I completely agree. You’re making really good, smart choices right now. Give yourself credit for the achievements you’ve got behind you and use those as evidence that you’ll continue to advance and things will get better.
Have you considered applying for temp work? I did and landed an awesome job.
Can you describe more about this? With a temp agency? When I think of temp agencies, I think of people that know how to type, which I don’t, very well.
I went to art school, so I feel very boxed in, as far as what my skills are, or what an employer will consider, as far as what my educational experience is.
I think one of the big “emotional” problems I have with all of this is that I feel very defeated in the “real world” with an art school education. I feel like I’m locked in to having only creative-type jobs, and even within the creative industry, I’m really a technical graphic designer, a production artist. So when I see job listings for graphic design, 80% of them are for conceptual design positions, and I’m just not a conceptual designer. I’m creative, but conceptual stuff gives me anxiety on the level of panic attacks. Need me to preflight files for printing? Expert. Need me to proofread, edit, make graphic edits, color correct, lay stuff out? Expert. Need someone to “do it all” (which, in this economy, is showing up more and more)? Come find me in the fetal position in the corner.
Just typing this stuff is giving me catch-my-breath anxiety.
Temp work can be anything, but I would say, jobs where you organize and file things, or answer phones and do customer service, are more common than jobs requiring typing skills. It can also be anything from a one-day assignment to “temp-to-perm” where they hire you permanently if they like you, and toss you back if they don’t. Usually the temp-to-perm jobs require particular skills and the short term assignments don’t.
I temped for a while when I got out of school, and got a couple month-long assignments that actually looked good on my resume. For example, I temped at a mail-order/internet seller of bilingual children’s books, who had recently been bought by another company and was just tying up loose ends before the official merger. I packed orders, answered phones, filed paperwork from completed orders, and boxed up old files for the move. No typing required.
They give you a typing test as part of the temp application process, but I type about 45 wpm (and I don’t touch type, I hunt & peck), and the lady said that was absolutely fine and not a problem. If you can type well enough to write a paper or an email, you’re probably fine.
Xanthous - How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking? With the new health care reform laws, if you’re under 26 you are still eligible to be covered onder your parent’s health insurance.
Most office/clerical doesn’t require that you type 100 wpm. If you type 35 with few or no errors, you’d be okay. Can you use most MS office programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access? PP and Access are more plusses than mandatory). Can you speak clearly on the phone? Can you sit through the endless tedium of a corporate meeting without falling asleep or taking a weapon and gunning everyone down? Then you’ve got what it takes to be a corporate drone.
For jobs like cell phone company service rep, they usually have a pre-employment test.eval you have to take to be hired. A lot of “what would you do in this situation” type questions, I think. They then have an extensive training program, weeks of classroom training before they expect you to start taking customer calls.
Check out the websites of companies headquartered in your area. Drive around office parks and look at the names of the companies there and Google them. Many of these places need entry-level workers. Think of most of the people you went to high school with. If they can do these jobs, so can you.
Good luck,
StG
Where in Ohio do you live?
I’m in Columbus. I’m 41. (Female.) I’m smart, well-spoken, I can hunt/peck pretty fast. I’m about 40 lbs overweight but I’m in good health. I’m strong. I’m attractive (I guess). I could probably just about do anything.
I guess I need to get past this humiliation and fear that my family will judge me for not staying in my job field (because they will so why be afraid about it) and just do something like be a dentist office receptionist (which I just applied for).
I also emailed my sister and came clean about what’s going on. I had to preface by saying I wasn’t asking for money (because any admission of dire straits in my family is seen as a request for financial assistance) but that I just wanted to open up to someone in my real life about what’s going on and just get some reassurance or love or whatever.
Bleh.
As a guy with a music degree, I can relate. I think I’ve made a total of $80 with my degree.
I did temp work for a couple of years, and my typing is attrocious. Let’s see, I did…
*Taking things out of envelopes and putting them into other envelopes. (Student loan agency)
*Approving/disapproving checks (Finance department of a software company)
*Data entry (Language school)
*Lifting heavy objects (CVS)
*Sorting mail and making copies (IBM. That was temp to perm.)
None of these were dream jobs, but they paid the bills. And the last one eventually led me to my current career, which I love and it pays the bills quite nicely.
Xanthous - Check you PM for jobs in Ohio with my employer. If you’re hired you get insurance the day you start.
StG
Done!
Pretty cool St. Germain.
Good Luck xanthous!
With a degree in art and sounding like you’re good with kids, have you considered giving art lessons? You could go to people’s homes for individual lessons, have a group lesson at the local library (do a free workshop, then hand out your phone number for people to follow up for private lessons); see if there’s somewhere you could do a group lesson if you don’t have space of your own. You could teach adult workshops, too. Those are things you can schedule for the late afternoons, evenings or weekends to keep your daytime free. And if you charge $20-$25 per hour and get a few regular students a week, or a few group lessons and charge $20 per person (and have it be a set session of a specific number of weeks), you could make enough for your car payment and dog food!
This is awesome. Dopers are awesome. Hurray!
Reasonable people understand that responsible people sometimes do things they don’t want to do. Reasonable people also understand that Columbus, OH is not exactly brimming over with opportunity at the moment. So, either they actually respect you more, because doing unpleasant, necessary things is part of being a grownup, or, they judge you as a total loser, in which case, fuck those assholes.
The latter being much more easily said than done, but really. Getting interim work that results in a paycheck is a GOOD thing, anyone who says otherwise is just a dick.
I know someone in this situation, and she gave me lots of reasons why it was impractical. I can’t remember many, but one was that it was difficult to make studio space in someone’s home without creating a mess, she didn’t have studio space of her own, and some other things.
But she doesn’t strike me as a terribly optimistic person.
Unfortunately I think it goes a bit deeper than just what I’m doing now. It stems from my parents’ disagreement with my choice of art school and their subsequent opinion that any failure on my part to become rich (or at least fat & happy) from my art degree confirms everything they ever believed about it. It’s that whole “I told you so” disdain that I have feared my whole life. My younger sister is a PharmD with a nice house and a Yukon and makes three times as much as I do, so that’s what I fail to live up to.
You are good people! Damn!
Okay, this might sound a bit harsh, but you’re 41 years old. Stop trying to get your parent’s approval and stop comparing yourself to your sister. Life is not a competition.
I understand what you’re saying- it makes sense. I just wish it were that easy! 
Oh, I hear that, I really do. I used to have to screen my calls because my father liked to call me to tell me that I was ruining my life and would “come crawling home.” (Tip to parents: not an effective persuasive technique).
Who are you living your life for? You, or them? So, you will do what you have to do, and maybe they will act horribly. There is nothing you can do to pacify people who want to act horribly – really there isn’t. If they want to treat you cruelly, it’s not a reflection on you, it just displays their utter lack of character.
So the next time they start in on you for being a sad, pathetic failure who would have a husband and a Yukon right now if only she hadn’t ruined her life with art school – just say to yourself "How sad they are. What small people they must be inside, to feel the need to break me down like this. Luckily, I am an adult. I do not have to justify myself to them. "
When you can scrape together the money for maybe 4-5 sessions of therapy – seriously do it. Probably the best money I ever spent in my life.