I have a bachelors in engineering and a tiny bit of knowledge in C++ programming but I have been working in construction for last 5+ years as a project coordinator. Project Management is very time consuming, I find it to be very stressful and frustrating and over the last few years it has really taken a toll on my mental health. I am depressed, I have no social life (not entirely my jobs fault though), and my mental exhaustion is starting to impact my physical health as well (and I’m starting to understand why so many men in construction have large bellies). I have no time or energy for hobbies and I fight to urge to complain about my job in social settings.
There is a very high demand for people with my skills in the construction industry but I still don’t think there’s many companies out there that will compensate me well while still offering any sort of work-life balance. In fact I’m not even sure how somebody like me is supposed to oversee a $10M+ construction project and not be busy 50+ hours a week. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure that my employer is one of the better employers in my industry as well.
The industry regulations and the nature of the contracts I work on make my job so frustrating because they set a ridiculously high standard for safety and quality control. This is doubly frustrating because all the contracts we win are based upon lowest bid, which means we don’t have a hope in hell of doing things properly by the book, so I feel like I need to cheat and lie my way through every contract. I could write a small novel on this subject but basically I feel like I can’t even fart on a construction site without filling out a gas emission permit and renting a $10,000 air quality monitor.
I often find myself wondering what decisions I made in life to end up where I am. I’ve talked to a lot of my coworkers who share the same sentiment, that we all feel like losers and masochists for staying in our industry. We all complain that there are probably thousands of jobs out there that pay just as much but are probably far less demanding.
But is the grass truly greener elsewhere? I’ve fantasized about leaving construction for the tech industry on many occasions because the people I know in the tech industry seem to be so much happier with their lives. I should confess that my mental health wasn’t great before I started at my current job but now I feel like there’s such a large cultural divide between and we belong to completely different classes.
My programming skills are very rusty so I would basically be starting from scratch. I’m in my mid thirties, living alone in a condo and I have significant mortgage payments to make. The idea of switching industries is intimidating, but another 10 years in this job would probably make me eligible for a heart attack.
Please tell me about your job, if you feel the same way I do.