Tough Situation - Advice anyone?

I'm a longtime member on here and set up this account for this post alone, as I have several coworkers on here and I don't want them knowing about this.

Anyway.

Ever been "stuck" at a job? What I mean by this is the following:

Ever get a job and not have any progression in ANY direction at all. You sit there and basically twiddle your thumbs all day long, hoping you get some work thrown at you, but instead you don't get jack squat. Meanwhile everything around you is a giant clusterbomb of things that need to be done, and you want to do them but you can't because you have ZERO guidance from management, and every time you attempt, you do it wrong.

I've been at a job for quite some time and this is the boat I am in. I'm only hurting myself by collecting a paycheck for doing nothing in a field I absolutely want to be in, yet I'm lacking the experience to apply to another company for the same position. I know once I do, and get an interview, they will ask "Well you have been at your position for 3 years now, explain what you do", and I will sit there dumbfounded.

This company has been spending a lot of money on me in terms of certifications for my position and my degree as well, but I don't use any of this knowledge at my position! One of the certs I have has an average salary of $135,000 a year, but what am I doing with it? NOTHING.

I'm going for another training event very soon (in a couple months) that is already paid for for another cert, however, I have started applying to jobs yesterday. I got a bite today and already have an interview this week, but this is for the position that I have a lot of experience in that I was in before this position. It made sense for me to apply to it. The salary is pretty much 75% more than what I'm making now, however, it's a step back from the career I've been working toward.

Question, before I continue babbling. Do I stick it out, see what happens next year or do I just go and interview for other jobs? What would you do? If you need a shorter and specific story, please PM me and I will give you that information (I know my post is vague).

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techfiend

Look for other positions that are more suited towards your goal.

I was in a similar situation recently, waited it out to try to last a year for the resume but didn't. Now I'm stuck unemployed and felt like a took a step back at the last position since I wasn't doing much of anything but heck I earned more certs on their dime. Now getting back to challenging things is a challenge. The longer you wait the worse it will get.

Jon_Cisco

It sounds to me like you should continue interviewing to get a feel for what options you have. If you have been there three years it is not likely the forth year will change anything.

I also suggest you research options for how you would like to change things at your current location. Even if you can not make the changes you can learn from the research.

yoba222

Anonymousse wrote: »

. . . I'm only hurting myself by collecting a paycheck for doing nothing in a field I absolutely want to be in, yet I'm lacking the experience to apply to another company for the same position. . .

Let the other company decide if you have enough experience for the job. If they don't like your resume, they won't call you. That's it.

Anonymousse wrote: »

. . . One of the certs I have has an average salary of $135,000 a year, but what am I doing with it? NOTHING. . .

I'd be very, very, very skeptical of average certification salary "studies" out there on the Internet. Particularly ones published by certification/training type companies.

Anonymousse wrote: »

It made sense for me to apply to it.

Made sense to whom? To you, or because you think that's what others should expect you to do?

EANx

Sometimes, you have to go backwards to go forwards. Where do you want to be five years from now? Since your current employer seems willing to pay for training, gather the certs you need then map out a plan to get to the place you want. This might involve taking a lower-paying job simply to get experience.

A lot of people are very short-sighted regarding pay and will resist taking a lower-paying job that would add the right skills to their portfolio. Be sure to look at things from a long-term perspective.

Anonymousse

techfiend wrote: »

Look for other positions that are more suited towards your goal.

I was in a similar situation recently, waited it out to try to last a year for the resume but didn't. Now I'm stuck unemployed and felt like a took a step back at the last position since I wasn't doing much of anything but heck I earned more certs on their dime. Now getting back to challenging things is a challenge. The longer you wait the worse it will get.

I can definitely see your perspective and I do not want to go further down the stream to make it tougher for me down the line. I will be nipping it in the bud immediately. I have a couple interviews lined up at the moment.

Jon_Cisco wrote: »

It sounds to me like you should continue interviewing to get a feel for what options you have. If you have been there three years it is not likely the forth year will change anything.

I also suggest you research options for how you would like to change things at your current location. Even if you can not make the changes you can learn from the research.

Absolutely. I was thinking the same thing today at work. Why would anything change after 3 years if it hasn't already. I was moreso thinking that perhaps they will throw more work my way as I become certified in certain things, but the question I need to ask myself is if I really want to take the chance. Maybe having a sit down with my boss and asking him what his plans are for me would help.

Anonymousse

EANx wrote: »

Sometimes, you have to go backwards to go forwards. Where do you want to be five years from now? Since your current employer seems willing to pay for training, gather the certs you need then map out a plan to get to the place you want. This might involve taking a lower-paying job simply to get experience.

A lot of people are very short-sighted regarding pay and will resist taking a lower-paying job that would add the right skills to their portfolio. Be sure to look at things from a long-term perspective.

And I'm perfectly ok with taking a step back, looking at the picture of where I want to be and moving toward it again. I would definitely take a pay cut. It was just nice that the field I was in previously pays more than the field I moved into

(for the time being that is)

yoba222 wrote: »

Made sense to whom? To you, or because you think that's what others should expect you to do?

Made sense to me considering it's the field I was in prior to the one I'm in now, and I'm DAMN good at it.

LordQarlyn

Yeah I've been at jobs where I got paid a lot to do nothing, and it is nowhere near as fun as it sounds. I agree with the consensus that you may have to take a lower level job to get on a path that advances forward. I know when I finally decide to break into an infosec job, due to my lack of having jobs with security in the job title, I will have to step back then work back up to manager. Take advantage of the paid training, at least you have that.

snokerpoker

It's always easier to get a job while employed. Take advantage of the fact you are employed and study more certs, do more labs, and look for another job.

Syntax

EANx wrote: »

Sometimes, you have to go backwards to go forwards. Where do you want to be five years from now? Since your current employer seems willing to pay for training, gather the certs you need then map out a plan to get to the place you want. This might involve taking a lower-paying job simply to get experience.

A lot of people are very short-sighted regarding pay and will resist taking a lower-paying job that would add the right skills to their portfolio. Be sure to look at things from a long-term perspective.

I agree with this so much. I am currently in the situation where I get paid a lot to do nothing. There are a lot of shake-ups with upper management going on with the company I work for and I don't want to stick it out until the dust settles. At this point I'm more than willing to take a lower paying job (but still relatively decent pay) if it provides me the opportunity to do interesting work and gain a lot of useful knowledge and experience.

N7Valiant

Depends on how much leeway you're given to do things. If I was paid to do nothing but pretty much could do anything I wanted, I would stick around and see what changes I could put in place to make things more efficient.

In my current job I kind of have the opposite problem where 90% of my day is spent doing break/fix and I have to work beyond 40 hours(without compensation) to do any of the more strategic work. But on the other hand despite being a Help Desk tech 6 months into the job there's enough lack of oversight that I can expand the schema of a client site and setup GPOs to update Bitlocker Recovery Keys to AD even if Bitlocker wasn't enabled after joining to the domain.

triplea

OP, I may as well have written your post. Soooooo overlooked even though I could do 90% of it IF I wasn’t given the chance. They like me where I am doing 1^st/2^nd line as Im VERY quick and can do this blindfolded.

So I got certified infosec in the background. Yes Im not fully infosec experienced, but the fact I put in the effort off my own back and Im willing seems to have got me the job

Have faith

epcg

Sometimes you got to leave what your comfortable with and go explore the unknown. However you make a good living are you fine with not making that anymore? You couod live in an area where thats "ok" money, butt dont think you will get that much right now. We all get there now you need to stop and think whats important to you. Is it the money or do you want to do something your happy doing? Best thing in my opinion is to apply and interview at some places see whats out there. You dont have to take any offers.

devilbones

Anonymousse wrote: »

I'm a longtime member on here and set up this account for this post alone, as I have several coworkers on here and I don't want them knowing about this.

Anyway.

Ever been "stuck" at a job? What I mean by this is the following:

Ever get a job and not have any progression in ANY direction at all. You sit there and basically twiddle your thumbs all day long, hoping you get some work thrown at you, but instead you don't get jack squat. Meanwhile everything around you is a giant clusterbomb of things that need to be done, and you want to do them but you can't because you have ZERO guidance from management, and every time you attempt, you do it wrong.

I've been at a job for quite some time and this is the boat I am in. I'm only hurting myself by collecting a paycheck for doing nothing in a field I absolutely want to be in, yet I'm lacking the experience to apply to another company for the same position. I know once I do, and get an interview, they will ask "Well you have been at your position for 3 years now, explain what you do", and I will sit there dumbfounded.

This company has been spending a lot of money on me in terms of certifications for my position and my degree as well, but I don't use any of this knowledge at my position! One of the certs I have has an average salary of $135,000 a year, but what am I doing with it? NOTHING.

I'm going for another training event very soon (in a couple months) that is already paid for for another cert, however, I have started applying to jobs yesterday. I got a bite today and already have an interview this week, but this is for the position that I have a lot of experience in that I was in before this position. It made sense for me to apply to it. The salary is pretty much 75% more than what I'm making now, however, it's a step back from the career I've been working toward.

Question, before I continue babbling. Do I stick it out, see what happens next year or do I just go and interview for other jobs? What would you do? If you need a shorter and specific story, please PM me and I will give you that information (I know my post is vague).

It sounds like you lack courage and initiative.
Its ok to take on responsibility that you have not been given, did you ask?
Have the courage to say the right thing when you know its right. What are you doing for yourself? Are you just waiting around for a project to fall in your lap?