Why I left my job in the midst of a recession.

It was a risk.

But being in my early 30s, I know it’s time for me to make a career move as I was feeling stagnant in my previous role after 6 years. It’s essentially 3 years in the last company cause there was an acquisition that happened mid way so while I was in the same role it was two different companies in that 6 years.

Same role for 6 years you might ask?

I was literally the only one helming two roles at company A and there was no plans in expanding the team due to lack of resources, I can’t possibly be managing myself right?

After the acquisition, I do not need to carry dual roles and can instead focus on one vertical. But in the new company that acquired old company, that business unit was literally non-existent. There was a bit of action la but basically it was a lost child. Also it was covid and I didn’t want to lose my job so I volunteered to take up that role, and managed to grow that vertical along with a self motivated new sales person to something substantial. I set up the whole SOPs for that biz unit and got a proper flow running. Ran campaigns with super good margins for the company and also managed to run two major virtual events.

I was doing good work, but instead of lack of resources, it was lack of revenue to expand the team and that I’m doing a good job running the whole vertical on my own while supporting the sales people.

I think I did well because my manager then gave me a lot of trust and guidance when I needed it. My immediate colleagues were also a good supportive bunch.

But things changed.

My manager left. The lead for the sales team left. My partner in crime from the sales team was leaving. And the remaining people were just not supportive in terms as working as a team. Need my help to sit in pitch to close deal that time all smiley. Didn’t manage her clients properly then come and point fingers.

While that contributes to a certain % of the push factor, the economy, the lack of product support in my vertical and that promise of expansion which never came all contributed to me thinking of a job switch despite a recession happening.

I could essentially still stay and just rinse and repeat my processes on a day to day. But it’s literally at a stagnant stage. I could close my eyes and still do my job proper because I had that many years of experience to make it seem like it was an easy task. I also do not have to worry about being laid off as I’m in a revenue generating vertical and also an individual contributor and there was a round of lay offs done a month before I left.

But I’m not at a retirement age. I’m only in my early 30s! If I don’t make a change now, it will only get harder!

Hence, I decided it’s time to bid farewell. But of course not before I secured a new job opportunity with overall better prospects. (I got lucky but it was a calculated risk. More on that in another post)

#career #worklife #careerchanges #lemon8career #selfdefence