To keep quitting jobs after a few months?

[Miajk]

I managed to go from uni drop out and 20k salary to earning around 50k in my mid twenties.

This has been mostly achievable as I moved jobs frequently. My line of work involves a lot of manufactured stress, working with lots of clients, juggling demands.

I'm just so fed up. I've worked at 5 different companies in the last 4 years. I've been able to hit the ground running so no training required and I've always been considered a high performer with previous employers always saying I'd be welcome back.

Now I feel like I can't switch jobs again though due to the stigma, I haven't even lasted a year in the past couple of jobs I've been at.

I'm so tired of clueless managers, silly performance reviews, the expectation to go above and beyond constantly, the inflexibility, selling my life away to make someone else rich, the stress, the demands.

I'm starting to think that maybe I'm unfit to be employed! Anyone else feel this way?

If it wasn't for the cost of living crisis and having a low earning partner I would choose to retrain or do an apprenticeship :( I'm even considering it now but worried I won't get back to previous earnings or won't like another career path either

Sounds like you need a change of career.

What would you enjoy doing? How can you achieve that?

I feel like I never had time to explore what I would like to do. I left home at 18 with no support so I dropped out of uni and that's why I felt the urge to climb the ladder as fast as I can do I just picked something that was realistic

A part of me feels like I got incredibly lucky to get a job that's good on paper, pays a lot more than I ever thought I'd earn etc. And I worry if I give this up I'll never have it again. Really worried about money if I was to take a paycut - have a lot of savings but worried I'll just burn through them

Are you earning £50k now and considering an apprenticeship? Your work sounds like most jobs I've had, but each of mine have lasted years rather than months. I wish I never had to work, or earn for other people. But when I'm being paid a decent salary and it's funding my lifestyle that's what I weigh up when I just crack on each day.

Have you considered business change consultancy?

That's why I feel like I shouldn't leave, but then on the other hand I'm so unhappy. I'm stress eating, constantly thinking about work, I'm so disillusioned. I have half a day full of meetings every day and then a million demands on top of that.

I just can't imagine doing this for 40 hours a week for years to come and I'm wondering if this is normal. in my industry frequent job changes are super common (although admittedly I might be churning through roles faster than the already low average)

You've got to do what's right for you then. Life's too short to be so unhappy, and if you have the power to change it then you're doing the right thing.

Become a contractor. I do that, though I've stayed at my current place for just over a year.

I move jobs at least once a year usually. Sometimes 2 - 3 shorter contracts.

Also on £60Kish inside IR35 using an umbrella.

Is it finance?

Tbh not really due to lack of degree and young age I assumed consultancy might be tricky to get into overall. Definitely something I could be interested in, I love problem solving but dislike the project managing element for the most part.

It's tech - i love some bits of the industry just have been unlucky with my workplaces. Most people I worked with in each company stayed max 2 years at best but sadly it reflects on me that I leave jobs often despite how many crappy employers are out there

You know what I think I really should! At this point I'm changing jobs each year anyway might as well just make peace with the fact that I'm unfit for normal employment.

Do you find it easy to get new contracts? Is there the same kind of interview process as full time work?

Have you worked out exactly how much money you need to live on.

Do you need all the £50k? Or can you get by on less?
Is the £50k worth being miserable for?
If you move now, will you find another job that has all the same problems and want to move again in a year?

Everyone and everything about your current and recent roles has p1ssed you off. I reckon you crave a change and should find out how little money you need to manage and start again. Do something you love. Work for yourself. Spend some of those savings and have six months off, travel and have a good think or do a course you've always wanted to.

I got sick of all the KPIs, commuting and sundry tripe. Left a £50k job, retrained for two years, started my own business. I should have done it years ago and it sounds to me like you should have done it about 4 jobs back.

Be brave....make the most of your days.

Do your Prince 2 (it's mostly bollocks and everyone knows it's bollocks) start using the words "agile" and "waterfall" and "reactive" with confidence.

You sound exactly like me, get into a company, get to know it inside out because that's just how you are, get frustrated that everything is so fucking slow and ridiculous.

The good thing about contracting is that the clueless managers aren't really your managers and you skirt all the grinding office politics.

You are giving yourself a hard time. The reason you keep moving is because you are talented and driven. People give you jobs at the moment - it might not always be like this!

Use some of your income to get career coaching and figure out what is next. Your future self will thank you for taking the time to figure this stuff out now!

Are you in a technical role at your companies? If you’re not half a day off meetings sounds insane.

Client facing role but juggling a pretty heavy client portfolio.

Lots of pressure from clients and internally, poor management and poor overall company direction that makes everything unnecessarily difficult tbh.

Had two people in my dept leave recently after less than 6 months in the role so definitely a wider issue I think

Haha yes! Exactly that unfortunately

Thank you this is the kick up the bum I needed!! I am very driven and work hard but only when I'm inclined to do so, and lately I just don't feel it at all.

I think being employed will always wind me up so maybe it's time to try self employment and see for myself if the grass is/isn't greener... Hopefully it is

The best thing for you is to focus upon what you’re good at and start a small business of your own doing that. You can be your own boss and choose your own hours but you need to understand that reputation is everything. It can take days to build one and very little time to destroy. So you’ll need to focus on customer service being fair but firm with kindness, compromise and understanding when you need to be as well as patient.
Back in the mid 90’s I worked for a dry cleaning company and with overtime I was earning a grand a month. Me and my girlfriend of the time got a flat together on the strength of that. Then one day they put a ban on overtime so that month my wages were £500 for a months work. The rent was just under that so I walked out. She left and I lost the flat and had to move back to my parents I was 23 at the time and I’d left home at 18 and felt gutted.
Now my family had been in the building trades for over 100 years combined and I had been taken to work with them from the age of 3 on weekends and school holidays Sweeping up and helping gradually assisting and I built up skills and knowledge. So I focused on what I was good at which was building up my decorating skills and other small building works. I carried on working for other jobs which were builders merchants etc so I could build up my knowledge of materials.
In 2001 I was made redundant from a timber yard so I started my own decorating and property restoration/ refurbishment business.
Apart from a couple of years when I had depression and anxiety and went back to the builders merchant sector for two years between 2019 and 2020 it’s what I’ve always done. Now I work between Fulham and Surbiton because I can’t drive due to sleep apnea. But I organise things well so materials are delivered and I can always get whatever tools I need to site. I support my family and I feel like I’m contributing something positive to the world and making people happy.
Some of us don’t make good employees but we can make very good self employed people if we focus and work hard.
Hope you don’t mind the advice and story I hope it helps you and I feel better for sharing it.

Then use that energy.

I don't have the drive or rhino skin required to be a Director or Manager etc etc. I am very good at quickly identifying processes to improve "workflow" and cut down on bullshit.

There are a huge amount of SMEs that could use that energy because they need to expand without hiring new staff.

To put it in perspective: my last client paid a consultant 3.5k to spend a week setting up Monday.com to fit with their business.

The set-up was useless and not fit for purpose.

What he did have, was a young female member of staff who learned the whole process, wasn't bloody listened to, and ended up becoming the CRM manager after I championed her.

It's a satisfying job.

Sorry meant to type years not days lol.

Also in my 20s and here to provide a different perspective.

A lot of my friends in their 20s/early 30s feel like this and I think it's largely because we have a different relationship to work compared to previous generations. I also think you're probably have something to do with we don't get to reap the benefits of our salaries anymore.

The more you start to think about work, the more you realise it kind of is low-key depressing at times we work 5 days a week for 2 days of fun. We're also living in quite a depressing time right now so I think what you're feeling is totally understandable.

Curious to know what your job area is @Beenhereforever1978, sounds like we have similar motivations