What kind of job should I look for?

May 27, 2024 2:29 PM

I just got fired from my job of 6 years at a university. I was doing accounting-related stuff, supporting faculty and staff in processing expense reports, some invoices, etc. I loved the job in the first couple of years but this was mostly because of the frequent interaction with others. This was mostly in-person, some by phone, some by email. Of course once the pandemic hit, I was working from home and all interactions were by email. I realized that my actual work--entering expenses into software--was really tedious and I hated it without the personal connections.

As a result my performance has suffered. Also, over the last 3 years the volume of work has greatly increased. Working hard and steadily I am absolutely unable to take care of a day's email in a day, resulting in a growing back-log of later and later work. This has been very discouraging and my motivation has been killed. Also last year and this year I've been having quite serious physical and mental health problems and had to take 2 periods of leave.

Anyway, I was fired 2 weeks ago. On top of that I had just been diagnosed with shingles the day before and just 4 weeks after my mother died. Oof. I'm doing surprisingly well, despite my depression, and I'm not waking up with a sense of dread every workday morning.

I am also old--64 years. I'm trying to think what kind of work I can look for. I was reminded how happy I was working with people and providing help and support. They were always absurdly happy and grateful which gave me a lovely ego-boost. I thought that maybe I should look for some kind of customer service or front desk work. But I don't want some corporate job working on phones and assigned some quota to achieve. I saw a job listing that appealed: front desk at a large, research-based and clinical vet's office, working with customers and their pets. That really appealed as I love animals as much as I do people and I love the idea of helping pet-owners who are anxious and upset. But, of course, that kind of job's pay is even lower than my former job. I live in a very high cost-of-living area and do not want to move. Also there are very few similar type jobs listed.

At this point in my life, with chronic illnesses and my age, I cannot cope with a very busy job or high pressure. But I need money! I'm single and live on my own and have very little savings.

I have a background in accounting (more like assistant accounting) and accounts payable. And all sorts of administrative work. But I really don't want that kind of work any more.

Do any of you have any ideas of what kind of work I should be looking for? I'm aware that I am asking for completely opposing ideas: easy, low-pressure work at a high enough salary. But it doesn't hurt to ask...?

posted by primate moon to Work & Money (8 answers total)

"High enough" salary is extremely variable by situation. If $50-60k is high enough, tech companies are always hiring for tier 1/help desk support and this can typically be a fully remote role so you'd have a lot more opportunities. If you're tech conversant enough to have been on metafilter for a decade, you're tech conversant enough to figure out the basics. Since the entire job is working with people, it may be up your alley.

At least where I work, hiring in this role is incredibly diverse, age and anything else.
posted by phunniemee at 2:37 PM on May 27 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I should say that I need to make $65K minimum.
posted by primate moon at 4:02 PM on May 27

I think you might find some interesting roles if you look for onsite office manager or operations manager type roles at smaller companies in your area. It sounds to me like you like to be in-person and helping people, and if you've been doing accounting and admin, you're fluent in what-goes-on-in-businesses. Office manager and operations manager positions will be a little more physically demanding -- you may have to stock a refrigerator or clear out people's desks or rearrange a space for a particular use-case. But you will be making people happy by doing the things they don't want to think about, and they'll appreciate you for it. Your accounting skills are a great complement to this kind of work, as you might also help manage expenses, do purchasing, or even contribute to some of the tasks of the accounting team, without being solely responsible or having it be your FT job.

If you have developed some skills for data analysis through your accounting work, another route to go would be for data analyst positions. These are less people-facing and more computer-facing, but tend to pay fairly well.

Finally, if you're looking for something to get through this season of chaos, maybe combine all these together and look for positions on political campaigns and with political orgs, who are hiring all manner of finance and data people to work until November. This might open some doors and/or help you ascertain whether you don't mind doing accounting/admin in a different type of environment. That said, stress level will probably be fairly highly in these environments.
posted by luzdeluna at 4:07 PM on May 27 [2 favorites]

You might consider civil service? The availability, expectations, and pay may be wildly different depending on your locality, but the benefits are often good (and can help make up for a lower salary, depending on your particular situation). Federal jobs are a whole other beast, but state or, especially, local roles can be easier to access. Your local library may be a good place to go for info if your civic websites aren't great.
posted by Urban Winter at 6:01 PM on May 27 [3 favorites]

I think you'd fit in great at some small businesses - a lot of businesses need a sort of catch all helper plus customer service/reception/booking/organizing/being friendly person and having some book-keeping experience is even more helpful!

when you drive out into the industrial area of your city and there's a million little businesses around there who do things with pipes and tubes and lubes and trucks and ducts and rocks - look at those guys! see if anyone is looking for help! I've had some real nice jobs in those kinds of places.
posted by euphoria066 at 6:12 PM on May 27 [6 favorites]

+1 to local civil service.

My mom is a bit old than you, but has fill just these types of roles in her rural area within local government (also in New England). As there aren't a lot of people interested in doing state required work like transcribing meeting minutes, completing grant applications or other details, she found a really good niche for herself.
posted by chiefthe at 4:36 AM on May 28

Counterpoint: data analysis is an extremely saturated field right now (tons of PhDs are having trouble finding gigs) and unless you know SQL very well, have a pretty good understanding of statistics, and some knowledge of python, it’s going to be very hard to break into it.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 6:43 AM on May 28 [1 favorite]

Admin at a school? The pay probably wouldn’t be amazing, but there are positions with a lot of interaction with students. You can have a positive impact on their lives even if that isn’t part of the job description.
posted by Hex Wrench at 5:07 PM on May 29 [1 favorite]