What I Don’t Miss About My Day Job

When I first started going to college, I thought I had it all planned out. My plan was to go to college for something business related, make money (yes, I know how bad that sounds), but also not let money rule my life.

However, that all backfired.

I found a great job right after I graduated from undergraduate school. Well, at least, I thought it was great at the time. The job I had was the job that I was aiming for when I first started attending college, so I was happy with that.

But, after I worked that job for a few years and had my hustle growing on the side, it was hard to not realize what I was missing. I had no passion whatsoever for the work that I was doing.

Like I said, my day job wasn’t horrible. But, there are many things I don’t miss about my old day job:

The work.

I hated the work more than anything else about my day job. The items below don’t even compare to the work that I did, but they did give me additional reasons for why I should leave.

I used to work as a financial analyst. I won’t say my specific title because there aren’t many people with my same position in the St. Louis area and I don’t want to call anyone out right here on my blog.

My work was boring, hectic, and stressful all at the same time. I dreaded each day I went into work and I would count down every single second until my workday was over.

My normal day involved me analyzing merger/acquisition papers, partnership and business law, agreements, stocks, portfolios, and so on all day long. I would then have to crank out 50 to 75 page reports at least once a day. There were countless days where I produced 5 or more 50 page reports each day…

I also knew that I didn’t see myself there forever. I didn’t like the stress of wasting my employer’s time when I knew that they could have been out there searching for a replacement.

I left for the benefit of both me and them.

The inflexible workdays.

I know that mostly everyone has to work a set schedule, but working from around 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at a job I did not like was just not for me.

I was only able to enjoy my life on the weekends, and I knew that was something that I could not do for the rest of my life.

This next part applies to both this section and the section before: What I love about what I do now is that I have a flexible schedule. I can schedule my day for when I work best. Even though I couldn’t wake up to save my life in the mornings for my old day job, I actually have no problem at all now setting my alarm for 6:30 a.m. and working right at the moment with my online freelancing.

How quiet it was.

In my field, I worked with mostly men who were 50 and older, and I also worked independently for the most part as well. I didn’t talk to anyone for the three plus years that I had my analyst job.

This means that I worked 10 hour plus days, 5 days a week, for 3 years where I barely talked. I would come home and would ramble to Wes and my friends about the most random things on earth just because I had no work social life. It became a joke to everyone, but not talking was just not for me.

Anyway, this is Michelle! I have multiple blogs because I LOVE to talk!

The drive to work.

My drive definitely wasn’t horrible. It was usually somewhere around 15 minutes to work and 30 minutes (there was always a little bit of traffic on the way home) back home.

However, if there was an accident, I would often spend 3 to 4 hours just trying to get to work, or 3 to 4 hours just trying to get home. It was ridiculous and it happened way too often. This probably happened one time each week where I would get stuck in a ridiculous amount of traffic where I just had one mile left until I arrived to my office.

The limited vacation time.

The amount of vacation time that I received at my day job wasn’t bad at all, but it included any sick days, personal leaves, and I had to work like crazy before and after a vacation to make up for the fact that I even went on vacation.

I would plan every single last vacation day and sick day so that I would have enough to last me the year. That was not fun, especially when a funeral, the “anniversary” of my dad’s death came along, or something else along those lines happened. All of that had to be budgeted in, and it was usually not enough.

I don’t really have full “vacations” now as a self-employed person, but I have flexible workdays and I can bring my work with me to a vacation destination. That was really important to me. Yes, I work 24/7 now, but being location independent is much better for me.

What is your dream job? Do you enjoy your current job? Why or why not?

Image via Flickr by Yasser Alghofily