Last week I quit my job – here’s why

Hello and welcome! My name is Junaid and last Friday I quit my job.

Ok, maybe it wasn’t quite so dramatic (it did catch your attention though, right?) but in my defence it was my last day in the office. Once I was out of the revolving doors for the final time, I considered my immediate emotions. Meh, nothing much. Which kind of surprised me, I half expected to be a bit sad, maybe pensive over my future but honestly not much.

Maybe at this point it’s worth giving the readers who don’t know me a bit of a background. I started working for a big oil & gas corporation 10 years ago. I began in Aberdeen, Scotland and after two years I moved to the Netherlands (you should be able to work out the Company by now). Last May I was ‘repatriated’ (i.e. kicked out) back to Aberdeen. Through a long and protracted process I decided to leave the company to explore ‘other options’.

Now I know what you are thinking, ‘other options’ sounds very vague. I’m leaving it that way to shroud myself in a little mystery (hey, I don’t want to use all my material in my first post….). But essentially I am now an ‘entrepreneur’ and along the way a budding writer/blogger.

I digress, what I wanted to focus on is the reasons why I left. Many of the points you maybe able to relate to if you are working for a big corporation. Firstly though I want to discuss motivation. Why do we work? Fresh out of Uni, I had one aim – a job. I thought it sounded interesting and it was an added bonus that it paid decent. Over the years that view changed. Yes money remained a motivation, but it lessened somewhat. During the last few years prior to moving back to Aberdeen I worked as a site supervisor, in charge of a very expensive operation in a highly challenging environment. It was rather enjoyable and thus I remained highly motivated. I fully expected whatever role i undertook next would equally challenge me. When the time arrived something unexpected happened. The price of oil plummeted.

Despite working ten years, i would say this was my first oil crisis and if we’re honest about it it’s not a small crash either. I won’t delve too much into the nuances and fall out of oil dipping into the $20s (maybe I’ll write about it in another post) but suffice to say it meant jobs were scarce with job cuts rife. I ended up with a job that did not motivate me potentially for the next 3-4 years. Decision time, stick or twist. Stick meant security (for how long?) and a steady paycheck. Twist meant a journey into the unknown.

As you now know I twisted. The reason came down the issue I mentioned earlier, motivation. I was bored, very bored. The prospect of trundling along at a pace dictated to by the Company for the next 30 plus years (assuming I didn’t get fired along the way) filled me with dread. If I didn’t leave now, would I ever leave? If I wanted to try something different would I ever get a better opportunity?

And so here we are today. The sun setting on one era and the beginning of a new adventure. In the words of a friend ‘exciting times’.

So why have this blog? Well I have the following aims:

• I want to document my journey and so hope to post a couple of times a week.
• Use it as a place to explore my ideas and frustrations and hopefully generate some meaningful discussion – if you have any topics you think I should talk about let me know too.
• Though I am stepping out of oil I will try and post once a month about the industry and issues affecting it. A bit silly to completely disassociate myself from an area I’ve spent significant time in.
• I’ll also discuss/critique other start-ups I interact with. I hope that adds value for those founders as well as helping me develop a style.
• Finally I’ll try to keep the tone engaging and a little light-hearted. All pictures are either my own (see Flickr which I hope to continue to keep updated) or from stock images.

Thank you for reading if you’ve got this far! Feel free to leave any comments and feedback is always appreciated 🙂