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The whole working for free thing just seems extremely cheap from these companies looking for that. I understand the purpose but could never see going in working for free. The least they could do would be to pay the Intern $10 an hour.
A person has to be careful that they work for free as an employee so as to have worker's rights, rather than as a volunteer because if you're the latter, you don't have workers rights and can be sexually or otherwise harassed.
Also at issue is taking a position with a company who just uses you as menial labor rather than training you for the job you need experience in. There as an article on yahoo.com about employers doing just that with student interns. For example, one employer had interns sweeping and doing light janitorial work!
Be careful about who you work for and what your duties will be .
wrong time to go into debt. jr college VE trade is what is needed.
plumber, elecrician, RN, LVN are good value, little or no debt. VE expense and effort vs expected salary and benefits looks good.
getting a 4 year degree plus an advanced degree is currently a bad investment.
I am currently in the Respiratory Care program at a local community college. I am pursuing this path as a second/or maybe third career. From what I can determine, there are opportunities available as a Respiratory Therapist, although you may have to be patient in finding the exact position you are seeking.
The costs for the program are typical of those for a community college. The grand total for the program will be in the 10k range including tuition, fees, books, uniforms, and of course a stethoscope. One of the "perks" of the program is our clinical rotations. Besides the fact that you get to apply what you've learned in the classroom on patients, you also get known in the hospital, and get to know them as well. It's networking as part of your education.
Do I know if this will all be worth the time/expense? I do know that no one is guaranteed anything. Me being me, means that I also have a Plan B, C, D, etc. as backup.
I investigated the PTA and RN programs at the community college but felt that the Respiratory Care Program was the best fit for me. While the RN program sometimes has a small waiting list, the PTA and RT programs did not.
So many people who lost their jobs decided to go back to school, i.e. "well if I'm not owrking right now, I may as well go back to school". I emphasize so many people, in which case so many schools are producing graduates with education credentials but so many didn't get internships so they didn't get work experience, or an employer with whom they have experience and a relationship.
The above is the case in law schools right now. I believe I read that enrollment has increased by about 20%, the 2008 graduating class has been called "the lost generation" of law students since they didn't graduate into jobs with the employers they had interned with.
I'm sure it's not as bleak in other areas like engineering and health care, but the idea is still that with such an influx of students and an outflux of graduates, you as a graduate will have lots of equivalent competition in your new area of occupation.
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One thing to look at is, whatever your chosen new employment field may be, that your current skill set have some applicability; you want some transferrability from your current career to the next. You don't want to rely solely on your new education credentials.
Of course there are manuals on how to do this. One among the multitude would be "the career change resume" by Kim Isaacs.
Look at what career fields are projected to have openings but won't be too competitive. I know that's not an inspiring piece of advice- it will leave no one misty-eyed- but the more competition there will be, the more difficult it will be to break in if only because there will be so many other candidates for employers to sift through, so many resumes to wade through..
Let us know what you decide.
Yep its just as bad in engineering, I have a PE and 5 years experience and have been looking for over a year when I was almost laid off, thank god I was not otherwise I would have to move out of state just to find a job. Even though the US is supposidly not producing engineers or hard science majors they are insourcing "engineers" who got their degree from a cracker jack box.
I never thought I would become a single issue voter but in these primarys any candidate that has a record of voting for free trade or granting H1 visas/work visas was a no vote for me, no other issue will put me on the streets and showering at laundry mats.
I rejected the idea of retraining because there was nothing that I could train for that would get me out into the workforce in a field with decent job prospects and a decent wage expectation, in 9 months or less. Anything more than 9 months, didn't seem like worthwhile investment.
Even if the length and cost of training were advantageous, what would be the point? So I could be the 'new graduate' again, competing against people who have years of experience for scarce jobs in some other field? Having no experience doesn't seem to have cache.
I did however broaden my search a lot--a wider definition of my occupation, and I applied to jobs all over. I was willing to live out of a suitcase for as long as it took, and endure long commutes, so long as I could get a paycheck. And I reduced my salary expectations a lot.
I currently have a Finance degree in a dead end job...I am 12 classes away from getting a second degree in Accounting. Do you think is a good idea? I was thinking of taking at least one class this semester.
I currently have a Finance degree in a dead end job...I am 12 classes away from getting a second degree in Accounting. Do you think is a good idea? I was thinking of taking at least one class this semester.
If you have a job and can be promoted if you get other degrees then it would be a good idea.
Education is worth it if you can afford it, and if you are getting educated in order to get a job and the jobs and promotions exist.
Anyone with experience and a job can usually benefit by advancing their skills and education. I think the thing to avoid though is someone who isn't working to just go to classes believing magic happens after that.
Well I have a temp. job right now, so nothing secure at my current job but I feel that I need to do something to give me hope. I do have some money tucked away, but then again I will be playing with my emergency fund.
wrong time to go into debt. jr college VE trade is what is needed.
plumber, elecrician, RN, LVN are good value, little or no debt. VE expense and effort vs expected salary and benefits looks good.
getting a 4 year degree plus an advanced degree is currently a bad investment.
Let me point out some problems with your rationale. Anybody can get into to junior college (yes, that's where most of the pot heads in high school ended up going, if they went to college at all). Not everybody can get accepted into certain 4-year colleges that have a higher criteria for admissions. If we apply basic economic concepts, we realize that if anybody can do it, we face more competition. The key to long term success is to pursue what most people are not pursuing.
There are waiting lists 100 miles long for a lot of nursing programs at CCs or JR colleges. And if you did your due diligence before posting your typical hogwash response, you'd realize that some of the other fields you mentioned are pretty difficult to break into, too, due to union regulations (again, they're attempting to limit the competition in their particular industry by blocking people from entering).
Are there any fields that may have short training programs that have a decent job market? I am only asking this because of the whole financial aspect of retraining.
Don't underestimate costs of retraining, not just in terms of dollars, but also time and the impact that it has those who depend on you, like kids. I remember during the presidential debate in 2004 when the moderator asked Bush what someone whose job had been outsourced could do to change careers. His answer? Go to community college. It was an answer that showed just how out of touch he was with the real world. Imagine a 50 year old engineer with a bachelors, even a masters who has a mortgage and two kids in or about to start college being able to switch careers just by taking a couple summer classes at his local community college and being able to land a job that paid even half what his engineering job could. For a lot of people these days, the issue isn't finding a career that's worth training for. It's finding the means to do so. That engineer could apply for med school and someday become a doctor. But he'd also come out with a mountain of debt. And in the meantime, how would he support his family? Unfortunately, the kinds of jobs that are being lost now aren't the kinds that you can easily retrain and find an equal paying job to replace.
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