Your first job out of school paid $45K. You say you weren’t fired, or walked off, but your performance was lackluster.
But in your OP, you say “Because I was cultivating a severe drinking problem at the time, I was not able to perform my job functions and had to get out of there within months.”
Let me guess, you were hired as a sales rep, you underperformed. didn’t hit your goals, and it was suggested that, “no hard feelings, but you might want to look for something else.”
So then you got the second job, didn’t get along with your boss and got fired. Then you found a third job, showed up late, left early and finally quit.
Now you have your life together (congratulations!) but you want to know why you aren’t getting job offers for $50K anymore? Seriously? Take a look at your work history. Plus, you don’t want to relocate. Trust me, every potential employer in your area already knows who you are and what you’ve done.
So you’re going to have to pay your dues to get where you want to go – and I don’t mean for a year or two, but long enough that people start to forget the last two years. Then you have to decide whether you want to stay where you’re currently living – which means you may spend your life being a farmer with a side job – or relocate and have a regular job and maybe a weekend hobby farm.
In the meantime, I’d recommend you work your ass off, take whatever advancement you can get at your current job, and stay away from bars. Even if you’re just drinking diet 7-Up, people will talk.
I only made the comment about getting a dui in college because rachel said something to the effect of ‘getting a dui is not some walk in the park that any college student can get’ because where I went to college, it certainly was, though I wouldn’t call it a walk in the park.
My first job out of college I neither was asked to leave nor did I get fired. I showed up every day on time, hungover and got my work done. The fact that I was too far away from home and quickly developing a case of liver failure from the stress of the job made me decide I had to get the hell out of there. So I did, after four months. The boss gave me a good review when I left and was sad to see me go. Said I was a good person. I didn’t fuck it up, I just couldn’t take it anymore, mainly because it was too far from home and being hungover made it extra hard to do my job.
The second job, while I was there for awhile longer, nine months, was okay. I quit drinking for awhile while I was there but persistant baragements from my boss about every little thing didn’t help do much for my job ethic. I was looking for a job for a month and a half before I got canned there. And the boss still asks my mom on a regular basis how I’m doing because he knew I had a drinking problem and knew my dad his whole life. Not that that means anything.
The third job, well I suppose I did fuck that up. I know I wouldn’t get a good reference from them.
Call me entitled, but I don’t when I’m grinding cheese with a bunch of non-English speakers just because they need more help. You think I’m missing out on work ethic. My dream job would be one where I make $100 grand a year and ‘sit on my ass all day’. My dream girl is smoking hot with big tits and no mental issues and actually likes me for me. Both of them are dreams though.
If I had a higher paying job with less manual labor involved now, which I am qualified for, I would do it with the best of my abilities, just like I do my factory shift work job now to the best of my abilities.
I only made the comment about getting a dui in college because rachel said something to the effect of ‘getting a dui is not some walk in the park that any college student can get’ because where I went to college, it certainly was, though I wouldn’t call it a walk in the park.
My first job out of college I neither was asked to leave nor did I get fired. I showed up every day on time, hungover and got my work done. The fact that I was too far away from home and quickly developing a case of liver failure from the stress of the job made me decide I had to get the hell out of there. So I did, after four months. The boss gave me a good review when I left and was sad to see me go. Said I was a good person. I didn’t fuck it up, I just couldn’t take it anymore, mainly because it was too far from home and being hungover made it extra hard to do my job.
The second job, while I was there for awhile longer, nine months, was okay. I quit drinking for awhile while I was there but persistant baragements from my boss about every little thing didn’t help do much for my job ethic. I was looking for a job for a month and a half before I got canned there. And the boss still asks my mom on a regular basis how I’m doing because he knew I had a drinking problem and knew my dad his whole life. Not that that means anything.
The third job, well I suppose I did fuck that up. I know I wouldn’t get a good reference from them.
Call me entitled, but I don’t when I’m grinding cheese with a bunch of non-English speakers just because they need more help. You think I’m missing out on work ethic. My dream job would be one where I make $100 grand a year and ‘sit on my ass all day’. My dream girl is smoking hot with big tits and no mental issues and actually likes me for me. Both of them are dreams though.
If I had a higher paying job with less manual labor involved now, which I am qualified for, I would do it with the best of my abilities, just like I do my factory shift work job now to the best of my abilities.
You aren’t better than the Hispanic people working alongside you.
And you aren’t doing favors by letting them be in your fabulous presence. You’re getting paid for your labor, just like they are.
I worked with a guy who hated that all his co-workers were Hispanic guys too. He thought he was better than they were–he deserved better just by virtue of…I have no idea. He was a whiny 40-something year-old who blamed everyone but himself for why he couldn’t be all that he wanted to be, and he was an irritating person to be around. He too was an alcoholic.
You are free to feel lousy and sad for all the things you once had and now don’t. Feelings like these shouldn’t be swallowed because they motivate you to work harder. But PLEASE don’t irritate the people around you by bragging about how you don’t “deserve” what you have. No one deserves anything in this life.
If 100% of the students at your school were getting DUI’s, then yes, you’d have a valid point. Considering only people who were driving drunk were the ones getting DUIs, though, you don’t have a leg to stand on.
Haven’t students from your school heard of WALKING home drunk from the bars?
So because you kept showing up to work hungover, you weren’t able to perform as well as you’d normally have been able to, and because you were drinking yourself to death eventually had to leave. How is that not fucking up?
PS: stress from working doesn’t cause liver failure. Alcohol abuse causes liver failure.
Ahh, now we get down to it. Big badass college kid with an Ag degree (of all things) fucks up 3 great jobs and is now relegated to working with … with … FOREIGNERS!
Yes, you’re entitled and you’re obviously spoiled.
Yes, because you’re above manual labor …
… qualified for … because you managed to BS your way through 4 years of college classes and you managed to hold onto a job for 9 whole months after graduation?
You can rise above your fuckups of the past - EVERYONE fucks up. But so far all I’ve seen is excuse after excuse. You’re like the kid in class that wants a gold star for remembering to bring in your homework assignment, never mind that you halfassed the assignment.
You don’t get a good job just because you have a degree. A degree gets your foot in the door IF you’re lucky. After that you’d better produce, and so far from what you’ve told us, you haven’t.
You wanted advice, so here’s the best I can give you: you’re going to have to move. Unless you are FABULOUSLY talented or a bona fide expert on something useful, jobs aren’t going to come looking for you, you’ve got to move to where the jobs are.
When I was a kid, I used to have lofty dreams, and I’d regale my mother with my list of wants. Her answer was blunt: “People in Hell want ice water.”
And when I became a parent, my kids used to whine to me, “That’s not fair!”
My answer to them was equally blunt: “Life’s not fair. Get over it.”
Re-read my answer to you at the top of the thread. I told you to quit looking backwards, face the future, and give your present job at least five years of dedicated service.
Your school record (the GPA, the research papers, the class attendance) is ONLY worthy of consideration when you are looking for your first job after graduation. Ten years from now, that degree is just a block to fill in on an application form. Having a degree is an indicator that you possess a certain level of intelligence, that you are TEACHABLE.
Your work history is what prospective employers look at ten years from now.
However you wish to gloss over it, right now your work history is garbage. You were probably a week or two from being FIRED at that first, wonderful, idyllic dream job.
If you decide to “forget” past jobs in your resume, well, then you’ll have to make up something when a prospective employer says, "What were you doing for those six months ‘between jobs?’ "
Here’s the deal. If you stay at your present job for at least five years, if you stay sober, if you take advantage of any promotional opportunities at your present job, if you learn about all the different job assignments of the people both beneath you and at the same level you are, and if you volunteer to help out wherever an extra hand is needed, IF you do all of those…well, maybe your degree will regain some of its shine again, and maybe your previous rotten work history won’t matter so much.
Fact of life: preventing a mess is a helluva lot easier than cleaning one up. You made a great big stinkin’ mess, and it’s gonna take awhile before the stain goes away.
I’m gonna giggle for the rest of the night over your dream job of being some sort of “supervisor” where you can sit on your butt all day and do nothing…and then go home to Tits Galore (who may not have any mental issues, but I bet she can’t cook worth a damn).
Where did I say I was better than the Hispanics I sometimes work with? And once again, I am not making up any excuses as to why I got my duis. I was trying to explain something to Rachel. It is wrong to drive drunk but not uncommon is all I was trying to say.
I did not ‘manage to bs my way through, of all things, an Ag degree.’ I worked my ass off just like the rest of them and got my diploma, 3.3 out of 4 GPA. I held some awesome internships and worked two part-time jobs like a rockstar all four years. And I don’t know what you mean by ‘of all things, an Ag degree’. Do you think my capstone course involved proper use of a pitch fork?
Not quite, Chimera. Lots of us non-Amish farmers use pitchforks on a regular basis.
I never took any equipment operation or maintenance classes. I took classes involving plant physiology, pathology, botany, soil science, fertility, insect biology and manegement, weed biology and management. I also took many accounting, economics, and business administration classes. Grain and livestock marketing too as well as animal health and nutritrition.
I also took the gamet of sociology, history, geography, math/calculus, biology/microbiology, and chemistry, among others.
I hope no one wants to down grade my choice of college studies. Considering my current employment I look at my diploma as a piece of paper but I’d like to get into a job where I can hang it over my desk in pride within a few years. I did once.
It takes time though I suppose all I can do is wait and see. And I am not better than anyone I work with, I never said that. I have/had a drinking problem and that got me into a lot of trouble but that is in my past and hopefully my lawyer can work something out for me and get me right in the eyes of the law again. Even the local sheriff smiles and waves when he see’s me these days so I think he respects me. If I can pull that off I will just keep trying.
I am a capable person. I have a big mouth, on the internet at least, but I know the difference between right and wrong and most people like me. My boss here at my last review said ‘keep kicking ass and taking names, you’re an asset to this place.’
Keep holding out at this place and do my best, wait for my troubled past to keep getting farther in the past, and keep trying I suppose. If non of that works then its back to college. Would like to start drinking again, that would help me cope with the frustration of having to work at $13.40 an hour when two years ago I was making $45,500 a year plus bonuses, but the feeling wears off, usually when I wake up in the morning, when I feel the need to replenish the need…
I don’t think I will go down that path again though. That’d be breaking one hell of a streak.
Just remember, I never said I was justified in getting two duis, I was driving drunk and got picked up, end of story. I NEVER said I was above doing manual labor or working with Hispanics. Those are words put in my mouth.
Outside of work and drinking, the rest of my life has been a benchmark of responsibility for someone my age. I one my own house, vehicles and the bank and I own 290 acres of farm land. I’m making improvements on that land and although its been too wet to put in a decent crop the last year, I will keep trucking. A lot of my old neighbors stop by and tell me how impressed they are by me and to keep my chin up in poor years.
I’ve never written a bad check, got one speeding ticket, and I don’t have any welfare cases (kids out of wedlock). I’ve never tried an illicit drug, I’ve just drank too God damn much and made bad choices while I was drinking.
I’m just trying to figure out if I’m truely fucked or if I should keep working on that dream job I am qualified before, like when I got out of college. If not, well then I will keep grunting at this current job and maybe go back to school.
I was expecting at least a 3.8 GPA based on how you keep bringing up how hard you worked your ass off and how qualified you are. A 3.3 is good. But based on the grade distributions of most universities nowadays, it’s probably not that big of a deal either.
If you want my 2 cents you need to stop looking back at that “dream job” and figure out where you want to go. Your drinking and related job history aren’t insurmountable obstacles, but going into an interview say you’re going to have to be prepared to explain them.
And then point to how you’ve gotten yourself together since. Sounds like at this job you’ve proven to be dependable and a hard worker. That’s a good start.
Now decide what it is you want to do and focus on what you need to do to get that, regardless of whether that was your past job or some other job.
Look, MPB, you may feel you’re doing some sort of public service announcement here, but dragging your opinion of rachelellogram’s worth into a thread seeking advice is insulting, jerkish behavior. If you feel the need to detail her shortcomings, you know the way to the pit. Otherwise, keep your mouth shut. You’ve been told this before, by the way, and I see no reason to tolerate it any further. You’ll be receiving official warnings in the future.
I think you need to keep on keeping your chin up. Keep on at the job you’ve got–doing it well & looking for advancement. Keep on not drinking & not getting arrested. Do consider furthering your education. Forget about “that dream job” that a younger you pissed away; but a stable work record & improving skills *will *qualify you for a better job in the future. To some of us, you’re still painfully young–but you’ve begun growing up. It’s an ongoing process.
Your refusal to relocate might keep you from quick advancement. But you ties to that land might remind you that you’re in it for the long haul.