Know When To Fold Em'
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- TheGreatGlorpo
Looking for anyone that can relate to discovering that moment when you realize you are doing nothing but moving backwards in your current job. That moment when you know 100% that you will be unsatisfied by not being challenged, by working below your skill level, and by seeing no room for growth over the next few years.
I have reached that point myself and would not have expected to be here even 4 months ago. Feel duped into a change in position away from what I had a passion for, now feel like I'm back to what I started doing here 5 years ago. Going home every day totally stressed out, complaining too much to my wife, really utterly disappointed that even though I voiced my concerns to supervisors, nobody seems to care. It's a shitty, lingering moment. On the other side of it is the excitement of going after something new, finding the perfect thing that makes you excited to wake up and do what you're good at. Share your tales, please.
- MHDC0
What do you do... more importantly "what" would you rather be doing?
- Peter0
I forgot whom but there was some designer that said something along the line of:
"Bad companies are like cancer.
The longer you stick with them the more damage they will do to you".
Damage to your career, to your creativity, to yourself.He also said "Get out. As fast as you can".
I tend to agree.In fact I'm at a less than great place right now and in the coming few months half the workforce will leave. We've simply had it.
Despite half the company bringing up the problems faced, for months, nothing has changed. None of the heads or directors wants to admit their poor decisions and the ADD workstyle we're under ( http://scottberkun.com/2007/assh… ).
So there's just no other option.Granted the company I am at is notorious for their ADD. I should not have ignored the rumors, and I should not be surprised.
What I and most people leaving will do, and I'd advice op or anyone else to also do, is to rack it up as an experience and move on. Tons of other places deserves your talent.
- MHDC0
My story is this... as a collective in a small design agency, we got sick of "believing in others dreams" or businesses (small to medium sized btb biz) so we burned the ship and didn't look back. We committed to an idea (app) we believed in and went for it. 2 years later... It's all good and can't imagine the other life.
- technosoul0
I think we all know this feeling. Right now I'm cashing cheques and doing squat, it's a fat corporate job – but I'm utterly bored and I know I'm wasting my time here. I gotta get out, else I'm stuck here. The portfolio is suffering. Somewhere there has to be a gig with sane hours, decent pay and inspiring work. Seems like it's always 2/3 though.
- instrmntl0
I'm in the same boat.
- hektor9110
I use to be in one... and started freelancing. Now, after many years freelancing its killing me being at home all day.. and now want to start in small, medium or large agency. I worked for FOSSIL HQ for a couple of months and I have to admit I was really happy meeting new people every day, doing a project for the olympics one day and starting a new one in some part of the world the next.
- d_rek0
I went in-house from a small studio about 1.5 years ago. At first the allure of in-house was appealing.. steady hours, superb benefits, if not exactly ehilirating work... and it balanced well with my personal life. But not i'm sort of having seconds thoughts and feeling like I ought to be shopping around again. I suppose it's only natural for creative types to have disdain for complacency. We want to be challenged. We want to feel alive. We want to feel passion. Well, the other end of the story is that there are many ways to find those things in life. If you need the paycheck from your gig then you need to find a way to breakup your days after hours. Try freelancing. Initiate some self-starter projects. Take up a hobby. Get a girlfriend / wife / family. Just do something. If you don't you're bound to end up wondering why the hell the day-to-day is worth it. And if you decide it's not.. well there's that option too.
- Good thoughts. I try to tell myself "get in, work well, get out" and go home for time with wife, my own hobbies, etc.TheGreatGlorpo
- i agree with you man... i ride my bike almost every dayhektor911
- I think op means more about a hopeless company, rather than non-exciting work.Peter
- TheGreatGlorpo0
I was in a digital strategy position, doing functional planning, wireframes, writing requirements - actual consulting - thought provoking work I liked, with website clients. Had some rough patches but did good work ever since. Company changed stuff around, title changed, very little strategy anymore and back to doing very basic work - solving problems, dropping everything to troubleshoot tech issues. Worst part is that I tried to tell people other regional teams are lacking a "me" and I'm cornered into my team, unable to work outside it. So those teams suffer. It's really crazy. It just made me realize I have so much more to offer. There has to be a place I can thrive in, learn in, pump my fist to be at. Would like to get involved with a strong start up or something, maybe more ad/digital agency work.
The thing that kills me is that recent full projects have gone really well. If you told those clients I was not doing that any more and was now doing low-level non-strategic tech/PM work, they would all probably be shocked.
- Feel the same way except i'm front-end design / brand strategy / branding work... So much value to offer my company yet they don't see it.d_rek
- company, yet they don't quite understand that.d_rek
- If you are like me, you think to yourself "they will miss me when I"m gone."TheGreatGlorpo
- TheGreatGlorpo0
One good thing is that this is inspiring me to get involved in a professional organization, get out and be around others, network, etc. Good for me, and, if I stick around where I am at for a while, maybe they will notice I'm giving a crap.
- d_rek0
Yeah basically the team I work with is a 'cost-center' for our company. We literally save them tens-of-thousands of dollars by not having to farm out the work. Granted we all get paid pretty good (higher end of the median scale for our respective titles) and the benefits are again, really quite superb, but since there is no real culture of 'design' at my company what we do is looked at as merely another 'expense', never an 'investment'. It's a subtle difference but I think a rather important one.
- hektor9110
im planning to move to colorado, cali or washington and open a Medical Marijuana Dispensary develop a brand for it and down the road launch a product line to use marijuana. Note: there will be some designing going on.
- teh0
Use your skills to start something of your own. A non-profit, a line of clothing a label etc. Never lose your true self as a designer. Very rarely will you really get to do what you want for every job you do for a "company"
- tOki0
Man this sounds exactly like I've been feeling lately. Really deflated.
Trying to work out what my next move is, it's scary but always very liberating when it happens.
- mantrakid0
Scary when I feel that way and I've been working freelance for the past 7 years. Make good money, have good, consistent clients who pay their bills, really worked on building a solid foundation, busy all the time. But I am not challenged, and the financial comfort truly makes me lazy to find anything else or push things to the next level. First world problems. Just saying it's possible even when you think there's full freedom, the 'trapped' feeling is entirely manufactured by YOU (or me, in this case).
- whatthefunk0
I felt this way a couple years ago and started to volunteer as a pro-bono web designer for NYC non-profits on a team with other volunteers. It was a great experience and helped me to feel good about the work I do. I used to joke that my full time jobs were so unorganized and talk like "there were curing hunger" or something and then I volunteered for the New York Coalition Against Hunger where they were trying to cure hunger and it helped to put shit in perspective.
- JackRyan0
This helped me out a lot...
http://blog.pieratt.com/post/977…
- cirquemedia0
Quit your job and move, move somewhere you always dreamed of. In the end you will thank yourself for the journey. Or fall in love, that fixes/ruins all plans...
- spot130
simple but true: If you're not happy where you are, move somewhere else.
- doesnotexist0
imo it's caused by being in a weak state of mind. maybe from tight deadlines, recurring shit work, or other coworker's attitudes.
it happens to the best of us, but most of the time i feel that is surmountable if you change your state of mind.
- plus you should be following your dreams and ambitions, not someone elses. i know title hierarchy usually negates yours.doesnotexist
- your own dreams. but they should still be there and you should still manifest them.doesnotexist