@1J04 Good for you. Nobody should make someone else rich who forces us to compromise ourselves. Whether they ask you to put your health at risk or your integrity by asking you to look the other way when shady things are going on, the answer should always be a professional equivalent of "FU".
After 25.6 year at the same mill you maybe scared about the future. Here are some comments to offer a different perspective for you and folks in a similar situation .
- You were employed that long because they made good money with you. Your work and ideas were bundled with other contributions and sold to customers at a much higher amount than the contributors got paid. The favor you did them with your work was bigger than the favor they did you with a paycheck. That's how companies work.
- If you didn't run the show there after that long of a tenure, they made a ton of money with you running in circles professionally.
- I have been fired or "let go" five times in 30 years. EVERY SINGLE TIME I got another job that paid substantially more and increased my responsibilities, professional growth, and enjoyment. Maybe I should have quit another five times on top of being shit-canned.
- My "sales pitch" for the next job was always roughly along these lines: "I solved problems X,Y, and Z for my previous employer. Grew business A,B, and C. My ex-employer was happy with that (Get good references!) but they did not offer much growth opportunity or were too timid in seizing new technological or business opportunities. It looks like you guys are a bit more ambitious here and I would love to help you taking things to the next level." Don't blatantly bad-mouth your ex-employed but convey that you are looking upwards to more opportunities.
- Do not go overboard in your resume and interviews with your previous position, titles, and specific tasks. Identify very valuable, if not exceptional, skills and contributions that have generic value in the marketplace and use the specifics of your old job as examples. Whatever you did in the old mill, find the overlying function and sell that, Research in detail what the new company is doing. In some cases it works to call their sales and support department to identify their pain points. Then craft a value proposition by connecting your abilities with their needs and aspirations.
You could say for example: "I have plowed, seeded, and harvested". More compelling is: "I know how to successfully run a farm for you from the first seed into the ground to the last grain in the silo - including fixing the aging tractor late at night to get the job done on time".
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He was old and had a comprimised immune system...
