Is my parachute more of a lemon or a neon?
January 10, 2012 9:31 AM Subscribe
Another career question. Entry-level jobs that could lead somewhere for the word-loving creative-thinker type who isn't afraid to start on the bottom rung of the ladder (even volunteering!).
Asking for a friend. She says:
I graduated last year from a pretty good school with a BA in English and Anthropology. Since then, I moved to Brooklyn and got a job as a personal assistant via university connections. This is really not a bad gig, but I don't see myself making a career of it. Rather than continue this job indefinitely, I'd prefer to begin laying the groundwork for something more personally fulfilling and long-term.
I had a wall of text prepared, but the computer crashed, so here's a list of relevant bits instead:
- My GPA was very good and I still keep in touch with professors who would be more than happy to write recommendations. I also have a fantastic relationship with my current employer. References won't be an issue.
- I'm fluent in ASL but not certified as an interpreter. I know a decent amount of Java, but I don't have the degree in CS or knowledge of any other languages.
- Ideally, I'd like to stay put and work a regular 9-5 schedule. I have no aspirations to find my identity only in my profession. I have hobbies I don't want to totally drop because of a life-sucking career.
- I'm pretty introverted, but I'm not shy and I work very well with a small team of people. Larger groups, not so much. By myself, good, but I love to collaborate and bounce ideas. Eventually, a fair amount of autonomy would be wonderful.
- I love ideas and thinking in the abstract isn't difficult for me. Writing is fun. Creative projects are fun (I'm a huge fan of Kickstarter). I'd like what I do to contribute to the community, even if I'm a lackey for a while and the contribution is a small part of a grander scale.
- I'm completely willing to go back to school.
- I want the potential to make $80k+.
Some ideas I've already had:
Therapist: I'm worried this would exhaust me emotionally.
Master's -> teacher: I'm worried this would exhaust me overall.
Community college prof: Very competitive, kind of crapshootish. I think I could complete a PhD, but I'm positive it's not for me and I have zero interest in the traveling circus lifestyle of a professor. No interest in four-year universities. I don't think a MA would be enough to open the possibility for me in NYC or similar cities. I've also considered a non-faculty position in academia of some kind, but I'm not sure what, exactly.
ASL interpreter: Need certification. Not sure if this would satisfy me intellectually.
Librarian: I get the impression this is a Very Bad Idea.
Thanks in advance, guys.
Asking for a friend. She says:
I graduated last year from a pretty good school with a BA in English and Anthropology. Since then, I moved to Brooklyn and got a job as a personal assistant via university connections. This is really not a bad gig, but I don't see myself making a career of it. Rather than continue this job indefinitely, I'd prefer to begin laying the groundwork for something more personally fulfilling and long-term.
I had a wall of text prepared, but the computer crashed, so here's a list of relevant bits instead:
- My GPA was very good and I still keep in touch with professors who would be more than happy to write recommendations. I also have a fantastic relationship with my current employer. References won't be an issue.
- I'm fluent in ASL but not certified as an interpreter. I know a decent amount of Java, but I don't have the degree in CS or knowledge of any other languages.
- Ideally, I'd like to stay put and work a regular 9-5 schedule. I have no aspirations to find my identity only in my profession. I have hobbies I don't want to totally drop because of a life-sucking career.
- I'm pretty introverted, but I'm not shy and I work very well with a small team of people. Larger groups, not so much. By myself, good, but I love to collaborate and bounce ideas. Eventually, a fair amount of autonomy would be wonderful.
- I love ideas and thinking in the abstract isn't difficult for me. Writing is fun. Creative projects are fun (I'm a huge fan of Kickstarter). I'd like what I do to contribute to the community, even if I'm a lackey for a while and the contribution is a small part of a grander scale.
- I'm completely willing to go back to school.
- I want the potential to make $80k+.
Some ideas I've already had:
Therapist: I'm worried this would exhaust me emotionally.
Master's -> teacher: I'm worried this would exhaust me overall.
Community college prof: Very competitive, kind of crapshootish. I think I could complete a PhD, but I'm positive it's not for me and I have zero interest in the traveling circus lifestyle of a professor. No interest in four-year universities. I don't think a MA would be enough to open the possibility for me in NYC or similar cities. I've also considered a non-faculty position in academia of some kind, but I'm not sure what, exactly.
ASL interpreter: Need certification. Not sure if this would satisfy me intellectually.
Librarian: I get the impression this is a Very Bad Idea.
Thanks in advance, guys.
Best answer: Therapist: I'm worried this would exhaust me emotionally.
It might, but with a PhD in clinical psych, you could easily hit your 80K goal without working full-time.
Master's -> teacher: I'm worried this would exhaust me overall.
It probably would. Teaching these days is not always the best job for people who want to leave work at work and have lots of other hobbies, though you get the summers off. Chances of making 80K+ are probably pretty slim, however. You could get there theoretically, but it would probably take some time. The teachers I know have a passion for teaching, and didn't go into it because they just needed a job for the day.
Community college prof:
These days you probably need a PhD to teach even at a CC. It's just so competitive. Chances of making 80K+ are slim. What kind of non-prof academia job? You could maybe make 80k+ working as like a development officer or a counselor type person.
ASL interpreter: Need certification. Not sure if this would satisfy me intellectually.
Are you looking for a job that satisfies you intellectually? Beyond going full force into academia, that might be really tough. I don't know how much interpreters makes, but 80K probably seems high.
Librarian: I get the impression this is a Very Bad Idea.
Really tough job market, and you won't make 80k right away. My understanding is that the 65k range is more the median for librarians. I don't know - I've always wanted to be a librarian secretly, but the Super Scary No Jobs thing scares me off I guess.
Good paying wordy jobs: technical writing, grant writing, editing, copy writing. Non of these are going to satisfy you intellectually, and things like grant writing probably won't pay you 80k a year, but sometimes you work to live.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:49 AM on January 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
It might, but with a PhD in clinical psych, you could easily hit your 80K goal without working full-time.
Master's -> teacher: I'm worried this would exhaust me overall.
It probably would. Teaching these days is not always the best job for people who want to leave work at work and have lots of other hobbies, though you get the summers off. Chances of making 80K+ are probably pretty slim, however. You could get there theoretically, but it would probably take some time. The teachers I know have a passion for teaching, and didn't go into it because they just needed a job for the day.
Community college prof:
These days you probably need a PhD to teach even at a CC. It's just so competitive. Chances of making 80K+ are slim. What kind of non-prof academia job? You could maybe make 80k+ working as like a development officer or a counselor type person.
ASL interpreter: Need certification. Not sure if this would satisfy me intellectually.
Are you looking for a job that satisfies you intellectually? Beyond going full force into academia, that might be really tough. I don't know how much interpreters makes, but 80K probably seems high.
Librarian: I get the impression this is a Very Bad Idea.
Really tough job market, and you won't make 80k right away. My understanding is that the 65k range is more the median for librarians. I don't know - I've always wanted to be a librarian secretly, but the Super Scary No Jobs thing scares me off I guess.
Good paying wordy jobs: technical writing, grant writing, editing, copy writing. Non of these are going to satisfy you intellectually, and things like grant writing probably won't pay you 80k a year, but sometimes you work to live.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:49 AM on January 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Technical writing/editing! That's how I got my start, as editor of a large government manual. One day, someone suggested that maybe I could figure out how to put it on the web, and, boom, my career path was laid before me. A few job moves, some additional management training, a couple of technical classes, and I passed 80k several years ago.
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:18 AM on January 10, 2012
posted by MrMoonPie at 10:18 AM on January 10, 2012
Best answer: Writing-related jobs are generally competitive, and $80K is atypical. These days, the market is worse because of people who have left newspaper jobs and some low-end stuff being outsourced overseas.
If you want to go for something in writing or editing, develop a specialty, such as technical writing. Technical writing often pays better, but I've heard that it's boring.
You also might consider educational technology. That combines aspects of teaching, word work, library-type thinking, and computers.
posted by maurreen at 10:22 AM on January 10, 2012
If you want to go for something in writing or editing, develop a specialty, such as technical writing. Technical writing often pays better, but I've heard that it's boring.
You also might consider educational technology. That combines aspects of teaching, word work, library-type thinking, and computers.
posted by maurreen at 10:22 AM on January 10, 2012
Best answer: I love ideas and thinking in the abstract isn't difficult for me. Writing is fun. Creative projects are fun (I'm a huge fan of Kickstarter). I'd like what I do to contribute to the community, even if I'm a lackey for a while and the contribution is a small part of a grander scale.
Have you thought about marketing or social media? There's a vast amount of things you can do and it doesn't require additional degree to start in it (so you can try it out without investing $ into college). In the Bay Area, you can make $80k or more if you're good at what you do.
If you're interested, you can probably get an internship, volunteer work, or entry-level jobs.
posted by vocpanda at 10:41 AM on January 10, 2012
Have you thought about marketing or social media? There's a vast amount of things you can do and it doesn't require additional degree to start in it (so you can try it out without investing $ into college). In the Bay Area, you can make $80k or more if you're good at what you do.
If you're interested, you can probably get an internship, volunteer work, or entry-level jobs.
posted by vocpanda at 10:41 AM on January 10, 2012
Also, some marketing / social media jobs do call for technical skills but it really does need your creativity and writing skills. From what I can tell, a marketing person works with a variety of people to bounce ideas or figure out what the product/services/organization needs but at the end of the day, it's the marketing person who drives the messaging. Same for social media jobs.
posted by vocpanda at 10:47 AM on January 10, 2012
posted by vocpanda at 10:47 AM on January 10, 2012
Best answer: "Community college prof: Very competitive, kind of crapshootish. I think I could complete a PhD, but I'm positive it's not for me and I have zero interest in the traveling circus lifestyle of a professor. No interest in four-year universities. I don't think a MA would be enough to open the possibility for me in NYC or similar cities. I've also considered a non-faculty position in academia of some kind, but I'm not sure what, exactly."
I adjunct at a community college in the ass end of beyond (we pay $1500/class to adjuncts, if that gives you an idea.) We pay $35,000 to profs on the tenure track. WE HAD SIX HUNDRED APPLICANTS for a single philosophy job, from ALL OVER the world, from places like Harvard and Oxford and the Sorbonne and whatnot. THE JOBS, THEY ARE COMPETITIVE. Without a Ph.D. you won't even get past the first screen into the pile of 400 candidates with the requested credentials. It's a nightmare.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:33 PM on January 10, 2012
I adjunct at a community college in the ass end of beyond (we pay $1500/class to adjuncts, if that gives you an idea.) We pay $35,000 to profs on the tenure track. WE HAD SIX HUNDRED APPLICANTS for a single philosophy job, from ALL OVER the world, from places like Harvard and Oxford and the Sorbonne and whatnot. THE JOBS, THEY ARE COMPETITIVE. Without a Ph.D. you won't even get past the first screen into the pile of 400 candidates with the requested credentials. It's a nightmare.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:33 PM on January 10, 2012
Best answer: I'm afraid I don't have any solid advice; but I'm you two years from now. I graduated in 2008 with a major in English and a minor in Anthro. I've been doing admin type jobs since then, and I'm actually glad that I didn't jump straight into anything in particular right after college--experiences I've had in the last two years have opened unexpected doors. I'm not there yet, so who knows what will really happen, but I'm planning to go back to school next year to study something health related.
So my stab at advice: Not to say don't decide for decades, but don't necessarily hustle yourself back to school right away. What I thought I wanted when I graduated is no longer what I want. I think working as a PA/receptionist/admin assistant/etc, and being observant about the people around you, can be a great way to get a look at what an industry is like to work in, and whether a job you thought you would want is really what you thought it was. And who knows, you might stumble on something that would be a really good fit for you.
Oh, and if you haven't seen the Bureau of Labor Statisticssite, I've found it a useful reality check.
posted by snorkmaiden at 11:48 PM on January 10, 2012
So my stab at advice: Not to say don't decide for decades, but don't necessarily hustle yourself back to school right away. What I thought I wanted when I graduated is no longer what I want. I think working as a PA/receptionist/admin assistant/etc, and being observant about the people around you, can be a great way to get a look at what an industry is like to work in, and whether a job you thought you would want is really what you thought it was. And who knows, you might stumble on something that would be a really good fit for you.
Oh, and if you haven't seen the Bureau of Labor Statisticssite, I've found it a useful reality check.
posted by snorkmaiden at 11:48 PM on January 10, 2012
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posted by parmanparman at 9:41 AM on January 10, 2012