August 03, 2006

• Crack whore?
• Dude, try being helpful.
• If you're that in need of a change from the office, I don't know, join Greenpeace. I assume they pay, I guess. You'll meet a lot of chicks, which is awesome if you are a dude or lesbo. Plus you get to hang out on a boat. Or maybe the military. I you don't like having a boss, really don't like having aboss. Consider what skills and interests you would have to start your own business or go freelance. There's alot less of a safety net, but you can shake that total lack of tangible accomplishment.
• First off, don't quit! Do a great job, but start weirding out your employers so much that you make them incredibly uncomfortable. Then posts pictures, here. You are at a point where you can change my life forever, and that is more important than you. Second off you are young and single with a BA and no responsibilities. Stop your whining, or i will dispatch the worm of reckoning to your house. There will be a reckoning you will never forget!
• How about this.... Things to know: 1. Are you financially stable? Do you have cash reserves? Are you getting unemployment while you look for other work? I see that you do have some savings, so you've got that going for you. 2. Do you have any dependents, parents, pets, etc, that you have to support? Obviously dependents cuts down on your flexibility. 3. Do you have a certain standard of living to which you've become accustomed? Are there luxeries that you can't, or won't, do with out? They could very well determine how much money you need. 4. Would using your present job skills be more satisfying to you if you were working for a non-profit? That might give you sense of fullfillment that you don't get working for corp America. 5. Working in the trades isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Having spent a fair amount of time around construction tradespeople I can tell you that most of them aren't that wild about their jobs. Hard work, under tight deadlines, often in crappy weather conditions, etc. There is also the social aspect of trades work to consider. A lot of the people who work in the construction trades are rough people, both physically and socially. That's not meant to be a putdown, just an observation that a lot of them come from backgrounds where they didn't have the same opportunities for education that you had. This can create communication issues that can be a real problem. 6. What did you want to do when you were twelve? Those long ago daydreams can sometimes be an indicator of the path to take. 7. Hobbies? Any way you can make money at them? If you want a job that allows you to work outside, meet lots of different people, and provide a valuable public service, you still might want to consider my first suggestion. (It's a joke, just a joke) Anyways, let us have some of the above particulars and we'll see what we can do for you.
• The local college here has classes for trades such as construction, diesel mechanics, etc. Some of those construction classes cover a little bit of everything, giving you an introduction to what it's like to do the work. I think most trade organizations run an apprentice program of some sort. You could contact a few unions in your area and tell them you are interested in hearing more about their profession. Besides, crack whores don't get worker's comp for backs thrown out at work.
• Heh. I'm leaving my job, too. In fact, I'll be putting in my notice next week. For me, the decision was based on my boss going back on a deal we'd had about my work schedule now that I have the baby. Anyway, I'm going to try out Party Lite for a while, on the suggestion of a friend who did that for more than a year and earned pretty darn good money. There are quite a few more product lines that can be repped at a decent profit for the rep, such as Tupperware, Avon, and whatever company it is that does Passion Parties. The biggest perk with those is you can earn a decent amount of money while doing relatively little work, and your schedule is completely up to you.
• UM, auctully most of the people who do those things barely make anything. There's a reason those outfits are always looking for new people. The turnover is very high. The other prob is that False said that he's an introvert. Not a good quality for any kind of sales position.
• Bah, sorry about that. I read the post, I swear! I guess I just missed the "introvert" part. As far as the "job" goes, yeah, it's certainly not a sure thing. Thankfully I'm able to try it out for a while, and if it doesn't pan out, have skills that will enable me to get a real job very quickly.
• With a BA, you could join the Peace Corps. They do pay (not well). Though you technically would have a boss, most duty stations don't involve having that person be there breathing down your neck. Just working independantly will give you a sense of accomplishment, plus the things that you do will be pretty rewarding, too. It's working for the government, I don't know how you feel about that.
• If I were American, I think I would have looked seriously at the Peace Corps - I knew someone who did it, and found it very rewarding. Working for non-profits can also be very rewarding - the work is similar to office work, but it has more focus, and you can feel it among the people working there. I worked for a university research unit parttime as an undergraduate, and I just remember feeling so much more satisfied that my photocopying and data entry (also interviewing, which I really liked, but I'm an extrovert) were helping create something important (in that case, a greater understanding of the impact of arthritis). It also helped that I worked with some excellent people who had a great deal of respect for their employees, but it's also true that most people in non-profit choose to work there, and so there is an element of enthusiasm about the work that may not be there elsewhere. It is something you could try, without being committed for long.
• If you like pets and the area you are in is the right kinda place, start a petsitting, dog-walking service. I know it sounds like a bad idea, but I have two friends, one in a huge city (Toronto) and one in a town near here so small you've never heard of it that have done this and both are doing quite well. The latter one has so much work that it is too much for her and her husband to handle, they are considering hiring a third helper. No boss, no office, lots of variety, much squee. Some poop.
• Sell all your stuff and explore the world for a year or two. You are only 26, ferchrissake. You have next to no responsibilities, nothing holding your feet to the fire, and you're bopping from job to job hoping one of them will define you as a person. Don't let a job define you. Define yourself and then find a job. There are plenty.
• My Infernal Masters are always hiring. If I had it to do over again, I'd do what briank said.
• Concur with briank and Fes. My only regret in life is that I didn't finish my degree sooner and get out into the big bad world on my own for a while. The Peace Corps would be a good way to do that.
• Volunteer. Internships aren't just for college kids. Aquariums, schools, shelters (animal and human), research facilities. Even if it's not what you want to do, the experience could change who you are, make you more open to different possibilities. I went from an introverted brunette at a hideously unfitting (for me) office job in a lawfirm in Boston to living as a quirky blonde in the Bahamas as a divemaster because of one internship. Don't be afraid to be scared, do something completely whacky. And do that thing you wanted to do when you were 12, or 5, or 20. Doing that could lead you to something you love. That probably won't pay well...
• Everyone needs their little adventure before they go into the crushing ennui of work, if only to have something to daydream about and make people jealous of around the watercooler when interrupting those interminable conversations about Everybody Loves Raymond repeats. Go. Go now. As long as you break even and don't rely on the credit card, you'll be fine. Once you start off somewhere, you'll find that more opportunities present themselves. Offhand, I don't know what to recommend. Peace Corps sounds good, nice and rewarding, but I've had a few friends work year-long stints for the Mouse. Apparently, working at Disneyworld is a HUGE, SEETHING DEN OF PERVERSION AND GLUTTONY back in the Cast Members' Lodgings. An amount of drugs and shagging outdone only by treeplanting up north, only without the blackflies. But that may not be your bag. I dunno. Peace Corps is nice and noble. Volunteering is too. Deck hand on some billionaire's yaught is may be more shallow, but lead you to impressionable Polynesian girls. Whatever, dude.
• Bali Hai will call you...
• ESL Get the hell out of my country!
• Argh. Argh. Argh. Argh.
• Plumbing. big money, always in demand, etc.
• Further to the wise glammajamma's comment -- ESL in a not-too-remote location. The only people I know who enjoyed their ESL stint were those who had a critical mass of fellow-ESL teachers with whom they could chillax in English with. Those stuck on their own in Korea or Japan or China went a little stir-crazy.
• My cousin did the Peace Corps thing. He had his BS in biology, and they basically taught him some rudimentary French and dropped him off in Africa with a motorbike and a mission to go forth and teach people agriculture. He came back all tan, thin, and with many body adornments. He loved every minute of it. Pretty much everything that you attempt will require some sort of academic or professional experience, especially if you expect to make a living at it. Even being something as simple as a park ranger requires some relevant education. My suggestion (and I am serious about this) is to go back to school. Get a grad degree in something that you think you can spend your life doing. Be honest with yourself, and talk to people already working in areas that intrigue you. You might discover that you are very good at (and love) something that you never thought you would do, like becoming a storm-chasing meteorologist. Heck, I went from being an accounting major to social science major to computer science major to geology major (and I have more college credits than at which you may shake a stick). Much like Berek, it has taken me 10 years to get my degree (but unlike Berek, I didn't study none of that Girly Studies crap).
• > Learning a trade sounds appealing, but the physical labor is intimidating become an electrician. seriously, it's a sweet job that's mostly indoors and happens after the heavy lifting has been done by others. you also get to play with electricity all day.
• Sell all your stuff and explore the world for a year or two. You are only 26... 10 years later, and that's exactly what I'm doing in about 2 months. Sooner if my employer picks this post up at the gateway. All those posts about "what did you want to be when you were 12?" are right on. It's fucking awesome to think of the possiblities when you cut loose like that. You could end up like danapiper at some wicked cool low-pay but immensely satisfiying job. Or you could just bounce around having a great adventure while you think about what you want to do later. Me? I'm going to follow the folk festival calendar around the continent, with detours for surfing and sailing, two things I always wanted to do, but haven't really, yet. (I did some sailing once a long time ago). Bon courage! Bon chance! et Bon voyage!
• State Department?
• A lack of experience in any job will get you...nowhere. Anyoen can talk the talk, but if you can't write outstanding computer code or operate a forklift, you're going to have to fall back on what you DO know. Yeah, we all dream of that other job, in some other place, surrounded by like-minded super cool people who leave early on Friday and get paid a six-figure income. Get that out of your head. And don't quit your job until you have a better one. Many states do not pay unemployment if you just up and quit. Good luck.
• Follow the Ribwich.
• Geeze point head... lighten up. There was a day when you had ... no experience... and there will (if you're lucky) come a day when you find yourself in that same position. See, that's the beauty of no debt, no dependents. You get to take off without worrying too much about the next job. Especially when you're 26 and a health plan of "don't get sick, don't get hurt" works pretty well, most of the time.
• As far as trades go, I second electrician or plummer. I have relatives who do both, and make good money (much better than I'm making with several degrees, but hey, I love what I do). I also wish I had done the peace corps. They would *love* someone with an econ degree, from what I hear, especially in countries that are trying to make the transition to capitalism. Also, you can make lots of great contacts in the PC that can lead to neat jobs (government, ngo, what have you) down the line. I know a woman who got to work at an embassy in Africa, and she had a house with a butler, driver, and two maids, and a nice wine cellar to boot. And she was a *mid-level* employee. I've had friends who did the ESL thing, and really didn't like it. They didn't make enough money to break even on the experience, so they came out of it in debt. (At the same time, they learned some language and cultural skills, so there's that.)
• 26 is also, coincidentally, the perfect age in which to begin one's ninja training.
• Shh! Dude!
• Damn, I envy you! If I didn't need the health insurance I'd be doing exactly the same thing.
• 26 is also, coincidentally, the perfect age in which to begin one's ninja training. At 06:41PM UTC on August 03, 2006 Fes marked the beginning of the end for the funny ninja reference. Please let us all bow our heads and observe a moment of silence.
• 26 is also, coincidentally, the perfect age in which to begin one's ninja training. *sigh* Well, that was a real nice secret ninja club we had once . .
• Have I ever told you guys the story of the frog and the buzzkilling ninja-referencing scorpion?
• Lots of living/working abroad resources here.
• Wow, lots of good suggestions here. Thanks, Monkeys.
• Check out Live the Life you Love by Barbara Sher. She also wrote: It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now: How to Create Your Second Life at Any Age . These books helped me through some career changes five years ago. Now I'm feeling restless again, so it might be time for me to reread them....
• Get in touch with this bloke: http://www.adrianwedd.com/ Ado works with Greenpeace & other stuff. A good bloke. Smart, easy going. Lots on the go. lotsa ideas. His brother does some kinda exec' stuff all over the globe. USA too. might have summat there. If ya don't ask, ya don't get. Ado's a pretty quiet sort too. Thinks before opens his trap. Prolly get ya sucked inta summat'a other. Ya might end up in Aussie. Good place to start looking. Seems ta be a fair bitta work around.
• Do you like art? Get involved with the art world. I was a printer (intaglio etchings) for 10 years. The art world accepts all types of people, and your practically expected to be introverted. Intaglio etching is an old world form of printing and is getting rarer and rarer. It's interesting and there are many artists who do plates but don't want to print them. They are always wanting a good printer. Sometimes you can get lucky and get hired exclusively by one or just a few artists, or you can work for a publisher. Anyway, it's well off the beaten path of careers and is fairly different as far as jobs go. You will get nowhere near an office.
• I n+1 the Peace Corps recommendation. If, by any chance, you are not a USian citizen, I strongly recommend VSO in Canada. I did that for a year (wish I had done it for 2) in Africa and found every moment of it deeply satisfying and rewarding. And I sleep better at night. It helped me develop so many soft skills that serve me well today. If you are going to go this path, do not quit your job just yet. Go through the selection process of VSO or Peace Corps or whatever and quit just before you have to leave for that Developing country. That way, you make sure you don't eat too much into your savings. While you are volunteer abroad, you will be paid a living wage on which you can live and travel comfortably. And when you are nearing the completion of your placement, you can decide whether you want to stay in the country and find some satisfying job there or come back and train or work in some new field. Another thing to do is to travel with your savings. Cost of travelling and living in some parts of the world are significantly lower than in parts of the US. And travelling opens your eyes to history and the wider world. And it will give you some extrovert skills. And you will be telling your grandchildren grand stories of your travels for years and years. A third option is to go to grad school.
• My suggestion (and I am serious about this) is to go back to school. Get a grad degree in something that you think you can spend your life doing. I did that. I got another degree in English. And you know what? No jobs. So I got another degree in education, and got a job. The moral: get some education that others also deem valuable.
• I flirted with a degree in English, until I realized that the market for English majors was depressingly lean. Urg. But hey: my hubby just told me that I have enough credits as a geotechnical engineer to get citizenship in New Zealand. Hmm...it is tempting.
• In my opinion grad school is a bad idea. It sucks up years, can land you in serious debt and it might give you the idea that you want to be an academic. Wanting to be an academic is not a winning career move. I'd second the not-for-profit route as well; the pay can be lower but the hours (in my experience) are much more flexible and the variety is terrific. I know the names of some nfp's in the life sciences area: ILSI, LSRO. You could do worse than to give them a call and ask them to recommend a not for profit that looks for econ people. Another approach is to try and broaden your skills while still working your current job. Tutoring, for instance, could be worth a look. It tends to happen out of regular office hours or on the weekend so you can keep your job and try something different. Have a look at Sylvan or Kaplan. You get to meet other tutors and see what they do in their day jobs.
• altho I do not have a graduate degree, I'm inclined to say: don't go to grad school unless you have a particular field you'd really like to pursue. Getting an advanced degree in some cool esoteric thing is great, but you may wind up with a lot of debt and no job options (yes, I was accepted into a graduate English Lit program, in which I was going to pursue the awesome subject of 19th & 20th century gothic & horror literature! but I pulled back from the brink, just in time) I definitely fall into that "I wish I did the Peace Corp" camp. at least take a look into doing something like that. What a life-altering, life-defining incredible experience that could be. I doubt you'd come out the other end unsure of how you'd like to spend yr days on earth. good luck! don't forget to stop and smell the roses :)
• How to do what you love. An oldish article with some good points.
• They pay people to drink whiskey and nap?
• My husband would kill to have a job testing out new Playstation/XBox games. That was a good article, trac.
• That's a bummer to hear all the complaints about ESL jobs. I plan to go to japan and teach some English for a year or two, after I graduate.
• how to do what you love I'd like to be paid six figures to lie around on a chaise lounge in a fabulous evening gown reading spy novels and eating bon-bons. that would be my dream job. and I'd be DAMN good at it!
• That's a fine, fine article tracicle. Worthy of a FPP. A nice quote: "Another test you can use is: always produce. For example, if you have a day job you don't take seriously because you plan to be a novelist, are you producing? Are you writing pages of fiction, however bad? As long as you're producing, you'll know you're not merely using the hazy vision of the grand novel you plan to write one day as an opiate. The view of it will be obstructed by the all too palpably flawed one you're actually writing. 'Always produce' is also a heuristic for finding the work you love. ...It will automatically push you away from things you think you're supposed to work on, toward things you actually like. "Always produce" will discover your life's work the way water, with the aid of gravity, finds the hole in your roof."
• Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves? --Friedrich Nietzsche Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything. --Floyd Dell It is here, in idleness, I become real. --Tu Fu While you're working, you don't have to look life in the eye. --Carlos Ruiz Zafon Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things. And it is not by any means certain that a man's business is the most important thing he has to do. --Robert Louis Stevenson Immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous. --Bertrand Russell Time which you enjoyed wasting was not wasted. --G.K. Chesterton
• Mr. K, don't necessarily give up on the ESL idea if you're really struck by it. Just make sure that the company you go with is reputable, doesn't expect you to work an ungodly amount of hours (something I hear is not uncommon), and pays you enough to live on. Be realistic about the cost of living where you want to go, and include the cost of cultural excursions (vacations!) and eating out a lot. Include also the cost of transportation to/from work (is there a subway? will you have to buy a vehicle of some sort?). A friend of mine was placed in an apartment that was an hour's walk away from work, and was inconvenient to mass transit, so she had to buy a scooter that ended up needed near-weekly repairs. She also ended up having to buy things that we take for granted in the west, like a refrigerator for her apartment, and portable heating units (she was in a brand-new, unheated apartment building in the winter...and ended up quite ill until she bought the heaters). I guess what I'm saying is that the more homework you do before you go, the better your experience will be and the more you'll get out of it. I'm sure there are websites by people who are out there or have gone, and I'd be happy to give you my friend's email so you could talk about details. My email's in the profile.
• StoryBored, I've had that bookmarked for a long time. I think it was an FPP originally.