Category: Career

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Happy anniversary to me

Today is a bit of an anniversary of sorts for me. It might be a bit of an odd one to celebrate, but this is the anniversary of the day I was fired.

To be sure, “celebrate” is not really the right word here. The truth is that I have an odd talent when it comes to dates. I just remember stuff. Friends refer to it as my superpower. I remember people’s birthdays, dates of historical events, and dates that have personal meaning to me. I used to be good with phone numbers too, until owning cell phones destroyed my ability (or maybe just my will) to remember seven digits. I can also probably still tell you the postal code of every place I’ve ever lived in, and I’ve lived in a lot of places. But I digress.

Regardless, I feel this was an important day for me. A little background is probably in order.

In a way, this was my first big boy job. After being a student for years and years and then working for the family business for a while, this was my first job “in my field”. It was a job at a Big Company. A company with a name most people recognize. It was meant to be the first step in my career. A career that I thought was supposed to move forward, in a straight line forever. But of course real life doesn’t always work that way.

Why was I fired? Many reasons. Truthfully it wasn’t really a job I loved. The main reason I even took the was because it seemed like a good job at what seemed like a great company. My thinking was that I would get in the door and work my way into a role that I was truly excited about. And that is what I tried to do. I discovered a different group within the company that I wanted to join, I made some inquiries through the proper channels and tried to transfer. But the group I wanted to join didn’t really have a need for more people. Oh, did I mention that this was 2008? Well it was. So when the Big Company decided that it needed to let some people go, to weather the storm through the ensuing global economic meltdown, it was easy enough for my boss to say “listen, I really like you, but I happen to know that you’re not really passionate about this work”. Because I had basically told him so by asking to move to a different group.

And it stung. Like I said, I thought a career was always supposed to move forward in a straight line. You were supposed to graduate, get a big boy (or girl) job, start earning some money, get raises and promotions at somewhat regular intervals and leave your job only on your own terms and only if and when something better came along. But that was not my reality. I had failed. I was moving backwards. How was I going to find another job? I had a black mark on my resume: I had been fired. Canned. Downsized. Let go. Laid off. Made redundant. Any way I tried to dress it up, it stung.

The next day, the sun came up. It came up the day after that too. I got to work trying to find my next gig. It wasn’t easy. I was one of thousands who had lost their jobs at around that time. Finding my next job literally took months. Finding any job at that time was difficult, and I didn’t just want any job. I wanted the right job. It didn’t need to be perfect, or prestigious, or high-paying, but it needed to make sense for me and my career. My career wasn’t going to be a straight line from that point but I felt it still needed to go somewhere. And it did.

It is now nine years and two jobs hence. I think I will always remember the date. I will also always remember the things I have learned from the experience.

First, it’s never a good idea to take a job that you don’t want just because it’s a job you think you should take. Your standing within a company will be determined by the quality of work you do. If you’re doing something you don’t enjoy, faking it can be tough. Even if I hadn’t asked for a transfer to a different group, I’m guessing my boss could tell that my heart wasn’t into the work. How can you succeed at a job you don’t really want? You can’t. No success means no raises or promotions which means the next time the axe has to fall there’s a good chance it will be your neck.

Secondly, when I started interviewing I was happy to discover that being fired wasn’t the black mark I thought it would be. Smart managers know that people will lose their jobs for all sorts of reasons (like for example, because it’s 2008). Sometimes a job just ends up being a poor fit. They tend to be more concerned about whether they think you can do the job for which they are hiring, which often has nothing to do with the job from which you got fired.

Third, a career is not a straight line. It can be, but it often isn’t, and that’s just fine. It’s more important to have the career you want rather than the one you think you’re supposed to have. I have spent far too many years working jobs that made me miserable for my liking. I don’t want to spend a third of my waking hours doing something that makes me miserable. I have come to believe that it’s more important to be mindful of your finances than to worry about earning as much as possible. It’s not so much the size of the pie as how much of it is left over at the end of the day. Do work you enjoy and be smart with your money and you’ll be okay.

Finally, sometimes crappy things happen, and when they do, remember that you can and will get through this.  There is no shortage of motivational quotes, posters, or other media to choose from, but my personal favourite comes from Douglas Adams: “Don’t panic.” I have been pretty fortunate in my life and I realize now that people have gone through far worse hardships that losing a job. We all have our own struggles and we all find our own way to get through them.

When I think back to that day, I still remember the sting, and the shock, and the sense of failure. But I also am able to look at what I have done since then and where I am now. And in light of all this, it doesn’t seem quite so bad anymore.

Happy anniversary to me.

 

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Wait, what is this blog about? Career or early retirement?

It’s about both.

Good talk. Thanks for coming by.

Alright, I’ll elaborate…

It’s a valid question. For anyone who is following along, you would be forgiven for asking. “This guy starts off talking about retiring early, then spends a bunch of time talking work and career… what gives?” Fair point.

Let me clarify: the ultimate goal for me of course is early retirement. In order to consider retiring, one needs enough savings on which to comfortably live. In order to accumulate savings, one needs to maximize income and/or minimize expenses. The only way to save is to spend less than you earn. Retiring early implies you need to save more, or put a different way, to accumulate savings faster. There are only two ways to save faster: make more, or spend less. Or both.

If you don’t have enough saved yet to retire, you still have to work a while longer. This is the boat in which I find myself. I have to continue working for a few years more at least, but of course the hope is to make “a few” as few as possible. So given that I have to work, now I have some choices to make. I could choose to focus on earning as much money as possible right now, so I can ramp up that savings rate. This is the approach employed by J.P. of The Money Habit and it’s how she managed to retire at 28 (she is much better at this early retirement thing than me… or most people even). The other option is to decide that since I have to keep working for now, why not spend all that time doing something I at least enjoy, or find engaging?

I have worked jobs (yes, plural) where I was miserable. I spent most of my working days bored. When I did have work to do, I often felt the work was menial, or tedious, and largely pointless. In short, I regularly felt like I was wasting my life. Not a nice feeling. Because I have spent a lot of my working years not liking my job (and once again, I know I’m not special; I realize how common this is), my tendency is to focus on the second option, finding enjoyable or interesting work.

Don’t get me wrong, option one is great. Make the most money possible? Who wouldn’t sign up for that? But of course if it were that simple everybody would be doing it. It’s not like they’re handing out super high paying jobs on the street corner to whoever wants one. There’s a reason why we don’t all have the same high paying jobs. We have different talents and different interests. Option two is about aligning our talents with our interests. Option two can be hard enough.

What is retirement anyway?

For anyone who is familiar with the growing number of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) blogs out there, you’ll understand that retiring early does not necessarily imply that we spend our days lounging on the beach, drink in hand, and never lifting a finger ever again. If this is how you plan to spend your retirement, then good for you! Sounds fantastic. I just hope you have enough saved to spend the rest of your days living like this, because it sounds like a good way to go through a lot of money fast. We should all be so lucky.

For those not familiar with the concept, who are new to the FIRE approach, let me break it down for you. There’s a great old Simpsons episode where Homer quits his job at the nuclear power plant so he can fulfill his dream of working at a bowling alley. You could make the argument that for all intents and purposes, Homer retired when he did this. (The analogy doesn’t quite fit because in this particular episode Homer was still dependent on the income he earned from the bowling alley, but it’s close enough for illustrative purposes and it lets me incorporate a Simpsons reference.) If you separate your life into your working years and your retirement years, then your working years are spent working because you have to. In our working years, our primary concern is paying the bills and supporting ourselves or our families. If you have enough money saved that you can live off your savings, but you’re doing some kind of work because you want to, then whether or not you’re earning a paycheque doing it, you are effectively retired. In this case, you’re working by choice, presumably because you enjoy the work.

Now, imagine that there is work you can do 1) that will pay well (or well enough), 2)  that you find interesting and engaging, 3) that aligns with your values, and 4) that will give you good experience to do that thing you love during retirement. Sounds like a good idea, right? Maybe you can work toward a career today that could help you pursue a passion during retirement? Now that sounds a lot better than being miserable for 40 hours a week if you ask me.

I would love to be able to retire tomorrow, but it’s going to take me longer than that. In the meantime, I’d rather not dread going into work. I’m not an authority on careers by any stretch of the imagination. But over the years I’ve come across some good advice. And I’m happy to pass it along when I can. I also have made many mistakes, and I’ll tell you about some of those too, so hopefully you don’t have to make the same ones. Ultimately this is meant to be a space to chronicle my efforts in minimizing my remaining working years. Part of that involves making those remaining years bearable, or better yet, enjoyable. I’ll keep you up to speed on how that is working out for me.

 

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Work: Where do I want to go, and how do I get there?

In my last post, I outlined the things that I think are important to have in a job. I also took some time to explain why I am currently not terribly happy in the job that I have now, based on those criteria. If you haven’t read the last post, feel free to go catch up now if you like.

That explains how I got here. Essentially it says that I am not happy with the status quo. It provides a good explanation of what’s wrong. What I do not want.

So what do I want? Great question. After all, a map is only useful if you know where you are going.

Well in that last post, I introduced a three point scale that I use to evaluate jobs and defined a “good job” as having a score of 2/3 or better. Once again, the three criteria are 1) interesting work, 2) good money, and 3) good people. Let me use that three point scale as a means to frame the discussion and guide me on to the next chapter of my professional life.

  1. Interesting work. “Interesting” is an adjective that is in the eye of the beholder. To be honest, I’m the type of person who can find just about anything interesting, for a little while at least. And therein lies one of my current problems; I’ve just been doing the same thing for too long. Sometimes you just need a change, and that is where I am at now. Even if I were working on something I found absolutely fascinating, there’s a good chance that after a while, I would grow tired of it and need to look to something new. Of course, that’s not the current reality for me. My current reality is yet another case that I think is all too common: I am not doing the type of work that I want to do.
  2. Good money. I’m actually going to modify this one for the purpose of this exercise. I am going to invoke the old axiom that time = money and then apply the law of transitivity to make this item good money and/or time. Recall that I am currently a commuter, going from the ‘burbs to the city and back during a typical workday. Well this is another area where I also think I could benefit from a change. Would I be willing to sacrifice a little money for a lot more time with my family? Absolutely. (The challenge might be adequately defining “a little”.) If I could find a similar job, or even the exact same job I have now, keep my salary the same but ditch the commute, would I take that job? I definitely would. That wouldn’t fix any issues with item #1 but it would still be a big improvement. This area here is a big one for me.
  3. Good people. Hello, uncertainty. This one is hard to know ahead of time. Say you like the people you work with, and you’re considering a new job. What will your new coworkers be like? Well, the best you can really do is try and determine what it would be like to work with your interviewers. But it’s hard to really get a sense over the course of an interview or two of what it’s like to work with someone. You can try asking some good, well thought out questions during your interviews to get a sense of what the company culture is like, or the work environment, or generally what sort of place it might be. But even then, there’s only so much you can tell. A lot of this area is just guessing. Seems as though we’ll have to concede that this item has way too many unknowns and conclude that we must leave #3 largely to chance. The good news is that if I were to rank the three criteria in terms of their importance to me,  #3 would come in third. Your mileage may vary.

Let’s recap, working backwards. #3 is largely out of my hands. We might even be tempted to relegate it from “must have” to “nice to have” status.

#2 is also simple; my clear preference would be to work closer to home, and I’m willing to forego a little bit of money (while still being able to provide for my family and increase my savings) if I can gain back some of time time I spend traveling. This is one potential goal: find work close to home. The thought of leaving work and being home in 10 minutes as opposed to 90 minutes is… a very nice thought.

That leaves #1 as the interesting item on our list. I feel that there’s a bunch to unpack here, so bear with me for a bit…

I have established that in the most general terms, what I want is to do work that is more interesting to me. Or at a minimum to do something different for a change. It sounds like a very simple goal. So why haven’t I managed to do this yet?

Well, how can one achieve that goal? Maybe you think the most obvious answer is “find a new job”. Or maybe you’ve noticed that there is another option I haven’t touched on yet, and that is “transition to a different, more interesting role where you currently work”. Fortunately, there is at least one thing I can do that will help in both endeavours, that will make me a better employee to both current and prospective employer: learning, training and skill development.

Look, there are lots of reasons why your current place of employment might not be giving you the type of work you really want. Some are out of your hands. For example, sometimes managers can get protective of their headcount and they’ll do whatever they can to keep you where you are, whether you want to be there or not, for fear of not having the personnel on hand for them to meet their objectives. You might find yourself in this position and thinking to yourself “yeah, but I’m bored so much of the time, it seems like they have more than enough help to get the job done.” Sure, that might be true now. But what about tomorrow? Your manager might be thinking “what happens if things get really busy and I don’t have approval to hire more help when that time comes?” In this case, escape might be a bigger challenge.

Along the same lines, you might have a clear idea of where else within your company you would like to work, but that group might not be interested. They might be fully staffed and not need any more help. Or maybe they do need  help but in an area where you don’t have the knowledge or skills to provide for what they’re looking. Well if that’s the case, then that’s something that you do have some control over.

Your place of business might not think you are qualified to do the type of work  you really want. So it’s your job to show them otherwise. If you’re missing a crucial skill, then go and learn that skill.

We live in a bit of a golden age, in terms of access to knowledge. There are so many ways to learn so many things. There are websites and blogs, not to mention communities dedicated to just about any topic. There are multiple online learning options to pick up skills of basically any kind. Personally, I like Coursera. Coursera partners with learning institutions like colleges and universities to deliver instruction on all sorts of things. Seriously, go and check out their offerings and you might be surprised at the breadth of their offerings. They also will provide certificates of completion to help prove that you have acquired the skills in question. I’m fairly certain that you can even take some of their courses for free, although to get the certificate and have full access to all learning materials you typically need to pay, but in my experience their prices can be quite reasonable. For most of the courses that interest me, the going rate seems to be about $50-70 per course, although I’m sure there is a range. Sometimes you can take a “specialization” program, which is a collection of courses. I have seen specializations with as few as 3 courses and as many as 10. I am currently on my second specialization program and Mrs. CIQY is working on her first.

The other obstacle is that your manager might not even know that you aren’t doing the work you most want to be doing. In that case of course, it’s your job to let them know. Good managers will want to help you achieve your career goals, though in reality their hands might be somewhat tied. In any case, I would actually urge a word of caution here: if you’re going to approach your boss or manager and tell them that you’re not happy in your current role, tread lightly and choose your words carefully. I have gotten burned by this in the past, and it cost me my job. It’s an interesting story but I’ll save it for a future blog post.

Bringing it back to my current situation, I have told my manager that I have some other interests that I would really like to explore. And I have made him aware that I’m using some of my downtime and my personal time to further develop the skills that those interests would require. So far he is being very supportive, which is great. He is making inquiries into potential projects I might be able to help with that would be in line with my goals. At the same time, he has been careful to let me know that he doesn’t want to part with me completely. He is still responsible for deliveries on our current project after all, and I respect that. But even a partial switch at this point would be welcome. For starters, it would give me that elusive change I have been needing. It would be more experience on something different, and that at least always looks good on a resume. And even if I can’t find anything better at a different company, might as well make the best of a bad situation right? I don’t know about you, but I would rather be busy than bored. Busy is good. Busy doesn’t have enough time to grumble about being unhappy at work.

But by taking some initiative and picking up some new skills that I would like to use at work, I’m making myself a better employee all around, whether I stay or go. It’s one of many things I can do to try and dig my way out of this hole. Worst case scenario, it keeps me busy. And like I said, busy is good.

It doesn’t help with #2 though. Ultimately I do think that my first choice at this stage in life is to find work closer to home. I want more time to spend with my current and future kids and The Missus.

But I haven’t shut the door on making things better at my current gig. I like to keep options open.

Fortunately, I have found at least one thing I can do that can help me with both. And it’s something I enjoy too. If you’re not happy at work and you’re the kind of person who enjoys learning things like I do (do you miss school? I miss school) then I highly recommend taking action. Upgrade your skills or learn a new one. Read blogs or books or take an online course. Look around at Coursera or some other online learning site and I’m sure you’ll find something you’d enjoy that might help you out. Especially if you’re ready to embark on a completely new career, I think it’s a great place to start and give you any new skills that you might need.

I have had to accept the fact that because I stayed too long in an easy job, my skills have gotten stale. The only way out for me, whether at my current company or a new one, is to freshen up those skills. I have started the freshening, and I actually find it really fun and rewarding. Hopefully this effort will pay dividends in the form of me finding interesting work close to home so I can spend more time with my family and less time in transit. But even if it “only” makes me better at my current job, isn’t that a step in the right direction?

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My philosophy of work, and how I got here

I currently have a good old fashioned, nine to five desk job. I do not like it very much. Surprise! The guy who started a blog called “Can I Quit Yet?” doesn’t like his job. Big shock, right?

Obviously the ultimate goal is early retirement. With a tip of the top hat to Mr. Money Mustache, and others like him, I am aware this is possible. But this is one of those goals that is simple, but difficult. Simple because the formula is straightforward: maximize your savings by minimizing your expenses and/or increasing your income. But saying “minimizing your expenses” is one thing and actually doing it is another. There are lots of areas where the average family can trim the fat and live more cheaply; I’ll get to a lot of those in future posts (or go back and follow that Mr. Money Mustache link… seriously, he’s great) but in my case there was a pretty obvious elephant in the room, and that is our mortgage. We have one, and it’s kinda big. And I know we can do lots to chip away at that mortgage and pay it down faster but it’s going to take a little time. What it all boils down to is this: for now, I gotta keep working.  It’s the only way we’re going to reduce and ultimately eliminate that mortgage so we can live more cheaply and achieve financial independence.

So I have established that I have to work, but I don’t like my current job. So the simple solution is of course to try and find another job. Well that’s proving to be a little difficult. To explain why, allow me first to explain how I got here.

I have always felt there are three things that make a job good, or worth having. 1) Interesting or fulfilling work; 2) Good pay; and 3) Good people.

Interesting or fulfilling work – In the simplest of terms, do you enjoy what you do? Are you spending your working hours doing the type of work you enjoy, or that motivates you? This is the big one for most people, and according to a lot of the stuff I have been reading lately about millennials and “kids these days” it’s more commonly becoming the most important factor. This of course makes sense because if you’re spending approximately eight hours a day doing a thing, it’s best that you enjoy doing that thing. Of course in many ways it’s also a first world problem, as the opposing viewpoint is that work is work, a job is a job, we all need to make money, so suck it up buttercup quit your whining and be thankful for your paycheque. Fair enough. That’s why I personally see it as only one of three major factors to job fulfillment.

Good pay – This one is a bit obvious to me. The pay is the main reason why most of us are working in the first place. Is money everything? Of course not. But to think of things a different way, if you’re working a job and finding that the pay just isn’t enough, that you’re struggling to get by and barely making it to your next paycheque, don’t you at that point start to consider looking for a new job? I figure for a lot of people the answer to that question is yes. On the flip side, if you’re working a job that isn’t necessarily your dream job but the money is good, you’re likely to stick around a bit longer than you otherwise might. I know that for me at least this is true.

Good people – For anyone who has ever worked a job where they had serious issues with their coworkers or managers, they’re likely reading this and nodding their heads vigorously. At the same time, a boring job with great coworkers can easily become a pretty good job. I find that if I like the people I work with, I like the job a lot more. It really can make all the difference, especially when you consider the fact that a lot of people spend more time with their coworkers than their families. If you don’t believe me ask yourself a few questions: How many hours do you sleep on the average night? How about your family members? Are you at home the same time as the rest of your family? Do you and the rest of your family ever do things separately? Do the math and then let me know if you think you spend more time with your spouse or the person you sit next to at work.

So those are the three things. In my estimation, if you have all three of those things in your job, then you’re laughing. Good for you! You’re probably in no hurry to retire early and therefore most likely not reading this right now. If you have two out of those three things, then you’re probably still pretty content. But if you have only one out of three… well if you’re like me, then at that point you’re probably starting to at least browse job ads. If you’re oh-for-three, well then I’d wager you’re not very happy about things and maybe doing more than just browsing job ads. And if you’re not, maybe you’re thinking about it. Maybe you should?

So that’s our scorecard. Now let’s see how I am doing based on these criteria.

Interesting work? Not so much. When I was first hired, I was brought in to help on a project that I thought was very interesting. Unfortunately, that project met an untimely death about six months into my jew job. After that happened, I was brought onto a project that was way behind schedule and needed help. It was in serious trouble and needed people. I never really cared too much for the project, nor did I have much in the way of expertise going in. In addition, the people in charge didn’t need or want the kind of help I like providing. I’m more of a big picture guy, who thrives in strategy, planning, and problem solving. I like to be invested, to have skin in the game. The role I was tasked to play on this project is basically that of a grunt; do what you’re told and let the adults in the room make the tough decisions. I was okay with helping out when help was needed, but now it’s been over five years. This project is still a going concern and I’m still stuck in it, not making what I consider to be any meaningful contributions. It’s definitely not doing my career any favours, unless I want to keep doing what I’m doing forever, and I don’t.

Good pay? Well this one is tricky… When I first started this job I was able to negotiate a salary that was a significant jump for me, compared to my last job. Part of the reason was due to the new job being in the big city as opposed to a smaller one, and that usually means a jump in money for reasons outlined in my last post. Another part of the reason was probably due to the fact that I was moving along in my career, now a more experienced hire, and the fact remains that a jump in salary is often the reason why people decide to switch jobs in the first place. When I made the switch, I was pretty happy about the money. Well it’s now over six years later. How many raises have I earned in that time? Zero. As I already hinted at, I’m not exactly in a role where I’m able to thrive and have a real impact, so there have been no performance-based raises or promotions. There also haven’t been any inflation-based or cost-of-living-based adjustments either. It’s become pretty obvious to me that pay increases at my current job just don’t really seem to happen very often at all. Do I think I’m entitled to the occasional raise? Well, no, not necessarily. But the fact remains that even if inflation over the past 6+ years has only been in the 1-2% range, a dollar earned today is worth less than it was 6 years ago. It doesn’t go as far. Plus when I started this job I was a freewheeling bachelor. Now I have a family to provide for and that family is growing. So if my pay hasn’t changed, but a dollar is worth less today, then in real terms, I’m actually earning less today than I was when I started. Let me be clear: I know that I am fortunate, that I do earn a very decent salary, and that I realize there are a great many people out there who are worse off than I am. But my goal in life is to get ahead, so that one day I can retire and have more time with my family. Right now it’s fair to say I’m not moving ahead.

Good people? At one point, I definitely would have said yes. Emphatically. I do work with some great people who I consider friends and not just work friends. The people were, and still are the best thing about my job. But I’m afraid the situation there has deteriorated somewhat as well. When I first started in this job, our team would go out to lunch on a daily basis. We would have after-work drinks almost as frequently. So what happened? Well, my life and priorities changed. The daily lunches were getting expensive, so I started brown-bagging. The after work drinks all but stopped too. When I was a local bachelor, they were fun and easy. Now, I think twice about spending too much on beer. Plus, living in the ‘burbs means I’m a commuter, and even staying for a single drink often means putting me on a much later train which means potentially not seeing my daughter before she goes to bed. It seems a much bigger sacrifice, because I actually really like my family and spending time with them. Some work friends have left the company and moved on to other things. But unfortunately my unhappiness with my job has affected some of my work relationships. My frustrations with my role and career have caused some resentment toward some of my superiors who I used to think of as friends. It’s a huge bummer.

When I started in this job, I was excited about the work, ecstatic about my coworkers, and happy to be earning more than I was before. When the work became less interesting I told myself that at least it was an easy job and I was still working with great people and better off than I was. That’s probably why I stuck around as long as I did. But before I knew it, years had passed, I was bored, frustrated about my stagnant career, losing hope for future progress, and then working with good people just wasn’t enough. On my three-point scale, I was barely scoring a 1/3. Just barely. Time to move on.

So now what? How do I fix things? What’s my game plan?

I’ll save that for next time.