27F, have been at the same small agency for over 5 years now. I have it great in terms of setup. My job is WFH, my boss is kind and supportive for the most part, my pay is decent, and I have the highest title in our little department.
The problem is I despise the work. I "specialize" in SEO and feel like all I'm doing is clogging the internet and lining the pockets of client stakeholders. I hate corporate jargon and pointless meetings and spending an hour just to talk about blog posts. There is nothing redeeming or exciting about the work itself and I have no choice but to use LLMs even though they contradict my morals.
My mental health has been deteriorating and I've been applying to other jobs, pivoting away from agency toward in-house at a company where I hopefully care about what they do. But even as I apply to these, the descriptions sound awful. I don't want to touch social media or paid marketing, which really limits me and obviously the job market is also shite right now so I've been ghosted/rejected from everything. Feels like the concept of "breaking in" to a new field is obsolete now. And I don't want to continue to pigeonhole myself in a niche I hate.
I have a bachelor's and master's in humanities fields and I don't inherently regret my choices, but I'm at my breaking point and feel so trapped. I don't want to blink and have 5 years past and I'm in the exact same spot. I started volunteering at a local food bank to make some minute impact in my community because my work feels so ... stupid.
Anyways, I'm thinking about going back to school yet again but this time to community college to get my associate's and transition into healthcare. I know it can be really exhausting work, but the idea of doing something that actually makes a difference in people's lives sounds worthwhile. I love learning and I consider myself a hard worker; I just feel like I'm wasting my life away spending 40 hours a week on meaningless labor.
I will likely stay with this job as long as I can until I finish prereq classes to build up my savings more.
Just looking for some camaraderie and to hear from anyone who has taken the leap. Thank you for reading and wishing you all fulfillment!
P.S. Have any of you read "Bullshit Jobs"? I heard a bit about it and ordered it, excited for it to fuel my anti-corporate fire lol.