How did you view your job/career by the time you FIREd?

[Lsbcal]

I read through many of the posts here and am impressed with the variety. Lots of smart, hardworking types here.

Me? I went through college and got an MSEE at Berkeley. Got an R&D job at mega corp in Silicon Valley. Although I was a good employee, it always felt like there were too many smarter people about. I never felt secure although my ranking was always pretty high. I guess I just did not really enjoy the competition.

After many years in the valley, we moved to a city up north with the same company. I'd had several varied jobs, mostly in R&D. The move positioned me to have a nice place to retire in ... some day. Then the tech craze bull phase came and I was deemed a great employee and got some stock options even. Then mega corps took a few divisions, bundled them up, and spun that company off. So here I was in a smaller, less diversified company but still doing well.

Then the tech crash occurred. Layoffs followed. Each layoff ended with a stirring speech by a top manager about how we were going forward and now better off. In 2003 there was a layoff (over 2000) and guess who's group got the boot. It was a bit of a shock as I thought R&D would be OK and my project was going full steam. But they had a group in Belgium that could do my job and that foreign government didn't look on layoffs like ours does.

Anyway, I got a good package and I was eligible for early retirement benefits. I got training to look for another job. But after doing the math, lots of spreadsheet work, I concluded that we were OK without a paycheck coming in.

At this point our portfolio is about 6% above the inflation adjusted portfolio in 2003. We're planning more trips and just having fun. DS got through college and is self supporting.

Life is good. Competition for jobs and assignments and pay? I'll leave that to others and enjoy the pasture.

[Scuba]

I enjoyed my career for the most part. I am an achievement-driven person so getting to the C-suite was motivating as were some big projects I initiated that drove great results for my employer. However, I always enjoyed time with DH and friends doing other things I like MUCH more than w*rk. I had always planned to RE, and I resigned the day after I received a large bonus earned over multiple years. Might have given a bit longer notice period had I liked working for my relatively new boss and not had such a bad commute, but the combination of a not so great boss (micromanager who knew better) and a horrible commute (3-4 hours/day) made it an easy decision to give the 30-day minimum notice required by my employment contract. I've only been ER for 3 weeks but I absolutely LOVE it! Would have done it earlier but didn't want to leave a bonus equivalent to more than a year's base on the table.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HadEnuff As I wound down my career in dentistry, I was faced with a decision: Make big investments to keep my practice looking modern (although none of that money would have actually improved treatment outcomes, just stuff people had become accustomed to seeing, and to not have them makes you look like a fossil), with poor ROI, or recognize that it was probably time to make plans to get out.

Too cheap to install and maintain a saltwater aquarium, huh?

[pedidiva]

EastWestGirl posted this "The workload was horrendous for most of my career. I was physically exhausted all the time. Having worked my last day July 31st, I still feel as if I'm recovering. I am trying to find out who I am and develop healthy routines for myself. I don't think I've yet adjusted to not working."

I totally get where you are coming from. Your story sounds very much like mine. My last day will be December 31, 2016. I am not sure about how to develop a healthy routine for myself and how to go about enriching myself and developing myself into a more evolved human being.

I have liked my jobs, but they have been very demanding spiritually, physically, and mentally. This last job I have had, I really enjoyed (for the past 6 years). It was in utilization management. I was able to work at home, which worked well for my family. Unfortunately, the company merged with another 6 months ago and leadership changed. The company has now become toxic and is not a good fit for me.

I am happy to have found this forum. I hope to meet this new transition with grace and not too much anxiety.

Thanks evryone for sharing. It is helpful for me.

[urn2bfree]

Like EastWestGirl. i am a retired physician. My career path had fewer bumps, only one practice change, but the burnout occurred nonetheless.
Medicine is changing in ways that are being driven by people who are neither doctors nor patients.
If I had to keep working, I could have.
My "mistake" was investigating how much I needed and how much I had accumulated. Knowing you have enough made the BS harder to put up with. Or the putting up with harder to justify.
Add in a bunch of other factors (aging parents,a friend with early onset dementia, watching lots of people my own age be diagnosed with terminal illnesses, etc.) and the decision was easy.

I have had no problem finding things to do. I love the freedom. From medical school through practice so many people have leashes and hooks in you that the liberation from all that has been exhilarating!


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[nvestysly]

Interesting thread. I encounter people periodically that indicate they love their job and can't wait to get up every morning. That's great for them - hope it lasts a good long time.

I didn't hate my job by any means. I worked in the electronics industry for two different companies (three if you count being acquired by a 3rd company) for 28 years total. That was plenty long for me. The daily grind, the bureaucratic BS, being pulled in different directions, early morning and late evening conference calls around the world all took their toll - it was time to leave and I'm pleased megacorp offered a "package" to leave. The package itself was not enough to retire but it certainly provided a soft-landing.

Five years down the FIRE road and I'm happy I did it.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pedidiva ... I am happy to have found this forum. I hope to meet this new transition with grace and not too much anxiety. Thanks evryone for sharing. It is helpful for me.

Welcome to the forum Pedidiva. You will loose some work anxiety (hopefully a lot) and maybe pick up some slight "what next?" anxiety. My guess it will basically go way down.

It's a challenge for each of us to find what really interests us instead of having our time set by work/competitive forces. There are several threads on this site that discuss people's choices after retiring.

[pacergal]

I very much enjoyed my job in the public health sector, however, health care really is changing (and not for the better in my opinion). I stayed longer for retiree health insurance coverage. This last year was a really tough one, though!

[Koolau]

Late to the party - again. Related in other threads: I w*rked for one Megacorp for 36 years. Now retired 11 years.

When I started, the company was still influenced and partly managed by old family. The Corp. atmosphere was very conservative but incredibly benign toward employees. We received great pay and benefits and management was expected to treat us like family - which they did for the most part. As the family influence waned, the corp. slowly morphed into a more typical company but still tried to hold up most of the ideals of the original founders. Wages/benefits slowly got a bit worse and the family atmosphere was slowly replaced by the more typical corp. mentality. Still, not laying off w*rkers and maintaining civility remained.

When I joined the Corp., I realized my particular j*b was not what I wanted. I spent years developing the job I wanted and was able to place myself into it - there was an element of right-place, right-time, but mostly, I made the j*b

I stayed in this particular existence (with several iterations) for the remainder of my c@reer. I rose to senior staff position - never wanting to go into management. One day, at 36 years, I was told I was going to go back and do the j*b I started at the company (QC if you must know). I said "No. I'm not. I'm retiring." I had been FI at 51 (vested pension, nice nest egg) but stayed until 58 because I still loved my j*b. When I decided to leave, I told my boss on the Tues. following Labor Day that Friday would be my last day - though I was empl*yed and on vacation until end of the month.

All in all, it was a much better ride than many of the folks I've read above. Still, I am so glad to be free of the daily grind and corp. BS. Looking forward to whatever time is left and hope those still empl*yed find happiness along the path to FIRE.

[robnplunder]

My job was a necessary evil. I worked for a psychopath boss who eventually killed his division (300+ employees laid off) with his blind ambition. Working for him gave me a lot of stress, too much to bear. One of my sycophant peers didn't help the situation either. Other than that, my job was ideal, with good employees and equally fair co-workers. If it weren't for my boss, I'd work a few more years to save enough for my travel budget. But enough was enough.