What to do when you suck at your job? (employees, credit, interview)
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I admit what few will. I suck at my job. I not only admit that, I suck at my career.
I've managed to survive and even earn a promotion because I work really hard. I put in more hours than others that are more respected and utilized than me, and I am a very pleasant 'yes' man.
But somehow, someway I suck.
My reviews have all been positive, and I've tried to pry negative comments from management, but there are none. Even people who rarely use me for projects have mostly positive comments, and the negatives are trivial things. But still, they use others for their projects. I'm sure they call me an idiot behind my back. Ok, maybe I'm not too smart, but I'm not a total moron. I have an engineering degree, got really good grades. There must be something out there for me.
I've tried to take a paycut of tens of thousands of dollars to start a new career/field, but nobody wants to hire a 'loser'. They want to hire somebody who has stayed the straight path since age 22 and has all the same experience in all the same crap or they want to hire a fresh college grad. In retrospect, I should have chosen a career where my hours of hard work come through. And I don't give a **** about $ or status. So, maybe something a bit more along the lines of helping people. Again, a bit late.
So then, what do you do when you're in this situation?
And I know this being CD forum, people are going to say, "Well, it's a dog eat dog world, and you suck and I rule." Great. I knew that already.
It doesn't sound like you suck, OP. It sounds like you've done alright in your career for the most part. I don't think you should discredit yourself because you're not a rock star in your field. Most people don't get to the point you're at on raw talent alone. Much success is attributed to hard work and commitment. Have you heard of the 10,000 hour rule of thumb? It basically says that 10,000 is the minimal requirement for becoming not only proficient, but very good at a particular skill. So your hard work and determination has clearly paid off to some extent.
Not exactly sure what your resume looks like, but I don't think that you're being fair to yourself. You don't think you're a quality candidate for any other job? Heck, if you think that, then I really feel bad about myself. I always smack myself for not just pursuing something like engineering, because it seems to be the only degree that literally everyone thinks you can do any job, even if it's not in engineering. I constantly have to answer the "what do you do with that?" when people ask me what my degree is in. I imagine that you have some transferrable skills that you can put to work in other professions outside of engineering.
I think that you need to not be so hard on yourself, and instead, have a more optimistic outlook on your potential. Maybe you don't become the leading expert in another field or industry. But I'd be very surprised if you can't at least achieve similar success as you have now, in another area.
If you really don't give a **** then just about anything is good enough.
In retrospect, I made some really bad career decisions.
But I don't understand why society is set up to keep people who are neither good at nor like their careers ... in those careers.
I mean ... it would be so much easier for me to get 15 interviews for jobs in my field, even if I get fired tomorrow, than get one interview to take a paycut and start over in something else...
Just kiss rear end, thrown people under the boss, sabotage others, and play the political game. There are countless people in corporate america who completely suck at all job functions and/or managing and they live a lifelong career in the company (many times getting perks and moving among various depts) just as long as they are friends/relatives with those in power.
I Can't even begin to describe the nonsense I've seen over the last 10 years. You don't need to be good at your job anymore. In fact, being good at what you do is a complete crapshoot:
1. The company will just take advantage of you because they too LAZY to invest in their workforce so they will just throw all the work onto one person who "gets it" and will get it done.
2. You will have difficult time getting promoted because the see point #1, the company will want to continue taking advantage of you
3. No matter how valuable you are you will enjoy the same crappy annual raise across the board that even the useless employees do. So why become valuable?
4. Most people hate those employees who can make the useless turds above look useless and clueless.
Truth is, you're better off being a complete brown nosing useless weasel in today's corporate climate. You'll get further chances are. Knowing everything and working circles around far less qualified people get you nowhere today. Sure, it may make you avoid the "Layoff chop block" UNTIL it finally comes between you and some useless weasel who had their head buried up upper management's rear for the last 5 years.
Being some "superstar" is nothing but a crapshoot today
Well, to be honest, I think you're ahead of the game because A LOT of people suck at their jobs, most don't know it or choose to be blissfully ignorant of their competency whether good or bad. Now that you know you suck at it, you can at the very least know what you need to do to fake it and make it seem like you know your job.
And honestly, maybe you just need more time. Companies expect a lot out of employees these days. No more perspective of investing in employees and training them from the ground up. Now employers expect employees to get all their training out of the workplace and come in Day 1 ready to rock and roll. It's terribly unrealistic, but doesn't seem to change most company's minds. I felt terrible at a new job I once started for 6 months, then things just began to click from doing them more over and over. After a year, I was so proficient I was able to do a 40 hour workweek in about 20 hours. A far cry from my first few months where I literally felt like the biggest failure and terribly incompetent.
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