Jason asked a question...
Aug. 23rd, 2008 01:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mis_creationAnd the reply got a little too long, so I figured I'd make it a separate post, because the answer kind of deserves its own here.
So Jason asked, "What is it about either your area or yourself that is keeping you in the mode you appear to be in?...Understand that I'm not implying that minimum wage jobs are for lesser people--what I'm trying to say is that you worked hard through school. Don't you think you deserve something a bit more in keeping with your training?"
Thank you. I appreciate the vote of confidence in my skills and intelligence. And I probably am selling myself short.
But for someone who doesn't know me (as in, people who are hiring), I don't look like a good prospective employee. I know this. My job at the library, going on seven months now, is the second-longest I've held any job. And this is the longest I've held a job that wasn't an under-the-table, untaxed-income babysitting job. That one lasted nine months.
Quite frankly, the library took a pretty big risk hiring me. Aside from the Lincoln Center job (and that turned out horribly), I hadn't had a job for almost two years before them. Even if I was in school, I know how that looks. I'm grateful as hell, especially since I feel this is what I can do with my life. And right now, if I aim hard, I might be able to work myself up a level. Right now, I get $8/hr. Even one level up, the lowest-level supervisor gets $15-something an hour with some taken out because of benefits. (As soon as I found that out, I joked, "Hey, look, I've discovered ambition!") And she has another job, so there's that.
I've got the education/training for some things, but not the experience. I'm not a good bet; I've got to build myself up. I'm trying to take a long-range look at this, and build my work history to something not-awful looking, and gain work experience that will actually help. The customer experience I've gotten on this job alone will make it exponentially easier to find work. My training was largely in writing, research, and time management, the last of which I kind of did poorly at, but learned from. And those are valuable skills, but unfortunately "research" is a bad euphamism for telemarketing at this point.
And as for my area... it's a college town. There are way more people to fill them than there are jobs. And there's been layoffs in major companies in the last several years, so people with literally decades in the work place are now looking for jobs. I can't compete with most of them.
As I've said in the last several posts, I've begun looking at jobs in the paralegal field, which would utilize the skills I like enough to cultivate: writing, research and organization (okay, the last doesn't actually sound like me, but I am pretty organized when I need to be). And the pay is nothing to sneeze at. My mom has several friends in the field, and one of them flat-out said, "Don't spend a penny ahead of time. If you impress a lawyer with work ethic and skills, they'll pay to send you to get certified." And I feel that if I could find the right employer, I could be really great. But if I find a bad employer, like Ryan's friend, I might just have to leave the job in tears. Not all that eager for that to happen again.
And as for future schooling.... Still remains to be seen. I'm not ready to go back to school yet, I know that. But records management and librarianship in general appeals to me a lot, and from what I've researched so far (subject to change at any moment) UofM in Ann Arbor sounds like the best bet if I go for that.
But there's lots of what-ifs in my future too: what if one of my hairbrained ideas actually takes off? (I've got three or four possible business ventures that have absolutely nothing to do with what I went to school for. All of them require capital to start and all of them have the possibility of making me lots of money or sending me into bankruptcy, which is probably why they're still just possibilities...) What if I become a successful writer? What if I love the paralegal field so much that I choose that, settle down into a career, buy a house, a couple cats and a dog and stay there? What if I find something else completely out of left field that interests me and I choose that instead?
I'm trying to lay the groundwork for a future career without boxing myself in with a current one. The beauty of minimum-wage jobs, however you feel about them, is that they're mostly temporary. And however else I feel about big chains (B&N, Starbuck's, Target, etc) if I get a job there, I can go anywhere with one of those places and have a better chance for employment, even if its only temporary. I'm sure they've got all of the above in Ann Arbor, and many other places I'm considering as possibilities.
And probably all of this is terribly wishy-washy. I'm dithering, using the excuses of "what if" to keep me from making any decisions right now.
P.S. Icon not directed at anyone, except maybe myself. I just love the quote and haven't gotten to use it yet...
So Jason asked, "What is it about either your area or yourself that is keeping you in the mode you appear to be in?...Understand that I'm not implying that minimum wage jobs are for lesser people--what I'm trying to say is that you worked hard through school. Don't you think you deserve something a bit more in keeping with your training?"
Thank you. I appreciate the vote of confidence in my skills and intelligence. And I probably am selling myself short.
But for someone who doesn't know me (as in, people who are hiring), I don't look like a good prospective employee. I know this. My job at the library, going on seven months now, is the second-longest I've held any job. And this is the longest I've held a job that wasn't an under-the-table, untaxed-income babysitting job. That one lasted nine months.
Quite frankly, the library took a pretty big risk hiring me. Aside from the Lincoln Center job (and that turned out horribly), I hadn't had a job for almost two years before them. Even if I was in school, I know how that looks. I'm grateful as hell, especially since I feel this is what I can do with my life. And right now, if I aim hard, I might be able to work myself up a level. Right now, I get $8/hr. Even one level up, the lowest-level supervisor gets $15-something an hour with some taken out because of benefits. (As soon as I found that out, I joked, "Hey, look, I've discovered ambition!") And she has another job, so there's that.
I've got the education/training for some things, but not the experience. I'm not a good bet; I've got to build myself up. I'm trying to take a long-range look at this, and build my work history to something not-awful looking, and gain work experience that will actually help. The customer experience I've gotten on this job alone will make it exponentially easier to find work. My training was largely in writing, research, and time management, the last of which I kind of did poorly at, but learned from. And those are valuable skills, but unfortunately "research" is a bad euphamism for telemarketing at this point.
And as for my area... it's a college town. There are way more people to fill them than there are jobs. And there's been layoffs in major companies in the last several years, so people with literally decades in the work place are now looking for jobs. I can't compete with most of them.
As I've said in the last several posts, I've begun looking at jobs in the paralegal field, which would utilize the skills I like enough to cultivate: writing, research and organization (okay, the last doesn't actually sound like me, but I am pretty organized when I need to be). And the pay is nothing to sneeze at. My mom has several friends in the field, and one of them flat-out said, "Don't spend a penny ahead of time. If you impress a lawyer with work ethic and skills, they'll pay to send you to get certified." And I feel that if I could find the right employer, I could be really great. But if I find a bad employer, like Ryan's friend, I might just have to leave the job in tears. Not all that eager for that to happen again.
And as for future schooling.... Still remains to be seen. I'm not ready to go back to school yet, I know that. But records management and librarianship in general appeals to me a lot, and from what I've researched so far (subject to change at any moment) UofM in Ann Arbor sounds like the best bet if I go for that.
But there's lots of what-ifs in my future too: what if one of my hairbrained ideas actually takes off? (I've got three or four possible business ventures that have absolutely nothing to do with what I went to school for. All of them require capital to start and all of them have the possibility of making me lots of money or sending me into bankruptcy, which is probably why they're still just possibilities...) What if I become a successful writer? What if I love the paralegal field so much that I choose that, settle down into a career, buy a house, a couple cats and a dog and stay there? What if I find something else completely out of left field that interests me and I choose that instead?
I'm trying to lay the groundwork for a future career without boxing myself in with a current one. The beauty of minimum-wage jobs, however you feel about them, is that they're mostly temporary. And however else I feel about big chains (B&N, Starbuck's, Target, etc) if I get a job there, I can go anywhere with one of those places and have a better chance for employment, even if its only temporary. I'm sure they've got all of the above in Ann Arbor, and many other places I'm considering as possibilities.
And probably all of this is terribly wishy-washy. I'm dithering, using the excuses of "what if" to keep me from making any decisions right now.
P.S. Icon not directed at anyone, except maybe myself. I just love the quote and haven't gotten to use it yet...
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 05:21 pm (UTC)The second is a video game I'm seriously considering trying to make. I spent about four hours last night going over plans for it with my friend and her little sister, who both seemed really enthusiastic about it.
The third is an online store with mostly-natural care products, candles and other pampering-type stuff. This one probably requires the least capital to start-up, but the grandiose plans Cait, Christina and I had for it have more or less fallen by the wayside in favor of that dreaded "real life".
I'm not sure it's a "business" idea so much as a dream, but I also want to work with Erin on a comic of some kind...
Per usual, these have been in my head for a long time, and probably will never see the light of day...
no subject
Date: 2008-08-23 06:31 pm (UTC)Video game... you could write a script for it easily enough. Getting the programmers together to actually make it? Well, it's not impossible.
Ah, the online store... I wanted to do that with jelly, then realized that I knew jack-all about jelly. It's easy enough to start up, you just need consistent funding for advertising. I see webcomics with banner ads for that sort of thing a lot. They must do pretty well given the number of female readers. Think it over. If you get serious, talk to me and we'll work out some seed money.
Never let "real life" get in the way of dreams. Ask yourself why you don't think these ideas will see the light of day, then throw them away and do it. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-24 04:49 pm (UTC)Yeah. I'm thinking that if I do go through with it (and I really kinda want to a lot), I'd have to come up with a kick-ass proposal, maybe even have a pre-made demo. I was thinking about finding someone who's going to school for game design and asking them if they needed a final project idea type thing. Not sure if that would work though; how often are the people who physically design the games the people who are designing the concepts?
The store is kind of an interesting idea, but my other contributors have sort of lost interest at the moment. They were going to supply the products (I'd help with labor, of course) and I'd run the business side. No products, no selling. It's still in the back of my mind, just growing...