I started my career in quality at an American company, I went from intern to technician in a few months due to my performance and willingness to go the extra mile. I was the go to person for minor IT issues since I am familiar with that, as well as excel knowledge.
Everything was seemingly good, there were those days were a lot of work was needed, some weekends, or high pressure moments but I was adamant about moving my way through.
At the beginning the culture was great, my boss actually fought for a raise for me as a technician because she valued me. But then a lot of changes began after moving locations. The leadership changed, and now we had a grumpy old man in charge and I had an inefficient manager on my side.
A year became two, two became three, I saw colleagues receive promotions mostly on the fact that they socialized well with management, I have always been a focused person and didn't use to pay much attention to that aspect.
When the pandemic hit we lost a lot of coworkers either due to leaving or being let go. I was told this was my chance to go for an engineering position as part of a bussiness unit within. I became an 'interim' engineer on the team. Performing all the duties an engineer would do and still providing assistance to clueless managers and coworkers regarding IT.
When I asked for a promotion they told me I needed my degree, when I got my letter of completion they told me they were not able to do it because of the difficult times we were facing, I even offered to get no raise but just the position because I was desperate to be recognized.
I knew what our finances were, I also saw many promotions announced, they had promoted even a friend of mine who would not compare to me in terms of professionalism and expertise and they knew it.
I finally saw the light and started job searching, and found a better paying position, I was afraid at the beginning but I was not able to grow in my current state anymore, gave my notice and left.
Lucky me, this new company was way worse, they had hired me for a position and they wanted me to do a different one. I was willing to make a new contract under the other position but they didn't accept it (my contract stated if I didn't do my position activities I could get fired), I offered to switch positions with the guy that was doing my job (who was hired to do what they wanted me to do) and in a meeting with HR they concluded they would assign me the advertised position. 2 weeks there and I had not received my work station. They decided to fire me.
I had all the evidence, they knew they were to lose if I sued. So they paid me the required reparations (3 months). I took a month off work, bought a personal laptop, went on vacation and job searched again, this time landing my dreamed position as an engineer with a company that I am now very comfortable with, nowhere near the same pressures. From my original place to then, I had pretty much doubled my salary.
Was there a lot of risk in my decision to jump to the unknown? Yes.
Was it worth it? Hell yes. Was I lucky? To a degree, but I knew my value.
Don't be afraid of change. Somewhere out there there is a better place for your skills.
I learned to value myself above all. And this community has given me broader insight on that truth.