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Serious Advice Needed Regarding Final Career Path

T

ThatGirl

Guest
I need to one and for all pick a career path to study in school. The counselors, when asked for this kind of feed back just give you a huge blank stare. I am willing to answer any questions you may have.

These are the factors I am working with here:

*I am getting old, so nothing that is going to take a decade.

*It needs to be financially positive, spending less for school than I will earn over the following five years.

Jobs I have hated/liked and why:

Snow Summit. First job, loved the busy rushes, and down times. Moved up quickly on the ladder due to my ability to get shit done with perfection leaps beyond what anyone else could do. Huge necessity while in a crunch.

Retail. Hated it, hated waiting for people to come in while trying to look busy. No challenge what so ever.

Hair Stylist. Had no real natural talent. I was all about theory and predictability of the desired outcome. Other girls fresh out of beauty school could school me on creativity. They developed client bases which would do their hair before buying groceries. I developed practical clientels that would cutsuch luxuries in bad economic times. As a result my career always ebbed and flowed with sucess. No stability. I hated the girls I worked with/under. Retarded, but gifted in ways I wasn't.

Medical office receptionist. Oddly enough loved this job. Reminded me of snow summit. Huge work loads, and a chance to organize under pressure. I was given freedom to rearrange systems and get them running smoother. Took perfection as a challenge. Too busy to think straight, and I was good at it. Downside was, there was no room for growth and the more I specialized in my area, the less likely they were to train me for other positions such as assistant (which they stated they would). I ended up working like a dog for very little pay, no benefits, no room for growth. The better I was at my job, the more bored the supervisor became and started micro managing, taking away individual freedom I had before while she was too busy with other stuff.


In college:

*I started taking classes for fun, but was first recomended by the counselor to go engineering. I love math, hate learning it. Specially when other people are having that ahhh moment where it clicks and I have not yet.

*Since it was supposed to be for fun I took almost every psych class my cc had to offer. I think there is one more available to me.

*Started getting serious about college and decided on pathology. Working alone in a lab with out people...just pieces of them. Sounded like a dream job but time is a factor as well as money. I took my bios and anatomy, but gave up because I was working full time (busting my ass) going to school full time at night, and realized I was neglecting tk during his youth, and exaughsting myself at the same time. Since then I have down sized considerably to make more meaningful progress, my opportunity now, but feel that 10 years is still too long to not become self sufficient again.

*I have taken my required maths and some other general courses, but not enough yet, and think I am still two semesters away from having an AS due to my not wanting to take gen requirements.




I will answer any questions you have, but am really curious about Practical options I feel good about pursuing. Right now, I am seriously clueless which way to go, or how to go about it. My family just keeps telling me to go to mcdonalds and be thankful for what I have got. :/ basically who the fuck do I think I am that I would demand or try for a real job.

Oh and options I have considered. Switching to business or going for accounting.


Thanks in advance.
 
T

ThatGirl

Guest
Also, I prefer working alone. As a hairstylist, coversing all day long, I would come home and not want to speak with anyone. Extremely introverted at night. At the office being left to my own thoughts but still busy, I would come home feeling good and wanting to hang out with friends and stuff. Except that that time I would go straight to school, then have homework, and ended up getting drunk late at night on vent.
 
T

ThatGirl

Guest
I step away for a while, I come back....zero responses. You guys suck. >/
 

Jaguar

Active member
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
20,647
My family just keeps telling me to go to mcdonalds and be thankful for what I have got. :/ basically who the fuck do I think I am that I would demand or try for a real job.

Their comments are about as motivating as having a stroke.
 

Jaguar

Active member
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
20,647
Ever thought of outside sales - something new and challenging every day? Independent contractors work out of their homes, set their own schedules, and come and go as they please. Some companies offer a small weekly guarantee+ commission and others are straight commission. The bottom line is, you set up the appointments with business owners and you sell them a product or service. (The opposite of retail sales, where you're bored shitless waiting for a customer to come to you.)

That's autonomous, rather than reporting to a job that pays a crappy hourly wage/weekly salary and being under someone's thumb. The key is finding the right product or service to sell that would appeal to you. This type of setup is for those who believe in their own abilities, and see working on commission as "the sky is the limit" when it comes to earnings. If you need a stable 9-5 routine without any risk, then all bets are off.

Any city newspaper has plenty of outside sales jobs listed and they're willing to train new people. I have no idea how big your city is, so what I just said may be a good idea or something that falls flat, if you live in a small town.

Just a quick thought - does selling real estate appeal to you? The market blows right now, but it's something to think about down the road. It can be very lucrative and I have seen many people turn their lives around when they got into the industry. You could even start out part-time, while doing something else.
 
T

ThatGirl

Guest
My experience with sales is prett limited to when I was a hair stylist. I discovered I could sell the crap out of a product I believed in, but that was because I knew without a doubt, this worked, and the client was stupid for not taking it home. Problem was there were few products I really felt strongly about, and more often tell someone, "put that down, that is a waste of money."

But yeah, for one I do live in a small city. The options are basically, working for a family owned small business, a corporate resturaunt franchise, the local hospital, or the city. Even our mall is shutting down major department stores.

I am also a little shell shocked from being a hair stylist, which I did okay in until the economy dropped and I was blind sided with no way to support my boy. Sales has the same foundation for sucess. Economy contingent, relies on networking, and constant attentiveness. I actually would rather rely on a nine to five because I almost get sick working with factors I can plan for but not control. Like, I can plan ahead for slow times, but can't control people's decision to buy or invest making the slow times obsolete.

Basically, I don't have that kind of authoritive persuasion. I know that makes me sound like a wimp.

The other thing is that this may be one of the last chances I have to attend college, I kind of set this opportunity up, so I may be a little uncomfortable diving into something new which may or may not work, over doing something to secure non debatable sucess.

Not trying to sound argumentitive, just the types of things I am considering. I would like to be a business owner eventually, but I think I need to secure the bottom of the maslow hirearchy before I can afford to take any risks anymore.
 

Jaguar

Active member
Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
20,647
Basically, I don't have that kind of authoritive persuasion. I know that makes me sound like a wimp.

Not really. It makes you sound like someone who has self-awareness. What I proposed is not a fit for many people. You need some stability and a safer route. I can see your dilemma if you're in a small town. If you had one receptionist job that you actually enjoyed, why not just find another? Is the job market that bad where you live?
 
T

ThatGirl

Guest
Its insane how bad the job market is where I live. I am currently looking for more receptionist positions. Actually I have been bugging the shit out of the local beauty school for one of their two available part time teaching positions, which I think would be perfect. For one it is part time, so I can still concentrate most of my efforts on college. Two, it is a lager company with others locations placed in more positive demographics, so there could be the chance of either transfer, or promotion.

The problem with the receptionist jobs here, is that they are min wage, like I said no benifits, no growth. When I find something I am actually good at I want to keep pushing the boundaries to see what I can make of it. Those you hit a dead end pretty early, but they still work you like a dog. My grades were starting to slip.

I think I need a more open ended position with not only room, but encouagement and incentive to grow. That's where I am hoping to go by getting some sort of degree.
 
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