How do I figure out what job/career I fit into?
October 2, 2015 5:28 AM Subscribe
I've been applying and interviewing a bit, but most applications get no response, which I know is common enough, but maybe I could be going about this better. I am in dire need of guidance at this point as to what sort of other jobs or fields I might fit into and be happy with. (Long) details inside.
I honestly don't know what sort of new career path to approach. I keep applying to jobs I feel that I can do and reasonably meet the requirements for (mostly writing and community management positions), but maybe there's something better I'm not seeing that might get faster results.
I am much better in person than on paper. I think on paper I may not come across well. I considered hiring a resume/cover letter writer but I just can't afford it. I'm running out of money and very tired and trying to stave off depression over all of this.
Some more about me:
I genuinely like helping people, I remember names, I am sensitive and empathetic, I like making others feel welcome and appreciated, and I'm extroverted. I love animals, kids, social issues, doing good. I would be completely open to a nonprofit. I'm bilingual, would travel a bit for work, and willing to learn new things.
Despite this, I'm kind of bad at 'networking'. I'm a straightforward and guileless person. I don't quite get these sorts of games people play. Things that sound entirely logical, my SO tells me are a bad idea to say. I used to have really bad social anxiety and while I'm fine now, I still have issues with asking people for things. Or truly keeping up with more than a small core of friends. I'm not a game player, thinking about how I can use people. Where do the honest people work?
I've been writing professionally for years (no content farms) and I've also represented various outlets at media events. I have not been able to get a staff position and due to cutbacks, I simply need something steady at this point or I will run out of money by year's end and have nowhere to go. I love reading and research.
Social media and community management - I've built, overhauled, and run small communities and moderated others. The problem I keep encountering is that many “community management” positions seem to be about 85% marketing these days, and I'm more the people-oriented, in the community type. I learn fast and I'm sure I could pick up marketing techniques that mesh with an organization's audience, demographics, and needs, I don't have it already, and the fresh marketing grads are probably snapping up these new CM positions.
General office work. - I've done a bit of this. It's not wonderful and it's not my career choice, but if it leads to something more stimulating, maybe. I'll take general jobs to pay the bills right now.
I'm in my mid 30s with a BA. NYC area.
Preferences and Issues:
Regular work hours and work stops when I leave. 35-40 hours a week, 9-5 job, something that is regular and leaves me time for my outside life. They have me for X hours a day and no more.
No open plan offices, if possible. These are exahusting and anxiety-inducing. I'm a sensitive person and need at least some privacy at work. If I need to buy noise-canceling headphones, a privacy screen, or put a hood over my head just to get some tiny scrap of privacy, it won't work.
Flextime/telecommute option: At least once in a while. For my mental health.
Benefits. I need health insurance.
I cannot relocate or go back to school. I have neither the ability to take on more debt nor the time.
40k+ annual salary
Does anyone have a suggestion for a field for me? Or some way to get a foot into doors faster?
I honestly don't know what sort of new career path to approach. I keep applying to jobs I feel that I can do and reasonably meet the requirements for (mostly writing and community management positions), but maybe there's something better I'm not seeing that might get faster results.
I am much better in person than on paper. I think on paper I may not come across well. I considered hiring a resume/cover letter writer but I just can't afford it. I'm running out of money and very tired and trying to stave off depression over all of this.
Some more about me:
I genuinely like helping people, I remember names, I am sensitive and empathetic, I like making others feel welcome and appreciated, and I'm extroverted. I love animals, kids, social issues, doing good. I would be completely open to a nonprofit. I'm bilingual, would travel a bit for work, and willing to learn new things.
Despite this, I'm kind of bad at 'networking'. I'm a straightforward and guileless person. I don't quite get these sorts of games people play. Things that sound entirely logical, my SO tells me are a bad idea to say. I used to have really bad social anxiety and while I'm fine now, I still have issues with asking people for things. Or truly keeping up with more than a small core of friends. I'm not a game player, thinking about how I can use people. Where do the honest people work?
I've been writing professionally for years (no content farms) and I've also represented various outlets at media events. I have not been able to get a staff position and due to cutbacks, I simply need something steady at this point or I will run out of money by year's end and have nowhere to go. I love reading and research.
Social media and community management - I've built, overhauled, and run small communities and moderated others. The problem I keep encountering is that many “community management” positions seem to be about 85% marketing these days, and I'm more the people-oriented, in the community type. I learn fast and I'm sure I could pick up marketing techniques that mesh with an organization's audience, demographics, and needs, I don't have it already, and the fresh marketing grads are probably snapping up these new CM positions.
General office work. - I've done a bit of this. It's not wonderful and it's not my career choice, but if it leads to something more stimulating, maybe. I'll take general jobs to pay the bills right now.
I'm in my mid 30s with a BA. NYC area.
Preferences and Issues:
Regular work hours and work stops when I leave. 35-40 hours a week, 9-5 job, something that is regular and leaves me time for my outside life. They have me for X hours a day and no more.
No open plan offices, if possible. These are exahusting and anxiety-inducing. I'm a sensitive person and need at least some privacy at work. If I need to buy noise-canceling headphones, a privacy screen, or put a hood over my head just to get some tiny scrap of privacy, it won't work.
Flextime/telecommute option: At least once in a while. For my mental health.
Benefits. I need health insurance.
I cannot relocate or go back to school. I have neither the ability to take on more debt nor the time.
40k+ annual salary
Does anyone have a suggestion for a field for me? Or some way to get a foot into doors faster?
I took the Strong Inventory test to answer a similar question - it's very standard, and offered widely online for around the same price, and if you're an alumni or student, most universities will offer an academic discount through their career centres. It took about 30 minutes and then another 20-30 minutes Skype with the test administrator reviewing the results.
I found it very helpful because it gave me a shortlist of jobs where people with similar personalities and interests were highly satisfied, and I had worked in a couple of those fields already, so I was able to look at the other fields and then sort them by the work-life balance to only three new careers and make a much more detailed choice instead of being overwhelmed by possibilities.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:17 AM on October 2, 2015
I found it very helpful because it gave me a shortlist of jobs where people with similar personalities and interests were highly satisfied, and I had worked in a couple of those fields already, so I was able to look at the other fields and then sort them by the work-life balance to only three new careers and make a much more detailed choice instead of being overwhelmed by possibilities.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:17 AM on October 2, 2015
Despite this, I'm kind of bad at 'networking'. I'm a straightforward and guileless person. I don't quite get these sorts of games people play. Things that sound entirely logical, my SO tells me are a bad idea to say.... I'm not a game player, thinking about how I can use people. Where do the honest people work?
I really, really don't think networking is about using and game-playing. I'm pretty honest in my networking. I put a positive spin on things, though. I tell my story in a way that I think will be attractive to the person I'm talking to. Basically I avoid making myself look desperate or incompetent, but I don't pretend I have skills I don't have. I don't want to end up working at a place where they genuinely need a person with skills that I don't have and can't learn, so it's good to get that kind of stuff out of the way up front. (I would love the hear what your SO has advised you not to say.)
I also totally get not wanting to ask people for things... but don't you like helping people? I like helping people! Most people like helping people (so long as it's not too difficult). Receiving help from someone is not "using" them. Try and reframe networking from "who can I use" to "who would be able to help me?"
Because seriously, in most fields, for people without long strings of highly desirable qualifications, people you know are absolutely going to get you access to better, more interesting jobs than applying to advertised jobs.
posted by mskyle at 6:18 AM on October 2, 2015 [3 favorites]
I really, really don't think networking is about using and game-playing. I'm pretty honest in my networking. I put a positive spin on things, though. I tell my story in a way that I think will be attractive to the person I'm talking to. Basically I avoid making myself look desperate or incompetent, but I don't pretend I have skills I don't have. I don't want to end up working at a place where they genuinely need a person with skills that I don't have and can't learn, so it's good to get that kind of stuff out of the way up front. (I would love the hear what your SO has advised you not to say.)
I also totally get not wanting to ask people for things... but don't you like helping people? I like helping people! Most people like helping people (so long as it's not too difficult). Receiving help from someone is not "using" them. Try and reframe networking from "who can I use" to "who would be able to help me?"
Because seriously, in most fields, for people without long strings of highly desirable qualifications, people you know are absolutely going to get you access to better, more interesting jobs than applying to advertised jobs.
posted by mskyle at 6:18 AM on October 2, 2015 [3 favorites]
Social media and community management ... The problem I keep encountering is that many “community management” positions seem to be about 85% marketing these days, and I'm more the people-oriented, in the community type.
There is a ton of online training for social media these days. You don't need a degree in social media or anything, but it is going to be nearly impossible to land a CM position these days without at least knowing how to do this and some evidence of that, like a twitter account and some Facebook admining. The good news is that this is all excessively low-hanging fruit.
FWIW we have just hired for one of these positions and while I can train applicants to do what we need on social media in like, 30 minutes, we did not consider any candidates with no social media experience because it feels like basic Internet literacy at this point.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:34 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
There is a ton of online training for social media these days. You don't need a degree in social media or anything, but it is going to be nearly impossible to land a CM position these days without at least knowing how to do this and some evidence of that, like a twitter account and some Facebook admining. The good news is that this is all excessively low-hanging fruit.
FWIW we have just hired for one of these positions and while I can train applicants to do what we need on social media in like, 30 minutes, we did not consider any candidates with no social media experience because it feels like basic Internet literacy at this point.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:34 AM on October 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
The people who are getting these jobs are most often people identified through IRL interactions. It's not fair, and it's probably not right, but it's how it goes. So you have to put yourself there.
You aren't... I can't tell... Okay, I'm only picking up on your stress. I get it. You are freaked out. But you are at the HEIGHT of a venture capital media boom, there are ENDLESS jobs, jobs that didn't exist five years ago and likely won't exist five years from now, and I get that some of them are crappy or not directly in your wheelhouse, but you are going to need to get in the door at one of them and take a job, since you're not willing to go live in the gutter. You are going to have to sell yourself a little! You are going to have to be, or pretend to be, someone that people like to be around! Get cracking. Go outside. Apply for jobs that you aren't perfectly right for. It's OCTOBER, get cracking.
Where do the honest people work?
I don't even know what this concern means, and it's a little troubling?
No open plan offices, if possible.
I haven't seen a media company without an open plan office in a good long while. Sorry!
posted by RJ Reynolds at 6:41 AM on October 2, 2015 [4 favorites]
You aren't... I can't tell... Okay, I'm only picking up on your stress. I get it. You are freaked out. But you are at the HEIGHT of a venture capital media boom, there are ENDLESS jobs, jobs that didn't exist five years ago and likely won't exist five years from now, and I get that some of them are crappy or not directly in your wheelhouse, but you are going to need to get in the door at one of them and take a job, since you're not willing to go live in the gutter. You are going to have to sell yourself a little! You are going to have to be, or pretend to be, someone that people like to be around! Get cracking. Go outside. Apply for jobs that you aren't perfectly right for. It's OCTOBER, get cracking.
Where do the honest people work?
I don't even know what this concern means, and it's a little troubling?
No open plan offices, if possible.
I haven't seen a media company without an open plan office in a good long while. Sorry!
posted by RJ Reynolds at 6:41 AM on October 2, 2015 [4 favorites]
Customer relations for a corporation. For example, the claims department in a top-tier bank. Though unless you rise to the head of management, I doubt you'll be put in your own office. By sticking to this office criteria, you will limit your job prospects severely. And at this point, in order to survive, you will need to make sacrifices.
posted by zagyzebra at 6:50 AM on October 2, 2015
posted by zagyzebra at 6:50 AM on October 2, 2015
Go here http://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip. It will give you an idea of what you should be doing and how you can get assistance to do it.
It's the Department of Labor O*NET test. They can set you up with internships, apprenticeships, and training programs for the jobs you're matched up with in your state.
posted by bkeene12 at 8:21 AM on October 2, 2015 [4 favorites]
It's the Department of Labor O*NET test. They can set you up with internships, apprenticeships, and training programs for the jobs you're matched up with in your state.
posted by bkeene12 at 8:21 AM on October 2, 2015 [4 favorites]
You seem like you'd be a good fit for higher ed advising or admissions work-- that would use the crap out of your empathy/people-skilled/ nurturing side, and they'd probably find the social-media experience attractive. Have you tried networking around your alma mater at all?
posted by Bardolph at 8:23 AM on October 2, 2015
posted by Bardolph at 8:23 AM on October 2, 2015
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Plus it gets you out of the house and helps you feel like you're accomplishing something, even if just a few hours a week.
posted by Etrigan at 5:39 AM on October 2, 2015