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I sit confused, in a corner, and with no one to blame but myself (for the second time this year). I took what I thought was my dream job right out of college and was there for a tedious, long, tumultuous two years. It got to the point where my boss and I didn’t get along on a professional level and I felt it was time for me to leave. The only problem is I had 0 job prospects and the year had just turned so we were very busy.
Well, I abruptly left that job in February and my first thought was to apply to grad school seeing as though I had no outstanding professional applications out there. Naturally, I threw my hat in the ring for a couple of New York programs.
Great, right…? Wrong, I still had not a single job prospect, phone calls set up or any applications out. So, the next few weeks were miserable. Editing my resume, sending applications and e-mails, phone interviews, the whole nine. It sucked and I wouldn’t wish a new job search on my worst enemy. Luckily, my applications came to fruition in a timely manner. The only problem was that I had pending grad school applications and ultimately decided to leave that fact out of the equation during my interviews. A necessary evil and not the best look if I did get in for the fall.
Fast forward to March and I am starting my new job, nothing thrilling but pays the bills and a good gap for when I hear back from grad school in late summer. BUT WAIT, my top choice literally got back to me the day after my start date saying I have been accepted into the Fall 2018 class. Great problem to have, but how the FUCK am I supposed to tell my new company that I am leaving in the fall?
Answer, I didn’t. But now I have to tell them tomorrow given the massively sticky situation with the team on which I currently work. The team is currently five people… Two of the people, besides myself, have announced they will be leaving the team within the last two weeks. I will be the third (and final?) person tomorrow. What great luck! So now I sit here, essentially forced to tell them earlier than I anticipated at the worst possible, shitstorm of a time. God, this is gonna be ugly.
I share this story to give you a few of my takeaways for the first few years of employment out of school.
First, sometimes you have to eat shit for a while. Now, I will say this is applicable when you have an end goal in mind- mine being grad school. Ultimately, I should have stayed at my first job until around now and left for school. But I made an immature, stupid decision and had to deal with being unemployed and uncomfortable instead of at a much better paying job that I didn’t like for only a few more months.
Second, don’t make rash, immature decisions just because you don’t like the current situation. As chronicled many times before, quitting and having nothing to do SUUUUUUCKS. I went through that limbo phase where I didn’t have income and was shitting myself every day- not a good feeling. I should have taken a step back and just dealt with it instead of being a baby and just up and quitting.
Third, for the love of god have at least SOMETHING lined up when you are looking to leave your first job. No one will fault you for doing what’s best for you, but up and leaving with nothing solid is so, so, so stupid. You feel terrible about yourself and every day is a constant panic to get at least some sort of line out to every single company.
Finally, be ready to be entry level allllll over again. This part was the hardest for me, as I had established client connections and relationships, work relationships, a routine and was very familiar with my old job. When you leave your first entry level job, unless its in the same exact position at another place you will be at the bottom of the totem pole again. This is pretty obvious but something that one may find difficulty dealing with given the former groove that was so familiar.
All I have to say is please don’t make the same mistakes I did. I simply got lucky with the end result of the situation. But the road here has been uncomfortable, uncertain and a lot to handle. Avoid this at all costs, take a step back and realize this is just the beginning of a long road ahead. Make it easy on yourself..
Respond
Unpopular opinion: Work hard, even if you aren’t in your dream job. I was in a position that I hated and was miserable everyday. Once I got over myself, I realized that my unhappiness did not relieve me of my responsibilities. I started working harder and everything changed. I started making more money, I enjoyed my days more, I felt a sense of accomplishment, and most importantly, my customers noticed and one of them offered me a job. I now have a new role, better career path, higher salary, and more responsibility.
TLDR – work hard and good things will come to you.
P.S. Network, all the time.
You can fulfill your obligations to current employer while still working hard at finding a new employer.
This is gold. We all have responsibilities. Most of them suck. But they don’t just go away because you want them to.
Work hard at automating as much of your job as possible. That’s the new American Dream, folks because the other one got tied up and thrown off a boat in the remote part of the ocean to drown lol
…you talking about the “American Dream” the baby boomers killed or Osama bin Laden?
nvm Osama bin Laden was already dead when they threw him off the boat HA suck it terrorists
The American Dream was basically Osama Bin Laden because he symbolically showed that while starting from nothing, with the government’s help, along with other external forces that shall not be named, you can change the world
Should be the top comment IMHO
First that Getting Back in the Game piece. Then a piece on the saddest Pixar moments. And now this. Jesus, PGP, are you trying to kill us today?
At least long islands are still a buck at Applebee’s. its Applebee’s, I get it but its just $1. Drown the feels out, my scientific friend.
Wait, seriously? My mom gave me like $100 worth of Applebee’s gift cards that have just been rotting in my junk drawer.
Yep. Till the end of the month. They’ve been doing $1 drink specials for a while now. It rotates from Margs to Bahama Mamas to Long Islands (as far as I can remember)
Will be making a trip to Applebee’s tonight
Applebee’s also has XL long islands for $2.50. Definitely the move
Side note – considering quitting my job and doing a programming boot camp. I have enough saved to go some time without an income source (goodbye down payment fund), but still scared shitless of gong 6-9 months without an income source.
Why not do the programming boot camp and then start programming as a side hustle? Keep the income source you have now, add another cash stream and don’t kill your down payment fund when you don’t need to. That way, when you’re ready to have the programming gig take off as your main source of income, you can comfortably do so and still have your fund to buy whatever big ticket item you’re saving up for (I assume its a house owning equity>renting in the long run).
The boot camp requires 3+ months of 70+ hour weeks so unfortunately I have to quit my job if I go that route.
Ah. Well then that changes everything. Godspeed science man!
I wouldn’t bother doing a bootcamp. You can learn programming on your own there are tons of sites with free learning paths. Also contribute to open source projects, do hackerrank, get certifications etc. If you have a solid resume detailing side projects you’ve worked on and certifications you’ve gotten, you’ll have a better chance of getting an interview. Then it just comes down to do you know your stuff. Cracking the Coding Interview is a good book for intro level programming job interview questions as well
I’ve heard those don’t do much to help with the job search after you’re done. However, you could try and find one that takes a percentage of your initial salary instead of a flat rate
My roommate just did that and instantly got a job making some pretty good money with 0 experience other than the boot camp, and he also does some freelance developing on the side. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about giving up the sales life and doing that myself.
Do you have any prior programming experience? Maybe before jumping into a boot camp that requires quitting your job, try an MIT Open Courseware course or similar to see if you can get a feel for it or simply to see if you enjoy it before jumping into the deep end.
I’m planning on doing self study for through July and then doing a 5 week prep course for the boot camp that’s on weekday evenings and weekends. Then assuming that all goes well, I’d quit my job and start the 12 week full time boot camp course.
Congratulations on your newly acquired mountain of debt (aka, grad school).
This should be re-titled “Why Bachelor Degrees are Worthless in 2018”
Why don’t you just give the standard 2 week notice? My sister told her company 3 months before she went to grad school. Luckily, her boss was very understanding but a BIG mistake IMO
Yea this confused me. Just tell them halfway through July. If you only started a few months ago and you tell them you’re leaving in a month and a half they’re honestly probably going to just fire you instead of waste money and time on you
Agreed! I don’t understand why people give more notice than they need to. Even if you don’t get fired, you’re boss no longer sees you as part of the company’s future. Best case, you lose out on the good projects. Worst case, if they have to make cuts you’re at the top of the list. Besides, the OP owes this company nothing. They won’t think twice about firing him if they need to, so why can’t he do a good job there and quit once he’s ready
Well shoot I know that I’m going to be leaving in early August and was planning on giving 4 weeks notice so that they could replace me since I work for a small business. Now I’m rethinking this.
I’d say the protocol may be different for a small business. My comment applies specifically to people who want to do right by a larger corporation without realizing that company doesn’t really give a shit about them, especially if they just started.
They can probably replace you in two. If you want to help though, just start documenting things without telling them so everything’s ready when you want to put in your 2 weeks
Someone else put in their two weeks and his last day was the 8th. They’re just interviewing people this week. Hiring is not a strength for them.
That’s their problem, not yours. You have to remember that if they have a business reason to do so, they won’t think twice about laying you off (and possibly without severance). You’re probably not the first person to leave, they survived before you and can survive afterward
I don’t really understand the idea of quitting without future job prospects. Don’t you have bills to pay? And personally I’ve been looking pretty seriously into grad school but probably gonna go part time. I’m not really in a position where I can quit my job and I physically can’t work and be in school part time. I’m not saying stay at a job you hate forever, but sometimes you have to suck it up for a little while you make your moves for the future.
I can’t work full time and be in school full time*
Are you going to become a Nurse Practitioner?! Such a worthwhile career move!… unless you’re not actually a nurse now
Yes! Hoping to get in for next fall. It’s gonna be a long road but I think worth it.
I did part time grad school while I worked for the university I was attending. Highly recommend something like this but it takes very good time management
If staying in your job can actively harm your future job prospects (e.g. some form of embezzlement or unethical practices that could taint your reputation), you should 100% leave even if you don’t have a job. Generally you should always try to have a job lined up before quitting, but sometimes it’s necessary.
Probably safe to say no one is involved in fucking embezzlement at their entry level jobs
Well, I mean, I did have a plan that could have been put into place if I hit rock bottom.
I mean yeah there are always extreme circumstances. But as a general rule, you should think ahead.
This makes me feel no better about leaving my crappy job and moving across the country (with no job) in a few weeks. Anxiety spiking.
That’s something I want to do next year also, and saving up to do so. I think for moving it’s a bit different, because getting your foot in the door as an out of state candidate’s a pain in the ass. But sign up with the temp agency when you move to the new city, it’ll get some cash flowing and give you something to do
Do not quit without at least some job prospects lined up.
I have some family and friends where I’m looking to go, and would ideally do an interview vacation before taking the leap. I’ve been spending plenty of time trying to make contacts in the area too
Put one of your family or friends’ addresses on your resume and explain, in your cover letter, that you’ll pay your own way to get there for an interview. Out of state candidates are often overlooked mainly because companies assume the candidate expects a free flight and hotel for an interview.
I’m already using my cousin’s address. It’s helped a little bit but not much
That’s my plan. I luckily have a place to live and some feelers out. Moving to an area with a tough job market though so we will see, it’s definitely a new challenge which is nice though.
Quit my job and moved across the country with nothing lined up except for a part time consulting gig. The 5 months I was “unemployed” were some of the hardest of my life even though I was making enough to cover my bills as a consultant. I highly recommending have some type of structure in place before you make the leap.
Pretty sure most places let you defer for a year
We really need someone to come thru with some amazingly uplifting content right now. Or I’m gonna need Tiger to shoot 6 under on the front nine.
I recently quit my job in April with zero prospects. One of the best decisions I’ve made post grad. While working at my previous role, I felt I didn’t have the energy or positive attitude required to apply for new jobs. Leaving allowed me to clear my head and give it 100% and everything ended up working out. Sometimes things get so bad, you need to take a step back and decompress before you can move forward.
^This. I’ve changed jobs twice, both times with nothing lined up, and it gave me the freedom to really think about what I wanted in my next move. Sure, there’s some anxiety but you also have confidence in knowing that someone, somewhere is going to hire you, and you will have an income again.