Lessons of a Downsize King

Perils of Working for Mid-market Founder-Owned Companies

You Can’t Actually Make This Shit Up

An ex-employee walking out of the office with belongings — Credit Author Generated

My career has been anything but smooth, many would say my career has been a train wreck, at 56 years old I have had way, way too many jobs, and almost zero career progression because most of my jobs were too short in duration to make any progression or promotions.

How many jobs are too many during a career? I guess that depends on the profession but in general, white-collar office professionals have a lot less than say, Oilfield Service company workers, my brother spent his life working the oil rigs and probably has worked for 30 companies. As a white-collar worker, I have worked over 20 positions in 3 industries in 31 years, and I have rarely hit a 4-years tenure with any employer.

Job #1

The first time I was downsized I was only in the workforce officially for 4-months, so that is a pretty bad start after graduation from university. This wasn’t too important as the job I had was not a career track job, it was an extension of a part-time job I had during university that provided a way better income than almost any other student that I knew because it was a union warehouse material handler job, and while the minimum wage where I lived was about $4.00/ hour I was…