What job/field should my partner search for?

March 20, 2015 9:01 AM

My partner wants to get a new job and would like advice for what kind of jobs / industries / job titles to look for. We are in southwest michigan right now, but my partner wants to build skills they could take elsewhere in the country in a few years. After graduating college with an English degree, my partner got a job through a temp agency, and is ready to move on. But neither of us are knowledgeable about what jobs they might be qualified for. Hopes and dreams inside

Brief summary of work history:

• College degree in English in 2010 (currently 26 years old)
• 2007-2009 Office Assistant - filing, answering phones, scheduling, etc.
• 2011-2014 Sales Support Specialist - tracking purchase orders, arranging shipping transportation and delivery, maintaining budgets, auditing project expenses
• 2014-present Project Estimator - Uses drawing and project specs to determine estimated project costs. Send requests for quotes. verify the accuracy of the quotes. Send out project bids. Post-bid follow-up to determine if scope-of-work was fully included in bid. Tracks changes to the project and creates revised pricing. Finds discrepancies between project plans and specs.

Here are my partner’s best skills:

• Attention to detail (Maintaining accurate databases, obsessively error checking)
• Memory (able to remember thousands of item #s and locations)
• New technology and troubleshooting (learning how to be excel wizard, formula, databases etc)

Here is what my partner enjoys doing / might like to do again:

• LGBT / queer issues are very important, would be interested in working at not-for-profit organization
• Likes making spreadsheets based on data - for example making reports that show X and Y, or combining multiple reports together
• Likes figuring out excel formulas
• Likes auditing jobs. It’s frustrating, but simultaneously satisfying to figure out what happened.
• Likes helping others problem solve / telling them how to do something

Here are some things my partner would like to avoid:

• Constant deadlines with no time to manage details (the stress from this is the primary reason they are looking for a new job
• no training period
• People who have a high resistance to change, backstabbing, snide, negative attitudes, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia. “High school mentality”
• Using the phone to talk to people to get and give information (shy, prefers email)

posted by rebent to Work & Money (5 answers total)

Would your partner be interested in acquiring SAP training and certification? That would seem to tie in well with job experience and would open up a lot of jobs (or would in my regional job market, no idea about yours.)
posted by DarlingBri at 9:10 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Business Analyst or Data Analyst would be a good starting point for job titles to look for.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 10:18 AM on March 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

I am a data analyst which a degree in art history who works to a non-profit, so boy does this resonate.

Learn how to query databases with SQL. Read up on data visualization. Get super good at throwing together pivot tables and using V/H lookups. Play around with SalesForce. Certification is nice, but I have worked for big corporations, one of the largest non-profits in the country, and very local orgs without it.
With that base of skills non-profits will be falling over themselves to hire them.
posted by munchingzombie at 11:23 AM on March 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Go to portfolio school. Call your local non-profits and see where the hire from. Make sure he's involved in the community while in school. In Canada, portfolio school doesn't cost more than 4-5K over two years. You will gain a lot of connections and the ability to pivot into a different career.
posted by GiveUpNed at 12:44 PM on March 20, 2015

LGBTQ Advocate at a post-secondary school. The community college where I used to work had this position. (Not all do, of course.)
posted by TheClonusHorror at 6:59 PM on March 20, 2015