#114: Here's What's Stressing People Out About Their Careers..

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Hey all, it’s MMV.

I’m convinced that the “Great Millennial Career Crisis” is happening.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, see my post below:

I posted a poll on Instagram to gauge how people are doing and what’s causing them the most stress.

I thought the most voted answer was going to be a money issue but nearly half of respondents answered that their career was causing them the most stress.

This shocked and interested me so I decided to dig further with a question:

I compiled and grouped all the responses.

This post is to share the responses I received because if you’re feeling stressed about your career, you should know that you’re not alone.

If you want to read the full MMV Pro posts and to support me and my work, you can upgrade below.

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I put all the responses into a spreadsheet and grouped them into buckets where there were clear themes or overlaps. I’ll break everything down as clearly as I can, starting with the most common responses and working down from there.

This easily dominated the responses.

Here are some of the responses:

“AI taking over my job”

“I enjoy my work, my team, customers, and clients. Constant threats of layoffs at AWS”

“Hate my job and want to find a new one, but job market is terrible”

“Unemployed. Been trying to find a job for over a year”

“Afraid I’m going to lose my job and not be able to find another that pays as well”

People no longer trust the assumption that if they lose their job, they’ll just find a similar one.

That belief seems to be completely gone.

The second most common response was people feeling trapped.

Staying feels like their career is slowly decaying. Leaving feels like a big risk because pay will not match their current job. Lateraling doesn’t fix the problem.

“Can’t find a way out without relocating (have family)”

“Not wanting to stay in consulting, but also not finding great alternatives”

“Feeling stuck, can’t see a way forward”

Being stressed is one thing. Being burnt out is another.

Responses like:

“Landed a great role and pay. Work 80–90 hours a week though.”

“So overworked and finding no meaning”

“Can’t physically continue in my current career. No idea what’s next.”

“I don’t want to do it (or anything anymore) but also cannot afford to retire”

This is a trap that we were all led into. Work hard and get that high paying job only to get burnt out and then possibly stuck with no exit plan.

When I was laid off in consulting, I was relieved because I was so burnt out and I got zero fulfillment from the job.

I pursued a government job because I wanted work-life balance.

Now, I changed my career into law enforcement because I wanted fulfillment.

I hope those of you who mentioned fulfillment find it.

“Fulfillment”

“Utter lack of fulfillment in what I do”

“Gone backwards, not forward like I was told it always would”

This is a gut-wrenching reality check for these mid-career professionals.

People did what they were supposed to do and now they’re asking why it sucks.

“Transitioning out of the military. Love the work, but it doesn’t fit family life”

“Want to leave the military. I don’t know if I should use my engineering degree or get an MBA”

“Have less than 2 years before my place shuts down, want to do my own thing full time”

“Residential remodeling but need a degree to crack into corporate construction”

“Don’t know what to do next. Maybe scared to take the next leap”

I think the scary part about a life transition is making a move you can’t undo.

This theme was constantly brought up.

“Because career has to go well to get money”

“Budget and money and retirement are lagging indicators of career”

“Went backwards, not forwards”

“How can I grow sustainably in a helping profession and still fund retirement?”

“Having good perception and managing corporate politics”

“No support from my boss — cleaning up his bad decisions”

“New boss, PE-backed, and I don’t like him”

“Out-of-touch leadership”

Bad leadership AND feeling stuck with no exit is a different type of hell.

That’s why financial independence is SO IMPORTANT (so you can walk away). It doesn’t have to be perfect, but if you can support yourself long enough that you feel comfortable to quit, that can be enough.

Careers feel fragile right now and everyone has understandable stresses given the environment.

If I was still working in consulting, I would be feeling a lot of the same stresses listed here.

The only reason why I wasn’t panicking when I was:

is because I was able to create a safety net with cash flow. I built a real estate portfolio that generates thousands of dollars a month in cash flow.

A cash flowing safety net, even if it’s just a thousand dollars, helps create margin. Margin buys you time. Time gives you leverage to make decisions that you wouldn’t otherwise make.

If you’re reading this and this resonates with you, you already completed the first step of getting ahead.

My next premium post (for MMV Pros) will go over my cash flow OUTSIDE of my job.

You can upgrade below to get access to the full post when it comes out.

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If you sign up using my link, I’ll help you get set up.