Last job killed my love of IT, management beat it out of me. Wonderful company, demotivated by my manager from the first week. Couldn't be a nicer guy, smartest tech I've ever met, Peter Principled his was into management.
Never been paid that much, took about every Friday off on PTO, total WFH, can't say what my benefits cost but it wasn't $100/mo. in total. My last job was half the pay and benefits, was so much happier. I think of that every time I read a comment about why companies need to pay more to satisfy us. Everyone should have a look at this. Had ALL that at my penultimate job, NONE at the most recent.
I feel so weird, especially at this time of life with a solid resume, interviewing for PT work at Lowe's. Thinking I'll be happier than a pig in shit spending 4 hours a day, just walking around helping people, doing what ever bullshit I'm asked to do. Looking to see how it goes, see if there are ways to work myself up to FT, better schedule, supervisor, whatever.
Thought about "retiring" to work in a hardware store to keep busy and fit, but not for a decade+. Excepting my credit card bills, and what my wife sends home to the Philippines, she makes enough to cover everything. Won't take much to take the edge off.
I love hardware and tools and plants, about everything they sell. Hoping to learn a lot as well. Helping people is really satisfying to me, and I'm excellent at handling customers. LOL, I'm best with the angry ones, sometimes get them apologizing. :)
Need a sanity check, am I losing it!? Been through the worst depression of my life the past few years, hoping this will break me back into a normal state of mind.
EDIT: Got the job! Holy shit, the assistant manager is just like me! Dropped out of tech to take a minimum wage job at Lowe's 8 years ago, now he's at $90K. We've even done much of the same work in the IT space. "I did DSL for Bellsouth when it was new!" "Yep, did my time as a cable internet guy."
Seems to be a lot of space and opportunity to move up. I'm going to knock this out the fucking park!
BONUS: Clerk at the shady gas station overhead me telling my neighbor about quitting IT and getting hired today. Guy ask me what I did in IT, gave him a run down. "Yeah. I was a web dev for 20-years, couldn't take staring at a screen any more."
Nah, not crazy. In my view anyway. In 2020 I left nursing in CA making close to $100k and paid zero for actually amazing insurance… to work part time at a bakery for roughly $23/hr in Norway. I was 39.
Sometimes we just have enough and we don’t need to keep chasing the dollars in favor of a simpler, cozier life.
How did you move to Norway? Afaik you can't just show up to stay permanently.
You’re right, it is actually quite uncommon for Americans to live here without special circumstances. My husband is in tech, and managed to get hired on here, and so we are here on his work visa. We can test for citizenship after 7 years residency and testing language and civics, which we plan to do in about 3 years. We know that we are very lucky.
Norway has much nicer benefits and lower cost if living than California
Cost of living isn’t off by too terribly much haha. Our 2bd 1ba apartment is about half the cost that our 3bd 2ba duplex in Bay Area was. But we make substantially less. Also a hamburger, for reference, is routinely about $20 without fries, like for a Five Guys kind of burger. So we don’t eat out nearly as much. Healthier that way anyway. Lots of trade offs but ultimately it is the best and safest place I’ve ever lived.
Are you a citizen in Norway? Asking because that sounds nice
Not yet, but we can test (language and civics) in about 3 years which we plan to do. We are currently “temporary residents” and renew every two years. My husband has a work visa to work in tech here, and I’m here tied to that visa through family reunification. We will apply for “permanent” residency (not citizenship yet) later this year.
Gives me hope about a visa thanks for the response