Motivation to work hard

[Sosaria]

did you find yourself competing with fresh grads when u made a drastic career switch?

financial consequences may affect the family which i'm trying to avoid.

 

No, because it was a mid-career job requiring some years of work experience, except that my first qualification didn't seem enough, so I got the message to bolster it further with a higher qualification.

 

I cannot switch to a fresh grad job already by then... money not enough

 

It's not so obvious what to do to secure a new job. I took years, easily more than 2 (!) of job searching, going for interviews, facing rejection of multiple interviews. I got the message that some extra qualification would help - maybe it did or did not.

 

But over the time, I got opportunity to rehearse interviews, got better at giving more impressive answers, and finally managed to switch!

 

It was a very busy period, studying, and preparing resumes, applying for new job, going for interviews - all while juggling the current work and family. But sometimes the busy-ness is good because it occupies you, makes you feel productive and engaged, preventing you from being depressed and feeling hopeless.

[Icedbs]

he say engineer no prospect.

 

i told him it's down to himself. doesnt mean you study engineering forever will be stuck in a technical role.

 

use the knowledge as a engineer to move on to other role. sales. BD. CI.

 

sometimes ppl just dont see it that way bah.

 

Some people are not willing to get out of their comfort zone.

 

IMO, engineers have the potential to be the most flexible and easy to fit into many roles, but most are stuck in their engineering mindset. For those who are willing to breakout from that mindset, I have seen them climbing really high.

 

For those who wanna move up to top mgmt or C level, be prepared to be good in all these

 

1) Sales or Biz development

2) People management under a business role

3) P&L management

 

Most of the top level pple I know have work on all the above sometime in their career. If you wanna move up or find yourself stuck, ask yourself which of the above you have not done before and be willing to strive and try it out.

Edited June 7, 2013 by Icedbs

[Little_prince]

Not neccessary.

 

Best pay are still corporate jobs...but you need to be very good.

 

Gov jobs to me are for stability. If I am a girl with little aspiration to climb, just want some stability and time for family, I would go for gov jobs.

REad properly. I said overall pay vs work life balance.

 

Top corp jobs pay is definitely better. But work life balance is correspondingly worse.

[Jamesc]

Ask your boss for raise lor, say that you contribute more should get more.

For a pay rise need a brown nose.

 

My nose is white and thats why I am

 

one of the lowest paid managers

 

in my company.

 

[Leslielai]

Some people are not willing to get out of their comfort zone.

 

IMO, engineers have the potential to be the most flexible and easy to fit into many roles, but most are stuck in their engineering mindset. For those who are willing to breakout from that mindset, I have seen them climbing really high.

 

For those who wanna move up to top mgmt or C level, be prepared to be good in all these

 

1) Sales or Biz development

2) People management under a business role

3) P&L management

Most of the top level pple I know have work on all the above sometime in their career. If you wanna move up or find yourself stuck, ask yourself which of the above you have not done before and be willing to strive and try it out.

 

Have done all the above plus operations now.. does that mean I will be C level someday?

 

Ok lah on a serious note, you are right. Those who feel stuck should seek a broader experience across functions and I feel the best way to do that is to try to switch to a smaller (and therefore less rigidly-defined org structure) organisation.

 

 

[Hydrocarbon]

For a pay rise need a brown nose.

 

My nose is white and thats why I am

 

one of the lowest paid managers

 

in my company.

 

 

But work is not just about what you can do mah, is how your boss perceive your contributions to his wallet. A little 125 is important la. If it doesn't work, just find someone else who values your contributions lor.

[Torquey]

Your current job sounds quite suck but please see what's within your control and what's not --- most likely your superior and the company culture / policies etc could be hard to change especially if you have already discussed, if at all possible, your issues with your superior and it still doesn't look like things will improve.

 

Is it possible to adjust your expectations, level of tolerance, long term career view, etc? Whatever it is now, the job still brings food to the table at home. Think of how your hours at work, no matter how unpleasant or unbearable, keep your family, the kids, going. This is an achievement in itself, ie your enduring the difficulties at work.

 

Maybe you can divert more energies towards your loved ones, less on the unpleasantness at work. As some bros suggested, find a way to re-train which could open up more job opportunities. This won't be easy, but worth putting your energies into.

 

Oh, try appreciate small pleasant, ordinary things around you.

 

Just my 2 cents

 

changing the corporate culture or superior.........perhaps if we go on strike

no doubt its the little things that keeps us going, most important i can feed the family.

the age & job level at which the career stagnates can make a big difference.

[Jamesc]

I quote one smart person on the radio.

 

If you not happy with your job

 

Just resign or resign lah.

 

Either resign your job if you can

 

and if your cannot

 

Just resign to fate.

 

 

 

[Jman888]

changing the corporate culture or superior.........perhaps if we go on strike

no doubt its the little things that keeps us going, most important i can feed the family.

the age & job level at which the career stagnates can make a big difference.

 

 

you didn't disclose how old are you?

 

coming to 40? if that is the case, sometime look beyond what you are doing now and focus on motivation and satisfaction outside your career.

 

learning new skill (self study or go for course that is non related to what you are doing), picking up new hobbies, improving family relationships, doing volunteer work, etc.

Edited June 7, 2013 by Jman888

[Jamesc]

But work is not just about what you can do mah, is how your boss perceive your contributions to his wallet. A little 125 is important la. If it doesn't work, just find someone else who values your contributions lor.

Its always nice to have a bigger pay.

 

But I can get by with what I am paid

 

so if I need to brown nose to get

 

more then I don't need it.

 

Anyway its not something I have

 

any experience in.

 

[Hydrocarbon]

Its always nice to have a bigger pay.

 

But I can get by with what I am paid

 

so if I need to brown nose to get

 

more then I don't need it.

 

Anyway its not something I have

 

any experience in.

 

 

Haha, don't get me wrong, I didn't mean that you are brown noser or anything like that.

 

But true la, as long as you're contented with what u have, can liao.

[Kiadaw]

If you do not mind uprooting, or have cross your mind to work oversea, in Germany, they are always looking into high quality Engineers, doing high quality engineering work, especially in the automotive sector.

 

Of course to get into the big 3 is very hard, as every other engineer wanted to get there, but once inside, I heard you can almost drive a decent BMW for free, sometomes even make money from your car. They sell you are a very low price (to encourage you from buying their own cars, presumely, instead of Audi), so when you sell it in a year or so to the market, its almost the same price as you bought.

 

because, its situated in the south, not only the landscape more pretty, with the mountains & all, but more parties & beers.

 

Anyway, unless you work for some goverment related Engineering work, in a typical MNC, you almost always 2nd rated or something, compare to Engineer from their home nation. You will always have to justify why they want to pick you for teh job instead of say China, India or some cheaper countries. People from software should maybe relate this better.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2013 by Kiadaw

[AhJason]

Motivation to work hard.....what happens when you run out of it.

 

Under these circumstances how do you continue to motivate yourself:

 

Superior curtails your opportunity for exposure and self improvement,

Delegation of work not under your scope therefore results not reflected in your KPI,

Company has strong preference for new hires rather than promoting existing staff

Annual increment, if any, is less than inflation,

Lacklustre job market has diminished chances of moving on,

 

Has anyone got out of a similar rut? Pls share your inspiring paths.

 

When you think about your family, you know you have to carry on :) Why not take a short break to calm your mind? Maybe you are too tense.