u/Spare_Worldliness_64

Earlier this year I left construction to work for a small startup. They sold me on equity, growth potential, all that stuff. I took a massive pay cut because I genuinely believed in it.

Spent the last few months learning everything - cold email, LinkedIn outreach, workflow automation, social media content, lead gen. I was actually pretty good at it too. Booked them 20-30 calls every month.

But they ran out of money and couldn't keep me on. So that's that.

Also broke up with my girlfriend during all this. So now I'm single, broke, sitting on all these skills I don't really know what to do with.

My old construction job would probably take me back. Good money, stable work. But honestly the thought of going back feels like I failed. Like I wasted all this time learning stuff that doesn't matter.

Everyone says "just freelance" or "offer your services" but like... I have no clients, no real portfolio, no clue where to start.

Been thinking about doing free work or super cheap work just to get case studies and actually talk to people. But idk if that's the move or if it just makes me look desperate.

The frustrating part is I can build websites fast now, set up email campaigns that work, automate outreach - all this stuff that should be useful. But none of it matters if I don't have anyone to actually do it for.

Has anyone been through something like this? Like a career change that just feels completely stuck? How did you figure it out?

Just want to see if I can support a few emerging agencies or consultants who have proven client results but haven't cracked outbound yet

I want to be excellent at outbound and I think I am average so far.

Right now I run campaigns for a client and myself (to get more clients) but what is the edge that makes people awesome at GTM?

I kind of stumbled onto GTM because I did cold email outbound and I get consistent results but I am not amazing. Same with Linkedin DMs too.

Was a project manager about 8-9 months ago and then switched careers unexpectedly to basically work for construction, but more on running outbound channels like email, linkedin. Mainly because im passionate about writing and its something ive done since school.

But my general manager reached out to me 2 days ago and wants to offer me work, because I have niche skill (primavera scheduling if anyone wants to know) and the client wants that in particular. 

I don’t know if i should go back because i am getting ptsd from dealing with the constant office politics, 10-12 hr days, the burnout. But the pay is nice lol.

And my current work is unstable because its freelancing most of the time. I love the work, i love writing copy, running campaigns and seeing new contracts and connections come in. But the work isnt constant and you’re constantly hustling.

Is it weird to do a career switch back and is it worth it?

The last company I worked for, I did cold email for them and achieved some pretty solid results.

• Got their bounce rate down from 30% to less than <5% and recovered.
• Reply rates were consistently around 2%, with best campaign at 4%. Could be a lot better
• Built them a pipeline of $140k+ within 2 weeks. This campaign was specifically tailored around a contextual offer.

I really enjoyed the role but it was only 1 job and its not like I have multiple case studies behind me.

Not sure what I should do lol