Ugh! Huge career mistakes! *bashes head* I'm so stupid

[Cuda1447]

I need to vent/rant/get it off my chest, so you bitches are stuck listening.

I made a huge freaking mistake recently. I've always been very cautious. Good with my money, always had steady, decent employment. Made plenty of money, covered the bills etc.. But I've always wanted more. Which is fine.

I recently quit my job of about 5 years for a new employer. Hours were better, developed new skills, slightly better pay... probably a better career path. It was pretty good. I didn't love the job, but it was alright. I had a couple of bad experiences there my first month or two though that I blew out of proportion.

I ended up quitting after almost 3 months for another job, which I had been waiting on for a couple months anyway. I nearly took this job prior to starting the first job. This 3rd job is VERY different than what I've ever done, in a completely new role for myself. It is a small company and I had an in to the position because I knew the owner of the company.

Long story short, BIG FUCKING MISTAKE. This guy is a TOTAL douchebag. He expects miracles, when he KNOWS this is a new position for me and I'm just learning on the go. Everything is a mini-crisis to him. He is HORRIBLE with dealing with people, which explains why he's had a lot of people quit. I'm constantly getting in arguments with this guy and in a nutshell its juts a totally horrible work environment, despite at the surface it being an awesome job.

Well... It's not going to work out. I don't know if its going to be a week or two months, but sometime, somewhere, something is going to happen and I won't be working here anymore. I'm going to try to buy my time the best I can, but now I'm stressed as hell. It takes awhile to find a new job, months sometimes. Ive contacted my former employer but don't think they are going to take me back. Looking at other options... I'll find something I'm sure, but damn what a mistake I made.


I took a job with a small company, no health insurance, no established vacation time, under the assumption that the company was stable and accomplishing 'x' when they are highly unstable and no where near accomplishing what they want... and now expect me to create miracles for them.


I'm stupid and ultra-fucking stressed now.

Blah

 

[eits]

start looking for a new job or crawl back to the place you left.

 

[SearchMaster]

Yeah and make sure the new job is stable and right for you. Four jobs in a year will look even worse if you're looking yet again shortly thereafter.

Good luck.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

That sucks. I've kind of run into similiar situations before (jumping from something good to to something that should be better but isn't). Hopefully, you can move on to something stable quickly.

 

[Gibson486]

Yeah, that was my first job out of school. I took it because the other job was temp to perm if they liked me. The job sucked, my boss was questionable, the training horrible and it was an industry based on throwing people under the bus.

I look back...man, I should have taken the temp job. It was doing DSP work....

 

[Cuda1447]

Yeah and make sure the new job is stable and right for you. Four jobs in a year will look even worse if you're looking yet again shortly thereafter.

Good luck.

Yea I know. It's silly because prior to this I had 2 jobs in 8 years.

 

[Cuda1447]

start looking for a new job or crawl back to the place you left.

Already doing both. I'm a bit confused about my old job.

I went back to them a month after I quit and told them I made a huge mistake. They seemed to be sympathetic to me coming back. The district manager called me and we talked for a few, he gave me a few options since my old position wasn't available. I told him what I preferred when he gave me options and he said he'd call me back or have someone else. This was just before Christmas.

I don't have a direct number to him, but I called and left two messages for him on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Still haven't heard anything back. I'm not sure if that's a sign that they don't want me... or that they are just slow/busy/whatever.

 

[PricklyPete]

What type of work are you in? If you are in an industry where skilled work is still hard to come by, then I don't think you'll have a problem.

Sorry to hear things haven't worked out...when making career decisions, it can always be difficult to judge the resulting outcome.

 

[sdifox]

Join the club?

<- left a 100k government job.

 

[MisterJackson]

It's, "bide your time" by the way.

 

[SandEagle]

Join the club?

<- left a 100k government job.

Mom, why am I stupid?

 

[Gillbot]

been there before, it sucks when you fall for the "grass is greener" line.

 

[Wyndru]

I avoid small companies like the plague. I've been burned a few times, the company goes under or just runs like shit, and like you are finding out too many complete assholes go unchecked. At least in big companies there is a chance HR will sit him down and at least let him know that a lot of people don't like the way he treats them.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Been there done that. Left a good job with steady pay, great benefits, etc. Was too complacent there, but I had the run of the mill. Full authority to do what needed to get done and was left to do everything on my own. 3 years later I still haven't been able to land a job that lasts more than a year. Laid off 3 times now in 3 years.

The grass isn't always greener. I'm now begging to take positions that are paying half of what I was making before with crappy benefits.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I took a job with a small company, no health insurance, no established vacation time, under the assumption that the company was stable and accomplishing 'x' when they are highly unstable and no where near accomplishing what they want... and now expect me to create miracles for them.

Sorry to hear that. All you can do is keep looking and maybe beg former employers.

For future reference, NEVER accept the bolded for "slightly more pay." People need to remember that pay is just one component of a compensation package and everything needs to be considered -- pay, benefits, vacation time, and even the commute.

I could go elsewhere and make more money (about 50&#37; more in all likelihood), but that isn't enough to compensate for my current compensation package and they'd have to have a very, very good set of benefits to make it worth my while.

 

[brandonb]

I did something similar, and I had the exact same feelings.

It took me about 6 months to get through the "new phase" to see that things weren't really changing. I started looking around and had an offer on the table at a different company (the one I'm at now and have been 5 years now). About a year into the position "at the crappy place" the dude fired me. After I was fired, I called up the guy who gave me the offer, and said "My boss caught wind of me looking around and fired me" and I started at the new place the next day (literally.) Been relatively happy since.

I should have seen the writing on the wall the first week when he took me out as a "new employee lunch", and the waitress at the resturant was sort of an air head, and said "The lunch special soup today is split pea, no wait, corn chowder. I'd think I'd know that. tee hee hee." and the boss said to her "You must be the village idiot then, tee hee hee." (she didn't acknowledge his comment) but I just cringed... Then I went out to the UK to meet the guys there (they were a foreign company and that was their main office) and everybody was like "How can you stand that guy? Everybody who was ever hired by that guy has quit within a week or was fired within a week. If you have lasted a month, you're doing great!!!" I lasted a year anyhow.

 

[grohl]

Chalk it up to experience. Can't succeed in life unless you take some risks.

Sorry, man.

 

[sonambulo]

That really sucks man. Sorry.

 

[bobdole369]

It is a small company and I had an in to the position because I knew the owner of the company.

I worked for one of these douchebags for nearly 5 years. In an industry absolutely jam packed with douchebags with nozzles 5 times larger than my bosses (yacht industry).

This guy is a TOTAL douchebag. He expects miracles, when he KNOWS this is a new position for me and I'm just learning on the go. Everything is a mini-crisis to him. He is HORRIBLE with dealing with people, which explains why he's had a lot of people quit. I'm constantly getting in arguments with this guy and in a nutshell its juts a totally horrible work environment, despite at the surface it being an awesome job.

It's the nature of working for a smallish company sometimes. Money makes it better, said douchebag paid me 20&#37; more than average for the job, but I ended up doing 9 peoples jobs anyway - it wasn't nearly enough. In the end when I finally had enough and secured employment elsewhere and exited - he didn't offer any more money. His "series of crises" which defined the job environment ended up costing him so much money that he was nearly completely broke by that point. He's still chucking along and I still do side work that I charge for.

 

[GT1999]

Reminds me of my first job out of college. Really small IT consulting company. Owner was cool but incompetent, my Director and Manager were terrible. They had a consultant come in and do part of the work I was doing with no communication about the work being done resulting in configuration mishaps. Glad I'm out of there.

Good luck finding something better and just try to go with the flow so you can keep a paycheck.

 

[Vic Vega]

Sorry to hear OP. What you are describing is every start-up though, it takes people willing do muck the stalls to build one of those great companies you want to work for. Sounds like you would be better off at an established company.

 

[manimal]

I would be careful with too many job jumps on your resume. I literally had 40+ candidates for a recent job I hired for and I chose the guy with the longest tenure at his last job over the younger guy who had literally been trough 5 jobs in the last 2 years. Granted there were other factors but you have to look at your overall brand.

Is this jump going to hurt your brand long term? Is there going to be a appreciable difference in your workflow to warrant the change? Ask yourself the hard questions and stop being emotional.

Start with some lists.

 

[manimal]

Sorry to hear OP. What you are describing is every start-up though, it takes people willing do muck the stalls to build one of those great companies you want to work for. Sounds like you would be better off at an established company.

Great point about start ups. Sometimes short term pain can give way to long term delights at start ups. Risk/reward

 

[Krazy4Real]

your days are numbered.

 

[sunzt]

Go freelance side work