How do I avoid making the same mistake again?

Barmy_Army_92

I am seeking some fresh impartial opinions/advice. I have previously posted about my current job since being made redundant last year. In a nutshell I feel like the job [very different from previous] is not for me, and I don't want to waste my time and energy learning something which I know I do not want to be doing beyond the short term. 
Unfortunately; the situation has begun to take a toll on my mental health; especially with few distractions outside of work in the current circumstances.  I have taken steps to address this and started CBT in December. I am trying to focus on the positives, that I'm fortunate to have a job and also that the stress of the job change has prompted me to seek CBT and begin addressing my longstanding social anxiety. In light of this I am seeking tools/advice from people here as to how to avoid repeating the mistakes I made when selecting this current role in my search for a new job. 
So I am asking, have people been in this situation? and did they find any useful tools to help declutter their own brain to assess whats important to them in their working lives/how or any successful strategies to find that next job/career. I really don't want to be in this situation again, especially as this time there is no time pressure of a looming redundancy. 

Many thanks to anyone who takes the time to impart any wisdom or share their experiences. 

Emmia

How long have you been in your current job, and how long were you in your previous job?

If you've been in a job for less than 9 months, you just might be in the new job teething phase, I get this - dislike the new/current job for 6-9 months, then I sort of get into it, and it markedly improves after that. 

However, if you genuinely are in the wrong job / wrong employer - then you need to work out objectively what you want and how you are going to achieve it.

I'd write a list of all the good and bad points of your current job (there will be good points) , and it's predecessor (there will be bad points)- think about work place culture, type of work you're doing, hours,  salary,  colleagues - and then think about how you achieve as many of the good points off both lists, whilst minimising the bad points.

Do a visualisation exercise where you imagine what your (realistic) perfect job looks like - then write down what you see, that is your goal. Think about where you are now (your starting point)  then think about the steps you need to take to get from your current job, to your ideal job (write them down) - what are the timescales, training needs, do you need to relocate?  What are the tradeoffs you are willing to make to get to your goal?

[Deleted User]

Redundancy from a job you enjoy is really hard. (My supervisors in a proper PPI claims management company never needed to reapproach me with regards to the claim filling) but work for a Cow boy by night PPI claims management here today gone tomorrow 2013; oh yes! After listening to great pearls of wisdom that better employers ŵould be waiting once a couple of years passed - I do not believe any longer.

Marcon

Deleted User said:

Redundancy from a job you enjoy is really hard. (My supervisors in a proper PPI claims management company never needed to reapproach me with regards to the claim filling) but work for a Cow boy by night PPI claims management here today gone tomorrow 2013; oh yes! After listening to great pearls of wisdom that better employers ≈µould be waiting once a couple of years passed - I do not believe any longer.

Not sure how that helps OP - perhaps you could explain further how it applies?

Sandtree

Barmy_Army_92 said:

 how to avoid repeating the mistakes I made when selecting this current role in my search for a new job. 

For those of us that haven't followed your other threads carefully it may be helpful to highlight what the "mistakes" were?

You say your preferred industry basically doesnt exist within a 1 hour commute of your current home. This feels like something that wouldnt have been too hard to work out after you finished your degree and decided to live where you currently do. Its a high risk being in a place which only has a single employer for what you do. Most simply you really need to decide if the place or the job is more important to you. You can have the career in the industry you want but will need to relocate or you need to look for a different path and stay in your locale. 

Its always hard to go from something you knew well and worked in many years into something brand new. Even starting a new job in something you are good at can be hard and many suffer from "imposter syndrome" after switching roles. Clearly employers and colleagues can play a big part of getting you in and up to speed but ultimately as the newbie you'll have a certain time to get up the learning curve. 

If you are staying put you really need to consider what your core skills are as these tends to be more transferable. The hard bit is then finding other roles that require the same core skills and so reduces the learning curve to domain knowledge. Depending on what you did in pharma may dictate how easy this is.