Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with jobs

Plan B/In the Meantime career advice

mannermode — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:34:08 -0800

I wasn't selected for military officer training school. Help me design my Plan B/In the Meantime career while I apply again. Me:
I'm 30, single, and out-staying my welcome at Mom's place. I really want to get into officer training school and serve my country, but I can't put life on hold while I re-apply. Bills need to be paid, I need to move out of Mom's tiny apartment, and I'd like to pay down my massive student loan debt ($900/month).

History:
I joined the workforce after high school (retail, warehouse, customer service, lower management in hospitality) and spent my free time playing in bands. Fell out of love with making music, decided to go to college.

I followed one of my passions and went to school for audio engineering, worked hard as an intern and did a lot free work to build my portfolio. After graduation I got a job at a post-production studio. I knew I would have to pay my dues in that industry, but I couldn't make ends meet. Spent my free time freelancing, looking for part time work, and selling things on ebay.

I followed another one of my passions and went to teach in rural Japan for a few years. It was an amazing experience and I got paid enough to chip away at the student loan debt. Picked up some language skills (not fluency) and some teaching skills (not certification). After a few years I felt like I was stagnating. I did some heavy soul searching along with the exercises in What Color Is Your Parachute and decided I want to join the military as an officer.

I moved back to the States 10 months ago to focus on my application, a process that took much longer than anticipated. So I began job hunting, started volunteering, and took a stop-gap job at the nearby coffee chain. A few months ago I got an entry-level job at a small third party logistics company, but the workplace culture isn't a good fit for me and I'm not earning enough to pay both rent and student loans. The company is doing poorly and I don't foresee getting a raise any time soon. A few weeks ago I got the news that I was not selected into officer training school. So for now I'm still living at Mom's, making low IBR payments on the federal loans and interest-only payments on the private loans.

What now?
I am going to re-apply to OTS. If I am lucky enough to get accepted, I will need to survive for the next 12-24 months before I start training. If I'm not accepted, life must go on. So now what? I can't seem to connect the dots to find a logical Plan B. My current skills aren't in demand and don't command much money. I'm open to learning a new skill/craft, but I don't want to borrow any more money. I like media production, audio post production, aviation, academia, military/defense, and IT. I'm living frugally, and would need to earn around $40k to be able to afford rent with roommates and student loan payments. I am interested in upward mobility and would ideally like to be earning 60-75k in the next 10 years. Any advice?

A change of scenery would be nice

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:10:53 -0800

I'm in a pretty miserable job and I'm trying to get another gig. A yearlong job hunt hasn't really been fruitful, so I'm trying to branch out. What else should I be looking for? I took a QA position and was promised I'd get to touch some programming/scripting. But a year into it that appears like it's not going to happen, and the workload is increasing as employees jump ship and aren't replaced (We've had three go since I started working). The job search has been pretty frustrating.

About me: Mid 20's. Unattached. (to debt or anyone) Living in the dreadfully boring suburbs of a dreadfully boring city. (KC, KS area) I could stand to relocate.

Skills: Programming languages that include ActionScript 3, C#, Lua, and a dozen others that I'm rusty in but could pick back up. (Java, C++, Javascript, etc). Little professional experience with any of them, but I work on side-projects all the time to keep me sane. I do a lot of game programming, first with AS3/Flash and currently with the Unity 3D engine and C#.

Beyond that there's the usual IT skills, troubleshooting, problem solving, and quick learning. I'm getting QA experience now.

Creatively: I write and draw a lot. I'm working on a comic that I'm writing and illustrating, and I do spot illustrations now and again. I can do short-form fiction pretty well. These have been mostly hobbies, but they're good enough that I'm able to win contests and I get occasional praise for them. If I could use these on the job, that would be fantastic, but it doesn't have to be the main thing.

It's sort of a scatter-shot of skills, so I'm not sure what I could be targeting that use them. I think my creative skills put me ahead a little bit, but the problem is that I come across as a "jack of all trades, master of none" , which has a stigma to it (I guess?). I get interviews and callbacks, but nothing has worked out yet.

Is there a job out there that I should be looking at? I've mostly been looking at game jobs, but I don't have the experience to get any of them (Professional experience, anyway). I'm open to just about anything. I really wouldn't care what I'd be doing as long as I use my brain when I come into work. Work-life balance and salary aren't really a concern right now. If I have to learn a new language or piece of software, I'm open to suggestions.

Also: I've been thinking of just straight-up moving somewhere without a job. Is that realistic, given my skill set?

The only things I don't want are a large corporate environment working in a cube farm all day. I'm also not interested in teaching english overseas, or the Coast Guard (sorry, cool papa bell).

Anyway, thanks for reading

Throwaway email for questions/clarifications is the totally professional sounding xXxFoucault420xXx at gmail dot com

What kinds of jobs should I look for other than admin/office stuff?

needs more cowbell — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:01:37 -0800

I've mostly done generic office work but I would like to expand my job search to include more specific things. What fields (with jobs available) would be a good fit? I need a job. I'm intelligent and educated, but I feel like I don't have a lot of specialized job skills. I've mostly worked in offices in pretty generic positions (administrative assistant, receptionist, etc) and while I'm looking at more jobs like that, I'd like to branch out in my search. Are there other niche things that wouldn't require me to get additional training first? Areas where there are actually jobs open? Positions that will train me on the job are fine; I just don't want to do much training in the hopes that someone will hire me when I'm done. (At least not right now.)

Part of my this is that I'd like something more interesting, but also, it seems like everyone and their brother is competing for admin jobs these days and I'd like to have more options/branch out/maybe do something where my skills/education give me a leg up or even a chance at advancement.

Details:
-I have a BA in biology (finished a few years ago) from a great school but have never worked in a lab. My school's program leaned toward human biology/health and cellular stuff. Unfortunately I don't feel solid enough in my physics/higher math/chemistry knowledge to tutor those subjects or do jobs that count on having a great current working knowledge of them.
-I'm good at finding information.
-I enjoy math in the sense that playing with numbers and graphs for things like helping with inventory planning (in a past job) was fun and easy for me.
-I'm good with computers (using software/learning new programs and troubleshooting) but don't know how to program.
-I'd prefer to have some amount of people contact and I like being helpful but I can be awkward/socially anxious at times.
-I'm somewhat interested in healthcare-related stuff (I might go back to school in the healthcare field eventually.)
-I am open to jobs that require travel.
-I live in the SF Bay area (and am in theory open to relocating, but I don't think I have the kind of skills that would lead to employers hiring me from afar.)
-I have no retail experience.
-I'm not necessarily looking for a career--something for now is fine. I'm open to things that don't pay very well since I am currently making about $0, though if it's poorly-paid I need for it to be something I could quit without feeling too guilty OR something where I can work my way up reasonably quickly/easily.

Things that won't work:
-Jobs that involve writing (I'm told I write well, but churning things out on a deadline gives me severe panic attacks.) Editing is fine.
-Jobs that involve convincing people to buy things they don't need. (Cold-calling, retail jobs with quotas or on commission, etc.)
-Jobs that will wreck my back (constant repetitive lifting of heavy boxes and the like--I'm fit but I'm a smallish woman and I'm not superwoman.)

I'm not sure there are any good options that fit these parameters. If so, fine--I can keep looking for admin jobs and whatever else pops up on craigslist. But it would be great to know if there's some random specific area I'm not thinking of that would be a good fit.

I'm especially interested in fields where there's actually hiring going on right now. (Something like working in a library would be a great fit, but there aren't a lot of jobs, so that's not very helpful.)

After 15 years in my business, I can't find work. WTF do I do?

Snell's Constant — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:03:37 -0800

Maybe you've had bad experiences before in your industry, but this being unemployed shit is all new to me. It's going on four months now, and I still cannot find work in my industry. I'm tired, scared, and broke as a joke. What would you do in my situation? Let's just say I've spent a long time working in my industry... I'm a lighting industry consultant, I built a big nerd website community, and I've worked all over the world doing what I do. Now, there's no gigs to be had, and I'm looking all over the US trying to place myself back. Something else that is very bothersome is that I have done a lot of things to support my industry over the last decade, and now I can find no love.

I'm already hooked up (and have been for years) on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter; there must be 1200 PDF copies of my resume out there floating around, too. I've been pulling 80 hours a week just looking for a job.

I'm sick of this shit. I'm sick and tired of working 80 hours weeks when I had a gig for money that was good but not great, and for people who could give a shit about anything but themselves. I can't take this anymore, I need something to give.

What would you do in this situation? Here are some things that are ever-present in my thinking right now:

* Should I change careers, and how the hell would I even go about that at this point besides going back to school? I have a wife but no children, and she's Canadian and can't work here yet.

* Were I to change careers... I would probably want to do something with the Masters degree and other acknowledgements I have gained over the years. I've been thinking either Optometry or some kind of Engineering, both of which I need more school to do. To me, this seems like a pipe dream, but my skills are excellent when compared to the skill sets of these two careers.

* I was told the other day by a person interviewing me over the phone that I was "severely overqualified for the position" being discussed, regardless of how much I need the money. WTF is that?!

* I left a job paying very well for very good yet NDA-protected reasons -- this was the biggest mistake of my life, even though it's not my fault for needing to leave. It left my family in a bad place, but the alternative of staying wasn't something I wanted to even discuss. Every day I wonder how I could have avoided this -- but hindsight being 20/20 as it is, I can't help but be depressed over this situation.

* Bill collectors are calling; this is new to me too. I can't blame them, I ran out of money. Should I be considering bankruptcy?

* Mental distress -- I learned what an anxiety attack is, and how they feel because of this shit situation. With no health insurance and zero money to eat, live, or even survive, life has become very interesting.

Id love some feedback here -- are there industries I should be looking into for a job that could turn things around for me here? Look, I'm not naive, I know millions of people are going through this -- but as for me, I have been doing OK in my career until now. I'm so frustrated I am ready to walk the hell away from my industry and go do something better than I can support my family on and maybe live a little less tight.

I'm out of options. We just need help. I cannot let my wife down, I love her too much.

When I come home from work, I no longer want work to come home with me.

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 17:16:12 -0800

I'm in my late 30's and I need a new career, one whose responsibilities focus on the things I am better at while avoiding the things I'm awful at that make me grit my teeth. I'm a bright person, with better than average people skills, innate tech savvy, and terrific problem solving abilities. I am plain-spoken and genuine and I have endless reserves of positivity that put people at ease. But I sink like a stone when asked to tackle long term projects that require planning, organization, and longer-term time management. I'm not amitious and I'm not competitive. I've fought so long to improve at my jobs by addressing these shortcomings, but now I'm wondering if I couldn't just find a job where these skills were less important to begin with. What kind of fields could I be looking into? Additional snowflakes inside. I've got a job, a good job, even, with decent pay for an ethical company. But it's a blue collar/sales service job that requires a level of ambition, organization, and near 24/7 responsibility I just can't sustain, and so, I'm really not great it. Plus, it's lousy with manual labor and I'm on-call entirely too much. There are enough parts I'm good at in my job that I manage a vague acceptability to my work. But with all of the things I'm terrible at, I'm emphatically not great. I worry my bosses could lose patience with that at any time, quite reasonably. I can take this for a few more years, but the only path for advancement would be to double down on all of the aspects of it that I hate--the sales, the planning, the long hours.

So I need something new.

Guidelines for new career:

Requires no more than two years-ish of study to get the required certification/degree.

Can be studied for with evening (or possibly weekend) classes.

Studies can be paid for with student loans.

Solid, middle-class earning potential from the start.

Room for promotion is unimportant, though higher pay/better vacations as I piled up seniority would be nice.

No nights, no weekends, no holidays, and no one calling me after I leave for the day.

About Me:

Like everyone on MeFi, I'm pretty bright.

I am a terrific verbal communicator.

I am more task-oriented than project-oriented. That is, I am at my best when dealing with appointments and issues as they arise, finishing them, then moving the hell on. I can handle anything you can throw at me over the course of a long day and I can reset, come back, and do the same thing the next day and the next with an almost endless reserve of energy and positivity. But when I am asked to tackle something that requires say, twenty long days in a row, I will mismanage my time and choke horribly. And my followup is pretty bad.

I am a remarkably fast learner on anything tech-related. I'm that guy you call to help set up your new tv or troubleshoot your web site.

I have a well-above average memory for facts and details. My co-workers treat me as a resource. Calling me to ask if I remember how to do this, where to find that, etc.

I excel at dealing with people. I'm friendly, polite, and genuine, and I'm comfortable with a broad spectrum of people.

I am far, far happier in a workplace, with co-workers, than on my own.

How does finding a biology job work?

topoisomerase — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 13:15:30 -0800

I really love biology, especially ecology and conservation. I don't want to go straight into grad school, and I don't daydream about being a professor or teacher. What can I do between now and May 2014 to make myself a competitive job applicant? What jobs are available and realistic? Where can I find them? No one in my family is a scientist, so I have no idea what I'm doing. I will be graduating from college with a BA in biology in May 2014. I have a 3.6ish GPA. I've had lecture-based coursework in animal behavior, plant physiology, genetics, and developmental bio. I've also taken a couple of intro computer science classes, if that's relevant. In terms of lab work, I took an experiments in ecology course (we worked with honeybees, Capitella teleta, and plants) and I'm in a recombinant DNA tech course right now (pouring plates, doing restriction reactions and ligations, running gels, doing PCR, etc.). I also got to go to my college's research station in the Bahamas and follow around a grad student one day while she did a research project on birds there. I was also an intro bio lab TA for a semester, if that's relevant. I don't have any experience other than that, but I've really enjoyed what I've had the opportunity to do.

I haven't been able to do any internships, because I've had to catch up on credits during the summer (I had a medical issue starting mid-freshman year that is now resolved, but interfered with classes and actually doing stuff). Lab jobs mostly go to undergraduates on work-study, but I'm not on work-study. I emailed a few of the professors I've taken classes with to see if they take volunteers in their labs, but they don't. My advisor wasn't really helpful when I asked her how I could find research opportunities during school or job/internship opportunities for after graduation. She's also leaving on sabbatical starting in the fall, so I have to start over with a new adviser.

I really like working with DNA and E. coli in the lab, but I like working with animals and doing fieldwork way more. I'm also really interested in conservation. Collecting data on birds' behavior or migratory patterns! On honeybees! On marine wildlife! On the impact of pollution on breeding sites! I want to do stuff like that some day.

What can I do between now and May 2014 to make myself a competitive job applicant? How do I find jobs/internships in ecological research or conservation? What jobs are available and realistic for someone with my nonexistent qualifications? I am in Massachusetts in the Boston area, and I don't have a car, if that's relevant. I grew up in (and my folks live in) the mid-Atlantic.

I am okay with living anywhere and being paid anything after graduation, as long as I'm working at a biology-related job. I will go and talk to Career Services as well; I was just hoping AskMe could give me a head start. Thank you in advance.

How do I add more than one type of income-producing skill on Linked In

cartoonella — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:21:29 -0800

Everyone in my industry uses Linked In, so though I can't figure it out for the life of me, I had to create a profile. But I don't have just one job - I'm also a freelancer in a couple of different fields. I'd like to list them too. Right now my profile gives the name of the company where I have a full time job, and lists my position as my, well, job. But I'm also a freelance illustrator, and I write for online magazines as well. How on earth do I add these things?

Is this one of those things where I'm going to have to buy the premium version of Linked In in order to create an accurate profile? Gah...

More Details About Web Product Management, Please

amicamentis — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 22:37:53 -0800

What are some good resources and tips to get better at Product Management for an internet startup? I work for an internet startup and have been the de facto product manager for quite some time. I'd like to be better at it. My official role is in support and product integration but since we're a small company, I am the only one who interacts with customers, their feature requests, and one of the few who use the tool on a daily basis. I do a lot of bug-reporting as well as mockups (very amateur ones) of what I would ideally like to see in a lot of our pages.

I'd love to get more into product management and less into customer support. It looks like we may be expanding soon and I'd like to both concentrate my position into only product management as well as be really, really good at it. What do I need to know?

Advice for how to market myself as a design/media/communications ninja

overeducated_alligator — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 10:15:20 -0800

I've got a very eclectic resume: 5-7 years of experience in several different fields at once, because I have had multiple simultaneous jobs. Now I'm looking for a new gig, and I think I have a lot to offer, but I'm not sure how to market the breadth of my skills. Here's my brag list:

- designed & edited a peer-reviewed academic publication for 6 years
- built web databases and CMS in HTML/CSS/PHP/MySQL for a nonprofit (also for 6 years)
- fact checker/research assistant for a mass-market popular science book
- made and sold my own Photoshop plugins
- done storyboarding and hand-drawn animation for some filmmakers
- made curriculum materials for schools
- I'm about to finish up a Master's Degree in Science Education

I know that to some people, all this might look kind of nutty and unfocused, but I've had a pretty consistent goal throughout. I want to work with all types of information and media (web, print, video, illustration, writing) -- to specialize in being a generalist.

I think I could be an asset to a company that appreciates this goal, but can I sell myself as a "complete package" in a world of specialists? Is there a particular industry or sector where you think I might be a good fit?

Should I try to find some sort of recruiter/headhunter? Or is that only for high-tech?

Help me pick a job

theuninvitedguest — Wed, 29 May 2013 08:27:24 -0800

I have been offered positions at two different companies. My stomach is in knots trying to decide between the two. I interviewed with two different companies and both offered me the job. I do realize it's a great position to be in, and truly never thought I would be in this position, but I have been insanely stressed over the last two days trying to make a decision. Here are two choices:

1) Research company in my dream industry. My two interviews with the managing director went spectacularly well. I truly love the position, what they do, etc. It's something I pretty much do anyway for free. I want to be in this industry in five, ten, twenty years. The offer, however, was just below what I was making before I had my MA, and that doesn't include my previous company paying for my tuition. When I came back to them with the other offer, they offered a substantial signing bonus to be paid after 6 months of employment, on top of the regular annual bonus and yearly performance-based salary increase. These increases put the 12-month salary within spitting distance of the second job. I think I could do really great things for this company, can see myself moving up quickly, etc. I applied for this job knowing their budget was smaller than my salary requirements just because I love what they do and my background fits the job description so well. And the interviews went so well the first offer was higher than the top of their budget, although still below what I would like. But I can be comfortable on the salary offered.

2) A company that is far outside of my area of interest, but my meeting with the president yesterday went just as well as the previous company, and this position, like the other, would utilize so many of my skills. The president runs the company in a really creative way, which is not the norm for this industry, and told me 20% of my time should be dedicated to brainstorming and coming up with new ideas, which is very attractive. She gave examples of what she likes to see that I would never expect from this industry. They are growing insanely fast; have huge, Fortune 500 accounts; and I would essentially be tasked with the direction of the marketing/communications efforts for the company. The salary is also far higher with this company, not including an annual bonus (and not including the signing bonus at the other company). This salary would let me pay off my student loans, put some money towards buying a house, do more traveling, etc.

I honestly don't know what to do. After my initial meetings with both companies, I was 90% sure it was going to be the first company, just because it's my lifelong passion. But after my meeting with the second company yesterday and great salary offer, I'm torn all over again. Ugh, I hate money.

I know this question is basically passion vs. money, which has been asked before and I read those, but I wish it were as simple as that. The way the second position is structured I think I could be very happy, and as much as we like to say money doesn't matter I would love to not have to worry about it. But the first company has me more excited than I have been for any other job. I'm just wondering:

A) What you would do
B) Any advice you have based on your own experience that is relevant to this situation

Thank you for ANY advice you can give that will help!

how to list medium crappy temp jobs on a resume?

tulip-socks — Wed, 29 May 2013 06:58:29 -0800

For about a year now I've been bouncing between secretary type jobs through temp agencies, and need to figure out how to list this on my resume. Two of the temp jobs are relevant to the type of work I hope to get, but can't be listed by name due to confidentiality issues. How do I present this industry specific and consumer facing work especially since my long term job before this was in a different field? I'd just leave it as a gap, except the work is relevant and there are other aspects of the gap (major surgery and more!) that make it longer than I'm comfortable with. I've been trying out a particular format for a while now. But I have been invited by a volunteer coordinator to submit a resume for a very great job with a very cool organization. And I want to get it right. How do I represent the temp things on a resume?

For confidentiality purposes, I can't list the places where I have recently worked by their names. The latest temp agency rep says she will serve as a reference for me, since her ultimate goal is to get me a job even if it's not through her service (she sounds so fake when she says this!). She hasn't been able to match me with anything that I can access on public transportation since I left the job where my supervisor was doing really shady things. But she does call me every week to tell me about possibilities! (The latest offer that failed was because I'm not bilingual...)

Luckily I had a super awesome boss for several years and she is happy to continue being a reference for me whenever I need. But I really need to account for the time between leaving that job and the present.

Here's the most recent iteration, which matches the format of the rest of the document (my major skills are listed at the top):

2012 Temporary Positions in specialized xxxxxx facilities Through agencies y and z

While I am required to keep the identities of my placements confidential due to agreements with the temporary agencies, these customer facing positions required fast paced problem solving, many meetings, and development of rapport with clients and providers to ensure timely delivery of foo.
Contact: Person A at Agency Y 555-867-5309

Cool Interesting and Unique Job Postings Blog?

GleepGlop — Tue, 28 May 2013 12:15:15 -0800

Are there any blogs that scour online job boards and just post the cool interesting or unique jobs? We've all read articles about cool and unique jobs that are out there in general, but is there a blog or something that actually links to these kind of jobs when they are posted and hiring?

Non-techie needs help with startup interviews!

ziggly — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:04:46 -0800

I need resources for dealing with the vague job descriptions, short interview lead time, and sometimes nonexistent web presences that are apparently typical of startups. I'm having an incredibly hard time dealing with interviews at startups. I am a non-techie, a humanities major, who has interviewed for both tech and non-tech positions at startups over the last six years or so, and I have never received an offer. These are some issues I've identified:

-Applying to one position and being offered a different role to interview for that imo is less of a fit right out of the gate (i.e., applying for editorial and being told that I will instead be considered for "technical data wrangler" (not a real position but an example of the kind of nebulous job descriptions I have encountered.)
-No official job description, sometimes no real job description at all, maybe just a title like "technical data wrangler."
-Getting a job description for "technical data wrangler" that is forwarded to friends in both the tech and non-tech worlds that leaves them scratching their heads as well.
-No real website or web presence beyond "Coming soon, another social web thing!" or single-paragraph news mentions like "Stealth-mode Tremulous.com just got $2 million in funding from the VentureCrunchers," so I can't even research the company like I would with A NORMAL BUSINESS THAT GIVES ME A WEEK TO PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW.
-Which leads me to how I won't hear anything for weeks after an application, then will get a request for a phone interview that day or an in-person one within 24 hours. Which, inevitably, I apparently fail, but I am afraid that requesting more lead time will remove me from consideration.
-Preparing for behavioral interview questions and getting practical or technical ones. And vice versa.
-Dealing with interviewers who seem to visibly lose interest before the interview is even over.
-Interviewing with multiple individuals and teams in the office, who contradict one another about what the job actually entails/can't seem to agree on a job description themselves.

I have asked startup employees elsewhere for feedback on interviewing, and I've heard things like "I'm just trying to find out if I'll like the person," or "They want 23-year-olds who will be passionate about giving their lives to the company." Neither of these are terribly actionable suggestions, especially since I'm no longer 23, which should be evident from my resume anyway.

How have you gotten hired for these sorts of positions or, if on the hiring side, what is it that you're looking for exactly? Are there websites, books, epubs, any sort of practical advice for dealing with these questions?

Also, do I ditch the suit or what?

Do you think college is worth it?

earthquakeglue — Mon, 27 May 2013 09:44:09 -0800

I'm having second thoughts about going back to school, not only because i've seen a lot of people graduate and not be able to find a job so they can pay off their $30,000 loans but also because they might be over qualified for it or underqualified. If not that, then i'm kind of worried with the field i want to go into it would be really hard to find a job here(united states), and i'm starting to wonder if i would be better off buying text books/books and just teaching myself what i want to learn. What's your opinion on college? Do you feel like it's worth it anymore?

What are the best sites for hiring front-end developers in the US?

grubby — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:00:37 -0800

Stackoverflow has been great for back-end developers, but not so much for the front-end people - I mean javascript frameworks + html5 + css. What are the best job sites for hiring front-end developers in the US?

Have I been going about quitting all wrong?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:59:41 -0800

I'm about to quit my job. I'm becoming increasingly aware that this is going to come as a huge surprise to my boss and coworkers. Should I have been dropping hints? The gory details: I'm in academia (but not a professor) and I'm leaving for a new industry, in large part because I don't like my long-term job prospects in academia. I haven't had to use any of my current coworkers/bosses for references. I'm planning to give just over a month's notice, although I could extend this, and I'm carefully planning ways to wrap up my current projects and documenting things that the next person in my position will have to do. I have not told any of my coworkers that I'm planning on quitting because I've always believed that it was unprofessional to tell anyone other than your boss first, but this has become increasingly difficult over the past month or so - I'm constantly running up against "Oops, can't talk about that!" topics in conversation with coworkers.

I've been careful to not make promises or specific plans for things that will happen after I'm planning to be gone. I've made dissatisfied noises about my job to coworkers (starting long before I began to make my exit plan), and have had some sincere heart-to-hearts with my boss about what I want from but am not getting from this job. But no one seems to think that I would actually *leave* (I've been here a few years and not one person has left our department since a year or two before I started, so it's not like they're crazy to think this). Also I don't think it would ever cross their minds that I would leave our field.

Is this just normal? When I've left previous jobs (all in the academic/nonprofit world) either I left when a grant ran out and my position was no longer funded, or I was in a place that was an obvious bad fit for me and the organization and they were happy to see me go, or my boss actively helped me look for a better job and wrote me glowing references and things.

tl;dr: I have no experience leaving a pretty good job where they're happy with my work, and I'm afraid of how my coworkers (particularly my boss, who is well-meaning but a little bit prone to freakouts) will react, and I wonder whether there's anything I could have done to make this easier (short of months of slovenly work and loud complaining).

How to handle a prospective employer calling my current employer?

pintapicasso — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:15:25 -0800

I applied for a job 4 hours away. I've since decided that I do not want it. However, I'm worried that they will contact my current supervisor as a reference and she has no idea I'm considering leaving. 1. I have not yet been offered the position at the job I applied for, but I imagine I will.
2. The reasons why I'm no longer interested: When I was contacted by HR I learned that the position is only 24 hours per week and does not qualify for benefits.
3. I originally listed two former coworkers as references, as my current job is the first job in my field so I could not ask any former supervisors. I obviously didn't want to list my current supervisor because I did not want to preemptively tell her I was leaving.
4. Prospective job HR contacted me and asked if they could have a supervisor reference. I explained my position and he said that she would only be contacted "in the last stage." I gave him my supervisors name.
5. Since then an internal position has opened and I have applied for it. I am so worried that the prospective job will contact my director/supervisor for a reference and she will be like"???".
6. Also since applying I was given a substantial merit based raise which has made me want to stay.

How do I handle this? I want to keep my current job.

I want in the industry, but how should I take the first step?

Saydur — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:49:45 -0800

I'm trying to get a specific job title, but it is a difficult one to find. What is the best course of action to take here? I have found that I am deeply interested in a specific job title in a specific industry which is a fairly narrow position. There are quite a few open positions for this job title, but they consistently demand experience in that exact job title.

What I speak of is a "Game Monetization Designer" which is based around making video games profitable. The biggest obstacles I have found are that it is particularly difficult to find people with this title that I can speak to in order to become more familiar with the community and make professional connections, the specific nature of the job means that I haven't found any other positions in other fields which would provide more than a little bit of relevant experience, and the demand for experience before obtaining the position.

I would be willing to take a different position if it would be a likely path towards what I want in the long term. I have not found any positions which do not demand experience. I would not be able to take an unpaid internship, but starting off at the low end of a livable wage is quite fine. Statistical analysis and sales research are enjoyable to me in general, but the fast pace of the industry is a very serious attraction, so another position in the gaming industry would be quite fine. I would also be interested in similar work for the casino and gambling industry, given that it is also a relatively fast paced entertainment field.

So really, my question is, what's the best direction to take here? I am having an extraordinarily difficult time making connections, so I'm looking for the next best options. I would have more confidence in most other industries, but this title is so specific and experience demanding that I don't really know where to begin.

How do I find a nursing job in a tight job market?

margoc19 — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:43:26 -0800

I’m relocating to Baltimore, MD and looking for a nursing job. I’m fresh out of nursing school, which does not work in my favor, but beyond that consider myself to be a strong applicant... Strong applicant meaning I have a lot of previous community health experience, got great grades in nursing school and undergrad, am fully licensed, etc. I’m sending out reams of applications to area hospitals and a handful of nursing homes, but so far haven’t been called for an interview. It’s hard knowing where to toe the line with the suggestions HR has on the websites. They ask that applicants not call to check on application status, ask that we not contact nurse managers, say that there is no need for us to contact anyone after submitting an application, as HR will let us know if our resume is being considered. These streamlined online applications ensure that there be no reason HR meets me unless my resume somehow floats to the top of the pile and they invite me to come in. I don’t have any nursing contacts in the area, so my networking options are slim.

So, do you have any ideas for creative ways I can make myself, a strong applicant, stand out without becoming obnoxious to the HR department and nurse recruiters? Do you have any familiarity with the healthcare/nursing market in Baltimore as of late, and if so, any thoughts on where I should be turning my focus?

And finally, I realize there are plenty of places in the country desperate for nurses and I could apply there. I’ve chosen Baltimore because I’m planning on starting a grad program here in the fall, which I would do part-time while I work full-time. But the job is the priority, and if nothing works out within a certain amount of time, then I have to scrap the grad school plans and move to wherever I can find work as an RN. So I’d like to focus on the greater Baltimore area for the time being.

Should I contact a company for a third time post-interview?

Gin and Comics — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:14:12 -0800

I went to a job interview (hurray!) and it seemed to go well. Sent a thank you note. Sent a follow up some time later, but no descion had been made. Should I contact them again? The details:

The job interview itself was in early April. I think it went well. This is one of the few times where I haven't felt like a total fraud out of their depth.

I was told at the end of the interview not to be a stranger, and that I was the second of five candidates to be considered. Further, I was told that interviews would probably not be completed until the end of the month and should not consider radio silence as a rejection. I sent out a thank you note via email after the interview, and let the interviewer know I would get in touch with them again at the end of the month.

I contacted them around April 30th, but was told the interviews were not yet complete but the hope was to finish them by the first week in May.

Fast forward to today. Do I contact them again? If I do, when? Now? Later? How would I go about writing the email if I did? I don't want to be a bother, but at the same time I really want this job.

Graphic designer desperately needs a better job!

Ursula Hitler — Sat, 11 May 2013 16:34:31 -0800

Somebody I am very close to is a senior designer at a graphic design firm in Southern CA. She has been there many years. She is ridiculously overworked and underappreciated, and while she has achieved some authority in the company she has also hit the glass ceiling pretty hard and she is dealing with some covert but undeniable workplace sexism. She desperately wants to quit and work someplace else, but for a million special snowflakey reasons, it is very difficult to make that happen. Help? She has no connections outside her current firm, she basically works from when she wakes up to when she goes to bed 7 days per week (so she really has no time for "networking") and she is so depressed and demoralized that she claims there's little point in looking for another job because she'd just face the same sexism and underappreciation at the next firm. (I disagree, and think her current firm is super fucked-up.) For various reasons she can't afford to earn less than she's earning now, and she can't risk her bosses finding out that she's looking elsewhere. She is not the freelancing type, and rejects that whole idea.

So.

Is there any way she can find out more about the office culture at rival firms? How can she find out if a firm works people to death or is run by assholes, short of getting hired there and finding out the hard way? (Again, it would be extremely challenging for her to go out and network without causing problems at her current job.) Is there some sort of insider-y design message board or something? Some magazine or website that runs in-depth profiles of firms?

Online job ads aren't very helpful (I get the feeling that most firms don't recruit online) and research suggests that headhunters aren't very helpful either. Is there some viable headhunter service she should try - somebody who knows the field and can actually find her a better job?

I'm leaving a lot out, partly to protect her privacy and partly because this question is too long already. What it comes down to is, how the heck can she find a new graphic design job that doesn't make her totally miserable?

Don't have an internship for summer, feeling really down

bookman117 — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:36:57 -0800

I'm a computer science major with a 3.16 GPA finishing my Junior year at UT Dallas. I feel really unsure as to how to go about getting internships, and I failed to get an internship for this summer, though I did manage to get one interview from dropping off my resume at a booth at an on campus career fair. It seems like a lot of people from my class haven't gotten internships either, though obviously I can't take a scientific poll. I tried reaching out to various people on LinkedIn working at various companies I wanted to intern at to see how they got their positions, but only one guy responded. We had a productive chat about how to get internships, and he recommended that I get into my school's Industrial Practice Program (which I can't get into yet since I haven't taken electricity and magnetism yet for reasons I won't go into here but will definitely do so this summer or fall), which he said garnered the highest response rate for him when sending out resumes. He also suggested that I buy the book Cracking the Coding Interview. He has a 3.99 GPA due to an A- he got in a government class once, so he's obviously in a different class than I am, but nonetheless I did enjoy speaking with him.
My friend has said he could probably get me an IT job at this random place, and it doesn't sound all that enticing and frankly I'm not sure I'd be qualified for it (although I know I could learn anything they cared to explain very easily). I haven't sent out as many resumes as I should in part due to my anxiety over cover letters causing me to procrastinate, as I'm not entirely sure what I should say. I mean, I know it should summarize my resume, include something about the position and/or company, and I guess thank them as well, but I'm just not sure how to execute it. That guy I spoke with said that he has never once written a cover letter, but then again the reason he's been able to get away with that is that his resume makes you start back a bit when you look at it.
I'm also not sure I should say that I have been exposed to functional languages like Haskell and Lisp (which I worked with in a class last semester and enjoyed) because it often seems to cause recruiters to develop this smirk. I'm worried it makes me look too much like I'm just some kid who's gone to school but has no experience with the real world, which is true, but given the way things seem to work these days it might be a good idea to get rid of anything on my resume that just smells like that.
I'm eager to get out there in the real world and start to feel like an adult who's capable of bringing in a paycheck, but I just feel like there's a lot of inertia and uncertainty keeping me from getting there. At the one interview that I managed to get, there was me and two other undergrads along with five or six master's students. My professional communications professor said that this was probably due to the economy, which didn't exactly encourage me.
Anyway, if anyone can give me some advice/tell me how screwed they think I am that'd be appreciated. I know these things are ultimately kind of a crap shoot but anything useful that you have to say would be appreciated.

Last Night I Dreamt I Had a Marketable Skill

pineappleheart — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:34:53 -0800

I hate my job and originally only took it as a stop-gap until I found what I really loved. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what else I'm suited to do. I've been a copy editor, a social worker, and a paralegal. What on earth do I do with these skills? I graduated from college about ten years ago. I went to a decent school where I majored in history and which landed me my very first job at a small children's publisher. I loved the job but the pay was low and there was little room for growth. I applied to editorial assistant positions at other publishers in New York for about three years without getting anywhere. Although I got several interviews and always made it to the second round, there was always someone "more experienced" than I was who got the job.

I decided that if I was never going to make any money, I might as well chuck everything and go to social work school. I specialized in families and children. Once I graduated, I applied to over a hundred jobs over several months and got nowhere. In desperation and low on funds, I took an assistant paralegal job that a friend helped me secure.

I'm thirty-two now and still haven't found "my job." I no longer expect to, but I'm almost at quitting point with my paralegal job. While some younger people or recent graduates might be more suited to strongly hierarhical settings, I'm having a lot of trouble with the expectation that I churn out mindless, micromanaged work at the behest of not-very-bright associate attorneys without the hope of ever advancing since I would need a J.D. to do so.

If you had a friend with an Ivy League degree in Modern Genocide and Total Warfare, several years of editorial assistant experience in children's books, a Master's in social work, and a year and a half of experience rganizing a near-impossible workload as a low-level paralegal at a top firm, how would you tell her to package her skills? What else could she possible do that isn't publishing, social work or paralegaling? She can't seem to get a job in the former two choices and she hates the third, but there has to be a job for writer types who like people and want a little bit of autonomy. Where on earth should I be applying? Is there anything new I can try or is it too late?

(If you recognize me from this post because you are my real-life friend and this post is high on specific detail, call me for a drink later. I'll buy you a beer.)

Career wanted: Apply within

TrishaLynn — Mon, 06 May 2013 07:36:53 -0800

After the standard three-month probationary period, I realized that the first job in my new state wasn't right for me, so I resigned. Help me plot my next career move? When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer/editor/publisher but my parents didn't have the money—and I didn't have the gumption to apply for financial aid or scholarships—to send me to the schools where I could get a really good journalism degree. I got my BA in English, though, and in order to pay off some credit card debt, I worked at a travel agency call center.

After two years of not being paid to be a writer but doing some volunteer writing and editing for a monthly webzine, I decided to quit my job to try being a freelance writer. Four months after that, I got a job at a niche magazine and moved across the country to do that job, only to be terminated a year after that.

Bills called again, and for the next three years after that, I kicked ass at a data entry job while volunteering at the local-area geek convention as a senior staff member and publishing an annual print 'zine. Then some personal issues hit and I decided to change careers again to be an admin/executive assistant.

In the five years since I switched, I've held five jobs ranging in duration from three years to three months. I know there's a problem here in my being able to keep and hold a job (and I strongly suspect it's me), but how do I find this out for sure? I'm in my mid-thirties and I don't have the luxury of spending more time to "find myself."

More questions:

My husband thinks seeing a therapist again would help. Are there any psychologists in the greater Twin Cities area that not only deal with cognitive behavior stuff but career advice and coaching as well?
I did a search for career aptitude tests online but what's the meatspace equivalent of those? Is that the sort of thing you can do at an unemployment office or staffing agency?
One of the reasons I suspect I've not been able to be very happy since I switched to the admin/executive assistant track is that ever since I was terminated from the editing job, I've been trying to get back into it and feeling discouraged. I made it a priority to take "any" job in order to pay off my debts, and it's worked to the point of where I only have one credit card bill in my name, and I'm within a year or so of paying that one off completely; at the same time, I've barely written anything since then, even on the website I created/started myself. But the writing/editing industry isn't as robust out here in Minneapolis as it was in New York City, where I used to live. Am I completely foolish for even wanting to still write and edit?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Did I box myself in with a low salary?

Two Stranger — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:00:12 -0800

I just had my first phone interview for a prospective software engineering job, which was a ten minute phone call with an in-house recruiter. I wasn't expecting the topic of salary to come up this early in the process, which I grant was maybe naïve, but they asked me and I gave a lowball offer. Now I'm wondering whether I've screwed myself here. Basically, I wasn't entirely prepared and gave an offer that, now that I've done the research, I see is a good 20% lower than the salary range that Glassdoor reports for that company and that position. Am I going to be able to negotiate upwards later? This feels very early in the game, but I don't have that much interviewing experience.

Possibly relevant background:
1. I'm currently employed.
2. I would be relocating for this job.
3. It's at a mid-stage startup.
4. This short call went well, so I've got a phone interview coming up with the actual department lead tomorrow.
5. I'm just beginning the process of looking for new jobs in the last few weeks, with the hope that I'll have something in hand by August, and, while you never know with these things, I'm fairly confident that I'll get an offer at some point in the next few months, not to mention that if worst comes to worst I don't need to leave my current position. All that is to say that I don't have much to lose in negotiations.
6. I live in an area with a really low cost of living, and this job is in an area with a really high cost of living. As a consequence, that salary range from Glassdoor that I mentioned above is twice what I make in my current position. I told the recruiter my current salary, rounded up to the next thousands place.

So, what do you think? Am I locked in, or can I still negotiate freely without harming my chances of getting the job?