Monday, September 13, 2021

Let's Catch Up: What's Up With My Job

And we're back!

We have so much to catch up on: food, running, movies, books, vacation, working with a dietitian...I have a ton of stuff to unpack on the blog.  I guess I'll start with the biggest news item: for the next two weeks I am FUNemployed!  I'm starting a new job at the end of this month.  Yes another one.  I've been quite the job hopper this summer.

I was so desperate to get out of my awful job that I didn't ask enough questions about the new job.  The TL&DR version of this post is that I made a mistake and I fixed it.

As a reminder, the new (now old) gig was at a startup with many people that I'd worked with before and trusted.  There were a few questions that I didn't ask beforehand like "hey, it's great that you said the benefits are awesome, can you give me the plan information?" and "by any chance does this job require working until midnight a few nights a month?"  I found out about both of these deal breakers on the first day.

If I had gone to work at a company with people I didn't know, of course I wouldn't have accepted the offer without knowing what the health care premium costs were, and of course we would have looked at my husband's benefits beforehand and known that they were even worse.  You know it's bad when COBRA from my previous job was the cheapest option for us.

Confronted with two deal breakers on the first day, I started my job search on my 2nd day.  Seven weeks later I got another job offer (with benefits presented with the offer letter) and let my peeps know that I appreciated them bringing me in to the business but the health care costs were really going to cut into our college savings fund and working until midnight, even if it was only a few days a month, is kinda extreme.  My coworkers didn't seem at all surprised when I quit and everyone was very nice.

P.S. there was something way worse than the benefits and the hours...the job was so boring.  On the one hand I'm not at my best sitting around the house doing nothing and it's always nice to have a paycheck, but there were many times when I nearly quit without having something else lined up out of sheer frustration with the monotony.

For this job search, I didn't put the oopsie job on my resume or on LinkedIn.  I just showed my end date from my long time job of July, and said that I'd left because my old job was being phased out and I chose to leave after completing a major project and that in the meantime I was doing some bookkeeping for a startup so that I could take my time with my job search.  No one batted an eye.

The new gig is pretty exciting.  Fancy job title, remote, good pay & benes, a nice mix of things that I do well and things that I want to learn.  The part that could go either way is that I'm the first and only finance person in the US - which could be very good because I like working independently, and it could be very bad because I'm the only one and the rest of my team is overseas...I'll keep you posted;-) 

Many years ago now I started a new job and by the end of the first day I knew that it wasn't going to work out.  But I'd heard all about those job hoppers and how no one wanted to hire them.  So I stuck it out and was completely miserable for six months.  Then I came to my senses, started a job search, and found a wonderful job that led to many years of work happiness.  This time when I knew it wasn't going to work out on the first day I skipped the "completely miserable for six months" part.  I don't know where the "job hopping" stigma came from, but I'm here to do my part to bust the myth.

Are you a job hopper or a "lifer"?  Did you ever stay in a bad job just so that you wouldn't look like a job hopper?



9 comments:

  1. Wow, that was an exciting read, Birchie! Well done on quitting the oopsie job asap and not putting up with MORE misery.
    I think they were expecting it, too. It's nice that they were understanding and friendly about it.

    In Switzerland, job hopping is often seen as "American". It's rare that people only stay a few weeks - they rather endure misery to make it look good on the CV. However, this is slowly changing and it's becoming increasingly acceptable that mistakes can happen. If you have a good story, you're fine.
    I like how you explained your short employment, btw. Very elegant!
    All the best with your new job - you will do GREAT as the first and only finance person in the US, I'm sure!

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    1. Thanks Catrina! I've done my share of sucking it up and staying in bad jobs, and no good ever came of it for me.

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  2. I’m glad you found a happy new place to land! It’s frustrating to not have things pan out, but you acted quickly & moved on graciously. Best of luck, and congrats!!!

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    1. Thanks Kim! I've got my fingers crossed that this is the right one.

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  3. Oooh, glad to see you're back! Interesting about your new job(s). And I'm interested in Catrina's comment that in Europe job hopping is considered "American." I think that with jobs, as with anything else, the best thing to do is fix a problem RIGHT AWAY. Which you did. And you explained it beautifully on your resume. Good luck with the new one! It sounds great.

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    1. Thanks Jenny! I've never been sure what the "not a job hopper" tenure is...I've heard 2 years, I've heard 5 years, I've heard (gulp) 10 years.

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  4. Congratulations! I’m a lifer now, but I went through a series of 6 month gigs before I found this career. I think attitudes have changed about job-hopping, especially with the pandemic.

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    1. I was at my last job for a good long while, and it was great (up until the point that corporate took over) because the company kept growing so the job was constantly changing. In other gigs once I've learned the job nothing ever changed so every day was Groundhog Day.

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  5. Oh wow, that was a twist of events. But hey, I am glad you realized right away that you made a mistake and did something about it!

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