re: How did you get your current job?

Got out of the military and been taking steps backwards ever since. Got a worthless degree.

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Never understood how some of my single friends whine about not being able to meet anyone. Meeting people is the easiest thing in the world to me.

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Well, I'm not single.... Buuut here's some perspective from someone who has a very small social circle:


Some of us don't like talking to people basically ever

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How did you get your current job?

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Went to college - met a guy - he asked me to marry him - we had some kids

I’ve been a stay at home mom for most of that time

My various degrees have proven to be useless for changing diapers and getting boogers off the wall - but the benefits are good

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This sounds like a story. Maybe not quite as good as that baw that went deep sea fishing on his job interview

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It’s not too crazy far off. Didn’t have time to write it earlier but I can give a short summation now.

Company that sold a product I used needed to hire somebody. They asked my boss to apply and he said “3nOut is a great employee but I can’t ever do anything than give him a 2% raise for the rest of his life and he deserves better.” So he tells me to apply. I apply, go and have an interview and it goes great. There’s no question that the employer and I hit it off.

Then they ask me to do a personality test just to confirm that it’s a good fit.

I fail miserably. The position is for a network engineer but one that does sales a lot of the time and sales personality is completely against every fiber of my being. I’m very social but I don’t like selling people things. So I answer accordingly.

They’re just dumbfounded that I did that poorly based on the interview. So they ask me to go install their product in a few sites in south Texas just to get a feel for things.

I agree, but I have to wait till their current engineer has time as he’s on vacation. At this point I just want to bail on it all together. Money is good but not worth all this stress. I get into an argument about how stupid this is with my future employer. We’re both ready to walk away but our wives both say that they feel this is a right fit (independent of each other) and we come back to the table.

They agree to pay my salary for 3 days of work while I go do this and my boss says sure.

So 2 weeks later I go to South Texas to install the product with the other guy to watch me. Meet him in New Braunfels and we drive to the valley in his car. Awkward ride but we talk about the job for a bit. He disappears 30 minutes into the project. It lasts about 2 hours and I go outside and call and text but he’s not there. An hour late he pulls up and takes me to the next job site. He acts really weird, telling me I should take the job.

New boss calls and asks me to step away and tells me the job is his if I wanted it. He nor the other guy watched me install so I know there’s weird shite going on. I say let’s hold off for a bit and let me finish the work at the next 2 sites.

We go to the second site, do the install and we go to a hotel. Other guy doesn’t let me know what dinner plans are and just knocks on my door drunk and takes me to Chili’s. Then he spends 2 hours drunkenly telling me to take the job.

Next day I go do my work, and then we head back. After I get to my own car, I call and ask the boss WTF was going on.

The other engineer had used his two weeks of vacation to try and steal business from his old job to take to his new job that my boss don’t know about.

While I was in my install, one of our customers called my boss and told him what he was doing. They got into a shouting match and other engineer threatened to leave my arse in the valley to give a middle finger on the way out. They worked it out where he wouldn’t do that if he got a severance. All of this went on without me knowing till I was in my own car on the way home. After some prayer and thought I decided to take the job despite the red flags because I love the industry.

Seemed really insane at the time. I actually love the job and it’s been incredibly stable for almost 10 years with nothing like that happening again. Was just a really tough entrance.

Applied online... did a phone interview, and in-person interview, and then a third interview where they offered me the job.

Well fresh out of college in 2013ish, I began working in the solar industry. Very lucrative but very volatile. I’ve always been very good in sales but hated it. Anyway, in a short amount of time, I made a pretty big impression on some big time players. Kind of a right place, right time situation. A lot of the guys that worked in my office have ventured off and formed their own solar companies. One of my buddies stayed in the game and founded a solar company. He’s been running it for a while but he constantly asks me if I want to take some of that off of him bc he trusts me and I know the company. We actually went to Iraq together bc we were in the same Marine unit in 2007.

We co-managed an office together in the Northeast in 2015. The company abandoned the office and we dug it into being somewhat profitable. Company operations left us hanging and we never could get paid. That division ended up going under and left us both out of a job. We never blamed each other and we just went our separate ways and stayed in touch. He struggled financially bc he poured every ounce of his buyout money into starting his own company. I gave him a small amount of mine because I had faith in what he was doing and that he’d be successful. He’s one of those unmedicated ADHD geniuses that couldn’t even finish college but could sit at home and make a living in the stock market or gambling in Vegas (he’s done both) but he can’t stay focused on a single task at all. For the last 2 years, we talked multiple nights per week and I’d have to keep him grounded and focused on task. He’s also got some PTSD from watching a guy burn alive in front of him (ended up living but that guy was fricked up beyond description) and he was like 5 feet away from him so I always felt horrible that he saw that. We’re kind of like Batman & Robin (or the ambiguously gay duo for OT purposes). I never asked for a penny in return or for my time volunteering.

Fast forward to 2020. I had a pretty difficult meeting with my supervisor the other day bc I worked on some projects over a Saturday without prior approval for overtime (not even paid, purely comp time). She wrote me a letter of reprimand for doing that, and then was like “don’t worry, this is just to show we took action so it protects you from HR”. I had been struggling with this position for quite a while and went through a deep series of depression. I was staying at the job out of sense of loyalty to my commitment rather than wanting the job. That letter of reprimand pretty much did it for me. Had a zoom call with my supervisor and her boss. I told them I was done and I’d let them know how much of a notice I feel like giving. Not signing a letter of reprimand for being committed to a job I loathe. They’re doing it bc they’re afraid of HR and would rather cover their arse than take ownership that it’s long been understood that overdue projects can be worked on without prior approval.

Called my buddy, he’s like “so that means you’re coming to work with me now, right?” I said “Yep” and he said he’d onboard me personally Monday. I’ll pretty much be dipping my toe into every aspect of the day to day operations and sort of have an executive oversight role. Not going to talk about salary but I was offered a lot more than I make now. Told him no. I told him that he can pay me what I make now and assess my worth in 6 months.

TLDR; volunteer your time for your friends, never burn bridges, and never stay at a job for the wrong reasons. If you’re not valued, be willing to walk away and go where you’re wanted.

I am a middle school teacher/coach. Have taught at 3 schools in and around San Antonio
First job was an inner city school. They hire anyone they can get. After 3 years I had to get out.
2nd job I got purely off interview. I didn’t know anyone. It is in a really good district just outside San Antonio. I interviewed at 3 schools. Got turned down by 2 and got the 3rd. First 2 I lost to guys dropping down from high school coaching. The one I got was at the better school and overall better position.
3rd I just got. A new school opened last year and many teachers left from my school to go there. I thought about it but didn’t. I knew they would have openings this year due to growth. So I talked to my friends working there and got an interview. Got the job.