About to step down from a salary job to an hourly job - need advice for when I try to find another salary job

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hi folks, a little bit about myself - I spent ten years as a rotating shift plant operator in one way or another. I worked my butt off and got some awesome raises where my last job I was making ridiculous money to do what I considered to be next to nothing. I had a goal set as I had observed folks in a certain role from my experience in getting into a home based, company vehicle, service/sales position visiting these plants I worked at.

Last shift job was awesome, but I was fed up, as I was told that due to the company’s structure that they would have a similar (traveling) position at some point which never happened, so I started reaching out.

In my last job, I had to stick my nose in a book and gain certification in a certain skill set. I ended up taking a home based, salaried, company vehicle job in a role of business development to what I would call a distant 2nd cousin to the discipline that I got certified in. A year into it, I hate it. I’m not a salesman. If I were to be a salesman it would have to be something I was passionate about, and this is not it. I have had no training, and I was recently told that I could do better, so my ego is hurt. Plus, there is toxicity in my group of colleagues due to my boss’s ego clashing with others’ (I’m not just saying that because I’m about to screw the job up either).

So, I’m walking around with a stress headache all the time. Finally came to terms with it a month ago and started applying out again. Would like a traveling, home based job in SERVICE, but not in sales. Things are not materializing and of course I’m chomping at the bit since I took this last week off and am dreading fudging my way back to work.

Applied with an old stand-by. A plant identical to one I worked at only owned by a major corporation so pay and bennies are much better. They were not messing around as I got a phone call from HR for interview the 29th, interview the 30th and offer the 31st. It’s very handsome but not as high as an hourly wage as I had before since it’s back on the floor and not as a supervisor/lead like I was before when I was hourly. Plus it’s rotating 12 hour shifts again which sucks but I’ll do it again.

I’m gonna accept it, this is one of the best companies in the area to work for if not THE best, but how do I handle things if it’s not my end game? I will put my nose down and go to work, I can easily put my ego aside, but how do you handle it resume and interview-wise when that traveling service guy job comes around for why I stepped back to a lesser role? Does one be completely honest and say I talked myself into something I ended up hating because I didn’t vet jobs out properly? Anybody else have this situation?

2

No way. You say you took the position to complement your career trajectory and build skills in related areas.

3

Ego aside, enjoying/tolerating your work is better than having to dread and grunt thru each and every day. You can say there was a specific aspect of the job that was not a good fit for you.

4

In times of Covid, everyone has a built in excuse for any job shifts that may have been necessary, I should think.

You’re overthinking this, try and relax a little!

and Good Luck!

5

In my last job, I had to stick my nose in a book and gain certification in a certain skill set. I ended up taking a home based, salaried, company vehicle job in a role of business development to what I would call a distant 2nd cousin to the discipline that I got certified in. A year into it, I hate it. I’m not a salesman. If I were to be a salesman it would have to be something I was passionate about, and this is not it. I have had no training, and I was recently told that I could do better, so my ego is hurt. Plus, there is toxicity in my group of colleagues due to my boss’s ego clashing with others’ (I’m not just saying that because I’m about to screw the job up either).

I think it’s reasonable to say you took on a role that seemed like a natural career progression. It ended up being more “sales” than you were told and unrelated to your technical area of expertise. You tried it for a year and now you want to move on to something more in line with your expertise and career interests.

6

To me, when I was in the big business world, the question was always “Will this position lead to a better one?”
If it’s a static position, that leads nowhere, then take it on as a survival job and keep looking. If there are possibilities down the road, look at it differently and see where it leads.

7

Appreciate the replies. I am taking this job as a placeholder so to speak until something better comes around. The placeholder job is still a very good one - not just running a machine that pumps out widgets. Just trying to figure out how or if I should include it or the current job I’m about to leave on a resume.

And as another person said, I’m probably just overthinking things. Considering the job economy, not too many folks would probably look down at me considering how stellar my last ten years’ worth of work experience has been other than this current job.