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ORIGINAL: DeProfundis

Hello, Sketch. As a twenty-nine year old who's on that expressway to nowhere, I can empathize in many ways. Wish I had some real wisdom to offer, but this will likely come off as disjointed rambling. Furthermore, if you're passionate about your chosen profession and nothing but advancement in that field will satisfy, the dilemma is amplified and my approach will be useless.

Toward the end of my university career, I realized that I would never be devoted enough to a single discipline to find satisfaction in graduate school or a respectable career. Much to the heartbreak of family and professors who believed I was heading somewhere in life, I began farming. The parts of the job involving outdoor physical labor hold some appeal, but the work is often unstimulating and I'm not especially fulfilled by it.

Fortunately, I am a natural autodidact, consumed by curoisity about anything and everything. My job is functional; it pays the bills and funds my silly exploits. Off hours are spent reading, taking classes, pursuing hobbies and volunteer opportunities, travelling, and generally doing whatever catches my fancy at the moment. Perhaps it's an immature and selfish lifestyle, cobbled together with mismatched parts and duct tape, but it seems to work. Sort of.

Am I satisfied? Not really, but I'm not convinced anyone is. Do I feel alone and devoid of direction and purpose? All too often. Life didn't come with a guidebook, but I manage to stumble through the days and nights. Shoot, I'm even happy on occasion. But there is no magic bullet.

Reading back over this, I fear it might be an example of self delusion rather than coherent advice, and for that I apologize. I pray you find some measure of peace regardless.

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Am I satisfied? Not really, but I'm not convinced anyone is. Do I feel alone and devoid of direction and purpose? All too often. Life didn't come with a guidebook, but I manage to stumble through the days and nights. Shoot, I'm even happy on occasion. But there is no magic bullet.

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Perhaps it's an immature and selfish lifestyle, cobbled together with mismatched parts and duct tape, but it seems to work.

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hello everyone,

I have had the feeling for sometime now, that my career is going nowhere and I would be interested to know whether others have been in a similar situation and how you might resolve it.

I have a technical degree, and did well in my studies, but after 7 years of working, I haven't really learned a lot or moved on in my career. I am now 30 and I can't believe my 20s have gone by without me moving much above where I was when I left university.

I have just been stuck in a cycle of doing mundane work, and not really knowing how to break out of the pattern. I feel as if I have learnt very little since university.

Anyway i would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar issues

thanks a lot

sketch

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Anyway i would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar issues

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I feel sorry for those who have lost their job. Those who read this - I hope you will learn something. Having worked for dozens of employers, including XYZ; I learned one thing - go for the gold. After my first "layoff;" which was advertised as several hundred people - which in fact was several thousand (about 40 years ago) I learned that working for "me" and not them was going to be the game plan. Every new job, a break in looking for a new job - was a short holiday. One month to size up the job, look down the road, take what the boss was offering and start looking for another job.

Never look back, nobody's going to cry for you, but you. Believe in the motto; hope for the best - expect the worst. Working in the 21st century is a real combat experience. Make a game plan; only way to succeed. Look at each opportunity as just that an opportunity. Don't stop buying the lottery tickets......

Those who work at XYZ; did you take avantage of all that was offered or were you one who said why me, do what!, no time.... Well at least you had a very informative learning experience. Now get on with your life. Working at XYZ qualifies you for almost every job being offered. Remember, training & education is half the game. Those still employed, shop arround try indeed.com

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Look back on your life and try to find the lessons you have learned, the interesting things you have discovered, the cool stuff you've read. Make a list, or write a journal about those things. Doing so is akin to the Hebrews' putting up piles of stone to mark the spots where God did His marvelous works on their behalf and for His glory. Remember the treasures that God has brought you. He hasn't forgotten them; we humans do. (Hence His insistence that the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews celebrate festivals and perform other traditional rituals -- as visual, auditory, and experiential reminders of what He had done.) Though these things may not mound up to equal a life that the world implies (or outright states) that we must have (ie. meet certain benchmarks by certain ages/stages of life), the treasures do not lack value.

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Your writing is clear, succinct, and cogent.

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Thank you for your reply I found it interesting. The point that I take from your reply is to think about priorities. I'm guessing that for you work is just a way of earning enough to do what you really enjoy - which is great. Who says we have to get our satisfaction in life out of our jobs? For many people they feel that there real worth is in what they do in their evenings and weekends.

Another point you make is that no-one is satisfied with their jobs, and perhaps that is true. I certainly think that there is no such thing as a perfect job. There is no such thing as a perfect anything

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ORIGINAL: sketch1000

hello everyone,

I have had the feeling for sometime now, that my career is going nowhere and I would be interested to know whether others have been in a similar situation and how you might resolve it.

I have a technical degree, and did well in my studies, but after 7 years of working, I haven't really learned a lot or moved on in my career. I am now 30 and I can't believe my 20s have gone by without me moving much above where I was when I left university.

I have just been stuck in a cycle of doing mundane work, and not really knowing how to break out of the pattern. I feel as if I have learnt very little since university.

Anyway i would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar issues

thanks a lot

sketch

quote:

ORIGINAL: sketch1000

hello everyone,

I have had the feeling for sometime now, that my career is going nowhere and I would be interested to know whether others have been in a similar situation and how you might resolve it.

I have a technical degree, and did well in my studies, but after 7 years of working, I haven't really learned a lot or moved on in my career. I am now 30 and I can't believe my 20s have gone by without me moving much above where I was when I left university.

I have just been stuck in a cycle of doing mundane work, and not really knowing how to break out of the pattern. I feel as if I have learnt very little since university.

Anyway i would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar issues

thanks a lot

sketch

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ORIGINAL: DragsAndRags

I feel your pain.

I work in software engineering (glorified term for "programmer" who can also create and process large piles of paperwork). When I was first hired as an intern for my company, and even after graduating and becoming a real employee with the company, I was very excited going into work. I didn't care if I got accolades or not, I worked my best and hardest for the Lord and to bless my company. I was told I was on the "fast track" and was encouraged as a junior engineer to take initiative for leadership and mentoring. I was also encouraged to be proactive in pointing out technical problems when I saw them so they could be discussed and corrected by the team. I did all these things, thinking that was part of my job, since that was what I was encouraged to do. These things are also what they look for in promoting people.

It all backfired over the last two years. Slowly. All it takes is one or two very well connected senior people to ruin your career. I can sum it up in two words: Office politics. It's nasty. And I didn't have anyone kind enough to mentor me in it. All the things I listed above I did my best at. I wasn't always perfect in how I did it. But that's where a mentor would have helped. Instead, the senior people I looked at to be honest with me and mentor me turned around and back-stabbed me. At first it was small things. I think they were embarrassed. I was a "rising star." They were worried I was going to take their jobs someday. I didn't want their jobs. I just wanted mine. And I wanted to do well at mine.

I eventually hit a very hard problem to solve at work. I was about to leave a project and go onto a new one, because of the office politics problems I was having. The thing is, I couldn't leave overnight, I had to stay a few months and wrap up my tasks and mentor someone to hand them over to. That's when one of my supervisors on the project started sharpening her axe. She was very patient to wait for the right moment. I just didn't quite have the expertise to know how to solve the problem, and was asking for help from an expert in the area. My supervisor on the project turned around and told me not to bother the expert. So I didn't, but that didn't stop me from telling my supervisor as time went on and the problem wasn't solved that I still needed help. Just even an hour of the expert's time would have been enough. And I still didn't get it. And I started running out of ideas to try and got very discouraged and frustrated. And running out of ideas, what do you do then? Time for my mid-year performance review came, and my supervisor had given my team lead a list of 1000 things to hang me with. One of them being that I was making up excuses and didn't really need an expert's help. Where my team lead had said that it would be OK for the expert to spare an hour, suddenly he couldn't and I was being unreasonable to ask! They told me the expert I was begging to have help from couldn't really help me with the problem because he hadn't worked in the related area/project that the problem had arisen in, even though I knew he had. I was told I wasn't trying hard enough. They even reached back into the prior year where I had gotten great reviews to find dirt on me. How I had done a lousy job at this or that, for things I had been told "good job" to my face. Even if I could manage to disprove one accusation, I still had 999 to go. It was literally death by a thousand cuts. Which is exactly what my supervisor on the project had in mind. She wanted me to hang and be defenseless, and she was using this problem I had run into to grind her axe.

To save my job, I had to be incredibly humble and apologize for the 1000 charges brought against me. Then I still had to solve that problem. And oh did I pray for God to help me solve it! I was so scared! And still not getting any real help! A miracle did happen. God pointed me to the very source of the problem, something I had missed 500 times. I could have kept missing it and been stuck for months more. Want to know who created the bug? The very expert I was begging for help from. The source of the problem was such that if I had had that hour of time with him that I had wanted, he probably would have remembered what he had done. Of course as soon as my supervisor finds that out, do I get an apology? No! She says, "Let's not point fingers or try to blame anyone!" :(

Since then, I've moved on to a completely different project in the hopes of never having to work for this person or work with a few other people from there again. I feel so blessed that I wasn't fired. But I know it probably affected my promotability this year. I was told it was for different reasons, since they can only promote so many people a year and one team seemed to get favored and another shafted. But I keep thinking this whole incident really hurt me. My new team lead, who is oblivious to what happened, told me that I should do that entire list of things I mentioned at first to get promoted next year. All the things I used to do. I'm too scared to do them. I'd like to keep my job, thanks anyway. But how do I tell him that? How do I tell him I'm scared of getting squished by some senior engineer? I would hope the people I work with wouldn't do that to me. But you don't know until it's too late! It's not fair. I'd like to advance my career, too. Not for myself. I've got a sick parent to take care of. I'm just trying to take care of her and make sure we're both financially comfortable. I'm not asking to be CEO here, just asking for the means to take care of family. God knows my motives. He knows what's best for me and can make that promotion happen. I still do my best at work, but I'm scared to point out problems. If I do point them out, I have to do it in a way that I'm stupid and don't know what's going on, please help me understand, o senior engineer! I can't get away with that much longer, though. I've been in this new area for 6 months now, and you're only considered new for so long. After a while they expect you to know something. I'm coming to the verge of knowing enough to be able to point out problems, so I can't play the "I'm new" card forever.

What do I do? If my career comes to a standstill at so young, my raises will be affected. They cap you if you don't get promoted. I'd like enough of a raise to at least keep up with inflation a little! Eventually I'm going to get no raise at all if I can't get promoted.

So yeah, I know exactly what you're going through. Feeling like your at a stalemate with your career. As you watch others get promotions, especially the senior people who stepped on you. But you know what? God will vindicate us in the end. Our reward is in heaven. Think about it. This is the only reward people like that will ever have. There's no reward in heaven waiting for them. This is all they get. I guess I can't begrudge them a promotion when that's all they've got to look forward to in life. You and I have so much more. I'm not too worried. I know God has me in His hands and will take care of me. I may have to wait yet another year, or longer, for any kind of promotion. It's hard, knowing you work just as hard as anyone else, but because you're not playing cutthroat office politics games you get passed by. It's really sapped the old energy I used to have when I went into work in the morning. Seriously, I used to write white papers and submit them for research and development ideas to get funding for. I used to come up with ideas for patenting and submit them to my company's patent department. They never panned out, but I was encouraged to keep trying because I had good ideas. Now it's just another job, like flipping burgers. But I'll be the best burger flipper I can if that's what God has me doing. I may be too paralyzed to do some things that would get me squished, but I'll do what I can.

Good luck with your job. Keep your chin up. Life is short. You've got all eternity ahead of you, and God has quite a career planned out for you in eternity. He'll be the best boss you ever had. I foresee a big promotion in heaven coming your way if you persevere.

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ORIGINAL: sketch1000

hello everyone,

I have had the feeling for sometime now, that my career is going nowhere and I would be interested to know whether others have been in a similar situation and how you might resolve it.

I have a technical degree, and did well in my studies, but after 7 years of working, I haven't really learned a lot or moved on in my career. I am now 30 and I can't believe my 20s have gone by without me moving much above where I was when I left university.

I have just been stuck in a cycle of doing mundane work, and not really knowing how to break out of the pattern. I feel as if I have learnt very little since university.

Anyway i would be interested to know if anyone else has had similar issues

thanks a lot

sketch

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I was not hired because of my high blood pressure condition and my diabetes 2.