“I Quit!” The Story of a Millennial Job Hopper by @BBorowicz

by Brittney Borowicz | Featured Contributor

In my experience, Millennials get a lot of flack for a lot of things. As someone who falls into that Millennial age group, I’ve had people tell me I’m lazy and entitled without even getting the chance to ask my name first. Another common stereotype I’ve heard about Millennials is that we are job hoppers because we can’t commit, and again, are lazy.

To set the record straight, for those who ONLY know my name because it is listed as the author on this post: I am not lazy and my parents made sure I grew up knowing that anything I ever needed or wanted, I would have to earn on my own.

Despite not fulfilling all of the Millennial stereotypes that I am apparently supposed to fulfill, I have to admit… I AM a job hopper. Or I was, anyway. Not because I couldn’t commit or because I was lazy, but because I was doing my best to make the right decisions to get into the marketing industry, something I had never studied in school, and then to advance my career. To some, like my father who has been working at the same company for more than 30 years, this was still not acceptable. In some ways, I could see where he was coming from, but without job hopping once, twice, or even three times, I would never be where I am in my career today.

I would like to share a story about one of the last times I said, “I quit” and why THIS (me) quitter eventually did win:

A few years ago, when I was just getting started in marketing, I took a job that I thought was going to be perfect. The position was at this great little, start-up marketing agency right outside of Chicago. This agency promised the world to me — real hands-on experience with some of the best marketing tools, strategies and leadership available. A few days before I started the job, however, the marketing director who had hired me quit. It was at this point that I should have sensed something wrong.

I spent almost a year at this small agency and in some ways, I did learn a lot. However, a lot of what I learned was the type of employee and person I didn’t want to be. Only a few weeks in, my job turned into more of a personal assistant role for the owner of the company than a marketing position. My creativity was squashed, I rarely used the skills that I had come to the company with and eventually stopped learning new, important skills that would help my future career. After not feeling fulfilled for a long time in my role, I made the decision to quit.

When I decided to quit, I had another job lined up that I was SURE I was going to get. It was all but promised to me. Unfortunately, about a week after I quit the first job, the company I had planned on going to called me to say they had decided to restructure their marketing and sales teams and would no longer be hiring anybody to fill the position. I was bummed and unemployed.

It took almost two months, but finally a great opportunity presented itself on LinkedIn. I was quickly hired at a small marketing agency in Chicago where I was able to really hone in on what I was hired to do while developing as a well-rounded and skilled marketing professional. This company understood how unfulfilled I was at my previous job and continuously encouraged me to develop new skills that would accelerate my marketing career to new heights. Thanks to their support and guidance, I am now happy to report that for the past almost year and a half, I have been working as the full-time marketing manager for a fantastic company outside of the city of Chicago. Not only has this been a huge opportunity for my career and a tremendously better experience than my first job as a marketing professional, but it is proof that sometimes the bumpiest of roads can lead you to the best opportunities.

I learned a couple of lessons from this experience, including:

1. You must embrace all of the bumps and bruises that come on your journey in life. Although I was unhappy with that first job, I grasped every opportunity I had to learn… even if it wasn’t about marketing. The time management and organizational skills I learned during that time, as well as a new sense of confidence I gained in speaking to people one-on-one are essential to my career today and have helped me get to where I am.
2. Quitters sometimes DO win. You may not always like your job and you may HATE your boss but that doesn’t mean you should quit every job you ever have. I have learned though that there are certain aspects of the job that you have to weigh when deciding whether or not to quit. Because I am young, one of the most critical aspects of a job I both need and want are opportunities to grow both in my career and as a person. That first company could not do that for me and that’s when I had to say “goodbye.” I was very grateful to find after I left that there were plenty of other companies willing to give me the fulfillment I needed and deserved.

Lastly, although I would NEVER recommend quitting one job without another lined up, taking some time off is pretty amazing. I went straight from working in college to working in the real world. The almost two months I was unemployed after quitting that disappointing job allowed me to travel, learn how to cook (kind of) and focus on what really made me happy. These are experiences I may not have had if I never said, “I quit.”

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Brittney Borowicz is an integrated marketing professional with a strong communications background specializing in journalism, public relations and social media. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Brittney has spent the past few years working with entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Chicagoland area to enhance their marketing and social media efforts.

Prior to her current role as the Marketing Manager for an embedded networking company, Brittney realized her affinity for all things media and marketing while working in radio and television and as a professional presenter. Later, she began working at a couple of small marketing agencies in Chicago as a Public Relations and Sales Director and Account Manager, which required her to be well-versed in coordinating specialized public and media relations strategies, creative marketing initiatives and cohesive sales process implementations.

As a strong believer in intimate consumer/brand involvement, Brittney helps her clients create content that engages and educates brand audiences while establishing each individual or company as a thought leader in their industry.

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Brittney Borowicz

Brittney Borowicz is an integrated marketing professional with a strong communications background specializing in journalism, public relations and social media. Originally from the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Brittney has spent the past few years working with entrepreneurs and start-ups in the Chicagoland area to enhance their marketing and social media efforts.

Prior to her current role as the Marketing Manager for an embedded networking company, Brittney realized her affinity for all things media and marketing while working in radio and television and as a professional presenter. Later, she began working at a couple of small marketing agencies in Chicago as a Public Relations and Sales Director and Account Manager, which required her to be well-versed in coordinating specialized public and media relations strategies, creative marketing initiatives and cohesive sales process implementations.

As a strong believer in intimate consumer/brand involvement, Brittney helps her clients create content that engages and educates brand audiences while establishing each individual or company as a thought leader in their industry.