innerslytherin | Assess me

Current Mood: sad

Assess me

Help me out, friends list.

I need a new job. I hate getting up every day and going to work. I don't trust my company, I don't trust my supervisor. I feel like I'm spinning my wheels.

Plus my job is scheduled to go away in a little over a year. So I'm going to have to look for a new job at some point soon.

Currently I work in accounting. I hate it. Unfortunately I have about 6 years of experience in accounting work, which means I'm qualified for this sort of work.

I've done library work. I enjoyed some of it, but didn't finish my degree.

Further schooling isn't an option.

What do you guys think I'm good at? Keeping in mind that I would like to publish my original writing, that IS my ultimate goal, and I'm working on that.

I don't want to teach. I hate working in sales. I like computers and horses and enjoy physical labor but don't tolerate heat or cold well. I'm not averse to relocating. I have a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in history and creative writing, with a minor in medieval studies. I enjoy research. I get bored easily. I would love to travel, especially domestic air travel. I'm not opposed to overseas travel, but I don't have any real skills that I can think of which would translate to overseas travel.

I type 90 wpm. I enjoy alphabetizing and filing things. I hate talking on the phone. I love the internet.

Does anyone have job suggestions? Fields I might not have thought of? At this point I'm about ready to run away to San Diego and live on the beach, but I burn easily and don't eat fish, so that wouldn't be an ideal lifestyle choice. ;)

I'm at my wits' end. There has to be something obvious I'm overlooking. Help me.

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Administration in a university? It's office work, but in a more academic-orientated atmosphere than a company, so related to the typing/filing but also the research--you can end up dong practically anything. (I was a department assistant for Neuroscience, before, and helped edit a book on zebrafish DNA, even though I'm a medievalist.) Plus the perks are pretty good, and generally the people are too.

Human Resources might suit too, if you got on with the right company and not one that sucks.

Quality assurance computer work? More of it is being done by scripts, but they ultimately need people to do the testing at websites and for databases. Your love of organization will serve you well, and you might need to start lower on the totem pole, but I think you could move up quickly.

Is it the most interesting work I've ever done? No. But it's a good job to put down at the end of the day and go home to play.

OK, this may be totally off the mark, but if you are just looking for a job to pay the bills while working on your writing, I'd say maybe think about becoming a flight attendant.

From what I understand, the work is relatively easy, especially if you like flying and can tolerate people. They train you, so no real experience required. It's not really a forever career for most people, but it's a job that pays decent and gives you plenty of time off. The schedules can be very flexible; you can work depending on how much you money you need, and you would have more free time during the week for writing. You'd also have time on overnights to write.

I have a sister in law who is one, and it really works for her, as far as time off. She works maybe three days a week max.

Well, I work in higher ed, which has a lot of different subfields that apply to the corporate world as well. Some jobs that use your particular skills might be corporate buyer (spending someone else's money?); also consider looking at something in the non-profit sector? If you feel physically up to it, you could try Peace Corps :)

I understand, though, about having skills in an area you don't want to work in. I've been trying to get out from under the bubble of having a job title that puts me at the low end of the totem pole, but my responsibilities range a lot higher. I do like higher ed, and think there's a lot of opportunity there if people can find it. Give higheredjobs.com a look, see if anything jumps out at you. It's a good search engine for admin work at a university, but specific university websites also have more.

Best of luck! The job market is a scary place to find yourself, even if you chose to be there. I'm looking because I'm going to try and relocate to Texas this summer.

I don't know if this would work for you, but...the daughter and son-in-law are seriously thinking of trying to get a job with the company that makes/produces (whatever the word is) "World of Warcraft". Apparently, the company is in dire need of 'tech support/answer the phones and fix the problem people' down in
Austin, Texas. They would like you to have some customer-service experience and familiarity with the game. Just a thought....

If you like library work, you may want to look into that even if you didn't finish a library degree. I worked at a University library in college and then for another branch of the U library after college and my Bachelor's was not in library sciences. A library is great for a writer because there's so much freaking research at your fingertips. When I worked at the library, I loved working in searches & fines. You got to go look in the stacks for books that weren't where they were supposed to be, so you had to figure out "how could this have been misfiled?" and in fines, you got to go look and see if someone had returned it, but it hadn't been checked in. Not a lot of interaction with people other than co-workers doing the same type of thing.

Depending on what kind of accounting and your personality, you could try bookkeeping/accounting for small businesses - that way you take on clients and can set the hours you work. Another work for yourself option would be pro-blogging. Or maybe even specializing in website content for accountants/finance-related firms.

On the opposite end is to look for jobs in the not-for-profit/academic/associations industry - generally the companies are better to work for and some like schools can pay quite well.

I really recommend reading books by Barbara Sher - I especially found "Refuse to Choose: A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything You Love" but you may find some of her other books more appropriate.

The best thing you can for yourself is to write down a list of every skill you have, a list of what you enjoy doing, and a list of what you wish you knew how to do. From there, you might come up with something, or at least you might start considering jobs you never would have before.

I don't have good suggestions, just cheers!

My husband works for a huge non-profit (like, 2K employees around the world) and they are hiring people with accounting skills to analyze budgets and contracts. (They provide healthcare in different countries and most of the contracts are with the US government.) So even though accounting isn't the most interesting field, you could be doing it in the service of something interesting on a team of interesting people.

You can also sell yourself as an editor.

Hey, I'm trying to get a job and I'm ready to hire you to be me, after reading this post! Though I'm not so sure I can find a way to get you working on computers on a horse.

I don't have any suggestions, either, Sweetie, BUT! I have confidence in you and will be praying that you will find something suitable, and that you'll have peace of mind about it.

With your background, I'd recommend the historic preservation field but jobs in that are being cut left and right and the pay, even if you are employed, sucks. But the jobs are FUN! Even if I am currently wearing bedroom slippers held together with duct tape.

Looking at your resume [I used to work in HR *sigh*] I think that archival work would suit you. How much call there is for that where you are I don't know. It's interesting stuff though - recording old documents, arranging for storage and retrieval.

Yeah, get out of that job as soon as you can, babes.

What about working for the UN? I only thought of this cus I was looking at their job site the other day... There are various areas to work in, etc. Link: http://www.un.org/en/employment/ That's basically the starting point, if you're interested.

I'd also suggest library work, but I'm biased. *g* And given how much I'm hearing that people with their MLS are having trouble getting jobs...it might not be the best choice.

I'm sure you'll find something fabulous! :D

Just to round things out & what I know--you could always fall back on the medical field (and avoid the phones). Insurance billing in larger groups can break down into payment posting, refunds, claim filing, medical records, managed care contracts and (of course) management in any of those areas. Although, you know I love the head-knocking INSURANCE COMPANY vs DOCTOR appeals aspect of the job myself. *grin*

Or just move to Austin. *wink* I hear Samsung is hiring and they're just down the road from me.

What about some kind of research/writing/communications/accounting etc for an NGO? One where you believed in the cause at hand. Along with your resume and skill set, you're such a helpful and compassionate person (and a good communicator) that I could really imagine you doing something like that. I know people who have worked for NGOs where some travel was involved, but generally most of them keep office hours (good for writing).

Have you thought about becoming an academic advisor for a four year institute? Not sure if it would be super exciting every day, but I have noticed that having the right advisor makes a crap ton of difference on the attitude you have towards a college.

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