Anyone else reluctantly facing the fact that it's time to downshift your career?

[nina_yyc]

I have worked 70+ hours a week over the last three weeks, no OT and lieu time is a maybe at best.  I've gotten a thank you but not from the people who matter.  Corners have been cut to meet deadlines and I will probably be held responsible.  I've been intentionally overbooked while having no say in scheduling or deadlines and meanwhile been held responsible for maintaining a server and training a new assistant.

I keep thinking to myself this is what I get for taking a 'career' job.  I invested 6 years working in my field before DD#1 was born and went back after mat leave because of a ridiculously good salary offer.  I spent the next four years working a job not a career but I made good money and kept my foot in the door while getting a sweet deal on hours, paid mat leave and then a part time schedule after DS.  After 8 years with that company I was laid off just over a year ago. 

My industry is in tough times and I was ready to move on but within a week my current company offered to create a position for me.  They said straight up it would be 50 hours a week and at a pay cut over my old position which was 32.  I said yes anyway because my boss is "the best"...sort of a House/Devil Wears Prada scenario.  The personalities and office politics have been very difficult but until recently the hours worked out to more like 45/week so I could manage - barely. 

Anyway now I like my job but I just wish I had it 10 years ago, when I didn't have bigger priorities and a huge daycare bill making a decent salary into minimum wage.  I'm not the breadwinner in our family.  I originally made the decision to work outside the home when we really needed the money and I wanted a career in our family that didn't involve my husband's shiftwork, but he got a promotion a year ago and that's not a factor anymore. 

I feel like I have spent *years* paying my dues and I will still end up working retail.  We don't immediately need the money I make but my job does pay for long term security.  Of course it's worth it to be a better wife and mom but it still sucks.

[Alenushka]

Find another job. Do not quit until you do. Husbands leave, die or loose jobs. 5-10 year gap on your resume will make it impassably to find a job,

At first, 50% of my salary went into day care but I am glad I stuck with it. I now have a job I love. It came very handy when my DH was disabled for months and months.

[nina_yyc]

There won't be another job.  I work in corporate video/television.  The bottom is in the process of falling out of that industry.  Budgets and wages are only going down.  The only other choices are to start my own business as a freelancer or to make a career change.  What has held me back from doing that is neither of those would be 'career' choices.  They would be 'job' choices.  

If I work freelance I will not be doing interesting television or film work or cash in by doing corporate work, because those things involve equipment costs and tight deadlines.  I'll be doing work where turning down a job and working at a family friendly pace will not put me on a blacklist.  Home videos. Weddings.  I have about zero interest in doing that and it wouldn't be very profitable.  I could not pay for childcare and would be draining my marriage by working evenings and weekends.  I'm fine with sucking it up and doing that, but my point is that I would be trading a career for a job.

If I do a career change I would not be looking for something that suits my interests.  I would be looking for minimal education cost and maximum wages and flexibility.  There would be no other way I could justify to my family to pay for childcare or to cover my home and family responsibilities so I could study.  This would also be a job and not a career.

Sorry to be cranky about this, but this isn't a case of "at first."  I've been in the same field for 12 years and finally facing up to the fact that even if I still believed I could be successful, I'm no longer willing to do what it takes.

[Alenushka]

There thousands of career. Look outside the box. I was married to someone in your industry and I think it is very common in that industry to think that way. You are not cranky you are doing what any normal cautious person would do.

They do have use for the people with your skillsin the online world as well.

[graciegal]

You could teach. We have a degree in your field here at my Tech College where I teach. Just an idea!