A year ago, I decided against law school, quit my job, and moved. Now, I temp. I have extremely manageable debt, I can feed myself, and I can pay my rent. Everything else is extraneous. Will I find a full-time job at some point? Probably. 80% of the American workforce is fucking retarded. The odds are with me. Worst case scenario, I'm sleeping on a couch for a couple weeks. I can live with that. Will I be pigeonholed into a job I hate because of crushing student loans and the expectations of others? Not never, motherfucker. Not never.
I got laid off a couple weeks ago. The company's basic philosophy was to hire and fire as many people as possible so they could pay the minimum to their workers. I got no notice whatsoever and they didn't even let me clean out my cubicle (not that I had anything of worth there anyway though). A couple days later I got offered another position at the same company who just had to complete their background check again. I opted to move in with the parents to find something more permanent rather than be fired and rehired with no upward mobility. The pay was ok for a young bachelor I guess, but it wasn't much more than to pay bills and go out. There wasn't much extra. I graduated with a degree in marketing, honors and all that crap, but it's one of the first departments company's cut when the budget is tight and it seems like every job that pays well in my major wants 7 years of experience, which I obviously don't have. Honestly, I was kind of glad to be laid off. I had kind of seen it coming, especially the last day when my boss asked me how to show her a few things no one else knew how to do. The work was easy, but one of the women I worked with was a total bitch who thought I was an idiot. She always argued with me on topics she was hopelessly wrong in. She didn't even know the difference between an intranet and the internet for one example. She always told me not to do things that were obviously required for my job (I never for the life of me could understand this). Also, she fucked up a lot more than she admitted and always tried to blame it on me, which was fucking annoying for obvious reasons. The second to last day she asked me to do some things that had already been finished. I argued with her, then after confirming and proving they had been done she told me she was busy and basically said I needed to fuck off. What a bitch. She was one of those uber Christian people too. What a surprise. Maybe she was just mad because she was so fat and hideous. That tends to happen with fat women, either extremely nice or a complete bitch. Almost everyone I know did horribly after graduating and had to move in back home. The only exception is my friends who studied computer programming. I did have a different job right after graduating in sales that actually paid pretty well, but the job was awful. Basically, you had to annoy 50 people for every sale and it just wasn't worth it even though the commission was really good. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I'm actually considering the military (23 isn't old to be joining right?) and will be talking to recruiters soon. Other than that, just looking around to see what's available. I've been kind of lazy about it the last week, since I didn't have much vacation time at my old job I figured I could use a little. I wish I had been born before my brother. My dad lined him up with a job that paid 60k, all the benefits you could want (including gas, medical, dental, $20k car, phone, internet, etc.), and only required him to work 15 hours a week from home. He didn't even do that though and when they came to apartment he would turn off the lights and stay quiet like he wasn't home (seriously). They kept him on for doing absolutely zero for about a year until my dad died. Getting a job from your parents would be kind of lame, but that would have nice and unlike my brother I actually would have worked.
I feel kind of bad posting this in an unemployment thread where most of you are actually unemployed - but I am insensitive. In about a month I am going to quit my decent-paying job to take a nearly unpaid internship that will directly relate to the kind of job I want. Fortunately, I only graduated from school last year and have zero responsibilities so I can make potentially bad decisions and not have to worry about it that much. My plan is dumb for many reasons. I work in the industry I want to work in (RE development), for a company that has projects, despite the shitty climate. The company has pretty decent growth potential in a niche that hasn't suffered much through the downturn. But I am basically working as a construction admin. I have no construction background, and frankly, little interest in the construction end of the business. I've tried to branch out to the investment/finance group within the company but there's no space for me there, and even if there was the work isn't really right, so I want to move on. There's a damn good chance I will regret this decision if the end of the year rolls around, my cash runs out, and I still don't have a full time job, but fuck it, I am capable of doing way more than scanning invoices and plugging a few numbers into a budget. It doesn't help that my life is boring. I basically had the same choice to make months ago and went with the safe, paying option and I have been unhappy. I'm living at home (which is great because I've saved so much cash I can actually consider doing what I plan to do), but at this point, all my friends have moved out of this city. So I'll take a risk, move to New York where nearly all the RE finance jobs I want are, and see how it goes. I'm a bad ass waiter though, so the worst thing that will happen is I end up back in the degenerate industry that has always accepted me without a second thought.
ALT FOCUS: Stories about the hunt for jobbie jobs. Did you ever happen into the career of a lifetime accidentally? Did you ever make an unintended career switch because of some guy you met at a party? Do tell. Looking for work sucks. Being unemployed when you have no money sucks. I graduated with my B.S. in Psychology in the Spring of 2007. I chose to complete my last semester online and ended up getting a job with Allstate as a sales representative in a cubicle farm while I was finishing my degree. I was licensed to sell property and casualty insurance in roughly 30 some states. That job slowly killed my soul, and when I was fired, I was making roughly 32K a year, which is decent enough for the south. When I was fired from that job in September 2008 I went to go work as a mortgage broker at the brokerage where my best friend was working. It wasn't something I wanted to do, but I no longer had a job and I needed one. This job lasted a single month, as they filed for bankruptcy in October of 2008. I was unemployed until April 2009. I was actively searching for jobs and applying for graduate school when the Police Department called me about an application I had put in with them from June 2007, when I was looking for alternatives to my soul crushing job at Allstate. They called me after I had just found out I had been accepted to graduate school. I was broke, so I took the job knowing I would be leaving in a few months. The job with the police department was the single best job I've had. The pay was good (approximately 38K/year), there was the obvious fringe benefits of working for the police, and best of all, it wasn't sales oriented. I could have stayed at that job for possibly five or ten years. However, there was something that nagged at me while I was there. I was surrounded by complacency. I was in the highest position a civilian could hold without becoming a sworn officer. There was no upward mobility, no growth, and it was stifling. I say all this to say this to all the unemployed recent graduates on the board: none of my jobs above required a college degree, in the field I studied, but the jobs listed above all managed to pay the bills. More power to you if you're holding out for your dream job, I can respect that. That's the reason why I left the police department to go to graduate school on loans. I took a chance and 40k in debt; this year I am teaching statistics to undergrads, working in the counseling center, and working as an Resident Assistant in the graduate/honor student dorm. My tuition is paid for, my housing is paid for, and I get to pursue my passion. That being said, it wasn't a straightforward path of progression. Sometimes you've got to stretch beyond your comfort zone to ultimately get where you want to go.
I graduated with a degree in Economics and Math from NYU, a degree I thought would be surefire way to a solid job in finance. I had planned on getting a job after graduating(spring 09), working for 8-9 months, blowing the money on traveling, and then enrolling in a PhD program in Economics. The only job I was able to find was in a factory moving boxes around for $8.50 an hour. It really wasn't all that bad since I had no undergraduate debt, I just wouldn't be able to travel like a planned; hardly a major sacrifice. Instead, I cut my hours to part-time, took a couple of extra classes at the local community college to boost my grad school application, and am now enrolled in a graduate program in Applied Economics and Statistics. So even though I never found a "real" job, things could definitely be worse. No complaints.
I got laid off from the Onion last July. I was doing local print/online media sales 100% commission. Even though Chicago was the headquarters, the Chicago edition of the paper was always losing money. The Onion's management was relatively arrogant wouldn't lower prices even though the competitions was destroying us. For example, they would rather have one $10 ad, then three $7 ads. They franchised the paper operation to the competition that was destroying us and I didn't make the transition for two reasons. 1. I'm not a hot female. 2. I really didn't want to work there as I've been trying to get into the ad agency world. I've been unemployed for almost 7 months, and its been rough. I've had friends that didn't get it either. As all of them still live at home, jobs or not. Unemployment hasn't been a problem except for the month they didn't give it to me because I filled out on the bi-weekly form I was going to graduate school. Month long process showing that I was actively looking for work, the program was only at night, wasn't preventing me from working or would be the reason I said no to work. My stubbornness has taught me how to cook good food in large batches, learn to love rice and shop at Aldi's as I refused to give up my cable/internet, apartment or cellphone. Parents helped out with graduate school, but expect repayment. Also they've given me cash here and there but only when I don't ask for it which ends up in a fun game of "No, I'm okay, don't worry, but if you insist!" For awhile my unemployment was only 20 dollars more than my expenses. Got pretty fit walking and not drinking. Dating was rough, I got dumped by a girl because I didn't have a "10 year plan." I did meet a girl in November who didn't care I was unemployed even though she has her life set. Getting my M.A. helped because she knows I'm trying. Even though she never will know my financial situation, she hated me paying for dates so money has been balanced. She's getting spoiled on V-Day. When it came looking for work, I looked at my finances and unemployment money schedule and set "You're fucked" "You're really fucked" and "You're homeless" dates. Basically up to the first date, I looked at jobs only in my city and my field. Second date was looking at jobs outside my field. Third was looking coast to coast. Luckily, I'm currently waiting on an offer from an agency that'll pay 45k+ with incredible benefits. I'm pretty sure it has to do with the 10 redesigns of my resume and applying to most agencies once a month. My advice for recent graduates is to get an unpaid internship while you're off. Most of them will only be 15-20 hours and its worth it. More on your resume that says "experience" the better. I took one during this last quarter of graduate school and ended up being older than half the employees. Still was worth it.
I'm sorry if this thread is too far past due, but I work as a process server and I am a student. As evidenced by all the posts above mine, business is very good. There is almost not a day that goes by that I don't serve a notice of default (foreclosure notice). I average about three to five of them a day. I drive and walk around all day trying to hunt down people who are usually expecting something coming. I've had people scream, cry and laugh. I've had people invite me in to their homes for various reasons and when people get angry I usually just politely listen to them until they calm down. It's not a hard job but it is incredibly time consuming; for that reason I haven't had time for things like posting on this forum. But I actually like the job a lot. The only requirement the firms that hire me demand is that I try to make contact with the person within 24 hours.
This really sounds like an awesome job. Need to know anything special or have a certain schooling to get hired for it?
No, atleast not where Im from. I used to serve people for a friends older sisters law firm she worked at the odd time. I was in highschool when I was doing it so you dont really need any special schooling for it, its usually about who you know. I served people for a family court law firm and trust me, people can be pretty hostile when it comes to their "bitch ex-wives/husbands" or their kids. It may take you a half hour to drive over to their work or home, but you can spend up to an hour listening to these peoples problems just to avoid confrontation.
Been unemployed for over a year. Decided I didn't want to look for a job I didn't care about so long as unemployment held out (thanks Obama!). I posted in the last WDT that I'd be telling the guy I've been trying to get a deal going with for quite a while it was time to shit or get off the pot. And I did it. Which is kinda cool for me, because I'm a total wuss. Looks like he's going to both shit and get off the pot. Things aren't finalized quite yet, so I'll hold off on the details, though some of you know what I'm talking about. Hopefully some good news in the next WDT.
I'm the perfect example of "not what you know but who you know" I graduate college in May with a BA in criminal justice and have been hired on by the police department in the town I'm from. This town is populated by a whopping 13,000 people. Is it my dream job? No. But my girlfriend from a different city actually has a job there on the line too with, you guessed it, a family friend. My family owns a business in this town that I will probably end up running one day. I feel so grateful for the opportunity, but I am also feel its kind of a forced option. With the job market the way it is, I'm not going to turn this down. Iill be 22 when I graduate so obviously I have a long road ahead of me hopefully with opportunities for advancement. If anyone wants advice on how to get into law enforcement, shoot me a PM and I'll be happy to help. For further information though, I already work as a police officer as a college senior. Essentially it is a bomb ass paid internship.
I had to get certified at a local community college. I don't know why the fuck my university didn't offer it but the classes have to be approved by the circuit court in your county (I think). Then once I passed the class I had to go to the sheriff's office to pass a background check and become certified. These requirements differ from each county (or circuit) and state. Sometimes the courts cover more than one county, but that is not the case for me.
Good news bump: A family friend works for a small consulting company and they needed more consultants. Despite jumping in while other candidates were already half way through the process, they want me to come in next week to make me an offer. They had some pause about hiring an ex-attorney, but the fact that I aced their logic test seemed to take care of those concerns. The job sounds interesting, so I am excited. A little weary about the travel demands, but we'll see how they go. If any JD wants some advice on leaving the legal field, PM me and I will share my thoughts. Here's a hint: when your career service office in law school told you "You can do anything with a JD!", they were lying.