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?
Quit my project manager job for a startup that failed. Now I'm more lost than ever
byu/Spare_Worldliness_64 inEntrepreneur
Posted by Spare_Worldliness_64
2 Comments
Honestly booking 20-30 calls a month is real experience, not “fake startup skills.” The startup failing doesn’t erase that.
You probably didn’t go backwards as much as it feels like right now.
Mec les start ups ferment quasiment toutes dans les premières années et elles vivent souvent avec l’argent des investisseurs.. elle demande le maximum pour le minimum et les patrons sont des gamins à peines sortie des jupons de leurs mères.. ils balancent des tas de termes qu’ils n’ont pas expérimentés sur du long terme et finalement se retrouvent sans argent.. les parents sont la pour les aider heureusement..
Te concernant retourne dans la construction 🦺 et demain tu seras en capacité d’élargir tes horizons autour de ton métier. Les termes pompeux et autres conneries te mettront pas un steak dans ton assiette.. 🍽️
Tu verras un jour ou l’autre tu auras toi même l’envie d’entreprendre et créer ta propre société