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Career: grind it out or jump jobs?

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  • breakingcontact

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    In K-12 education, which was my previous "industry" you were locked into one job pretty well for the long haul. If teachers did switch jobs it was usually only once or twice and to get into a better district to ride it out until retirement. There was some room to move up into administration but not much and that path was rife with stress and far less secure than teaching.

    Now im in an industry where it seems like people switch jobs every 2-3 years.

    What have you done? What do you think is preferable and why?
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    Vaquero

    Moving stuff to the gas prices thread.....
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    Ya gotta like what you do.
    I prefer specializing but a step across lines is invigorating.
     

    dustycorgill

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    I have been at my job for 12 years now, and the previous one for 7. I have had offers to go elsewhere, but the company I am with truly cares about and takes care of their employees. Depends on a lot of factors, but in my situation it would take something huge to make me even consider it.
     

    ZX9RCAM

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    Typically, a change in jobs comes with a bump in pay....



    At least till you get to the point, that you like where you are enough that it would REALLY take a big bump to move.
     
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    I would say be somewhere that you like and what makes you happy. Also look at what will be best for you and your family. If I was truly happy where I was I wouldn't jump jobs unless it was something better but I'd also have to like that job as well.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
     

    breakingcontact

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    Jobs like being a trades worker at a university seem to offer the stability and benefits that keep people 30 years but youre not really going to advance your career, yourself or your income that much.

    I suppose it matters what type of person you are and what you want out of your work. Want a job or a career?
     

    ROGER4314

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    My unabridged resume is many (6-7) pages long as my average tenure on a job is 2-5 years. That may set some kind of record on quitting jobs because I moved around a lot and never had trouble getting jobs in my field. It's easy to hook up on jobs if you have training in many fields. Every time, the jobs went "poof", I got some additional training! It works!

    Watch what they do when an employee gives notice that they are moving on or if they are laid off. If the company acts properly, I'll give notice when I leave. If they jack the employee around, cheat or disrespect them........I tell them to shove it and walk when I go.

    The longest I've ever stayed was the teaching job in Texas. The first six years were wonderful and I loved every minute of it. Then the good bosses retired and my job turned to pure sxit. I should have bailed then....but I stayed. It was a HUGE error!

    Today, I heard from a recent retiree teacher from the same school. They packed her classes with every criminal and behavior problem in the school. That's exactly what they did to me.I told them "I don't know where I'm going to work this year ....but it's not going to be HERE!" I was unemployed for 1 hour and 45 minutes, hooked up on the next job in the prison system and away I went!

    Following that prison job, I returned to industry for 5 years and worked 2 jobs in that time.

    In that entire period, I changed careers 6-7 times. That's how it is today. The only security you have is in your skill and ability.

    I trained Instrumentation Techs at a local college. Those guys make $35/hour and are highly mobile. A friend told me that at his company, he came to work and the entire second shift "Drug up", walked out and went to a new job for better pay! It happens all the time!

    Flash
     
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    karlac

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    The only security you have is in your skill and ability.

    ^
    This.

    What you will regret, when you get old enough to realize that you statistically don't have all that much time left, is not having done what you really wanted to do. Forty one years of satisfying self-employment, with no need, or desire, to "retire".
     
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    breakingcontact

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    ^
    This.

    What you will regret, when you get old enough to realize that you statistically don't have all that much time left, is not having done what you really wanted to do.

    Thats what i was afraid of. I was a tenured teacher in Illinois. I felt so stuck and trapped. Bailed on that moved down here with no job and found a better job in a month. But now of course i miss the stability (but not IL, havent been back since i left). Before anyone thinks im one of those turning Texas blue, couldnt be farther from the truth. I actively campaign for and donate to Republicans and want to shake Ted Cruzs hand.

    I like what im doing now. Just trying to figure out whats next.
     

    deemus

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    The days of a person staying at a company for 20 yrs then retiring is pretty much over. IMO, if it become a true "grind" then its time to go. I've only had to do that a couple times. But was glad both times, and it made me more $ when I left.

    As long as the pay is good, then be where you are happy. At least that is what I have done. Its pretty hard to replace working at a place you love to show up at. After 36 yrs of working, its what I tell my kids. Its great to make the big bucks, but it always comes with some sort of stress that you may not want to stay in for a long period of time. If you are up to it, take the big bucks, and milk it for all you can. But don't be afraid to walk away when you have reached your limit. And while you are there, sock it away.
     

    shortround

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    Uncle Sam kept me gainfully (if painfully) employed for a long time. Pack up and move every two to three years. Long Tours and Short Tours. Attend schooling when they tell you, then get back to your trade. New job/assignment/extra duty at every duty station. Never a dull moment. If you've been in one assignment or duty station too long, the "flesh peddlers" will accuse you of "homesteading and going native."

    Did six years in Germany, learned the language to fluency, did seven different jobs with distinct skill sets. Enjoyed every minute freezing my Azz off in the winters on the Czech border. Marlboro Lights only cost $2.99 a carton at the Grafenwoehr Commissary -- no tax.

    Amazingly, the basic education and continuing education gave us the tools to move from job to job with little or no discomfort.

    The very real possibility of being fired for screwing the same thing up more than two times did keep us on our toes!
     

    karlac

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    Did six years in Germany, learned the language to fluency, did seven different jobs with distinct skill sets. Enjoyed every minute freezing my Azz off in the winters on the Czech border. Marlboro Lights only cost $2.99 a carton at the Grafenwoehr Commissary -- no tax.

    Did a couple of years in Hohenfels, not that far South of Grafenwoehr, where our Battalion HQ was ... 42 years ago, when a carton of Marlboros was $1.90.
     

    Texasjack

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    It's pretty rare to find those 40-year jobs anymore. Things change too quickly and companies have absolutely no loyalty to their employees at all. (MBA schools teach management folks that people are assets, just like light bulbs. Screw one out, screw a new one in.)

    The reality is that you work for yourself - even when you are working for some corporation. If you are not a professional, if you don't work to stay on top of the latest stuff in your profession, if you don't continue learning new things, and if you don't keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities, then sooner or later you will be run over by the system.

    Find what you like to do, learn it and do it well. Be honest and be the guy that can be counted on to show up and give an honest day's work. People like that rarely find themselves unemployed for any length of time.
     

    benenglish

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    My unabridged resume is many (6-7) pages long as my average tenure on a job is 2-5 years. That may set some kind of record on quitting jobs ...
    Back in the day that might have been a record. These days, I see young kids simply assuming they'll be gone from every job in 3 years. At my last job, I saw newly-hired young kids quitting for something better at the drop of a hat, sometimes with as little as a couple of weeks on their current job.

    I'm retired but at my former employer we had one job title that was still structured around the assumption that you were going to work it for decades and then retire. Because of that assumption, the job started very slow with lots of training before anyone was expected to actually produce work output. Unfortunately, kids don't think that way these days. I talked to one newly-hired kid who said "There's a one-week orientation, six weeks of training, and four weeks until the first review that could result in me losing my job. I'm not going to do a lick of work; I'm just going to pick up a paycheck for 3 months then quit and find something better. You guys are saps for offering a free paycheck for three months."

    I thought he was an anomaly yet, in my last 5 years at my employer, I saw over 100 newly-hired personnel in that job title do exactly what he described to one degree or another. Some quit after 7 weeks so they wouldn't have to so much as move into their permanent desk. Some stuck it out for as much as 6 months doing almost nothing but networking via their smartphones looking for other work, then quitting as soon as they were notified that they were going to be fired. All of them viewed the job as a completely disposable way station enroute to something better.

    Showing loyalty to someone for hiring you? Even just working to earn your paycheck? These are alien concepts to many college grads these days.

    Back in the day quitting every job in under 5 years might have been unusual. Today, I think it's the new normal.
     

    ROGER4314

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    Early in my career, it was the custom for a guy to work many years for a company in order to vest the company retirement. It wasn't all great as I knew two men who were sacked within weeks of completing requirements for their retirements. One was immediately rehired on contract which didn't contribute to the lost retirement.

    Later, the companies began to merge, be sold off or even closed up and in almost every case, the employee retirement plans tanked. Hearts were broken and lives ruined out of nothing more than greed. One of the two companies that I worked for before retirement, screwed the workers out of their bonus and incentive money...........all of it. Right after that, the company was sold. Imagine that!

    Then came the 401K. Now companies could forgo retirement plans and substitute 401K's for their workers!

    The reason 401ks were sold to our workforce is that folks began to change jobs more often so why not have a retirement plan that traveled WITH you? Their standard sales job went like this........Get $400K saved up, then when you retire, withdraw only the interest at 7% and that would bring in $28K per year of income.

    The hitch was that your money was locked in the plan until age 65 or a substantial penalty was assessed. What a boon that was for the inside traders! If you imagine a bowl filled with liquid money, The insiders would play the short term ripples in the bowl caring little that the long term investors were getting a blood bath. Their long term plans became a two steps forward and one step back give and take fiasco. Workers supplied the liquid funds and inside traders like our members of Congress kicked butt in the short term investments.

    Of course, we know now that any hope of making 7% on any investment other than selling drugs for Mexican Drug Lords is gone. Money market accounts are raking in .1 to .5% (1/2 of 1%) but the cash is still locked up. Some of the better plans are rolling in 3% returns!

    Add to that the knowledge that a seemingly small 2% management fee amortized to over 20% of total gains over the life of the 401K, we are sacked, screwed blue and wiped out!

    So.........why is the workforce temporary, mobile and having NO incentive to stay on one particular job? The financial aspect is a huge part of it! If another company offers a $1/hour raise.............grab it. There is no logical or financial reason to stay!

    Flash
     
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    TheDan

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    My rule of thumb has always been that unless I'm getting promoted or making lateral moves to other positions every 2-3 years, then I'm leaving. I just don't see how anyone can stay on the same job for a decade or more. Guess it all depends on the person. I was at the last company I worked for 7 years. That's a pretty long run for me.
     

    mitchntx

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    My rule of thumb has always been that unless I'm getting promoted or making lateral moves to other positions every 2-3 years, then I'm leaving. I just don't see how anyone can stay on the same job for a decade or more. Guess it all depends on the person. I was at the last company I worked for 7 years. That's a pretty long run for me.

    I will be with the same company for 32 years in March doing basically the same job. It's something I have a passion for. For me, technology has kept it real and changing, not the logo on the paycheck or the location of my office.

    I've gone from Tri-X and an IBM typesetter and a LeeRoy lettering set using a drafting square to layout wax backed artwork to Adobe Creative Suite 6 and a D800 and each way accomplishing about the same end result.

    I've seen a lot of folks have come and gone over the years, each seeking something "different". I've learned a lot from them and hope they've taken something from me.

    I've been blessed and have weathered numerous storms and am thankful for the God given talent.

    But I have also witnessed co-workers move to upper management, move to new horizons and a few self destruct. I've also witnessed how cold and dark a company can treat employees.

    After 30 years, the one truth I can stand on is that each job has it's own set of rewards and demons. Usually one just trades one set for another set.
     

    breakingcontact

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    After 30 years, the one truth I can stand on is that each job has it's own set of rewards and demons. Usually one just trades one set for another set.

    I heard that a persons best job is always the last job they had and the worst is always the current job.

    I dont think all of the 30-40 year jobs are gone but i do think there are less and i think it is dangerous to not keep skills current in case you need to switch jobs.
     

    Younggun

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    I've asked my self the same question in the OP.

    I had high hopes of moving in to a job and climbing up to the top but I've realized that most companies aren't moving employees up these days as much as hiring from outside.

    I'm in the grind right now. Losing hope in the idea of hanging in and moving up, and questioning if I really want to spend my years with a company that has no loyalty to its employees.

    At the same time I will be 29 in a couple weeks and feel like it's late in the game to start jumping around again.

    I shoulda paid more attention in college or somethin I guess, maybe gone to a trade school.
     
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