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Apply to every Scrum/project manager job on the list. You have to look nationwide. Tailor each resume and tell them you are moving to their area in the near future. Being a Scrum Master is a specialized skill. On your resume, don't mention the audio duties you performed. Only list the duties that contain the transferable skills that apply to the job posting. Talk yourself up.
Contact every friend or family member and ask them to check the internal job postings at their company ask them to refer you to their company. Many companies have a referral bonus program and your friends/family can get a few bucks by helping you out.
Contact any past clients whom you've worked with.
Join some professional/networking meet up groups to meet new people and collect business cards.
Thanks for all the replies. It really means a lot to me, and definitely helps me in getting through this depressing time. My wife is supportive of me going back to school full-time on campus, granted she can find a decent job quickly, but it's still a pretty big commitment on my part. I thought I post about this in my OP, but I'm looking at a minimum 3 year commitment should I go into something like Computer Science or Engineering. With my current Business degree online, I probably can finish in about 1-1.5 years. I'll most likely finish my Business degree regardless since my online school is cheap and I'm close to finishing, and possibly ending up with two degrees. As for the audio stuff, I still get the occasional freelance gig on the side, but it's hardly enough to ever sustain a comfortable life or pay all the bills. I doubt I'll find a sustainable audio gig (I'm qualified for all sorts of pro audio, but they are all as unsustainable as the next), in the next year, and even if I do I've seen too much craziness with this career to trust it would last for even more than a year. I need a better plan for the future to get that stability.
Quote:
Originally Posted by move4ward
If you need to seek a direction, go to the Johnson O'Connor testing center in Dallas or Houston. Testing Centers
They can point you in the right direction for a career. You may have other aptitudes, besides audio engineering. You may balk at the cost, but they have been helping people or decades on their career path. Before you can decide on a direction outside of audio engineering, you must asses your other strengths.
As for career coaches, there are good ones and there are bad ones. Unless you are getting results, I wouldn't go by what they say.
If I was your coach, I would have told you that your networking is all wrong. You don't hit up people for jobs by networking. The best use of networking is finding mentors in your field. Somebody that has gone through the journey and knows how to navigate the industry. If anything, I would go through your alumni directory and contact the other people with the same major. A one-time informational interview might help. However, the ideal situation would be a mentorship with a role model.
Start attending career development classes and job seeker support groups. If you haven't been attending, it would explain your poor results.
I had looked at services like these but they seemed unnecessarily expensive. I actually did get some professional career assessments done (based on Myer-Briggs and STRONG) for around $150, and they weren't very conclusive for me. My Myer Briggs type is ISTJ and pointed me towards top careers such as:
- Military
- Architecture/Engineering
- Computers/Information Science/Technology
- Production and Manufacturing
- Maintenance and Repair
My STRONG test results were very inconclusive. You are measured across 6 interest categories. Conventional, Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, and Artistic. I did not score high on any, nor did I score low. Almost all my interest levels were moderate within the same TWO point range (100 point scale). The highest score I had was in Conventional, which is basically your straightforward and practical tasks like bookkeeping, or operating a machine, or programming. It was only a 56/100. My other scores were all between 44 and 46.... Basically it said I was a jack of all trades, master of none. Knowing myself a bit, I could definitely say that's pretty true.
Ultimately, my top careers from my combined Myer Briggs and STRONG results were in finance, accounting, project or business management, IT/IS work, or computer programming/software engineering. I've never done any before.
To hit on your other points. My career coach adventure was a joke. They basically referred me to Google and wanted me to answer my own questions, questions I've plenty researched and answered before on my own. As for my LinkedIn, resume, cover letters, business cards, portfolio etc. I've had countless people critique them and my work, and rarely heard a complaint. If anything, I received lavish compliments on them. Any criticism I received I used to make my materials better as appropriate.
My networking efforts were certainly not asking people for a job. There was a variety of different events I've gone to in the last year. Two professional conferences, handful of career/job fairs, a job support group (for unemployed folks), and tons of social networking events, stuff like beer or social meetups to just get to meet people. When I network I'm more concerned with building relationships, only tossing a business card their way if appropriate. I have built up a ton of great acquaintances over the last year, but they haven't led to a job. I have two great mentors from past jobs who are constantly keeping an eye open for jobs for me, and willing to throw glowing recommendations to employers as need be, but the jobs just simply aren't out there. I've also done some informational interviewing for different fields, but I realized I'm the type of person who really doesn't know how they will like something till they actually do it. How something looks or appears to me never correlates to how I feel about it. I've done things I thought I would hate only to be surprised that I love them. Likewise, vice versa occurs as well. I'm a hands on type of person, information interviews don't do much for me.
The aptitude center certainly looks interesting, but at around $700 for the service, it's out of my price range now. I wonder if there are any back where I'm going.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AvaRae
I'm an air force vet, you need a bachelor's degree to be an officer however you have enough credits to come in as an E-3 (enlisted) and they do have that audio graphics stuff your into..they'll pay back college loans and pay for you bachelor, master degree in what ever major you choose..if you qualify I'd do it!
I thought about military service, but everyone I know has told me to stay away from it. I hear it's not the same military our grandfathers served in. Several of my grandparents and uncles did military service, and they all recommend me to stay away from it as it's just not that great today. There is the whole aspect of it being the military as well in a war driven world, and I know my wife is fairly adamant for me not to join.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigjake54
No reason for you to throw them under the bus, but since you did, I'm going to suggest that perhaps they were correct.
Anyway, you can't go back & change things, so ignore the past, be grateful for your in-laws & take any job for now. Your wife needs to do the same thing. Then, apply for jobs & go on interviews whenever you can. Get out of the house every day. Doesn't matter if you walk 10 miles. It's better than sitting around.
First off, I wanted to do a B.S. in Computer Science with a specialization in Game Development. How anyone can say CS is a bad degree choice is beyond me. It goes much deeper though. My parents and immediate family were extremely discouraging about embracing who I was as a kid, and frankly they downright insulted me about my collegiate decisions. After being shot down from CS, I wanted to go to Berklee College of Music to study a music degree. I had received a partial scholarship, but once again my family swayed me away from it by telling me it was a horrible choice. Next I wanted to attend a respectable college out of state to pursue a degree in some type of Science. My family thought I was crazy, and would not let me leave my hometown area. I even had full scholarships (minus room and board of course) to some out of state universities, but my family would not let me attend them. I mean, I could have just went, but being 18, young and naive, I can't imagine being able to succeed so far away from home with parents and family who were also on board. They weren't going to sign loans for living expenses. They weren't going to provide any type of advice on living independently. I couldn't get the loans without them, so it basically came down to that. They basically forced me into doing what they wanted me to do.
I plan on taking any job I can find once I get settled in at my in-laws. Your tip about getting out of the house and moving around is golden, but easy to forget. It's easy to get into phases where you just sit around and mope around home all day. Thanks for reminding me to get off my ass and be as active as possible.
Last edited by the_grimace; 08-09-2014 at 11:17 PM..
I wanted to do a B.S. in Computer Science with a specialization in Game Development. How anyone can say CS is a bad degree choice is beyond me.
Perhaps some unemployed Game Developers could chime in here. But, that's not the point. You are dwelling on the past. Get over it. Move on.
Quote:
I plan on taking any job I can find once I get settled in at my in-laws. Your tip about getting out of the house and moving around is golden, but easy to forget. It's easy to get into phases where you just sit around and mope around home all day. Thanks for reminding me to get off my ass and be as active as possible.
Apply to every Scrum/project manager job on the list. You have to look nationwide. Tailor each resume and tell them you are moving to their area in the near future. Being a Scrum Master is a specialized skill. On your resume, don't mention the audio duties you performed. Only list the duties that contain the transferable skills that apply to the job posting. Talk yourself up.
Contact every friend or family member and ask them to check the internal job postings at their company ask them to refer you to their company. Many companies have a referral bonus program and your friends/family can get a few bucks by helping you out.
Contact any past clients whom you've worked with.
Join some professional/networking meet up groups to meet new people and collect business cards.
Never give up.
I would love to get a Scrum Master job. No luck despite applying for lots of positions around the country. I'm sure the lack of degree probably hurts, but on top of that I was disappointed to find most Scrum Master positions wanted you to have a minimum 5 years experience.
I too had hugely un-supportive parents, perhaps more so than yours. Because I am hearing impaired my mother was hell-bent on trying to make me go into Audiology or Speech Therapy because "you had experience in them". She also tried to get me interested in physical therapy, again "because you had physical therapy before and know what it was like". If it weren't those career fields she wanted me to become an X-ray technician or an Anesthetic, since I can't stand blood or hearing heart beats, she felt those two were the best medical degree fields I could go into.
My stepfather did not care about me or my career, my dad would rather I move to his state of Florida, to his choice of school, than even care about what I wanted. My mother was the head of my family and in charge of all decisions FAFSA wise.
I wanted to do Computer Science. Shot down because mother couldn't "get it" and she felt I'd have the same issues as her.
Fine then, political science. Shot down because I'm a "terrible liar", never-mind the fact that I had one of the highest grades in history/government class and participated in debates.
Librarian so I can work in the Library of Congress (one of my goals). Shot down because she thought I'd be bored, never-mind the fact that I spent 4 years practically "living" in my high school library and the last 2 volunteering....unpaid, because I loved it so much.
Philosophy. I knew this would be a tough degree, but I had every intention of being a college professor and teaching that. Shot down again.
Business/Finance/Accounting. Shot down because Mom couldn't wrap her head around business terms and struggled with it when she was in college, she assumed it'd be the same for me so she shot me down.
Like you, I had won scholarships. I won 5 of them, 3 for any community college and 2 for a state university. At first Mom said that I could go to university, so I declined the 3 community college scholarships and accepted the 2 state university scholarships. A week later she changed her mind and DEMANDED that I go to the local community college across the street, no doubt so she could have me under her thumb again. I was vehemently upset because I lost out on 5 scholarships due to her flip flopping and manipulative ways.
After some family intervention I convinced her to let me commute to a community college 40 minutes from home. This college was ideal because it was far from home and because it had a direct transfer route to NAU. At the time she had led me to believe that I would be allocated some funds to move out into my own apartment the first two months while I get a job if I went to that college. Three weeks before my school started, she rescinded her offer and played dumb. Not only that, but she threatened that she would not do my FAFSA for future semesters if I make a "stupid move" like moving out of my parents' house.
At that point I got sick and tired of the commute LOL. So I applied to a vocational school, got accepted, and enlisted more of my family members to persuade Mom to let me attend. She caved finally and let me attend. The degree was for video-game art (3D animation). My reasons for attending this school was purely selfish:
* I wanted to be closer to my then-boyfriend who went to the university for programming just a few blocks away.
* I wanted to know a little about video game art. I was hoping that I'd be able to take some core classes, get their programs used, and get the new laptop.
* I had every intention for "buying a semester", basically I wanted to waste a semester of time in that school to learn something new before I would have transferred to a MUCH cheaper state university for a degree that I wanted.
Since mother was notorious for flip flopping, I thought I could out-smart her this way but it backfired on me badly. I was young and stupid lol. I was forced to continue and graduate from that program because if I dropped out of that school for -any- reason, she would "never do my FAFSA again". I could've called her bluff, dropped out, and waited until I was 24 to go to college (I was 19 at the time), but 5 years was forever and a day back then!
So I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts with a major in Game Art, my grades were subpar because I was severely depressed over being forced to stay there. Even still, I managed to volunteer in the gaming industry as a moderator for several MMOs. I've been given job offers twice, but only one really stuck. My "boss" really wanted me to move to California to work for him and his company. He gave me glowing reviews and even stated that should I need help in brushing up on my skills in 3D animation, his co-workers can help me out so that I may be promoted to Artist position in the future.
The problem was that his company would not pay relocation fees, I was flat broke and I had no money to pay for a flight there for my interview and for my apartment there. Unfortunately I declined that position and it went to someone else. Even though that person got laid off 6 months later due to company cutbacks, the fact that he worked at that company was enough for him, because he was soon hired by another company (last I heard was that he was interviewing to be in the Diablo III team). In the gaming industry it's all about connections.
I took odd jobs on and off since graduating. I went back to community college (not vocational school thank god) for Computer Networking. I was good at it, but like you and your business/health classes, I had no passion for it. I dropped out due to lack of funds as I was paying out of pocket from what little money I saved (I could only managed two semesters). Again with more and more odd jobs, some of them minimum wage and some of them as high as $11.75 an hour. I couldn't get a higher salary than that as I was always over qualified or under qualified. Forget applying to companies in my field, a little after I graduated, my college ended up having such a bad reputation that employers were trashing any resumes that came from that school. I was screwed.
I have since gotten married to my then-boyfriend, moved out of my toxic parents' household and now live with my husband. At my husband's encouragement two years ago, I quit my job as a Tech Support agent for AT&T, and took a one year "Sabbatical" away from menial jobs. In that one year, I tried brushing up on my skills from vocational school thinking that I could use my previous connections to get a start over there, but my obsession with earning income to help around the house led me to online marketing. Through learning online marketing, I learned web design, MySQL, some programming, etc. Then I learned entrepreneurship and some basics of business.
Apparently that was all I needed because that lit a fire under me that I couldn't explain. I became obsessed with business and discovered my passion for it. Originally I wanted to go into Global Finance, but due research has told me that I'd have better luck and more career opportunities if I went with Accounting instead (and then do Finance later if I still want to, as opposed to going into Finance first). I went back to community college at the beginning of this year and went into Accounting, I love every bit of it. I'm due to graduate this upcoming Spring, but before that I'm currently seeking employment in my new career field (wish me luck!).
So far I am back on track and making all the right choices. I won't go to university as of yet because I need to work experience more than I need to continue my education, plus I need to start saving money for it. In addition to that, only one of us could go to school while the other works... since it'd be awhile on both of our salaries for me to pay off my previous student loans before I go to university, we decided that it's my husband's turn.
Due to some personal issues with the dean, my husband wasn't able to finish his programming degree. Lucky for him because the vocational school he was at wasn't that good and overly expensive. He dropped out early enough that he barely had to pay anything back. He's debt free now, and since he hasn't used his grants then, he's allowed to use his grants now. Dear husband will go back to school all the way through (first 2 years would be free for him, again lucky him lol) for Physics, and he will enlist in the Navy as well (he just needs to lose that last 15 pounds before qualifying for boot camp). So he's also making the right choices.
OP, I was lucky because I found another passion.
I would hope that before you commit to college again, to find another passion. Why don't you start college in the Spring and devote these upcoming months until December to dabble abit in subjects that you think you would like (like a little bit of computer science or engineering)?
There are websites that even offer free classes online such as Udemy (some of their courses are free). Try it out. The most important thing for you to do is find something that you would like AND that is stable!
If all else fails, you could always be adventurous and teach English abroad.
Grimace, what a terrific position you're in. You have had some great work experiences to help you understand what you want and don't want. You have a supportive wife who will soon be employed and the support of her family as well. You have the intelligence to complete a college degree with all the "generals" out of the way.
With a Myer Briggs type of ISTJ, a stronger Conventional score on your Holland Code inventory, your desire for creative work plus a stable, well-paying career, I recommend that you explore whether computer engineering might be a good fit for you.
I have a nephew, a son-in-law, and a neighbor who are computer engineers. All make six figure salaries and all have had stable employment histories, even during the recent downturn. One works on a team making medical devices. I do not understand what the other two do, though they have explained it to me several times. One works for a company making "apps" that is about to go public. Two worked for major software/hardware companies and after being contacted by recruiters regularly for several years, have both made the switch to smaller outfits doing similar work.
I recommend that you use your network to find computer engineers willing to explain what they do, what they enjoy about the job, what they find challenging. If they will allow you to job shadow for a week or so, that would be great.
Is there a college near your in-laws that offer computer engineering courses? Go talk with the professors there about what their graduates are doing. Will any of them let you job shadow?
It seems you have the skills and interests to be successful in computer engineering. Now to find if you have the passion.
Thanks for all the replies. It really means a lot to me, and definitely helps me in getting through this depressing time. My wife is supportive of me going back to school full-time on campus, granted she can find a decent job quickly, but it's still a pretty big commitment on my part. I thought I post about this in my OP, but I'm looking at a minimum 3 year commitment should I go into something like Computer Science or Engineering. With my current Business degree online, I probably can finish in about 1-1.5 years. I'll most likely finish my Business degree regardless since my online school is cheap and I'm close to finishing, and possibly ending up with two degrees. As for the audio stuff, I still get the occasional freelance gig on the side, but it's hardly enough to ever sustain a comfortable life or pay all the bills. I doubt I'll find a sustainable audio gig (I'm qualified for all sorts of pro audio, but they are all as unsustainable as the next), in the next year, and even if I do I've seen too much craziness with this career to trust it would last for even more than a year. I need a better plan for the future to get that stability.
I had looked at services like these but they seemed unnecessarily expensive. I actually did get some professional career assessments done (based on Myer-Briggs and STRONG) for around $150, and they weren't very conclusive for me. My Myer Briggs type is ISTJ and pointed me towards top careers such as:
- Military
- Architecture/Engineering
- Computers/Information Science/Technology
- Production and Manufacturing
- Maintenance and Repair
My STRONG test results were very inconclusive. You are measured across 6 interest categories. Conventional, Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, and Artistic. I did not score high on any, nor did I score low. Almost all my interest levels were moderate within the same TWO point range (100 point scale). The highest score I had was in Conventional, which is basically your straightforward and practical tasks like bookkeeping, or operating a machine, or programming. It was only a 56/100. My other scores were all between 44 and 46.... Basically it said I was a jack of all trades, master of none. Knowing myself a bit, I could definitely say that's pretty true.
Ultimately, my top careers from my combined Myer Briggs and STRONG results were in finance, accounting, project or business management, IT/IS work, or computer programming/software engineering. I've never done any before.
It is not an interest assessment, but aptitude assessment. Interest assessments are worthless. Anybody can say they like anything, even if they completely suck at it.
An aptitude assessment is taking a test in it. Is this person in the 90th percentile of millions of people in fine motor skills to be able to a surgeon? Does this person have a good ear, so they can do audio or music jobs(in this case probably yes)?
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_grimace
To hit on your other points. My career coach adventure was a joke. They basically referred me to Google and wanted me to answer my own questions, questions I've plenty researched and answered before on my own. As for my LinkedIn, resume, cover letters, business cards, portfolio etc. I've had countless people critique them and my work, and rarely heard a complaint. If anything, I received lavish compliments on them. Any criticism I received I used to make my materials better as appropriate.
My networking efforts were certainly not asking people for a job. There was a variety of different events I've gone to in the last year. Two professional conferences, handful of career/job fairs, a job support group (for unemployed folks), and tons of social networking events, stuff like beer or social meetups to just get to meet people. When I network I'm more concerned with building relationships, only tossing a business card their way if appropriate. I have built up a ton of great acquaintances over the last year, but they haven't led to a job. I have two great mentors from past jobs who are constantly keeping an eye open for jobs for me, and willing to throw glowing recommendations to employers as need be, but the jobs just simply aren't out there. I've also done some informational interviewing for different fields, but I realized I'm the type of person who really doesn't know how they will like something till they actually do it. How something looks or appears to me never correlates to how I feel about it. I've done things I thought I would hate only to be surprised that I love them. Likewise, vice versa occurs as well. I'm a hands on type of person, information interviews don't do much for me.
You are all over the place and it's not working. Narrow your focus and be goal oriented. Attend 2 weekly career development groups at the most.
You can say everything you want about a great resume, but it's not working. It's especially terrible, if people are saying you are overqualified. It means you are listening non-relevant skills for the particular job position. A resume is for job qualifications, not non-relevant skills. It's a common mistake for technical people to list the kitchen sink skills. See Charlygal's post about removing non-relevant items. Her advice is spot-on as usual. I can tell she have done some mentoring or career advice(That works!).
What your mentors are doing are not what I would do. I would not be keeping an eye out for a job and giving recommendations. A mentorship is giving you the tools and advice to do it on your own.
I am mentoring a guy now. He wanted to get into SQL reporting, but he had a non-related liberal arts degree.
I have gone from college dropout to SQL reporting guru. I make a great mentor for people, who follow the non-traditional route to career in SQL reporting. I have been to twice-weekly career development workshops for almost a year.
I gave him some advice on what to study and typical interview questions for database jobs. He landed a new career within 4 months. We meet every month to discuss future goals and what to expect. I didn't look for any jobs for him and I am not a reference. He will have more options searching for jobs every week, than the few jobs that I come across.
I sure am happy my parents never gave two Craps about what I did with my life -_-
I graduated from college 3 years ago and I'll bet my life my mom still doesn't know what field my degree is in. As long as my future kids are doing positive things in their life I plan to stay out of it!
My husband ended up majoring in political science with a crappy GPA because he was too easily influenced by his family. Anything he wanted to major in they basically nixed and they wanted him to go to law school.
After graduating and having no use for his degree, especially because he didn't care about going to law school, he worked as a garbage man making crappy money. (It wasn't a city job.) Then one day he decided he needed to go back to school for what he really wanted to do, which was writing. He went back to school for journalism, which was what he was leaning toward at the time.
In the meanwhile, we started dating and I was still in college myself. (I'm a few years younger.) Once he finished his degree, I continued to push him (in a positive way) to find jobs. I would find jobs on CL and encourage him to apply to anything and everything in the writing field.
He finally found a job that didn't pay well but at least offered him a chance to start writing. And from there, he found a dream job working as a copywriter.
So, really, he took a nothing-to-do-with-his-major job for a long time until he figured out what he wanted to do and then went back to school. That way he could at least feed himself (and not worry about money all of the time) but still pursue what he wanted to do. Always an option. Good luck.
my 2 cents, be thankful for the family support you are able to fall back on. Try to find strength in the family environment and give back to them as much as you can. Don't let your career problems define you, you are more than just a resume, more than a job and pay check. So try to think about your life and success in broader terms. The worst thing that could happen from here is not failing to find a job, it's letting your situation destroy your drive and your spirit. So stay positive and don't let anyone (including this forum) drag you down.
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One works for a company making "apps" that is about to go public. Two worked for major software/hardware companies and after being contacted by recruiters regularly for several years, have both made the switch to smaller outfits doing similar work. 
