November 27th – The day I quit my job

Well today was a pretty crazy day. I called up my boss this morning (she works from home, not in the office) and told her that I hadn’t been enjoying myself in my job lately, and I had decided to quit. It’s a pretty terrifying call to make, but I’m glad I did it. She took it way better than I expected; she wasn’t happy that I was going to leave, but understood why I needed to move on.

The jist of why I chose to leave: I work(ed) as a Research Coordinator for an end of life care research grant. At first, it was a great experience; I was learning a lot of new things and getting to experience the “real world.” But the problem is, I am really not interested in research, health care, or coordinating…So while I have been learning a lot, it is all kinda building towards…nothing. If I had chosen to stay there for the next 2 years or so, I would end up at the same point I am at now – not really knowing what I want to do but knowing it wasn’t going to be related to what I had been doing. I had been growing ever more miserable at work, waking up every morning thinking how much I would rather stay sleeping than go for another day. And that was definately affecting my productivity; I wasn’t getting as much done as I should have and I hated that fact. So, I did it. Kinda crazy, quitting my job during the worst economic crisis since the great depression. But I’d rather take my time to find something I enjoy rather than just keep working at something that isn’t fulfilling.

So, that was first thing in the morning. Then I came home for lunch and told Jess. She was kinda shocked (we had talked about it, but she didn’t think I was going to do it today), but has been really supportive. Then in the afternoon I went back to work (I am still going to be working for the next few weeks, not going to just walk out on them). After work I had a meeting with a career consultant, Pam Robertson. How’s that for a coincidence? I had set the meeting up earlier this week, but I guess it worked out well that it was today. She gave me a lot of really great advice for what to do as I’m looking for a new job, and how to decide what it is I really want to do.

And that brings me to what it is I want to do; I think I want to work in something related to the internet (kinda broad…). I spend all my time on the internet, and I’m interested in all the cool new things that are going on right now online, but I just don’t have all the skills right now to really get into that industry. So, I’m gonna try and figure out something more specific and then figure out how to get there.

This will probably make this blog a bit more interesting…I’ll be keeping track of my progress figuring this all out. I’m excited, I hope everything goes well…

Filed under: Everyday, Everyday, job, job search, quit, thursday, web