Wrong job or wrong career?

[CrystalSkull]

I will try to keep it brief without drip-feeding. I recently qualified into my profession and have been in my first job for nearly 2 years. I have been getting more and more bored and unhappy.

I have a very difficult boss who is controlling and critical. I know that he received negative feedback on a review recently, but he has openly told us that he has no intention of changing.

I do a broad range of work but feel like I am close to mastering it and am starting to get bored. There is little chance of doing more as my boss couldn't care less about our career development. There was the chance of being promoted last spring when someone else resigned, but unfortunately someone unqualified (but more experienced than me) was hired instead. Though I like this new person and work well with her, I have found it very hard to get over the affront.

One of the good things about my job is that I'm rarely required to stay late, but when I do it is VERY late (10pm, 11pm or later). We don't get overtime or time off in lieu. Work do not know that I have a medical condition that makes staying that late absolute torture. In addition, I have no control over when I have to work late, and often it is only due to other people's tardiness. I am absolutely dreading the next time it happens.

Unfortunately, lots of the jobs that I could realistically go for in my field are full of the same routine stuff. I feel bored just thinking about them. There is some more interesting stuff further down the road but I don't have nearly enough experience to apply for those jobs yet.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Have I picked the wrong career or do I just need to find another job?

It's hard to know without knowing what the profession is.

The specifics of your job situation sound….irritating… Feeling passed over is something to get over, but I have often found that first-jobbers infrequently get internally promoted, again this depends on the field. You can get over that but it seems you are going to have to go elsewhere for development.

I would try a different work context before dumping the profession completely especially if you've spent time and money qualifying. Something must have attracted you to it in the first place? What was that? Still true?

I'm an old lag, been there and done that! Believe me when I say I have had some good managers but plenty of awful ones, some great colleagues and some not so great. My problem, and the thing that holds me back the most ( and I speak from experience ) is not so much the bad boss but my own lack of self belief and confidance. If this is something that may be standing in the way then address this as soon as you can. Don't wait until you are my age ( 50 ) I took a career break when I had my children and now I'm working way below my capacity. However I'm stepping up and working towards returning to the career I studied and worked my arse off for. We have to believe in ourselves and avoid letting bitterness take over.

Thanks for the replies.

Many of the things that attracted me to the profession still hold true for me. They may not come at this stage but they are there. I suppose that's true for pretty much all professions!

I think I probably have too much self-confidence, if anything. It really hurt not to get promoted as I believed (and still believe) I was the best person for the job. I had a great experience last year working with directors - it happened almost by chance - and I received great feedback, but alas, that project has now finished.

I have a restrictive covenant post-training contract, so I have just over a year left until I can look elsewhere. :(

Sounds like a bad boss rather than wrong career.

Your direct manager makes a huge difference to your working life. There's a saying that employees don't quit a company, they quit their manager & I think there's a lot of truth in that.

I don't think you can honestly judge if it's the career or the job without trying somewhere else. Put it like this: if you move elsewhere and discover that with an encouraging & supportive manager you actually enjoy it, and there's scope for more interesting stuff, great, and if you're still not happy, then you're in exactly the same position but you can think about next steps without the constant daily grind of dealing with a crap boss getting you down.

I love my career, and I'm good at it and have done well. But in a situation where I was working for a controlling, critical boss, it was so demotivating that everything seemed boring and pointless. I did find myself considering a career change - I'm pretty glad I changed jobs and not careers now.

A year's not long. Build yourself up, get a solid stint under your belt and in the meantime network furiously, make some connections - find a mentor - and size up your next move.

I think maybe you could give it a couple more years but in a different organisation and then decide if you want to move into a different career. dont leave it for years though and be willing to take a pay cut if you change career. it will be worth it though if you are unhappy in your current career. remember life is too short to spend it being unhappy and unfulfilled in the wrong career.

2 years is a fairly normal stint in many professions for a first job. I'd say typically you spend a year learning, then a year doing. More will then become boring unless things develop. I'd try a different job in the same profession.