So I’m a Controller. I originally got my degree in Finance and did some selling, very feast or famine.
Ended up landing accounting gigs and turns out I’m very good at that. Turns out very few people can do debits/credits and have business sense (people skills, positive attitude, project management…etc). A few catches:
I hate the work I do. I thought it was just my immaturity at first. One of my catch phrases is “if it were fun they wouldn’t pay me.” But it turns out I have a visceral hatred for being chained to a desk paying bills, reconciling accounts, payroll, audits etc… It’s to the point where my chest tightens (heart rate the whole deal) and I get angry on the way in and I don’t decompress till I’m home for 2 hours. My uncontrollable physiological disgust at my job makes me a worse person. Naturally I try to keep it together and treat everyone with respect.
My last 3 jobs there’s been layoffs/reorganizations that left me with 2-10x the workload. My most recent job it happened after 1 month on the job. I take the job, then bam: 3 out of 5 of my team gets cut. I’m just expected to take up the slack and work the unpaid OT. I do it every time and get great reviews and awards for performance and projects. I should be greatful to even have a job, but I’m not.
The wife just injured her foot and she will be laid up for a few months. We have two very small kids and I took a few sick days to be with her. That made some reporting of mine late (literally no team to delegate to). I went in at 9pm last night after they were all in bed to work on it (can’t remote in). Something in the ERP system broke and I lost dozens of entries and days worth of work. I lost my cool and started cussing and throwing shit. Luckily the office was empty. This isn’t the guy I want to be lol.
Long term I’d like to be an accredited real estate investor with a portfolio of income properties so when I die the family has a legacy.
But right this minute I need a day job to pay the bills and dig out of my financial hole so I can prudently invest (Dave Ramsey style sort of).
I can cut grass, trim trees, move furniture, run a lathe/drillpress, sweat pipes, lay tile, hang drywall, face to face sales, allocate a portfolio, budget, forecast, reconcile anything, manage an audit, respond to an audit, outwork my competition, out-think my competition etc…
Not sure what to do next. If I got an offer trimming trees or digging ditches tomorrow for even a $10k cut I would take it this…very…second.
Thoughts? Exhortations? I feel like I’m an ungrateful jerk for hating my job… I’ve tried everything to put a better face on it and get out of my own damn head… But I can’t.
I have a great job that I enjoy, but I want the above. So, I got a small group of very ambitious aquiantences that have varying specialties. We have put cost models, building concepts, etc together and are proposing to investors with a sweat equity proposition for their initial capital investment.
Any takers? I’ve partnered up with a money guy to be the sweat equity in some deals (1099/and or partner). That way I could build a portfolio of successful deals that I could show potential backers.
Three, meet with them at the end of May. The biggest thing I did, was include a successful business owner that is known in the community. He is a known face to the business side. I’m the face to the construction management side. Together, we’ve been successful gaining interest from investors.
Oh yeah, absolutely. It’s why the move to North Dakota was so crucial, haha. While I was there, those guys were turning down a lot of work. Demand was super high.
That sucks, I’m in FP&A and it’s really not bad. I actually have the opposite problem. This job doesn’t offer enough for me. I bet you could become a business manager with a click of your fingers and it’s a 6 figure job for even a mid-sized company.
Sign up at biggerpockets.com if you want to get involved in real estate. I was like you and hated my job but once I started seeing the the corporate gig as a way to start buying real estate it changed how I felt about going to work. Instead of feeling like I was being used like a dog I then started to feel in control. I was now using the job as a means to an end and using the sizeable W2 income to use the bank for loans. Steer your own ship! That was 3 years ago and now I own 2 single family homes and a duplex all making me $$$ while I sleep. All cuz I hated my job.
Also keep in mind if you take a pay cut you also stand higher chance of being denied for loans if you want to invest. Use those corporate weasels to your advantage… banks loooove to loan money to W2 stiffs like us.
It has only passing relationship with either zen or motorcycles. It is about getting yourself in a mode of thinking and acting where you are satisfied.
The malaise you describe will not go away with a career change. You have to change yourself (or really how you think/deal with things and seek quality* in whatever and then you are ready to know what career to follow.
“quality” has a special meaning in the book. Not exactly what you think.
If I were you I’d leave it all behind and start my own business. I am giving you the advice that I took myself so long ago. And I never regretted it. I push myself harder than any boss every pushed me but I know at the end of the day it’s all mine. I’ve started businesses and sold them and then jumped right back in and did it again.
I can tell by your personality, from your posts, that you are more independent and I think you’d do well on your own.
If you have any questions that I can ever help you with you only need ask.
Been there. Done that. Had a side business grossing over $350k. Then the department of State shut me down. I learned ALOT. I also made every mistake in the book. I will jump in again after I heal mentally and financially from this 5 year cluster f^#@.
Sorry to hear of your problems. No one deserves to be treated poorly by government agencies.
I’m sure you have a big government horror story to tell. I’d love to hear it…I tangled with just about every government agency over the past 30 years. Now you know why I rant on about big government and the left killing jobs.
Pretty simple story. My wife and I target shoot casually as a hobby. In college I got into reloading. I met an older guy who ran the local supply shop out of his basement. We ended up working for him as a 3rd job. Helped him get setup on EBay, started exporting and went with him to gun shows. After college I couldn’t afford the loan to buy him out. So I went off and got day jobs.
He had an accident on the road and 90% of his inventory burnt up. Nobody hurt thank God. His wife gave him an ultimatum to get out and we bought what was left, he carried the paper.
So as we start running things we find that the margins are razor thin domestically. By the time we pay Ebay/Paypal/CC Fees/gunshow tables/taxes etc… There’s nothing left for us. Domestic competitors were killer to compete with.
So we check with the ATF and start marketing and exporting to foreign customers. It was pretty simple, no military calibers and fill out the customs forms correctly. No problem and actually profitable. We had many regular resellers all over the world. Cool people we never would have met otherwise. Till one day in Jan 14 the wife calls me at my day job:
"There were 5 federal agents here to see you. "
“What did you tell them?”
“I asked if they had a warrant, they said no. They gave me their card and left.”
Long story short the department of State reinterpreted a rule about what constitutes “defense articles” in 2014. Basically I fell under new regs where I had to comply with the same laws as if I was exporting sidewinder missiles. Including a $2,500/shipment fee. This was for disassembled sporting components (bullets/brass/tooling) not even ammo. We went from healthy sales and growth to ZERO overnight. I tried to hang on and compete domestically for two years, but to no avail.
That’s my sob story. Not quite bankrupt, but still paying crap off for a long time. The previous owner just repo’ d what was left. So coulda been way worse.
I recently got into the wastewater treatment industry. Been doing it for about 9 months now. It’s a pretty laid back environment. Most of your time is spent monitoring or recording numbers. The pay is decent to start, but you can advance quickly if you advance in your certifications.
Water treatment is a more relaxed environment, but harder to get into as more people want to be on that side. There’s also water distributions and waste water collections (sewer systems), but they usually don’t pay as much and the work is harder. But if you enjoy being more active, you may want to look into that.
I know how you feel. I’m in a similar situation. Hate my job (purchasing). Degree in Finance (but I’m not using it). Need the day job to pay the bills and dig out of a financial hole. Want to get into real estate investment (I also have a second bachelors degree in real estate).
I get really depressed on Sunday nights because I know the weekend is over and I have to go to work in the morning.
Want to do something different, but not sure what to do next.