Hi Guys,
Thanks for the various advices. They are all good. I've thought about things and here's what happened and my options.
Let me give some context before you guys rain down on me about not keeping a corporate job for less than a year. There were some serious political backstabbing, setting up to fail, and plain jealousy. I came in probably at the top of the pay bracket for my role. The reason I know this is I was in management and in senior management meetings we discussed a lot of roles salaries. They were significantly lower than mine. So, expectations were HIGH. Jealousy were HIGH. But, my mistakes in hindsight, I treated as just another job since this pay was the same or slightly lower than my last job. But for this company I was coming in high and there were probably enemies all around ready to take me down. Hindsight.
Then there's new management. They hired a new boss to run our group. He wanted to go in totally different directions and make a lot of changes. I guess I'm not part of his agenda.
Lastly, there were personality clashes between my employees(people whom I managed). And I didn't take care of it until it blew up in my face. I thought that just giving a small talk to them to correct their behaviors would be enough. Apparently not. I will OWN that fault.
At the exit interview, HR mentioned I have great technical skills but my management skills were lacking. With that feedback, it made sense. HR also said it's due to dept restructuring and the new boss wanted to do different things. Fair enough.
I've been in Corporate America long enough and been through enough of these cycles that I didn't react much. I politely nodded and signed the necessary paperwork. Took my package and left.
As to next steps, I can do the following:
1) Respond to the many back emails of recruiters hounding me for the last few months about various roles. I never responded to them because I was already employed and "happy" in my job. Fortunately, I work in a hot in-demand area of tech. But unfortunately, I have geographically constraints due to family being here. Also learning from experience, I need to find the "right" company culture and role. E.g. less politics and backstabbing. Also not sure how many of those roles are still available.
2) Get a remote job so I can work from home. Trade a little bit in the morning. Have flexibility to take my child to various activities and classes. That to me is the best option. Let's keep my fingers crossed if such a role opens up.
3) Do consulting on-site. An old boss of mine who gave me glowing recommendation to land this job wanted me to do consulting for his current company. But I took this job instead since it was a FT role with benefits. He and I worked well. I don't mind working for him again even if it's just on a consulting basis. I would enjoy that. Not sure if his company is still looking for such a role since it was 6 months ago.
4) Do remote consulting. I'm trying to land a remote contract. I know someone who was interested in it but I need to jump through a few hoops to get it.
5) Build up my entire consulting practices since I have one client now. The per hour pay is high but volume and steadiness is low. But it's a start...
6) I also considered teaching more online tech courses. I have developed a MOOC like course that I have received decent reception but the volume of customers it too low to make a living. But it's on autopilot so every once in a while I get a student sign up for my course. Ka-ching. So I could be building more online courses. In fact, the platform just requested I build more courses for them. So promising. But I would need SIGNIFICANT SCALE in order for this to be viable. But it will be one of my many sources of income. I think if I have 10 popular courses then it would be a nice residual income.
7) Trading on the side. I would NEVER do this FT. Just too risky given my situation. I have given up on that fantasy. I realize if I'm careful and prudent I can make a little here and there everyday and it would add up to an OK side supplemental income. I have too much valuable tech skills to be staring at the screens all day in hope of making something.
So, I'll try everything above and see what sticks. Ideally, I would do multiple options. I don't believe in single source of income anymore. It can be taken away from you on a whim. Wish me luck!
Thanks!
Thanks for the various advices. They are all good. I've thought about things and here's what happened and my options.
Let me give some context before you guys rain down on me about not keeping a corporate job for less than a year. There were some serious political backstabbing, setting up to fail, and plain jealousy. I came in probably at the top of the pay bracket for my role. The reason I know this is I was in management and in senior management meetings we discussed a lot of roles salaries. They were significantly lower than mine. So, expectations were HIGH. Jealousy were HIGH. But, my mistakes in hindsight, I treated as just another job since this pay was the same or slightly lower than my last job. But for this company I was coming in high and there were probably enemies all around ready to take me down. Hindsight.
Then there's new management. They hired a new boss to run our group. He wanted to go in totally different directions and make a lot of changes. I guess I'm not part of his agenda.
Lastly, there were personality clashes between my employees(people whom I managed). And I didn't take care of it until it blew up in my face. I thought that just giving a small talk to them to correct their behaviors would be enough. Apparently not. I will OWN that fault.
At the exit interview, HR mentioned I have great technical skills but my management skills were lacking. With that feedback, it made sense. HR also said it's due to dept restructuring and the new boss wanted to do different things. Fair enough.
I've been in Corporate America long enough and been through enough of these cycles that I didn't react much. I politely nodded and signed the necessary paperwork. Took my package and left.
As to next steps, I can do the following:
1) Respond to the many back emails of recruiters hounding me for the last few months about various roles. I never responded to them because I was already employed and "happy" in my job. Fortunately, I work in a hot in-demand area of tech. But unfortunately, I have geographically constraints due to family being here. Also learning from experience, I need to find the "right" company culture and role. E.g. less politics and backstabbing. Also not sure how many of those roles are still available.
2) Get a remote job so I can work from home. Trade a little bit in the morning. Have flexibility to take my child to various activities and classes. That to me is the best option. Let's keep my fingers crossed if such a role opens up.
3) Do consulting on-site. An old boss of mine who gave me glowing recommendation to land this job wanted me to do consulting for his current company. But I took this job instead since it was a FT role with benefits. He and I worked well. I don't mind working for him again even if it's just on a consulting basis. I would enjoy that. Not sure if his company is still looking for such a role since it was 6 months ago.
4) Do remote consulting. I'm trying to land a remote contract. I know someone who was interested in it but I need to jump through a few hoops to get it.
5) Build up my entire consulting practices since I have one client now. The per hour pay is high but volume and steadiness is low. But it's a start...
6) I also considered teaching more online tech courses. I have developed a MOOC like course that I have received decent reception but the volume of customers it too low to make a living. But it's on autopilot so every once in a while I get a student sign up for my course. Ka-ching. So I could be building more online courses. In fact, the platform just requested I build more courses for them. So promising. But I would need SIGNIFICANT SCALE in order for this to be viable. But it will be one of my many sources of income. I think if I have 10 popular courses then it would be a nice residual income.
7) Trading on the side. I would NEVER do this FT. Just too risky given my situation. I have given up on that fantasy. I realize if I'm careful and prudent I can make a little here and there everyday and it would add up to an OK side supplemental income. I have too much valuable tech skills to be staring at the screens all day in hope of making something.
So, I'll try everything above and see what sticks. Ideally, I would do multiple options. I don't believe in single source of income anymore. It can be taken away from you on a whim. Wish me luck!
Thanks!
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