Switching careers in your 40s or older

[dahliaclone]

This current project (which I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs) when they did the first mock I got an invite on Friday asking me if I was ready for Monday. I replied back "what is this?"
I had never been invited to a meeting and had no idea this was a thing. Not that I'm asking for more meetings but it would be nice if I invited to a meeting that was actually important.

Yeah this is the type of **** I’m seeing more and more. Last week I woke up to an email and calendar invite for a meeting that was in an hour and an email from client saying you’re running this. We also need an agenda and you should come with ten ideas and topics execs should consider when pitching media for interviews. Excuse me what? I said ‘yeah no this is far too soon to pull together when you sent this just now we should reschedule’ and her reply was ‘no. That is unacceptable and not how we do things here. You better come prepared with all I’ve asked for.’

Get bent.

 

[JSmoove]

Yeah this is the type of **** I’m seeing more and more. Last week I woke up to an email and calendar invite for a meeting that was in an hour and an email from client saying you’re running this. We also need an agenda and you should come with ten ideas and topics execs should consider when pitching media for interviews. Excuse me what? I said ‘yeah no this is far too soon to pull together when you sent this just now we should reschedule’ and her reply was ‘no. That is unacceptable and not how we do things here. You better come prepared with all I’ve asked for.’

Get bent.

I’m now pissed off from just reading that.

 

[dahliaclone]

I’m now pissed off from just reading that.

The plus of this is that I work for an agency that has this company as a client and the entire agency is full aware how awful this client is. I actually bet we resign the account fairly soon. Everyone on my team is over it.

 

[ianoconnor]

Yeah this is the type of **** I’m seeing more and more. Last week I woke up to an email and calendar invite for a meeting that was in an hour and an email from client saying you’re running this. We also need an agenda and you should come with ten ideas and topics execs should consider when pitching media for interviews. Excuse me what? I said ‘yeah no this is far too soon to pull together when you sent this just now we should reschedule’ and her reply was ‘no. That is unacceptable and not how we do things here. You better come prepared with all I’ve asked for.’

Get bent.

I would have no-showed. That's absurd.

 

[CloneFanInKC]

I’m now pissed off from just reading that.

I appreciate my advice is very easy for me to give from my position….”that client can piss off.”

Your quality of life will improve at least 2x without them in your work life.

 

[CloneFanInKC]

The plus of this is that I work for an agency that has this company as a client and the entire agency is full aware how awful this client is. I actually bet we resign the account fairly soon. Everyone on my team is over it.

Resign the client!

 

[dahliaclone]

Resign the client!

I don’t see how we won’t. We have a retainer every month and remind them these are our initiatives our hours will go towards. Every month we hit the retainer by mid month because of other things they ask us to do then they get pissed for ROI and not seeing results and I’m like let us do what we are paid to do and not this **** YOU should be doing internally and things would be different. Vicious cycle.

 

[KnappShack]

Yeah this is the type of **** I’m seeing more and more. Last week I woke up to an email and calendar invite for a meeting that was in an hour and an email from client saying you’re running this. We also need an agenda and you should come with ten ideas and topics execs should consider when pitching media for interviews. Excuse me what? I said ‘yeah no this is far too soon to pull together when you sent this just now we should reschedule’ and her reply was ‘no. That is unacceptable and not how we do things here. You better come prepared with all I’ve asked for.’

Get bent.

Your lack of preparation isn't my problem.

That's completely unacceptable.

I had something very similar happen in-house. CFO asks me to call a meeting. We have top levels of the organization.

About a half hour before it starts he tells me I'm running it. I pull together enough of a presentation to sound coherent.

CFO proceeds to blow up everything I said. Eyes were rolling around the table.

CFO kept me after to discuss. I politely said this will never happen again because if it does I'm quitting on the spot.

It was his way of seeing if I could "take a punch". Earned me respect in the organization, but I never trusted that **** again.

"Good job. Now do better".

 

[Gonzo]

The plus of this is that I work for an agency that has this company as a client and the entire agency is full aware how awful this client is. I actually bet we resign the account fairly soon. Everyone on my team is over it.

There's no feeling quite like the one you get when you fire a horrible client.

 

[HFCS]

I think a series of lane changes can really help sometimes. Both in terms of utilizing existing skills but also not starting from scratch on pay or needing to go back to school.

For some just one adjacent lane change might do it, but two or three with 2-3 years at each stop can really be a change.

I also wonder if moving to a different part of the country/world might do more for some than a job change. Every time I make some huge move it seems time slows down a bit for a few years.

It’s really so much harder for a single person to make these sorts of life changes if there is no partner on whom they can depend on for things like healthcare coverage and just general stability. I’m sure single with dependents is even harder.

 

[Gonzo]

I don’t see how we won’t. We have a retainer every month and remind them these are our initiatives our hours will go towards. Every month we hit the retainer by mid month because of other things they ask us to do then they get pissed for ROI and not seeing results and I’m like let us do what we are paid to do and not this **** YOU should be doing internally and things would be different. Vicious cycle.

So do you charge overages then or stop working on their stuff once the monthly retainer number is hit?

 

[dahliaclone]

So do you charge overages then or stop working on their stuff once the monthly retainer number is hit?

The client is stupid and just wants us to pull from next months retainer which does nothing to solve anything. It makes it worse. Sure we can keep working but then next month we are back to where we were every month running out of hours so fast. They’re idiots. I do think this month we may just say we’ve hit the retainer and we are done until may. Give us some time away from them lol. And if they don’t like it, so be it.

 

[cycloner29]

I got passed over for a sales manager position about 10 years ago with a company I am no longer at. My piss ant boss who was buddies with the owner of the company told me, “I figured you wouldn’t be interested.” Would have been nice to even been asked (I would told him him to stick it anyway). I was their best selling rep to, but yet they would always find some little thing during my review to complain about. Some crap like, “You need to work on your relationship with so and so.” I’m like I maybe talk to this person like twice a year.

The kicker was when I found out after I left, that my boss told the new sales manager when he was interviewing him that I was his little beotch.

 

[Gonzo]

The client is stupid and just wants us to pull from next months retainer which does nothing to solve anything. It makes it worse. Sure we can keep working but then next month we are back to where we were every month running out of hours so fast. They’re idiots. I do think this month we may just say we’ve hit the retainer and we are done until may. Give us some time away from them lol. And if they don’t like it, so be it.

Yeah well that's a convenient way to pull way more hours out of you without actually paying for it. I'd be like, "nope, you have X number of hours monthly, we can either stop all of our work for you each month once we hit that number, or we'll bill you at the end of the month for the additional accrued hours."

 

[BCClone]

I got passed over for a sales manager position about 10 years ago with a company I am no longer at. My piss ant boss who was buddies with the owner of the company told me, “I figured you wouldn’t be interested.” Would have been nice to even been asked (I would told him him to stick it anyway). I was their best selling rep to, but yet they would always find some little thing during my review to complain about. Some crap like, “You need to work on your relationship with so and so.” I’m like I maybe talk to this person like twice a year.

The kicker was when I found out after I left, that my boss told the new sales manager when he was interviewing him that I was his little beotch.

I know a sales rep that dresses what would be considered a step lower than he should so that come review time, they use that as a place to improve and move on.

 

[Gonzo]

I got passed over for a sales manager position about 10 years ago with a company I am no longer at. My piss ant boss who was buddies with the owner of the company told me, “I figured you wouldn’t be interested.” Would have been nice to even been asked (I would told him him to stick it anyway). I was their best selling rep to, but yet they would always find some little thing during my review to complain about. Some crap like, “You need to work on your relationship with so and so.” I’m like I maybe talk to this person like twice a year.

The kicker was when I found out after I left, that my boss told the new sales manager when he was interviewing him that I was his little beotch.

Not saying this was the case with your employer, but one of my previous companies told me that, when reviewing people in my department, I had to give them a low score in at least one area. Their reasoning? "There's no such thing as a perfect employee." I agree, but being forced to give a really, really good team member an artificially low score just to satisfy some stupid and arbitrary mandate? Dumb. I had one lady start crying during her review because I scored her low on "communication" not because she was bad in that area, but because I had to. Was horrible.

 

[KnappShack]

Not saying this was the case with your employer, but one of my previous companies told me that, when reviewing people in my department, I had to give them a low score in at least one area. Their reasoning? "There's no such thing as a perfect employee." I agree, but being forced to give a really, really good team member an artificially low score just to satisfy some stupid and arbitrary mandate? Dumb. I had one lady start crying during her review because I scored her low on "communication" not because she was bad in that area, but because I had to. Was horrible.

We had the "Integrity" category. How can a manager grade someone on a 1-5 scale for integrity?

Well, Steve you had integrity 70% of the time so I gave you a 2.

I kept telling HR that anyone who scores below a 3 should be fired. We're saying they don't have integrity? How can a person have super integrity?

Bull **** category

 

[jcyclonee]

I like SOME parts of the work. I am very media relations focused and that's my strong suit (getting companies interviewed by pubs like TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, NY Times, CNBC, etc.) What I am NOT interested in anymore is managing people and clients. Which is what this role has turned into and I'm just over it. I'm always on the lookout for new gigs/consulting opps but having it be as niche as I really want it to be is few and far between.

We are looking for a customer service rep and the company happens to be based in Maple Grove. This being said, the job is basically one step up from entry level pay. Also, if you have experience repairing printing and embroidery machines we are on the lookout for service techs.

 

[cowgirl836]

Your lack of preparation isn't my problem.

That's completely unacceptable.

I had something very similar happen in-house. CFO asks me to call a meeting. We have top levels of the organization.

About a half hour before it starts he tells me I'm running it. I pull together enough of a presentation to sound coherent.

CFO proceeds to blow up everything I said. Eyes were rolling around the table.

CFO kept me after to discuss. I politely said this will never happen again because if it does I'm quitting on the spot.

It was his way of seeing if I could "take a punch". Earned me respect in the organization, but I never trusted that **** again.

"Good job. Now do better".

This type of management is horrendous.

 

[CYclist]

Has anyone said '**** it I hate my career' that you have had for 20+ years and switched to something completely different? How did you do it and what sort of career did you switch to? I'm really not wanting to go back to school for a new degree at this point in my life but I am getting really burned out with the stress of corporate ****.

After 30 years in the same industry, I made a major change. Had the skills they were looking for and it got me away from bad bosses and bad owners. Only regret is not doing it sooner.

Might have had a small pay drop at first, but back up now. You see a chance to do something that will make you happier, I'd say go for it!!