I Had A Steady Job And I Regret It.

Perhaps this is true for me, now 66 it is becoming harder to find a job in the USA, my contracting over seas for the DoD can't last and I want to work longer.

HR at my government agency is feckless. Sure, they smile and make nice but the employees come second.

This is about where i am right now. I have the reputation of being the workaholic, "jack of all trades", etc.

2021 I was promoted, but i kept a lot of what i was already doing and have been in the same spot.

Ive used the justifications of "its a steady job" etc as to why I've stayed on for so long.

And I'm really just at this crossroads of sorts.

A video I wish was around 15 year ago.
Better late than never.

I want to thousand times like this video it’s so relatable ❤

My dad(old school businessman) burned into my brain that changing jobs will give you th reputation of a “job hopper” and working less than 10 years will give you that bad reputation. The only reason I did change jobs was I either quit that job or end up in the county lockup!

I was at a fast food job for over a decade; I was working steadily, and kept my job due to pressures from family life, among other things. I, too, became complacent, just waiting to be promoted to management . . . "someday".
It took a final "ghosting" from management to wake me up. (I was supposed to be sent for management training, and all of a sudden communication on that stopped). I also was watching others being promoted to management who weren't there as long as I had been (I knew that place like the back of my hand). These broke me of turning a blind eye to things, and I left. Your videos have helped me to see the moves I can make, now. I have since found new jobs, and better ones. Thank you so much for sharing your personal journey with us. "I'm not the only one in this situation." :)

This reminds me a lot of what I'm going through now. It's interesting to hear something similar from another persons perspective though.

Def gets harder as you approach your 50’s. On one hand, you might be thinking about skills development and climbing - on the other hand - you may be thinking about optimizing income which can be at odds with former. For example, you can be very well paid in mid level roles in large companies, but have the chance for more “career” advancement in smaller companies that pay less. Curious what people’s thoughts are?

Thank you for posting this. I have been kicking myself for believing the lip service from management on job expansion, which had led me to burnout and depression. Although I don’t like to feel others have had the similar experiences, it does help me to forgive myself for being only human.

Tale as old as time! For fellow creative professionals out there, also be wary of jobs making your portfolio go stale. I was hired at a place that claimed they wanted me to evolve and enhance their brand voice, but it immediately became clear that wasn’t the case—they were firmly set in their ways. Then a year later, I was unceremoniously laid off. But although I’m still in the hellish “how pay bills now??” phase, I’m so grateful they did it. I stayed because the pay was great and it was fully remote, but I have no work I’m proud of to show for it. Check in with yourself often, it’s so easy to become complacent.

I stayed in my previous job to get vested in my renewals at my company. I am an insurance broker. I never got promoted, after 10 years. After I vested I left, I am now the regional director for the brokerage I am with. Leaving was a smart move.

Wow!!! I went through a very similar thing,

Been in my current role for 8 years. Worked so hard…not valued. I am mi-career and also mid life. It’s terrifying and frustrating. I need to promote. I appreciate your videos.

What are your tips for military? Steady "safe" paycheck but they really don't pay much compared to civilians and Most officers might retire as Major (O-4)s or at least Captain (O-3). Usually you need to stay longer than 20 years to make O-5 or O-6. For a Colonel you're looking at around 30 years on average, and that's regardless of being prior enlisted or just purely officer these days. They got rid of the old pension too. 😅

ALAL - I’ve watched a lot of your videos and have learned / realized a great deal about career development and management. This video is by far the one that resonates most with me. I did not manage my career very well early and as a result had to play catch up in my early 30s. By my mid 40s I was where I wanted to be career / work / pay-wise but that turned out to be bad for my marriage, family and personal health. I transitioned to a position that was actually a step down but it’s much less stress, the pay is good, and the company supports and develop employees in a way no other employer I’ve had has. I find measuring myself against friends and peers is not always a good way to determine your success or where you should be though.
Great video and thank you for sharing something this personal and intimate. You’ve been an inspiration.

I spent 6 years in a job doing my job but also as a manager assistant. When the actual manager left, he recommended me to take over the job. Big boss gave me a crap offer which was like $4 more of what I was making which still less than 55k a year. I did a counter offer for 10% more and they refused to do any negotiations and shut me off. I took over the role until they could find someone else for a couple months and they couldn't find anyone. So they an employee from the inside was interested in the job and I trained her for 2 months because she had zero experience only to find out that the job offer they gave her was the same they denied me. Now I'm going like you said in auto pilot doing the bare minimum. Thank God I found a new job I start next week and that job is gonna look amazing in my resume also not giving a notice before leaving. I can be very cruel as well and decide what my employer deserves from me and in this case, not even a 2 week notice.

Just wanted to say that I think it was really brave of you to put out this video, and share this difficult experience to help teach others. Overall, you seem to have bounced back from that situation with real tenacity - and I hope you've been able to heal from the pain it caused you, too. Great video as always.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm in a very niche market and almost 10 years with my current company (yes, I know). I only realized in the past year how far behind I am, compared to the rest of the industry, in skills and pay and motivation, and everything else you have mentioned. By my conservative estimate, my lost income is nearing 200k. Still struggling to retrain myself so I can leave my job without applying first to a more junior level position or getting a paycut first with the hopes of getting promoted

I have a co-worker working for 21 years in the company that I'm for 3 months😂. She is completely different, she is always by our side, has no problem to pass information, extremely polite with new employees, I'm saying that because once I had a co-worker that it seemed to be afraid of losing his job for the new ones.

Worked at a small cpa firm for almost 7 years right out of college. Good experience but I should have left after 2 years. They never promoted me and basically lied and said they'd promote me to "senior" if I passed the cpa. They never did. My raises there were only a measly 3-5% and my starting salary was only about 37k. I took credits and studied for my cpa a few years after I got the job. Once I finally passed the cpa, covid-19 hit and I struggled finding any jobs in 2020. 2021 I got a really low ball offer from one place. Then I decided to try looking into remote jobs and got a job at a bigger cpa firm that paid over 30k more than my last job. Just got a 8000k bonus last month. Really like my current work environment.

I have been with the same company for 12 years and I can tell you that no one is safe. That is why ive decided to return to school to create more options for myself.

It's easy to become a quiet quitter, and just do enough to get by. But then you become unmarketable. If you don't sacrifice for what you want, then what you want becomes the sacrifice. I know because I've lived far too long with this negative mentality.

It's easy to become a quiet quitter, and just do enough to get by. But then you become on marketable. If you sacrifice for what you want

Thanks for this video and for telling your story. I feel motivated by what you said, though luckily I have never been in a situation like this. I definitely feel even more motivated not to do this, the allure of stability and a steady pay-check is tempting but if you don't change you'll never grow.
I am in a similar mindset with my career but I am looking to switch careers and maybe looking for some guidance in doing that.

i am being forced to wokr in an org that is way out of date, have quit a million times as it is a waste of tiem

Over my 20 year career, I’ve made 3 major mistakes that hurt me in terms of position and income.

One of them is staying at a previous employer/role for too long (7 years).

Today, I’m a Director making $300k/yr. But, I lost a lot of ground screwing around at that company.

If I could talk to my younger self, I’d tell him after 3 years, if you haven’t moved up, get out. No exceptions.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I actually was in the same situation. In my case, however, when they announced the new person for the position, they casually told me the reason for me not being considered was because I am a foreigner.

I wasted 10 years.

I should have stayed in my steady job and I would not be without a job right now. Sometimes making a change is not a good idea.

They never want to promote you from something your good at. They are making money that way. It's hard to replace you at that. They have a unemployed cokehead son-in law they can hire over you and you will keep them making money while the in-law gets the credit.

Jobs that don't pay enough to replace the car you wear out going back and forth to work. Work for 5 years and worse off than when you started...

I wish I heard this in my early 20s and think I would have changed my career choices.

So true.....I have been on my current job for about 4 years now. Six months into it I could tell it was not one of growth; I have a bad manager who likes to control things. I'm in software testing and immediately saw the need to introduce automation to our processes. I wrote code to automate our testing for our website/webapp in TWO different framewors; one was a new one, and the other was a slightly older one (but still relatively new). I did them as proof of concepts so they never got folded into our framework. My boss decided to hire a NEW PERSON to do the automation and didn't ever really give my code or the reporting I had sent him around it. I tried to hang on because it was a simple job that pays well, has great benefits, great flexibility, etc...but I am giving my notice this week-I know my skillset and drive will be valuable to someone else. I had realized this a year ago but like you said, I had settled into complacency and all that did was make me more irritated at the end of the day LOL

Boy, I felt like I was listening to myself. Another major drawback of waiting too long is finding "major" accomplishments, when finally attempting a move. You frankly didn't have the opportunity to make any, even though you try to get involved in such projects.

I left my stable government job due to stress and in a way wish that I had it as no layoffs like private tech sector.

Thank you for the video. I left my local government job recently. While their I went back and got a MBA/ two certs. I tried to move up and was passed up for a promotion. Left at my third year. You confirmed for me that I did the right thing.

I can relate to your point. I join the military thinking that it was a stable job, I was so wrong for believing. I was complacent and didn’t think of what I really want to do or where I want to bring my skills. Lay offs are those unexpected things that can happen, it is sad that some people have to go through a lay off just to regret not being a CEO of their career.

I had the same problem except worse - I stayed for 16 years. But they strung us along for 6 years with some faux succession planning moves. It really hurt my career development. I don't know if I can ever recover from that.

🧡 the real life experience story share‼️💁🏼‍♀️

I just took a job making half as much as my prior job, but I'm also working half of the hours. It's actually better.

We treat you like family. 🙄

This REALLY spoke to me. THANK YOU!

This is where I am standing now and being not ready for the role is exact words used for me..I m glad I am looking for job sooner. I m just one year old in this crappy organisation and your video is validating my thoughts of falling behind in job market.. thank you for sharing your experience

At the end of the day, you're only competing with yourself.

What a good topic - i think it's the biggest mistake I've made - although I'm decently successful - staying too long in 2 jobs I've had probalby kept me from achieving more...

hindsight....hopefully others learn from our mistakes

Can I have a 1:1 with you? I need some guidance to enter into Life & Career Coaching industry.