Help me think of some ideas to come up from poverty in Jax (Jacksonville: sales, insurance)

[Vinny Lugo]

Backstory:

I am in a bad situation. I am living in Jacksonville, Florida now with my brother, my mom, and her S.O. My mom's S.O. is a pill to swallow and I hate things at her house. We do not get along well.

I have the following credentials...

-An A.A. degree from Fscj.
-All but 18 credits in a B.S. degree in Public Safety Management from FSCJ (but they messed up my financial aid and said I had one more semester of Financial Aid in the Spring (when I did not and that really hurt me badly)
-3 years sales experience.
-1 year of sales management experience.
-8 years of customer service experience.
-1 year of experience as an administrative assistant in an office.
-4 years experience as a security guard.

I get a lot of overtime as of late and am a security guard. However, I am just not making enough money because the job doesn't pay very well. Plus, the overtime comes and goes and is not consistent.

Any current advice about how to come up and make more money here would be most appreciated.

[Florida2020]

Go into sales? Like office customer service for large health companies (United Healthcare) where you can earn a salary and work your way up.

What were you planning to do with your degree? It sounds security based?

[kmarc]

You're actually in a good field to move up. Security guards don't make a lot of money, but you can move up to "loss management" in a retail store or warehouse setting. Places like Lowe's, Home Depot and other big box stores have a need for that. Basically it's shoplifting prevention.

You can do sales for a security company that farms out people like yourself. You can advertise your services as a private security guard for special events, local conventions, even parties and weddings. Sometimes you make some good tips at these things. Let local hotels know you're available when they need extra personnel.

[Vinny Lugo]

Originally Posted by Florida2020

Go into sales? Like office customer service for large health companies (United Healthcare) where you can earn a salary and work your way up.

What were you planning to do with your degree? It sounds security based?

Don't I have to have a license to sell insurance?

[ByeByeLW]

The first thing that popped into my mind was get your BS and then check out Postal Inspection Service/Postal Police.

You can find info on the OIG site or the postal inspectors.com site.


Suspicious packages and crimes by employees are on the rise. And you can always transfer to a different department.

For whatever reason that was my first thought.

[Vinny Lugo]

Originally Posted by kmarc

You're actually in a good field to move up. Security guards don't make a lot of money, but you can move up to "loss management" in a retail store or warehouse setting. Places like Lowe's, Home Depot and other big box stores have a need for that. Basically it's shoplifting prevention.

You can do sales for a security company that farms out people like yourself. You can advertise your services as a private security guard for special events, local conventions, even parties and weddings. Sometimes you make some good tips at these things. Let local hotels know you're available when they need extra personnel.

And that would not be competing with my company? Also my resume with security is quite impressive. I have worked for Queen's Harbor (one of the most rich and prestigious communities in Jax).

I also lived in Chicago for a while and did security for a Whole Foods store in Evanstan (a rich suburb outside of Chicago) and literally a whole host of bums and drug addicts and even a huge and a very notorious group of gang members pervaded that store, and I got every single one of them out of there. That made store profits there go up 300%.

Finally, my biggest achievement is that I worked for a social club in Chicago that literally had local celebrities and also very big time cebrities that I did security for. And when I say big, I MEAN BIG: Chance the Rapper, the kid who plays Carl on the show "Shameless", and even Bruce Willis joined the party there once. I mean, with my resume makimg a base pay of $10 an hour plus my 15 to 20 hours over-time, I feel like I am getting low-balled big time.

[Vinny Lugo]

Originally Posted by ByeByeLW

The first thing that popped into my mind was get your BS and then check out Postal Inspection Service/Postal Police.

You can find info on the OIG site.

Suspicious packages and crimes by employees are on the rise. And you can always transfer to a different department.

For whatever reason that was my first thought.

It will cost me 2k out of pocket to compete my degree

[ByeByeLW]

Oh, okay.

Hope for the best and keep your options open, I guess!

Working at the PO could get you in the door, but unless you’re lucky enough to get the right hours/schedule it would be hard to go to school as well.

But you could probably still swing some security gigs while there and then go into supervision.

Just throwing out something that wouldn’t require more schooling out of your pocket.

Even in the summer we are knocking down the overtime. I hear it’s like that all over the country.

[Vinny Lugo]

Originally Posted by ByeByeLW

Oh, okay.

Hope for the best and keep your options open, I guess!

Working at the PO could get you in the door, but unless you’re lucky enough to get the right hours/schedule it would be hard to go to school as well.

But you could probably still swing some security gigs while there and then go into supervision.

Just throwing out something that wouldn’t require more schooling out of your pocket.

Even in the summer we are knocking down the overtime. I hear it’s like that all over the country.

I completed my A.A. degree at FSCJ in person. The Bachelor's I was working on at FSCJ was all online. So would I need a Bachelor's to work at the office?

[Florida2020]

Originally Posted by Vinny Lugo

Don't I have to have a license to sell insurance?

I don't think so, but I can be wrong. but either way, there's the phone customer service jobs too.

I think the suggestion of loss prevention is also a good suggestion and with an AA might get salary more than what you make currently. Macy's, Dillard's