I have a job. It’s a good job and I like it. I do accounting for a small business. It’s laid back and I really like my co-workers. I’m not going to do it forever, though. I need a career.
I’m 27, married 3 years, homeowner, first child due next spring. Since high school I worked on computers for awhile and then got in the mortgage business and did that for about 5 years. I got laid off awhile back and I’ve been back in school since the spring. I should have a general associate’s degree this fall of next spring, so I can still major in just about anything but I don’t know what I want to do.
Things I’m generally interested in:
-law
-arts and entertainment
-humanities
-science, especially biology (but this would add at least a year to my undergrad degree because I don’t have any of the required maths or sciences, so I’m tentatively ruling it out)
-teaching college (not high school or lower)
-Cool, exciting, dynamic jobs
-Jobs where I might get to spend some time outdoors
-Jobs where I might get to travel
Things I’m generally not interested in:
-Business
-Accounting
-Engineering
-Programming
-Pure sales (meaning 100% commission)
-Owning my own business (though if I do good in one career I would consider opening a comic book shop later in life. Not now.)
So if your job is awesome and you think I’d like it, tell me how I can get into it and why I should, or if there was a career you wish you’d persued and didn’t, try to talk me into doing it for you!
One more thing: I’m not opposed to getting a graduate degree but I’m ruling out persuing anything higher than that at the moment.
Well, I can’t say I love my job - in fact I’m pretty bored with it at the moment - but I did find that taking one of those silly for-profit classes was very useful. It was a “what color is my parachute” type class, and consisted of taking lots of personality tests. Basically it gave me ideas and, eventually, a focus (technical writing). From there I took a series of certification courses, got an internship, and am now an official technical writer.
The current boredom is the job, not the career. I really need to update my resume and find a new company to work for.
I dunno, it seems like I’ve read two dozen career books over the last few years (including “What Color is my Parachute?”) and I haven’t gotten anything useful out of them. They’re like horoscopes - very vague stuff that could apply to anyone.
This is the government’s major database of career stuff. You can search by skills and look through detailed job descriptions, or browse categories. It’s a massive amount of info. But since you have already defined some likes and dislikes, this might be a logical next step.
There are some pretty fantastic career opportunities in biology, and the market’s going to keep getting better for the foreseeable future, but your options are slightly limited without a graduate degree. At the very least, you should give it a serious look. Be forewarned that the best jobs are going to require a background in math and programming.
Computational biology. The ability to apply computing to solving complex biological problems.
Although I will agree with ultrafilter that this indeed a growing an important field, I would be hesitant about embarking on a career change predicated on the idea of going into computational biology unless, frankly, you’re really, really smart and really, really interested in doing the field. Although there is considerable demand for people with that skillset, I’m not sure how “wide” that demand is. In other words, the number of positions actually available in that field. Perhaps ultrafilter can provide more specifics.
Me, I like working in law firms. I’m just a legal secretary, but I get to deal with words and writing and editing, with smidges of history and politics thrown in. None of your scary math stuff for me! Of course there are issues with big egos and social hierarchy, but you’d get that anywhere. And law firms are less susceptible to the whims of the economy, depending on how established and stodgy and conservative the place is.
Typical positions, excluding attorneys, would be: paralegal, secretary, law firm IT guy (a desperately important position - legal types are not computer whizzes, generally, and are pathetically dependent on the IT guy), file people, accounting people, etc.
I’m not opposed to going to law school. In fact for awhile I was sure that’s what I wanted to do, I just don’t know if I have the time and money now. A lot of law schools require you to not work during the first year, and I have a house that I can’t sell right now, so that’s pretty much impossible.
Well, In love my job, good money, free time, fun, interesting work, but since it would fall under your heading of “pure sales” (it sorta is and sorta isn’t), I doubt you’d be interested. Saying that I just “sell insurance” is about as accurate as saying that Johnny Unitas “played a little football”.
Do you earn a salary though, Dave? I’ve done salary + commission and I like that, because I know how much I’m going to make + busting my ass will greatly increase it, but I’ve also done 100% commission and I don’t like the uncertainty of that. A couple slow months strung together can really hurt.
Hey man I work in the Green Industry. If you really want to jump to something that is cool, helps the environment/nature/the world and you can travel - enter the green industry in some form or another. If you are into sales you can sell windmills or solar installation materials - that’s hot right now. I know a young man making 6 figures and he’s not much older than you. I’m on the design end. I help [mostly green non-profits] design environmentally friendly facilities, help them with green/sustainable grant monies. There are lot’s of green foundations HANDING out money for green conversions or sustainable projects. If that kind of thing interests you then I think you’d like getting involved in the green industry in some way. Is that cool enough for you?
I think that’s awesome. What kind of education, background, and experience would I need. And what are some more examples of jobs I could do?
RNATB: Can you explain your job to me? I’ve looked into paralegal a little bit and I have a friend whose mom is a paralegal and loves it, but I’m interested in your education, background, what you do on a day to day basis, why you love it, etc.
My formal education and graduate work was in environmental psychology - but I know salesman, engineers, marketing folks, MBA’s, Associates who work in the green industry.
A lot of green organizations like Google, Nature Conservancy, and others are hiring across the country for HR specialists, Scientists, Biologists, conservationists etc…etc… To break into the industry is easy, just pick a company and see what they have open for jobs…or advertise yourself by sending them a resume even if they are not posting any jobs. Many of the jobs I have that have turned into clients were from networking sometimes blindly.
It’s pretty much as varied as a job title like “technician” or “manager”, with the obvious commonality that you deal in some way with legal issues. Basically, a paralegal performs job tasks that a lawyer normally would, but doesn’t have to- for example, while only an attorney can appear in most proceedings, such as a deposition, a paralegal can evaluate the content and/or results of that deposition on behalf of the client.
My current job is based around preparing paperwork for settlements, which means it may be as boring as hitting “replace all” with the name of a different individual, or as interesting (or at least variable) as rewriting significant portions of each document based on circumstances.
I also end up writing a lot of letters, which often involves knowing exactly how brusque you can be with each recipient and wording accordingly… along the lines of, “Dear valued client…” versus “Give us our fucking money, bitch…”
Anyway, you could end up doing something as personal as reviewing and/or correcting somebody’s written will, or something as anodyne as pushing around large sums of money in order to fit them into a government budget.
Why does that not surprise me, coming from someone named Will Santini?
And no. Thanks, but no. I got to do all the fun stuff when my brother was in. I used to get a high and tight, fly out to San Diego, and stay in the barracks with him, it was great. And I did the Tiger Cruise. Wouldn’'t want to ruin all those good memories by getting yelled at, or shot at for that matter :).
