How doi you know it's time to leave an industry behind?

[SteveinMN]

I knew it was time to leave IT when it finally hit home that:

1) the steaming pile of software we'd been asked to use to do our work was the "industry standard" and that I was likely to end up using it no matter where I went;
2) there was nowhere else in the company I wanted to move, qualified for the job or not; and
3) no matter how much time was dumped into the job and how much we "worked smarter not harder", we were still threatened constantly with having our jobs outsourced to someplace where people can live on $20 a day.

IT in large companies has long been a race to the bottom, and I just wasn't up to it. Fortunately for me, I had another income in the house and some options.

Burnout is very real. But, Rob, you need to sit back long enough and ask yourself what role you played in getting to this point. Do you find it hard to say 'no' when asked to work? Is it just an job that does not come naturally to you (maybe an introvert in a public-facing job, not having sufficient innate talent, etc.)? A lack of self-confidence that keeps you at the grinding serving jobs and not at the better restaurants?

I don't know the business so I don't know all the aspects of it. But I'll echo Yossarian's comment that moving to another industry may not fix the issues you see now -- in fact, you likely will have to start at the bottom of that industry, with all the crap that entails. I think you really need to have a good idea of why you dislike what you're doing now and determine whether it is fixable before you toss it all for work for which you have no experience or seniority.

[gimmethesimplelife]

Hi everyone and thanks for your replies! I have been AWOL for a bit here, keeping up with classes and keeping up with my listing and selling things online. I have cut back on pretty much everything else for a bit and am only recently getting back into the swing of things - I just hit a point where it felt like my body hit a wall and I couldn't do anything that I didn't absolutely have to do. School is important and keeping up with bills is important - check, kept up with school and kept up with online income.

I have been reflecting on this a bit and I think many of you have a point. I certainly take on more than I can chew when it is offered to me - on some level it's guilt I think that I am not contributing more to society - very Austrian thinking I have chosen not to reject. I have to say my SO - I don't know what to call him as he has moved beyond boyfriend but is not in the extremely serious phase (yet) has been remarkably supportive of me and his family has been kind to me, too. Pretty much I am extremely lucky as the people closest to me have not given me flack about this but I have done the rock bottom minimum.

I believe there is more than one issue at play here but one thing I do know, the one thing that stands out - I am very much an introvert and the stress of facing the public has really taken a toll on me. Put me in a fast paced situation where I have no control over any of the variables and I am now like a deer in headlights and totally useless on the floor of a food and beverage operation. This I don't think is a bad thing - it just is and I'm of the opinion on this one there may be no going back.

Anyway, I'm up and around and starting to do better and am glad to be back here. Also I'm glad I'm in school and making the effort to find a way to break out of food and beverage. Hoping it's some self employed venture but time will tell. Rob