I’ll Quit…Tomorrow
This is All I Know
I Can’t Take a Pay Cut
I’m Lucky to Have a Job
But I Don’t Have a Degree
Where Else Will I Get Stock Options?
Who Will Hire Me At This Age?
I Don’t Have Enough Experience To Leave
Just yesterday, I was telling my son about my days in Corporate America. I explained the differences in our generations (80s for me woop woop!), how we were raised to get a good job (go to college if you must) with good benefits, including a pension and retire by 65. For the millennials today, building up seniority on a job has been replaced by downsizing , mergers, lay-offs or ____ just fill in the blank. Pensions have been replaced by stock options (maybe) and retirement is around 70 or 75 (maybe).
So, the conversation moved on to how I never ever thought I would become an author or a business owner. All I ever wanted was to get married, have a family and get a good job. Oh, I had other aspirations like singing and acting which I also pursued, but family came first… and I needed that good job because that singing and acting was taking too long to pay the bills. I mean after all, with that good job you eat on a regular basis, buy a house, brand new car and so on. Once I had the hubby and kids, next I set out for that good job. Like many of my friends, I did go to college first, in fact that led to my first good job, but that’s another story for another blog, book or… something.
In 1993 I had my heart set on one of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the country (actually the world) and I made it in! As a Customer Service Representative. I was making $11 an hour which was good money at the time and once I learned how to use a computer and a mouse (I didn’t even know what a mouse was when I started!), I was set!
My job was scheduling reservations. For three years I thought of nothing else. The job was fairly easy, I was being paid well, my income combined with my husband’s at the time made for a decent living and what more could I want? In 16 more years I could retire! That’s all I cared about and complacency didn’t matter.
Until one day, a colleague of mine made a joke saying that I would be 80 years old still in the same position, same department, and saying the same greeting to our customers when I answer the phone. She actually did a little role-playing mimicking me. It was light-hearted fun for her and I laughed along light-heartedly.
Then one day I got mad about something at work…what was that? Oh! We couldn’t get a pay grade increase. Remember that $11 I mentioned? Well, according to the market at the time we should have been paid $2.00 more per hour! We formed a committee, went to Human Resources, and fought hard, but still we didn’t get it. We did succeed the second time around though. By this time I didn’t care because that comment my colleague made about my not progressing in life was weighing heavily on my mind. By the way, she was back in college moving on with her life. She eventually found another job.
By the fourth year, I couldn’t stand my position anymore, the department I was in, the people I worked with, the customers… I was miserable! I tried to get a promotion within the department, but that failed. I kept getting good raises and outstanding performance reviews though. I started to realize that I was so good at my job that management had no intentions of ever letting me move up. I thought about going back to school, in fact I tried, but with two kids and a husband I couldn’t seem to focus. I just couldn’t figure it out. I was stuck in a rut.
So I posted out. People ask how I got into IT, well that’s how. I finally figured things out, decided I wanted more for my career, and the IT field is ever-changing. I went to the department I was interested in, asked the manager how to qualify and apply. I shadowed for a while, enrolled in some classes and in no time was promoted to this new department! From there I kept moving up and eventually became a Senior Network Operations Specialist. So, the young lady who didn’t even know how to use a mouse rose through the ranks and changed her career.
If you’re stuck in a rut don’t lose hope! If you think oh, I don’t have enough education, I’m too old, or any of the excuses shown in my little image (see the picture above), that is all they are, excuses! You can do anything you put your mind to. If you can’t move up within your company then apply somewhere else. If you need to go back to school and you’re worried about the expenses find a company to work for that will pay some tuition costs or reimburse you. Seek out the available grants and scholarships. There are a lot of opportunities out there for those who want to go back to school.
Just remember, first you have to change your mindset, then have a goal and plan how you will achieve that goal. And this is how you get unstuck and out of a rut.
Have you experienced this before? Do share! And as always…
Good luck with your career search!
Wendy D. Steele