On Careers

Tomanta

I've asked a couple of career-related questions here in the past, but I'm still having problems finding something for me.

I currently work phone tech support for a cable/internet company. Before that I worked briefly as help desk for a major insurance company, then many years as phone customer service for a credit card. I HATE phone support. Not sure why, because it's not really that bad, but I get depressed just going into work every day. I think it is because I know it's not what I want to do and I don't see much chance of getting to something I do want to do anytime soon.

Problem is, I don't know what I do want to do or how to get there. Anything IT-related is tough because I don't have any certifications, and I don't have any professional experience in anything other than phone support.

Education-wise, I have a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Political Science. I have taken a few business classes, but not many. I am good at creative and analytical thinking, writing, research. I am a fast learner (but not sure how to convey that on a resume...).

What I'm looking for are ideas on fields/jobs that I could find a position given my education and (probably lack of) experience. I mean, I've considered journalism but since I have no journalism experience... I don't think they would even look at me (just like what happened when I tried programming). I've tried looking at government jobs but without ideas on job titles, it can be tough to find something.

I'm mainly looking for non-IT ideas, as I already have a fairly good grasp on what is available there.

meeker

You have a degree in IT and PolySci. You are looking for something different. Go see if one of the current presidential hopefuls has a position open in their campaign staff. Do phone support or set up the systems at the rallys, etc. You will never find a job unless you are proactive about it...

PirateJon

Honestly, it sounds like you're pre-disqualifying yourself from lots of jobs. knock that shit off. It's not your job to decide if your qualified, that's for whoever's doing the hiring. So let them do it. You apply, sell yourself, and take whatever happens.

Two tips:
1) IT jobs. I doesn't matter if you don't qualify on paper, apply anyway. I do IT hiring. Most times, H.R. puts out an ad that may have nothing to do with what we're looking for and most people that apply aren't qualified anyway. Proper team fit is usually more important than technical skills anyway.

2) Think Shotgun. Read classifieds. Send the resume out to any job that looks interesting, regardless of qualifications. Accept any interviews and find out if it catches your interest. Take it from there.

Malkor

Have you considered moving within your company? It's always cheaper to move someone around within the orginization than it is to find someone outside. If there's a website then look at what's open. Like PirateJon said, don't look at the requirements and disqualify yourself. Make the hiring manager do his/her work. Also do you do Trunking/T1/T3 work or customer service?

witch_ie

Okay first, on journalism:

I'm not in the field, but I've known a couple of people who have started into it. A lot of times you have start building experience by writing for free for local community papers and then break in to free lance. It's a way to build experience, a reputation, and a portfolio of articles that you've written.

Next, on everything else:

There are a lot of jobs out there and since you're not looking into IT or (I assume) science, your skill sets should be fine and your degrees helpful in impressing potential employers. With any job you take, since as you admit, you don't have a lot of experience in a specific field, you will probably have to take an entry-level position. Most places will train you, whether you're a clerk in a governmental office or an analyst in some other organization.

imbalanced

Something you might be overlooking is PR and Marketing. Technology firms are great except that relatively few people can actually explain their product/company that well. What you have an advantage over others is that you KNOW tech, and you ALSO know political science (which is the basis of everything from journalism and communications to law). Look at all the major companies that hire engineers and general IT, then check their communications departments for openings.

Chances are you'll have a leg up over generic marketing majors because they haven't the slightest clue about technology and you do.

Tomanta

Malkor wrote: »

Have you considered moving within your company? It's always cheaper to move someone around within the orginization than it is to find someone outside. If there's a website then look at what's open. Like PirateJon said, don't look at the requirements and disqualify yourself. Make the hiring manager do his/her work. Also do you do Trunking/T1/T3 work or customer service?

Customer service, mostly "why can't I get online" or "my email isn't working". It'll be a few months yet before I can make any vertical moves where I am (such as residential support to commercial or a team lead position). A move to another department, such as marketing I might be able to swing but there haven't been any openings so far. As for requirements, I usually haven't let experience disqualify me (if it's something like 1 year experience) but sometimes I disqualify myself for other reasons. I'll try to stop that .

I've seen some good suggestions here. PR/Marketing especially is something I've briefly considered but never seriously looked into, but I'll do that.

And I've also thought about presidential campaigns, but I'm not exactly in a high traffic area for the candidates right now. Should still probably volunteer, though - it's on my to-do list.

themightypuck

Tons of possibilities. In house is really about who you know and the culture. You have the paper which is all the imbeciles in HR care about (ok ok apologies to anyone in HR). I'd look at your inhouse job postings as well as networking with people you know in higher up positions. If you don't think you have the skill to drop into a technical job (engineering stuff, software development, etc.) you can try project manager or vendor or relationship manager. Every big company is going to have jobs like this. They are generic middle management jobs that have a lot of possible upside. If you are interested in journalism you'd probably need to find a bottom rung position and move on up the ladder. That said, things are very chaotic in journalism right now with the big portals mixed with blogs mixed with print mixed with TV. People are trying to figure things out and even the big shots don't really have a clue what the future will hold so if you offer a different and interesting perspective to them they might bite.