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thenewgreen  ·  4472 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Do You Know When You've Hit Bottom?

hubskyite.. I like that. I was in a job that I didn't like for about 3 years. I always knew that it was just a "stepping stone" to a career that I could actually enjoy. I had planned on doing it for 2 years and it wasn't until my 3 year anniversary with the company that I finally felt fed up.

There was one person there, the VP, that kept me motivated to not leave. He was kind to me and had acted as a mentor. Though the job itself really sucked, knowing that he had career aspirations for me within the organization made it worth while.

Then right after my 3 year anniversary he was "displaced". The guy that took his spot was a guy named Ted. Ted was a dick, the kind of guy that thinks fear is a great motivator. No matter how well you were performing at your job, you were still forced to be in the same sales meetings with Ted yelling at everyone. It sucked, I decided I had to leave. It wasn't "rock bottom" but I could see the writing on the wall, and it read: "Someday you'll be 60 years old and do you want to say you worked here your whole career"? -No thanks.

I put my resume on Linkedin per a friends suggestion about 3 months prior to this and had forgotten all about it. A week after Ted took the VP spot, my director was spending a "day in the field" with me and was sitting right next to me when I received a phone call from a sales recruiter that was calling to offer me an interview. He had found my resume on Linkedin (that site actually works). Because my director was sitting next to me I said to the recruiter, "thanks for calling, I appreciate it but I have a job and I couldn't be happier". (I nearly puked in my mouth).

After dropping my director off, I immediately called the recruiter back and said, "please disregard everything I said....". Long story short, 5 interviews later I landed my dream job.

It's not me waking up in a ditch covered in my own vomit and feces, but it was my rock bottom-ish event. I really, really, really hated that job but I almost stayed with it. Thankfully, when my VP was replaced, the bottom sort of came up and kicked my ass out the door.

Disclaimer: I fully understand that I have lived a pretty nice life when this is my rock bottom. I have had my share of soul wrenching heartbreak, drug induced guilt laden actions but those are for me to know about.