I'm afraid I am not going to move forward.. (employment, degree, employer)

[rangerpaige84]

Welcome to my post-
I am currently employed with a large grocery store retailer(popular but not yet public). I have worked there for almost 5 years and currently make a decent wage but nothing to write home about. I had health insurance for a while but after I'd been working there for three years they changed their hourly policy on benefits and raised it from 15 hrs for full-time benefits to 30. I am in school so 30 hrs a week isn't possible for me most of the time. Overall I like my employer and would certainly never quit while looking for another job. This is what I think my problem is: Don't laugh please.
I am 30 years old, When I graduated from highschool I really had no concept of a career goal or know what I wanted to do. I was always creative and bright but not academically motivated and didn't really understand that I needed good grades for college and really didn't know how I felt about going to college. I had been successful in my hs drama and music depts. and am a genuinely talented singer-so I thought I should go to school for vocal performance,it didn't work out-mainly because I was not serious about school and to be quite honest,not ready for college. I dropped out but transferred to another college that I had a withstanding acceptance with and had deferred for another year. I partied a lot and met my first boyfriend-fell in"love" for the first time and lost all interest in school again--I know at this point I sound like a real flake! I finally ended up moving back home when things went South with the guy and experienced my first heartbreak..I ended up working for a hotel chain and stayed with them for a couple of years,making decent money for my level of experience. Eventually our hospitality manager got promoted and we were left with the restaurant manager who overlooked us. I ended up leaving due to harassment from another employee-funny how I'm the one that left(they didn't believe the situation was serious enough to "discipline" the guy). Between then and now I have worked various low end retail jobs(I say low end not in reference to the stores but to my wage)until finally working for my current employer which I will be with 5 years this September,so stability isn't an issue(in reference to length of time with employer). Obviously I don't include this diary entry on my resume..but my resume is NOT impressive. What I'm mainly worried about is that I am 30..I am almost done with my associate's degree. -I finally went back to school for an unrelated field as those before- I have an affinity for it and it suits me well. I will be graduating this summer and will move forward to get my bachelor's. I'm worried that people are seeing my resume with nothing but retail experience from 2005 forward-my desired field is not retail-*chuckle*and thinking I am not serious about the current one. The problem is I got started with it later in life so I haven't had a lot of opportunities to volunteer and get experience in this field since I went back to school.

I have done an internship as of last summer/fall and have a couple of certifications that I have included but overall I am worried that my age and pedestrian experience,lack of skills and flaky education experience early on(not on resume)but there is a gap between hs graduation and current schooling- might make me look like an undesirable candidate. The fact is I have applied to over 100 jobs on USAJOBS in the past month. I have been referred for three but have not heard back from the hiring agency yet-a process I am told is quite common from reading other gov employment forums. I am very concerned about my lack of development professionally,at my current age and moving forward..well at first I thought I was doing it right-but now I am beginning to wonder if I'll be stuck in retail forever. I try to stay enthusiastic at my job,am pleasant to the people I work with and even though I don't genuinely care for the majority of my managers,I try to remind myself that they are people too-have families,and also probably didn't grow up dreaming about being a manager at a retail chain..I try really hard to be positive,but the sheen of eccentricity that came with working in retail wore off when I was 24 and I find myself dreading going to work now. I feel like I am wasting my life. I really have to self-motivate because that natural motivation isn't around anymore. I look back on myself 11 years ago and want to shake myself really hard-hindsight is 20/20..I should have just gone to community college then. Thanks for reading about my so-called life..hehe(anyone my age should get that reference).

Not a complaint,just taking a good look at myself and wondering if anyone else out there has some suggestions. Feel free to ask questions about my job seeking methods.

[jaypee]

My eyes! My eyes!

Paragraphs are your friends.

[Pitt Chick]

Not sure I see any question in there....

OP, what exactly are you asking?

[Rusty Avocado]

I don't think the gaps in your resume and the delay between high school and college will necessarily be a problem. People delay school for all kinds of reasons. Employers aren't going to know whether you had kids and took time off to focus on them or if you were traveling the world in your 20's.

I think the only thing that matters is the experience you will bring to the table and the positive spin you can put on that experience.

As for only working part time well that may raise questions as many of us adult learners work full time while in college. I recently obtained my nursing degree and maintained a 4.0 while working full time in government administration. So maybe you do need to look at upping your hours.

[rangerpaige84]

sorry about the paragraphs,I got kind of carried away writing that. I also tried to go back and edit it but can't for some reason..

[G-fused]

I'll wait for the Executive Summary.