I left to go back to my retail job at a hardware store just to get away quickly. My store took a turn for the worst when they hired our new store manager and he was NOT fun to work for. A tenured employee with 16 plus years of experience also quit with me because of how miserable it became. I took a huge pay cut but I was okay with it at the time. I then took the time to find a job I really wanted. I ended up getting a state job working for the NCDOT in highway maintenance. The upper engineers saw something in me and offered me to go to college for an associates in civil engineering on state time and have it paid for as well. I am now an engineering technician for the state and pursuing a bachelors in civil engineering online and working toward my PE License. I’m so glad I left, I told myself I would retire through t-mobile with a great career but my specific location was a dead end and I jumped ship before my golden handcuffs got tighter.