I worked in the corporate world for almost 20 years. I was fortunate enough to work in the same related field that my degree is in. I formerly worked in healthcare. My first Bachelor's degree is in Healthcare Admin and I also hold a Master's in Healthcare Management. In addition, I have a second Bachelor's degree in Business Admin. I worked a good portion of my prime working years in the healthcare field, mainly on the operations end. Things were going well the first few years and I was quickly moving up. Until I hit a wall, professionally speaking. I was working for a company that did have upward mobility opportunity. I applied for promotions to these higher positions as they became open. They still made us go through the whole interview process even in house. I was passed over for those jobs and then find out that the person who got the position was someone who was a friends of the wife of the boss. Another position I went for, the person who got it was the niece of some other higher up person in the company. A VP in the same company approached me one day and told me that the job I was currently in is where I belong. There were other aspects of the culture there were becoming noticeably toxic. That was my sign to leave.
I quickly moved on to another company but in the same field. A lot of people know each other across different organizations in the healthcare field around here, so I was working again with some old colleagues from when I was first out of college. This new position was a good paying one and I did well at it. I liked being there and the people I worked with were amazing. After a couple of years there the company was bought out and I was offered a position with the new company which I accepted. There were some bumps in the road during the transition period, but I had made that position my own and I was thriving there. Another opportunity to advance came up when the head of my department announced her retirement. I had been working closely with her and was being groomed for her job. She had privately told me her intentions to retire about two years before and I was learning everything about her job and could do her job. She even recommended me to the higher ups that I be her successor. Everyone around me thought for sure I was going to be the next head of the department. It would have been seamless transition. She retires and someone else from outside is hired to be her replacement. I was basically told that my job is too important and I was too good at it so they pigeon holed me there. Turns out this person was a close friend of the CEO and COO. They all went to college together or something. Deflating! This would have been a huge promotion. I had recently got married earlier that year and things were looking great. Was I finally going to break through and mostly on my own terms without kissing anybody's ass? I guess I was too optimistic.
That's when I made a plan (with my wife), that we were going to go into business for ourselves. She is a real estate agent and she was tired of working for other real estate companies. She had been wanting to go independent for a long time. Shortly after, I resigned my position. They were not happy with me. They tried everything to get me to stay (everything except more money), but I had finally had enough of the corporate game. I was finally jaded.
We opened our own real estate/insurance business. I am also a licensed insurance producer and did that part time on and off over the years. I had kept my license in good standing all this time. We are about two years in and we both have a healthy book of business. I'm much happier that's for sure. So is my wife. I was never going to get ahead when they just promoted their own friends and family members. I was never really good at playing the corporate game. The higher up you go the more you have to play the game to advance.