A few months after being laid off, I took up a new job as an Assistant Project Manager at a construction subcontractor company. It was what I had been working towards, after taking a semester of Construction Management classes. I was given the opportunity to jump right in, after a quick pivot from my tech career.
I quickly learned a few things:
- The construction industry is a big dinosaur. Coming from the tech world, I was shocked by how much slower the processes were.
- I was not expected to do everything on my own and that was relieving for once. My team was very supportive in onboarding & training, something I wasn’t used to in my previous roles.
- Work days start VERY early. Even at 7:45am when I got into the office, I was already on the later side. This was a big contrast to my engineering life.
- Project site offices are rough. My project was at the SFO airport, and the makeshift office was set up in a windowless tunnel under the airport.
- I did NOT like commuting every day. From the city to the airport, it was 1.5 hours round trip. Remote work was not encouraged.
After about 3 months, I made the tough decision to leave. Ultimately, the commuting and early start time left me feeling exhausted when I got back to the city. The first few weeks, when I would attend my usual evening runs, I felt like a literal zombie. I was so tired I could fall asleep while standing (running). It got slightly better as the weeks went on, but I was in a constant state of fatigue. My body was not recovering well after runs, and my running started to suffer. After my Santa Rosa half marathon in late August, where I missed my PR by ~30 seconds, I knew I had to leave. I had been in great shape, but in the 3 months of employment, my fitness declined drastically. The toll on my physical health started to affect my mental health, and I summoned up the courage to call it quits.
It’s been a month since then, and I had a brief stint of interviewing at new companies. I made it beyond a few onsite rounds, got rejections, and considered returning to tech, but have since canceled those processes. I was burnt out from juggling the new job, my real estate business, and training for a race. I did not have enough time for self-care and decided to take the rest of the year to myself. I’ve got big travel plans in December and would rather not start a new job before then. After I get back, I’ll figure out in which direction to move forward.
I am learning to cope with just “being”. I’m a doer and feel like my life has always been full-gas, with every day curated for maximum efficiency. It’s a jarring feeling to stop and be idle. However, even with less “doing”, I somehow still find my days packed full. Self-care is more involved and time-consuming than I gave it credit for, and I am spending my days doing just that. I finally have time to catch up on organizing, cleaning, reading, writing (this blog!), finances, knitting, etc.
This wraps up my crazy year so far, with more changes than I (and my friends 😅) can keep up with. With less than 2 months till the end of the year, I hope to find some peace in my chaotic life. And to finish up way overdue blog posts. Stay tuned!
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