I graduated college in 2006 with a degree in commercial printing and wobbled around jobless for two years before I had a family friend hook me up with a job at a local bank.
I remember getting a tour of a printing plant and the guys working there were doing all this crazy technical stuff on a large scale all through computer and being told "there used to be hundreds of people needed to run this thing!" I then realized that computers replaced so many of the jobs in the printing industry that in 5 years, the jobs i am training for are going to be obsolete.
I would have done Computer Science but I can't pass college algebra.
I temp at a pensions company. It's a pretty dull job, but I've had far worse. I dropped out of uni after a few months, I honestly despised the course (Environmental Science).
I'm planning to do a couple of evening courses in psychology and english starting in September, with the intent of studying one at uni at some point.
It's a 50/50 toss up if I'll actually motivate myself to do it though.
Have been working the same self-stacking job at a department store for six years. I like the people. I am kind of afraid that it'll look bad on my CV though: "So you worked on the lowest pay grade for six years? Do you have no ambition?"
As far as proper jobs go - if I were to work as a lawyer it would probably be in international or EU law which I have performed disproportionately well at in school. More probably, I'll apply for a government job. Investigative stuff (feds, investment securities commission, customs, intelligence agencies) has always appealed. Too much watching Lester Freamon on The Wire has got me psyched to chase through paper trails and other boring shit.
AutoCAD operator/ technical assistant in an Engineering department
i'm planning on either moving higher up in the engineering drawings crap or going into video game art. ...or becoming some sort of hr person.
i am indecisive.
My younger brother has a TAFE qual (barely, and that basically means associates' degree level), works as a contract CAD drafter, and earns roughly twice what I do. I have 6 years of uni - two degrees, one with honours, and I play with dirt for the government. Go draw pipes if you like having money :P
I like my job, though. Nice people, no crazy working hours like in the private sector, lots of learning opportunities. The rewards will taper off in a few years, but its a good early-career position.
I've got a couple of degrees (law/arts) and a masters of laws in constitutional theory. Currently on holiday and in between jobs
Was - Business Development (managing/writing sales proposals) - I've done this kind of work since graduation but I'm a little sick of it. It pays ok I guess.
Plan - I qualified as a lawyer but I've only briefly worked as one and I want to get back into the profession - focusing on the commercial/IT/Telco specialism if possible. Will take a pay cut for a year or two while I get equivalent experience but earning potential goes up pretty quickly after that. Work hours could continue to suck.
Fall back - Move back to capital and work for the government as a policy advisor.
Currently: IT Functional Analyst / Systems Support Specialist (read here "Help Desk" for 58 branches with occasional development testing chores to do for the programmers).
Education/Certification: BA is in English Literature, most recently passed a Microsoft cert exam, so I can proudly wield the letters "MCP" in my professional sig, if I just felt like it.
When I grow up: This year I'm finishing off the three other tests to complete the MCSA certification. Beyond that I want my masters' degree in literature and a published novel, a picket fence and a pony. I really like my job, so changing it depends entirely on opportunity, location of the picket fence, and the whim of Fate.
I just got a definitive date on my new school. I'll be starting June 9th. Starting this Summer I get to spend 8 hours a day for 18-24 months learning a foreign language. I am super excited.
I graduated many years ago with a degree is music education with a full k-12 certification. With the placement services that my college offered I could have had a job in a middle school just about anywhere. A few of my professors said that I should continue on and get a degree in performace. Instead I decided that I didn't like kids enough to teach and wanted to get married, promptly falling into retail. I am not sure if it was good or bad, but I was damn good at it, and worked retail for 10 years as a manager for a few different places.
But running a videogame store at 30+ was not for me, so I took a crash course in IT, got my MCSA in 6 months, and jumped ship. Now I am first level support at a very small mortgage closing company. The nice thing is that I am the only IT person in the building, so I get to play with just about everything, and my direct supervisor is several states away. On the flip side the company has taken the recent 'mortgage crisis' on the chin and laid off qut a few people recently, plus my resposibilities range from printer maintenance to building support (catch all phrase for "if it's broken, call chamberlain"). I am probably safe, but the odds of me making better money or getting promoted anytime soon are not good.
I will give them 6 more months and then start to look again. Network admin work is very apealing, though I should probably go back and get an MCSE for that.
I'm a study scientist for a pharmaceutical CRO in the UK.
Did a degree in Biotech and didn't do quite as well as I hoped, so went on to do a masters (Drug Design and Biomedical science) rather than going straight for a PhD or into industry. Did a lot better there and thought I would give industry a go before going after a PhD (since the money is a lot better than in academia), leaving the PhD as a fall back plan if it turned out I didn't like the business environment.
Wasn't quite sure what sort of role I was really after, between labwork and project management but ended up getting a job doing the latter. Ending up getting the job because no one else had actually used a flow-cytometer before, left me very grateful that my degrees had been a lot more 'technique'y as opposed to largely theory based. If you can get HPLC experience at uni, you'll get a job in a flash.
Far as future plans go, I don't think I'm going to be going back to do the PhD anytime soon (perhaps something to do in retirement I wondered) - don't know whether I'm just lucky, but the work is really quite varied here and we do get quite a lot of freedom in how we go about running experiments. Also joined at a good time as well since I've been pretty rapidly accelerated up the ranks left by people leaving for new jobs, maternity leave etc which has allowed me to take on responsibilities and roles that would normally be handled by a senior study scientist. Pay isn't that great apparently compared to other companies (started at roughly $32K, now at $36K though this is the UK rather than the US so we'll get 25 paid holidays on top of that. Know the people at our US site have higher wages but less holiday, but not the specific figures) but apparently the experience we get balances this up when looking to make the next step elsewhere. Probably going to stay where I am for a year or two, and then depending on what advancement options are open then start looking around for something project managementy. Also be able to then get permanant resident status in australia so was thinking I'd look for work there for a couple of years, hopefully earning enough money to go travelling properly during the holidays rather than following the fruit picking seasons.
I have a Bachelor's degree in Cinema and Television Arts, with an emphasis in multimedia production.
Currently, I am employed as an environmental scientist with a specialty in air quality.
I basically got my job through a combination of being in the right place at the right time and nepotism. The local office of my company had just started and was understaffed. My cousin was one of the first people on staff. When the office's first project was going out, they didn't have enough people to word-process it, so my cousin told his boss that he had a cousin (me) that knew how to do that. So I came on as a temporary employee doing WP, working on and off as needed during college. After graduating, I needed a job, and I had been around this work for so long that I absorbed it by reading it and proofreading it for so long, so they brought me on as a technical writer. The senior air quality and noise scientist then took me under his wing and taught me how to do those analyses. And that's what I've been doing for five years now.
I'm currently looking at going to graduate school, but I'm falling out of love with my current job for various reasons. So I'm looking at going back for an MFA in Creative Writing. Eventually, I would like to be a writer as my career, although it is extremely difficult and I'll likely need another job, so I'm considering looking at teaching as a future career to subsidize the writing.
I work in a bakery. I handle the cash in the store, deposits etc. I take care of the wholesale and retail orders. I handle all the supply orders. I hire/fire. I do payroll. Set the schedule. Repair the ovens. Repair the mixers. Do any electric work necessary, wiring etc. I maintain the network in the bakery, do all the computer related purchasing. I maintain the website. I do the photography for the website. Implement marketing strategies, which is babble for "I figure out what people want and make sure we sell it". I do deliveries. Install new equipment (espresso machine, refrigerated cases, ovens).
I do not, however, do any baking. It's literally the only thing I don't do in the bakery. I got this job by noticing a "help wanted" sign in the window about a year and a half ago, after moving to Chicago. It was for a simple cashier position. I walked in, and just happened to talk to the owner. My interview consisted of him asking me "Can you count?" and then "Can you come in Tuesday at 10?". I answered in the affirmative, and a year and a half later I can basically write my own ticket.
For the future? I'm going to learn to bake at some point. Well, not really learn, I know how to bake already, so I guess I'm just going to start.
Mother was right, computer jobs are the way to go.
Thing is, with such a broad list of IT positions out there, I wouldn't know where I belong. I'm not sure if I'm smart enough or patient enough for one position, or overqualified for another. If it involves things like setting up a dedicated internet connection, I could manage, but anything with complex math or calculations is seriously not my forte.
Anyone know a comprehensive but brief list of IT positions out there, preferably whatever is in good demand and offer good pay?
Ironically, you'd think a career in video games would be the ideal choice, since it combines computer work along with creativity for a favored hobby. However, I've read more than enough horror stories about long hours, hair pulling delays and the sad realization that what you're working on isn't the next FF or Mario, but a dead on arrival liscened game based on the newest Harry Potter movie or whatnot.
I briefly tried to major in film, and seriously enjoyed the classes I attended (horror movie class? it's true! we had to do a paper on Dead Alive! fuck that was awesome), but I soon quitted after a talk with one of my teachers, who spent 4 years trying to get into film and wound up being a hippy college teacher instead.
So I think I should focus on IT, but I need a good sense of what's out there and what's doable by my standards.
Wow lots of IT people here, good I can get advice on my career path.
I am the type of person who likes anything as long as environment doesn't suck. My current job, I am a graphic designer for largest Hispanic TV Network in the US. I do mostly marketing pieces, had my ads run in big magazine trades and have done trade shows. I pretty much dabble on everything involving print design and web design but now I am bored. Also my boss has this mentality to manage her team through fear and now with the new owners basically having this wrong image of our work thanks to my boss, I do stupid shit now.
I am go to Santa Monica College Online program to get my web design/programming certificate which I am working on 2 classes at a time. But I really want to get into the Web programming aspect of it but I have no clue how my certificate will take me there or get myself qualified. So if you know what I should study and get my certificate I would appreciate it.
I am also debating going to grad school for Information Systems which someone here is doing (PM sent) from what I was told by students they have a web section of it that sounds interesting.
So all you web people out there other than XHTML/CSS/PHP what programming languages are a must and certificates to land a job in web prog/design. ASP.NET?
Horus on
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go...”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Employee at the red-headed step child of the Bookstore chains.
It's decent enough, just got 'promoted'. Really want to move on to a computer-type job.
I have a certificate (not certification, though I am looking into those) as a Unix Systems Administrator, but thus far, no one wants to hire me. Really frustrating.
Wow lots of IT people here, good I can get advice on my career path.
I am the type of person who likes anything as long as environment doesn't suck. My current job, I am a graphic designer for largest Hispanic TV Network in the US. I do mostly marketing pieces, had my ads run in big magazine trades and have done trade shows. I pretty much dabble on everything involving print design and web design but now I am bored. Also my boss has this mentality to manage her team through fear and now with the new owners basically having this wrong image of our work thanks to my boss, I do stupid shit now.
I am go to Santa Monica College Online program to get my web design/programming certificate which I am working on 2 classes at a time. But I really want to get into the Web programming aspect of it but I have no clue how my certificate will take me there or get myself qualified. So if you know what I should study and get my certificate I would appreciate it.
I am also debating going to grad school for Information Systems which someone here is doing (PM sent) from what I was told by students they have a web section of it that sounds interesting.
So all you web people out there other than XHTML/CSS/PHP what programming languages are a must and certificates to land a job in web prog/design. ASP.NET?
This actually the direction that the multimedia department at Cal State Northridge has gone (that's where I graduated from, and I was in the first class to graduate from multimedia, so it was still unformed at the time). The big focus is on web-based development, and as I was graduating, there was a lot of cross-pollenation going on (substituting art classes for ones in the actual Cinema and Television major, in my case). If you express going into that but perhaps a more technical side with your advisor, then they could probably work with you on that.
But again, you may want to talk to your advisor or your professors about it. They may be able to give a more informed opinion. Afterall, that's their job.
Web design/graphic design was something I was considering as well, basically anything where Photoshop comes into a factor. Problem is, last time I checked there wasn't a big demand for that in Florida.
I do disputes and fraud for several hundred Pre Paid Debit cards. Its dragging work, but the company I work for takes pretty damn good care of its employees. If we get an ass on the line, we are able to be an ass back within reason. If the card holder doesn't want us to help them, we wont force anything on them.
I got here by applying for a customer service position with this company, but instead got into disputes because I apparently interview really well when I'm bullshitting.
I put 2 years into a 4 year associate degree program (part-time student) before I realized that my money would be better used in a savings account and just getting a $10 an hour call center position.
Right now my professional goal is to stay with this job for a long while as I enjoy it, hopefully convince them to set up a remote access for me and let me work from home as a Stay-at-home father with my future children.
I do disputes and fraud for several hundred Pre Paid Debit cards. Its dragging work, but the company I work for takes pretty damn good care of its employees. If we get an ass on the line, we are able to be an ass back within reason. If the card holder doesn't want us to help them, we wont force anything on them.
I do the former in my job too, but I'm jealous you get to do the latter. No matter how much of an ass the customer is, we have to "kill them with kindness". I know the customer doesn't know me, and his beef isn't intentionally directed at me, but you can only be called a cocksucker so many times before it becomes grating.
Don't suppose anyone could recommend some jobs I could do now with my current credentials, until I find a college degree I'll be pursuing in full?
I do disputes and fraud for several hundred Pre Paid Debit cards. Its dragging work, but the company I work for takes pretty damn good care of its employees. If we get an ass on the line, we are able to be an ass back within reason. If the card holder doesn't want us to help them, we wont force anything on them.
I do the former in my job too, but I'm jealous you get to do the latter. No matter how much of an ass the customer is, we have to "kill them with kindness". I know the customer doesn't know me, and his beef isn't intentionally directed at me, but you can only be called a cocksucker so many times before it becomes grating.
Yeah, we get called a cocksucker or cunt or any other derogatory names, its immediate termination of the call. Best part is that MANY of the cards we service allows 1 or 2 calls to customer service free a month, after that its $2 per call. I've had people yell at me, I disconnect the call, they callback with a $2 fee, yell at me again and repeat the situation until they've spent $20 getting hung up on.
I'm an asshole, so any opportunity to be one back is always a plus in my world.
I'm majoring in Philosophy and graduating in Spring. I just got my rejection notice from the Japanese Exchange Teacher program today, which I had hoped to do as a year off. Life sucks.
Oh hey, and werehippy - what exactly is your job working with Epic? Are you a coordinator affiliated with the hospitals? (Mr. DG is an Epic implementor, although he's transferring over to Tech Services soon.)
Right in one
It was basically 6 months (should have been a year) of workflow analysis, build, and really terrifyingly poor testing for a patient safety critical system followed by alternating 3 weeks on site babysitting bitchy doctors and wildly understaffed nurses as they come live and 3 weeks build for the next wave of sites.
And my condolences to Mr DG. The only job more thankless than implementor is tech services. What area specifically does he work in? If it's scanning, notewriter, or order transmittal I might have to stable him and/or become his best friend.
He works in the pharmacy department - is that the same/related to order transmittal? I don't think he's done any work in New York, though, except that he might have been assigned as an on-the-floor body during one Go-Live in Rochester.
Are you guys talking about this Epic? Because if you are, I'd like to know your thoughts about it. Epic is interviewing on my campus soon and I've already heard from one classmate that got flown up there for an interview that their culture is really cool.
Are you guys talking about this Epic? Because if you are, I'd like to know your thoughts about it. Epic is interviewing on my campus soon and I've already heard from one classmate that got flown up there for an interview that their culture is really cool.
That's the one, and yes, it is kind of a cool place to work. Dress is pretty casual (unless you're on-site at a customer hospital), and the campus is amazing: gorgeous buildings, with geothermic heating, and crammed full of all kinds of local artists' work. Most of their conference rooms have themes, like "Galaxy" or "Airport" or "Circus", too. And it's growing super-fast and they are pretty good to their employees (stay for 5 years and you get a paid trip for you and another person to any country you've never been to before. For a month.)
Are you guys talking about this Epic? Because if you are, I'd like to know your thoughts about it. Epic is interviewing on my campus soon and I've already heard from one classmate that got flown up there for an interview that their culture is really cool.
That's the one, and yes, it is kind of a cool place to work. Dress is pretty casual (unless you're on-site at a customer hospital), and the campus is amazing: gorgeous buildings, with geothermic heating, and crammed full of all kinds of local artists' work. Most of their conference rooms have themes, like "Galaxy" or "Airport" or "Circus", too. And it's growing super-fast and they are pretty good to their employees (stay for 5 years and you get a paid trip for you and another person to any country you've never been to before. For a month.)
They've helped turn Verona from just a small suburb 2 miles outside of Madison city limits with only 2 ways into the town into a very quickly growing suburb 1 mile outside of the city with only 2 ways into the town with bus service. 2 runs in the morning and 2 runs in the evening.
I happen to be a Verona High school graduate that hasn't really left the area.
Are you guys talking about this Epic? Because if you are, I'd like to know your thoughts about it. Epic is interviewing on my campus soon and I've already heard from one classmate that got flown up there for an interview that their culture is really cool.
That's the one, and yes, it is kind of a cool place to work. Dress is pretty casual (unless you're on-site at a customer hospital), and the campus is amazing: gorgeous buildings, with geothermic heating, and crammed full of all kinds of local artists' work. Most of their conference rooms have themes, like "Galaxy" or "Airport" or "Circus", too. And it's growing super-fast and they are pretty good to their employees (stay for 5 years and you get a paid trip for you and another person to any country you've never been to before. For a month.)
They've helped turn Verona from just a small suburb 2 miles outside of Madison city limits with only 2 ways into the town into a very quickly growing suburb 1 mile outside of the city with only 2 ways into the town with bus service. 2 runs in the morning and 2 runs in the evening.
I happen to be a Verona High school graduate that hasn't really left the area.
I'll second these two, EPIC is a great place to work and a fantastic place to start a career. Work there for a few years, ideally as tech services in some specific area (though implementor is great if that suits your tastes more) and then parley that into a huge salary either pretty much anywhere in the country at a major healthcare organization (for more stability but less money) or as a consultant (for more money but pretty much constant travel).
The company is extremely young (I think the average age is sub 25), a very college-y place to work, and the area is fantastic. A lot of nature, Madison is close by and quite nice, and since the area has been building up so much so fast it's all very new and extremely nice.
Oh hey, and werehippy - what exactly is your job working with Epic? Are you a coordinator affiliated with the hospitals? (Mr. DG is an Epic implementor, although he's transferring over to Tech Services soon.)
Right in one
It was basically 6 months (should have been a year) of workflow analysis, build, and really terrifyingly poor testing for a patient safety critical system followed by alternating 3 weeks on site babysitting bitchy doctors and wildly understaffed nurses as they come live and 3 weeks build for the next wave of sites.
And my condolences to Mr DG. The only job more thankless than implementor is tech services. What area specifically does he work in? If it's scanning, notewriter, or order transmittal I might have to stable him and/or become his best friend.
He works in the pharmacy department - is that the same/related to order transmittal? I don't think he's done any work in New York, though, except that he might have been assigned as an on-the-floor body during one Go-Live in Rochester.
That's complicated enough that it basically counts as it own area of specialty, though it does touch on order transmittal. I'm based in Central NY/North PA, so I doubt I've meet Mr DG, but we're revamping our Pharmacy group so you never know. Kudos on the new job.
Let's see.. I'm a Helpdesk Analyst (though I've been acting webmaster for the past 3 months) at a hospital in NYC, and I can't wait to quit. I tried once, but I still seem to be working there.
I'm a first year in law school right now, so I guess when I'm done I'll probably try to be either a lawyer or a magician.
At the age of 23, fast approaching 24, my highest level of education is a High School diploma. For the last year I've been employed as a firefighter in the fourth largest city in New Jersey.
Right now I make a fair wage thats set to scale upward over the first six years of my career (I'll top out at roughly 150% of what I make now). I work 91 or 92 days a year on 24 hour shifts and have enough holiday/vacation time to take off seven full shifts as well.
The job offers stability and security along with good medical benefits, and to date still has the notoriety of being interesting and enjoyable. I learn something new every day I work and at the end of each shift I try to be a little bit better at my job then I was when I started the day before.
My hope is to take the Captains test in the next 3-5 years (varies based on when I'm eligible and when the state is doing the testing) so that I can do essentially the same job I'm doing now, except with a 35,000 dollar raise and slightly more responsibility. It would also leave me open to test for a chiefs job later in my career when I don't quite feel up to doing any of the actual work at a fire scene anymore.
RedTide on
RedTide#1907 on Battle.net
Come Overwatch with meeeee
Bicycle mechanic/manager. Trained as a heavy equipment mechanic and weldor twenty years ago. Worked thru lots of different equipment shops before I finally decided that It would rather work in a clean shop on stuff unlikely to kill me if it fell on me and started fixing bikes working my way to a managers position. Pay is OK(Commision based so it really depends on how quick I work and what the weather is like) Also went to college for a while during all this, and spent five years working weekend gigs as a comic(less fun thatn you would think)
I'm majoring in Philosophy and graduating in Spring. I just got my rejection notice from the Japanese Exchange Teacher program today, which I had hoped to do as a year off. Life sucks.
Hi5, I got rejected from JET too back in college.
Jesus, come here and teach Chinese. 16 hours a week for around US $1,000-1,200 a month is the standard rate I hear quoted at me. like, one fifth of that is living expenses, and it's living comfortably.
I've been to Japan. It's a neat place, fun as hell. But expensive. Come here. Stay in Shanghai, Suzhou, or Hangzhou. It's fucking awesome, and a cheap-ass plane/train/bus ticket away from a ton of other awesome places.
I'm a full-time Chinese language student in Hangzhou. It's sweet. I'm tutoring some Koreans on the side for around $20/hr which is enough to pay for pretty much everything. After, I'm probably going to stick around and teach full time until I'm perfectly fluent. Then maybe go to Korea or Japan and do it all over again.
Currently I am the Research Director at a boutique PR firm specializing in environmental and social justice issues.
I'm planning to move to San Diego in a few months, and will probably continue working for this firm from a home office there until next summer.
After that, I'd either like to get a job focused on internal communications (as opposed to external PR), or skip out on communications entirely and go with something like firefighting.
Wow, I am such a loser, comparatively. I'm unemployed, going to school full time (20 Credit Hours), and trying desperately to find a part-time job that will allow me to keep my head above water. Right now my boyfriend is paying most of my bills, but that's not going to last (and has been a bit of a strain on the relationship). But I don't have a car, public transportation sucks here, and most of the good afternoon-evening part time jobs are way out in the suburbs.
Reading this thread almost makes me want to rethink my goal of working for a museum or other art related non-profit. But I don't think I'd be particularly good at IT.
Wow, I am such a loser, comparatively. I'm unemployed, going to school full time (20 Credit Hours), and trying desperately to find a part-time job that will allow me to keep my head above water. Right now my boyfriend is paying most of my bills, but that's not going to last (and has been a bit of a strain on the relationship). But I don't have a car, public transportation sucks here, and most of the good afternoon-evening part time jobs are way out in the suburbs.
Reading this thread almost makes me want to rethink my goal of working for a museum or other art related non-profit. But I don't think I'd be particularly good at IT.
I'm 23, I graduated from Case Western this past May with a BS in Computer Science. Spent most of the summer playing WoW between interviews. We'll break down what's happened starting in July.
Interviews
I interviewed at a medical supplies company for a basic software engineer job. The first interview was on the phone, lasted an hour. The next was in person, lasting two hours. The next was on the phone, another hour. The next was another two hour in person interview where I met the CTO, the CEO, and the president of the company (not a big company). Then another hour phone interview which involved them asking me salary requirements and when I could start if they offered me the job.
Then they didn't contact me again for three weeks. I called the guy who would've been my boss and had contacted me the most, and kept getting his voicemail. Eventually, he wrote me an email saying that he'd gone on vacation and they were making decisions that week. He wrote me back later that week saying they offered it to someone else and he'd accepted.
So over the course of four weeks and seven hours of interviewing, I didn't get the job. I was slightly pissed off.
Mid-August, I got a call from a corporate office that runs urgent care offices throughout Columbus. They talked to me for about 20 minutes on the phone and had me come in for an interview. The HR guy said he'd send me directions through email. The day arrived, and I had no directions nor contact information. I went to their website, called one of their urgent care offices for the phone number to the corporate office, then got their address from the receptionist.
I got to the interview pretty frustrated from the previous company's run around and the fact that I didn't get the email I'd been promised. So I went in with a pretty casual, almost cocky attitude. Turns out the guy I was replacing was a Case graduate as well, so we laughed about some of the professors we both were aware of throughout the interview.
When the "Do you have any questions for us?" was posed, I straight up asked the HR guy if he'd forgotten to send me that email. He laughed and apologized if he had, and I just laughed and said it wasn't a big deal.
When they finished with "Well, that's all we have, is there anything else we can do for you at this point?" I responded "You could give me the job." Lols were had by all. Apparently, as I've found out since then, it was that answer that got me the job. That was the answer that pushed me over the other candidates. Applicable skills be damned!
Later on, I was going through my spam filter and found the email from the HR guy that google had flagged as spam. We'd become buddies by that point, so I told him, apologized, and we had a good laugh about it.
The job.
About a month into the job, exclusively development up to that point, my boss who'd been their 8 years and who was himself about 75% of the 5-person IT team said that he was moving on. Leaving the four of us to pick up the pieces he was leaving behind. He was one of those people who'd been doing everything for so long, he couldn't entirely remember all the pieces of everything that he'd touched or had been responsible for. So he split his responsibilities among the four of us remaining, and the more business/reporting side of it fell to me. So much for development.
For a lot of developers, that'd probably be the first step to finding a new job. I didn't really mind. Thus far, I've been working through the back end of our practice management billing software to do a lot of DB admin stuff and a lot of custom reporting. My job title is IT Specialist, but I'm more of a data analyst than anything else.
I actually really enjoy what I'm doing here. The technical background and admin access lets me pull from anything directly from the database in ways that no one else in the company knows how to access. Every department has requests and it's giving me a pretty broad exposure to every aspect of what we do. I've been here for about 5 months now, doing what I do now for about 3 of those months. It's just about convinced me to entirely rethink what I want to do with my life.
The future.
They're talking about sending me to some training classes for our practice management system (Centricity) which is one of the largest and most popular amongst health care providers in the nation. I'm pretty excited about it. It's going to give me a huge step up in marketability in just about every city in the country.
I'm also seriously considering going back to school to get an MBA. I've been looking at some of the programs in the area and they look pretty solid.
I think all these things will give me a pretty terrific chance to do big things in the near future. If I can get into an MBA program this summer that will take 1.5-2 years. That'll put me at 26 years old, a BS in Computer Science, an MBA (with a specialization in finance), and three years of broad experience with the health care industry and specific training on administrative and custom reporting in Centricity.
Then I just need to pick a city and figure out who's in the market for a young CEO with fresh ideas.
Again, does anyone know a site that lists the different types of IT professions out there? I'd like to enroll in something, but I'd like to see what's available, what the market demand is, the qualifications, etc.
Suggestions for a job I could do now would be grand too, but not as necessary. I'm trying to tell myself to be patient, but these callers are really getting on my nerves. I spent 30 minutes helping some retard navigate the EA website, and that's not even supposed to be my position.
Bicycle mechanic/manager. Trained as a heavy equipment mechanic and weldor twenty years ago. Worked thru lots of different equipment shops before I finally decided that It would rather work in a clean shop on stuff unlikely to kill me if it fell on me and started fixing bikes working my way to a managers position. Pay is OK(Commision based so it really depends on how quick I work and what the weather is like) Also went to college for a while during all this, and spent five years working weekend gigs as a comic(less fun thatn you would think)
I do the same thing. I fucking hate it. The job is basically retail, and I don't get commission, so it pays like retail too.
I need to get out of retail, but having only a GED and no college plans pretty much breaks me. I'm thinking about doing some realty stuff, but I don't know shit about it yet.
Posts
I remember getting a tour of a printing plant and the guys working there were doing all this crazy technical stuff on a large scale all through computer and being told "there used to be hundreds of people needed to run this thing!" I then realized that computers replaced so many of the jobs in the printing industry that in 5 years, the jobs i am training for are going to be obsolete.
I would have done Computer Science but I can't pass college algebra.
I'm planning to do a couple of evening courses in psychology and english starting in September, with the intent of studying one at uni at some point.
It's a 50/50 toss up if I'll actually motivate myself to do it though.
Have been working the same self-stacking job at a department store for six years. I like the people. I am kind of afraid that it'll look bad on my CV though: "So you worked on the lowest pay grade for six years? Do you have no ambition?"
As far as proper jobs go - if I were to work as a lawyer it would probably be in international or EU law which I have performed disproportionately well at in school. More probably, I'll apply for a government job. Investigative stuff (feds, investment securities commission, customs, intelligence agencies) has always appealed. Too much watching Lester Freamon on The Wire has got me psyched to chase through paper trails and other boring shit.
My younger brother has a TAFE qual (barely, and that basically means associates' degree level), works as a contract CAD drafter, and earns roughly twice what I do. I have 6 years of uni - two degrees, one with honours, and I play with dirt for the government. Go draw pipes if you like having money :P
I like my job, though. Nice people, no crazy working hours like in the private sector, lots of learning opportunities. The rewards will taper off in a few years, but its a good early-career position.
Was - Business Development (managing/writing sales proposals) - I've done this kind of work since graduation but I'm a little sick of it. It pays ok I guess.
Plan - I qualified as a lawyer but I've only briefly worked as one and I want to get back into the profession - focusing on the commercial/IT/Telco specialism if possible. Will take a pay cut for a year or two while I get equivalent experience but earning potential goes up pretty quickly after that. Work hours could continue to suck.
Fall back - Move back to capital and work for the government as a policy advisor.
Education/Certification: BA is in English Literature, most recently passed a Microsoft cert exam, so I can proudly wield the letters "MCP" in my professional sig, if I just felt like it.
When I grow up: This year I'm finishing off the three other tests to complete the MCSA certification. Beyond that I want my masters' degree in literature and a published novel, a picket fence and a pony. I really like my job, so changing it depends entirely on opportunity, location of the picket fence, and the whim of Fate.
But running a videogame store at 30+ was not for me, so I took a crash course in IT, got my MCSA in 6 months, and jumped ship. Now I am first level support at a very small mortgage closing company. The nice thing is that I am the only IT person in the building, so I get to play with just about everything, and my direct supervisor is several states away. On the flip side the company has taken the recent 'mortgage crisis' on the chin and laid off qut a few people recently, plus my resposibilities range from printer maintenance to building support (catch all phrase for "if it's broken, call chamberlain"). I am probably safe, but the odds of me making better money or getting promoted anytime soon are not good.
I will give them 6 more months and then start to look again. Network admin work is very apealing, though I should probably go back and get an MCSE for that.
Did a degree in Biotech and didn't do quite as well as I hoped, so went on to do a masters (Drug Design and Biomedical science) rather than going straight for a PhD or into industry. Did a lot better there and thought I would give industry a go before going after a PhD (since the money is a lot better than in academia), leaving the PhD as a fall back plan if it turned out I didn't like the business environment.
Wasn't quite sure what sort of role I was really after, between labwork and project management but ended up getting a job doing the latter. Ending up getting the job because no one else had actually used a flow-cytometer before, left me very grateful that my degrees had been a lot more 'technique'y as opposed to largely theory based. If you can get HPLC experience at uni, you'll get a job in a flash.
Far as future plans go, I don't think I'm going to be going back to do the PhD anytime soon (perhaps something to do in retirement I wondered) - don't know whether I'm just lucky, but the work is really quite varied here and we do get quite a lot of freedom in how we go about running experiments. Also joined at a good time as well since I've been pretty rapidly accelerated up the ranks left by people leaving for new jobs, maternity leave etc which has allowed me to take on responsibilities and roles that would normally be handled by a senior study scientist. Pay isn't that great apparently compared to other companies (started at roughly $32K, now at $36K though this is the UK rather than the US so we'll get 25 paid holidays on top of that. Know the people at our US site have higher wages but less holiday, but not the specific figures) but apparently the experience we get balances this up when looking to make the next step elsewhere. Probably going to stay where I am for a year or two, and then depending on what advancement options are open then start looking around for something project managementy. Also be able to then get permanant resident status in australia so was thinking I'd look for work there for a couple of years, hopefully earning enough money to go travelling properly during the holidays rather than following the fruit picking seasons.
Currently, I am employed as an environmental scientist with a specialty in air quality.
I basically got my job through a combination of being in the right place at the right time and nepotism. The local office of my company had just started and was understaffed. My cousin was one of the first people on staff. When the office's first project was going out, they didn't have enough people to word-process it, so my cousin told his boss that he had a cousin (me) that knew how to do that. So I came on as a temporary employee doing WP, working on and off as needed during college. After graduating, I needed a job, and I had been around this work for so long that I absorbed it by reading it and proofreading it for so long, so they brought me on as a technical writer. The senior air quality and noise scientist then took me under his wing and taught me how to do those analyses. And that's what I've been doing for five years now.
I'm currently looking at going to graduate school, but I'm falling out of love with my current job for various reasons. So I'm looking at going back for an MFA in Creative Writing. Eventually, I would like to be a writer as my career, although it is extremely difficult and I'll likely need another job, so I'm considering looking at teaching as a future career to subsidize the writing.
I do not, however, do any baking. It's literally the only thing I don't do in the bakery. I got this job by noticing a "help wanted" sign in the window about a year and a half ago, after moving to Chicago. It was for a simple cashier position. I walked in, and just happened to talk to the owner. My interview consisted of him asking me "Can you count?" and then "Can you come in Tuesday at 10?". I answered in the affirmative, and a year and a half later I can basically write my own ticket.
For the future? I'm going to learn to bake at some point. Well, not really learn, I know how to bake already, so I guess I'm just going to start.
Mother was right, computer jobs are the way to go.
Thing is, with such a broad list of IT positions out there, I wouldn't know where I belong. I'm not sure if I'm smart enough or patient enough for one position, or overqualified for another. If it involves things like setting up a dedicated internet connection, I could manage, but anything with complex math or calculations is seriously not my forte.
Anyone know a comprehensive but brief list of IT positions out there, preferably whatever is in good demand and offer good pay?
Ironically, you'd think a career in video games would be the ideal choice, since it combines computer work along with creativity for a favored hobby. However, I've read more than enough horror stories about long hours, hair pulling delays and the sad realization that what you're working on isn't the next FF or Mario, but a dead on arrival liscened game based on the newest Harry Potter movie or whatnot.
I briefly tried to major in film, and seriously enjoyed the classes I attended (horror movie class? it's true! we had to do a paper on Dead Alive! fuck that was awesome), but I soon quitted after a talk with one of my teachers, who spent 4 years trying to get into film and wound up being a hippy college teacher instead.
So I think I should focus on IT, but I need a good sense of what's out there and what's doable by my standards.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
I am the type of person who likes anything as long as environment doesn't suck. My current job, I am a graphic designer for largest Hispanic TV Network in the US. I do mostly marketing pieces, had my ads run in big magazine trades and have done trade shows. I pretty much dabble on everything involving print design and web design but now I am bored. Also my boss has this mentality to manage her team through fear and now with the new owners basically having this wrong image of our work thanks to my boss, I do stupid shit now.
I am go to Santa Monica College Online program to get my web design/programming certificate which I am working on 2 classes at a time. But I really want to get into the Web programming aspect of it but I have no clue how my certificate will take me there or get myself qualified. So if you know what I should study and get my certificate I would appreciate it.
I am also debating going to grad school for Information Systems which someone here is doing (PM sent) from what I was told by students they have a web section of it that sounds interesting.
So all you web people out there other than XHTML/CSS/PHP what programming languages are a must and certificates to land a job in web prog/design. ASP.NET?
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!
Thought about going back to school to teach, as I work in classrooms regularly, and could easily do the job most of the morons around here are doing.
It's decent enough, just got 'promoted'. Really want to move on to a computer-type job.
I have a certificate (not certification, though I am looking into those) as a Unix Systems Administrator, but thus far, no one wants to hire me.
This actually the direction that the multimedia department at Cal State Northridge has gone (that's where I graduated from, and I was in the first class to graduate from multimedia, so it was still unformed at the time). The big focus is on web-based development, and as I was graduating, there was a lot of cross-pollenation going on (substituting art classes for ones in the actual Cinema and Television major, in my case). If you express going into that but perhaps a more technical side with your advisor, then they could probably work with you on that.
But again, you may want to talk to your advisor or your professors about it. They may be able to give a more informed opinion. Afterall, that's their job.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
I got here by applying for a customer service position with this company, but instead got into disputes because I apparently interview really well when I'm bullshitting.
I put 2 years into a 4 year associate degree program (part-time student) before I realized that my money would be better used in a savings account and just getting a $10 an hour call center position.
Right now my professional goal is to stay with this job for a long while as I enjoy it, hopefully convince them to set up a remote access for me and let me work from home as a Stay-at-home father with my future children.
I do the former in my job too, but I'm jealous you get to do the latter. No matter how much of an ass the customer is, we have to "kill them with kindness". I know the customer doesn't know me, and his beef isn't intentionally directed at me, but you can only be called a cocksucker so many times before it becomes grating.
Don't suppose anyone could recommend some jobs I could do now with my current credentials, until I find a college degree I'll be pursuing in full?
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
Yeah, we get called a cocksucker or cunt or any other derogatory names, its immediate termination of the call. Best part is that MANY of the cards we service allows 1 or 2 calls to customer service free a month, after that its $2 per call. I've had people yell at me, I disconnect the call, they callback with a $2 fee, yell at me again and repeat the situation until they've spent $20 getting hung up on.
I'm an asshole, so any opportunity to be one back is always a plus in my world.
Hi5, I got rejected from JET too back in college.
He works in the pharmacy department - is that the same/related to order transmittal? I don't think he's done any work in New York, though, except that he might have been assigned as an on-the-floor body during one Go-Live in Rochester.
That's the one, and yes, it is kind of a cool place to work. Dress is pretty casual (unless you're on-site at a customer hospital), and the campus is amazing: gorgeous buildings, with geothermic heating, and crammed full of all kinds of local artists' work. Most of their conference rooms have themes, like "Galaxy" or "Airport" or "Circus", too. And it's growing super-fast and they are pretty good to their employees (stay for 5 years and you get a paid trip for you and another person to any country you've never been to before. For a month.)
They've helped turn Verona from just a small suburb 2 miles outside of Madison city limits with only 2 ways into the town into a very quickly growing suburb 1 mile outside of the city with only 2 ways into the town with bus service. 2 runs in the morning and 2 runs in the evening.
I happen to be a Verona High school graduate that hasn't really left the area.
I'll second these two, EPIC is a great place to work and a fantastic place to start a career. Work there for a few years, ideally as tech services in some specific area (though implementor is great if that suits your tastes more) and then parley that into a huge salary either pretty much anywhere in the country at a major healthcare organization (for more stability but less money) or as a consultant (for more money but pretty much constant travel).
The company is extremely young (I think the average age is sub 25), a very college-y place to work, and the area is fantastic. A lot of nature, Madison is close by and quite nice, and since the area has been building up so much so fast it's all very new and extremely nice.
That's complicated enough that it basically counts as it own area of specialty, though it does touch on order transmittal. I'm based in Central NY/North PA, so I doubt I've meet Mr DG, but we're revamping our Pharmacy group so you never know. Kudos on the new job.
I'm a first year in law school right now, so I guess when I'm done I'll probably try to be either a lawyer or a magician.
Right now I make a fair wage thats set to scale upward over the first six years of my career (I'll top out at roughly 150% of what I make now). I work 91 or 92 days a year on 24 hour shifts and have enough holiday/vacation time to take off seven full shifts as well.
The job offers stability and security along with good medical benefits, and to date still has the notoriety of being interesting and enjoyable. I learn something new every day I work and at the end of each shift I try to be a little bit better at my job then I was when I started the day before.
My hope is to take the Captains test in the next 3-5 years (varies based on when I'm eligible and when the state is doing the testing) so that I can do essentially the same job I'm doing now, except with a 35,000 dollar raise and slightly more responsibility. It would also leave me open to test for a chiefs job later in my career when I don't quite feel up to doing any of the actual work at a fire scene anymore.
Come Overwatch with meeeee
Jesus, come here and teach Chinese. 16 hours a week for around US $1,000-1,200 a month is the standard rate I hear quoted at me. like, one fifth of that is living expenses, and it's living comfortably.
I've been to Japan. It's a neat place, fun as hell. But expensive. Come here. Stay in Shanghai, Suzhou, or Hangzhou. It's fucking awesome, and a cheap-ass plane/train/bus ticket away from a ton of other awesome places.
I'm a full-time Chinese language student in Hangzhou. It's sweet. I'm tutoring some Koreans on the side for around $20/hr which is enough to pay for pretty much everything. After, I'm probably going to stick around and teach full time until I'm perfectly fluent. Then maybe go to Korea or Japan and do it all over again.
Currently I am the Research Director at a boutique PR firm specializing in environmental and social justice issues.
I'm planning to move to San Diego in a few months, and will probably continue working for this firm from a home office there until next summer.
After that, I'd either like to get a job focused on internal communications (as opposed to external PR), or skip out on communications entirely and go with something like firefighting.
I have a BA and MA in Communications.
Reading this thread almost makes me want to rethink my goal of working for a museum or other art related non-profit. But I don't think I'd be particularly good at IT.
What's your major?
edit: Read "might" as "will most likely."
Interviews
I interviewed at a medical supplies company for a basic software engineer job. The first interview was on the phone, lasted an hour. The next was in person, lasting two hours. The next was on the phone, another hour. The next was another two hour in person interview where I met the CTO, the CEO, and the president of the company (not a big company). Then another hour phone interview which involved them asking me salary requirements and when I could start if they offered me the job.
Then they didn't contact me again for three weeks. I called the guy who would've been my boss and had contacted me the most, and kept getting his voicemail. Eventually, he wrote me an email saying that he'd gone on vacation and they were making decisions that week. He wrote me back later that week saying they offered it to someone else and he'd accepted.
So over the course of four weeks and seven hours of interviewing, I didn't get the job. I was slightly pissed off.
Mid-August, I got a call from a corporate office that runs urgent care offices throughout Columbus. They talked to me for about 20 minutes on the phone and had me come in for an interview. The HR guy said he'd send me directions through email. The day arrived, and I had no directions nor contact information. I went to their website, called one of their urgent care offices for the phone number to the corporate office, then got their address from the receptionist.
I got to the interview pretty frustrated from the previous company's run around and the fact that I didn't get the email I'd been promised. So I went in with a pretty casual, almost cocky attitude. Turns out the guy I was replacing was a Case graduate as well, so we laughed about some of the professors we both were aware of throughout the interview.
When the "Do you have any questions for us?" was posed, I straight up asked the HR guy if he'd forgotten to send me that email. He laughed and apologized if he had, and I just laughed and said it wasn't a big deal.
When they finished with "Well, that's all we have, is there anything else we can do for you at this point?" I responded "You could give me the job." Lols were had by all. Apparently, as I've found out since then, it was that answer that got me the job. That was the answer that pushed me over the other candidates. Applicable skills be damned!
Later on, I was going through my spam filter and found the email from the HR guy that google had flagged as spam. We'd become buddies by that point, so I told him, apologized, and we had a good laugh about it.
The job.
About a month into the job, exclusively development up to that point, my boss who'd been their 8 years and who was himself about 75% of the 5-person IT team said that he was moving on. Leaving the four of us to pick up the pieces he was leaving behind. He was one of those people who'd been doing everything for so long, he couldn't entirely remember all the pieces of everything that he'd touched or had been responsible for. So he split his responsibilities among the four of us remaining, and the more business/reporting side of it fell to me. So much for development.
For a lot of developers, that'd probably be the first step to finding a new job. I didn't really mind. Thus far, I've been working through the back end of our practice management billing software to do a lot of DB admin stuff and a lot of custom reporting. My job title is IT Specialist, but I'm more of a data analyst than anything else.
I actually really enjoy what I'm doing here. The technical background and admin access lets me pull from anything directly from the database in ways that no one else in the company knows how to access. Every department has requests and it's giving me a pretty broad exposure to every aspect of what we do. I've been here for about 5 months now, doing what I do now for about 3 of those months. It's just about convinced me to entirely rethink what I want to do with my life.
The future.
They're talking about sending me to some training classes for our practice management system (Centricity) which is one of the largest and most popular amongst health care providers in the nation. I'm pretty excited about it. It's going to give me a huge step up in marketability in just about every city in the country.
I'm also seriously considering going back to school to get an MBA. I've been looking at some of the programs in the area and they look pretty solid.
I think all these things will give me a pretty terrific chance to do big things in the near future. If I can get into an MBA program this summer that will take 1.5-2 years. That'll put me at 26 years old, a BS in Computer Science, an MBA (with a specialization in finance), and three years of broad experience with the health care industry and specific training on administrative and custom reporting in Centricity.
Then I just need to pick a city and figure out who's in the market for a young CEO with fresh ideas.
Suggestions for a job I could do now would be grand too, but not as necessary. I'm trying to tell myself to be patient, but these callers are really getting on my nerves. I spent 30 minutes helping some retard navigate the EA website, and that's not even supposed to be my position.
It is a shitty site though.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
I do the same thing. I fucking hate it. The job is basically retail, and I don't get commission, so it pays like retail too.
I need to get out of retail, but having only a GED and no college plans pretty much breaks me. I'm thinking about doing some realty stuff, but I don't know shit about it yet.