In my continued search for a full-time job, I have looked at not only jobs in the educational field, but also administrative, data entry, HR/PR, and just about anything else I feel is applicable. I’ve been using Craigslist to look for job openings, and so far this week I probably applied to fifty organizations.
The tough part for me is that most of my job experience is in tutoring. While that is useful in securing more tutoring jobs, I’ve come to the conclusion that a ‘career’ as a tutor is basically a dead end. I don’t think it will ever be a full-time benefits/sick days-included type of job, which I really need. So I’ve been focusing mainly on jobs that offer that. The problem is that many of these jobs have very specific requirements. My goal right now is to ‘break in’ to a new career and work my way up, without having to go back to school to learn a whole new set of skills.
I was just wondering if any dopers have had a similar experience as I did, so I know what to look for. Mabye that piddly part-time job that only pays $12/hour could pan out to something useful, who knows.
Are you a college tutor post grad? What is your degree in?
I would put together a functional targeted resume, write down your strengths, and what you know how to do, then where you got the experience…Functional resumes are good for those seeking to break into a new field and for those with little experience but tons of knowledge, and for those of us older folk as well. With lots of jobs and experience but not in the field you are trying to break into.
One of my best friends went to school for a teaching degree, did some substitute teaching work, did some tutoring, hated it and became a secretary at a medical supply company. Took her a while to land the secretarial job at the place she was most comfortable (didn’t like the truck parts company or the car dealership ones) but she is utterly in love with her job.
Since you have experience working with children, managing an office would be cake
One thing to consider is to take a horrible crappy job at a company that does something you are interested in. Many large companies have policies that favor internal candidates (candidates that already work for the company) over external candidates.
Right out of college I took a fulltime-with-benefits job in customer service (ugh). 9 months later (the minimum stay required to be considered for another position) I transfered and became an PR Assistant. From there, there were several hops, skips and jumps but I ended up as a copywriter in the Marketing department, and kept that job four years or so before leaving voluntarily (note present location).
So, there is merit to the foot-in-the door approach, as long as you choose your employer wisely. I think for best results, you would look for a larger company (at least 500+ employees), because then there is always some turnover, hence, opportunity.
