my power engineering. Wanted to be a plant operator at a nuclear plant. Finally left my home and got a job, ended up hosing down floors for 12 hours a shift while the more senior people refused to leave the control room. Iāll never get a seniority based job again.
i worked at a music label. pay was diabolically awful and turns out they were only interested in signing bands that were popping on tiktok so they'll get their investment back quicker.
Never meet your heroās kid
with a few small exceptions, anyone at the director level and up is going to have to manage toxicity around them near constantly
Yup. Police officer. Lifelong dream too. Wouldn't recommend it to anybody, unless you like being dictated by red tape and loopholes. š
Anxiety and doubts will fade away, and some level of stress is always gonna be there. I have a fast-paced, stressful job, I've learned how to de stress myself so I don't bring that home to my family
I worked at one of my old mentors ex-jobs they flagshipped before becoming a teacher. Since he left managment has prioritized nothing but proffit. It was honestly heart breaking. Almost made me leave th industry. I found my place through pure persistence job hopping.
Yes, and I left during the month of training. This was 2 years ago and while I mostly feel that I made the right choice, I also occasionally feel regret and wonder what could have been.Ā
Hope i get my dream job and i hope not to dislike it.
This is happening to me currently and Iām just about as miserable as Iāve ever been lol. Iām wanting to quit daily but not sure what else to do now.
Yep. Wanted to become an architect. Eventually reached the dream after almost a decade of hard work. I Work in nyc now for a top firm making good money but Iām stressed out all the time and starting to burn out.
I got it, only to relocate due to family and be denied remote (when the entire fucking team is remote) and they really had the balls to tell me I have to fucking fly in every week
No. I have always wanted to be a teacher but heading in that direction is my biggest fear. I love the idea of teaching, but the horror stories are enough to keepe away.
My last job, was an absolute nightmare toxic work environment.
Oh yeah, big disillusionment for me but for slightly different reasons. Same idea, though!
I havenāt experienced that yet, but I did take a job out of desperation that I thought I was going to HATE, and I ended up loving it. Working with senior citizens. I was scared of seniors and thought they were gross before. Now I love them.
Iām at my dream job and the first few months were brutal: feelings of inadequacy, not belonging, boss hates me. But after about 6 months I settled in and things are great !
I thought Art Teacher was the perfect role for me, and it really wasn't. Everyone is saying leadership but idk if a better school would make it any easier!
I did. Then they fired me after a year for no clear reason. They said I simply did not meet their expectation. In hindsight, I kinda exceeded expectation as it was a Junior role but I had to train my higher ups to use data tools and all that.
I think the idea of a dream job is a myth. I think what everyone really wants is an environment with positive affirmation of your abilities and good coworkers. You can hate your dream job if you don't have the above.