Changing Jobs And Trying To Realize My Value

If anyone has seen some of my posts from late last year and early this year, I talk about my struggles in working at the company I was working for at that time. Around that time, I was working evenings and weekends without any financial compensation and I was suffering from job burnout. Well, I have some good news! At the time of writing this post, I have accepted a new position at a new company and the previous week was my last week at my old company. There is no doubt that I am excited for this new challenge and opportunity. This post is going to sound like I am complaining about my previous job, but honestly; I do not care if this is how the post sounds. During my job search and my subsequent job offer, I have been thinking about why I wanted to leave my current job, as well as what I have learned about myself and what I want to do in my career path.

First off, I want to share what I currently want in my career. I want to work for a company where I am constantly learning new things, learning new skills, as well as improving on my existing skills. When I started at my old company, this was my main goal. I knew that I was not going to make the money that I wanted right off the bat. Additionally, I did not have very many expenses, so I could make a little bit of money stretch further.

As I learned more things at my old company and took on more responsibilities, the financial compensation became more important to me. It was clear that my old company were not going to increase my compensation despite becoming responsible for critical and important tasks in the company. Additionally, I had some personal financial goals for myself that I wanted to try to achieve. I am not able to work towards those goals with my meager salary at my old company, and so, this spurred me to look for employment elsewhere.

At this point in my career, I need to strike a balance between responsibility in the workplace and financial compensation. Towards the end of my time at my old company, there was a heavy skewing of the balance towards responsibility. I felt like I had too much responsibility for what I was making financially at my old company. This presents two things about my value. The first thing is that I am happy that I am valued enough to take on these additional responsibilities. However, I personally wanted to see the value where it mattered, and that would be an increase to my financial compensation. It was obvious that my old company was taking advantage of me.

Starting around the last few months of last year, I would work evenings, weekends, and even holidays in order to help my company close critical deals with clients and maintain positive relationships. My extended work hours took a toll on my mental health, and became a catalyst for my burnout. My burnout was also negatively affecting my colleagues due to increased arguments. I feel like if there was proper compensation, I do not believe that I would be suffering from burnout earlier this year. 

This is not to say that my role in my new company will be a smooth one. I am aware that there will be unique and stressful challenges that will test my mettle. However, I will have an open mind and show a willingness to learn in order to be the asset to my new company that I know I can be. I am also now at a salary where I can get ever closer to achieving my personal financial goals.

Companies need to stop being so cheap and pay people what they are truly worth. I feel like more people, especially younger people, are starting to become wise to employers' cheapness and are willing to move around in order to realize their own value. I am glad that I made that change as well, as it would have been so easy for me to be comfortable at my old company. I need to be comfortable with not being comfortable.