Author Topic: Career advice/rant  (Read 1990 times)

FIRE47

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Career advice/rant
« on: September 26, 2018, 04:35:00 PM »
Forgive how vague and simplified this is but I am trying keep it more general and also anonymous.

I came from a larger firm where we primarily did higher volume work "Type A" if you will. The mantra of work "Type A" is get the work out the door, good enough and on time and keep the client happy. The culture and the procedures reflected this.

For various reasons (money, hours, travel and to some degree a false belief that the grass is always greener), I left this firm and went to another firm. About 15-20% of their work is work "Type A" but as it was more of my area of expertise it comprises 65-75% or so of my time during the year. However, I now have to fill my time with work of "Type B". The staff/superiors here on the "Type A" are of the similar mindset to my previous firm and things are great when working on Type A.

Here is the problem however - at this Firm "Type A" work is not seen to be as important as it was in the previous firm as this is more of a specialty firm (Type A is higher volume and lower margin work in general, although their are sub-niches within it where this is not the case), whereas those who do Type "C" and "D" "E" work here (there was way less of this work at larger firm) are seen as more valuable. "Type B" work fluctuates greatly but is generally slightly lower value than "Type A" but is the bread and butter of most smaller firms and fills time when you have no A, C, D or E work.

The second problem is quite frankly 25% of my time in gaps throughout the year with months in between and sometimes in random pockets in  a week is not good enough to get good or advance in Type B efficiently especially when I did no Type B work the start of my career. Sometimes this has resulted in me handing in a truly lack luster product completely unbeknownst to myself, which really caught me off guard and is not something I am used to. The culture of this type of work is sometimes extremely detail oriented which isn't as well suited to me - this trend accelerated recently and has really left me exposed and has sunk my performance here even more.

So here I am an A performer at Type A work which is less valuable here (and whose superiors generally hold much less power) with slower advancement, filling my other time with Type B work at which I am a B- performer.

I am contemplating if this was a mistake, basically I can get by here in my current state but I will either much more slowly or never reach the same level as the path I was on before, or I can throw myself back into the rat race of Type A work.


« Last Edit: September 26, 2018, 04:36:48 PM by FIRE47 »

ETBen

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Re: Career advice/rant
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2018, 06:32:52 PM »
I get wanting to be anonymous bc you never know where you can run into people online.

But my first thought reading this: Careers can rarely be viewed as math equations. Context matters. There are too many factors for advancement.

LightStache

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Re: Career advice/rant
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2018, 09:03:26 PM »
This is a little hard to follow but I keyed in on "truly lackluster" and "sunk my performance." Your frustration comes through in the post -- 'tis a rant after all. So my first recommendation is to put on your patient strategy pants, compartmentalize your frustration, and objectively formulate your next move. Then start the process of leaving. For me even starting the process of looking for my next opportunity makes me wind down a little from a crap job situation. Good luck my friend!

Kakashi

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Re: Career advice/rant
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2018, 01:40:54 PM »
I'm probably in a completely different field than you, but I think the same concept will apply.  I've done Type A work for 9 years.  I am now mostly still doing Type A work, but started to do some Type B work.  I'm not very good in Type B work, netting me much less dollars than Type A.  In fact, I've considered just stopping Type B work altogether.  But for now, my decision is continue to press on Type B.  I'm confidant with focus and energy, that my Type B will be as good as Type A in the future.

You need to make a choice.  Do you want to get good at Type B work, which that's going to take effort and time, and your performance will lag until you get good at it.  Or do you want to just stick with what you know.  Neither's good or bad, it's an individual decision.

 

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