Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You can't keep blaming others for lack of success... no financial and emotional support, blah blah blah. It's your life, go live it
You have been heard, and you are not underemployed, i no longer see any point to your posts here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Big-Bucks
That's your problem. You can't open up a history store. I'm guessing that your choices are become a history teacher or work at a museum maybe?
Don't feel that bad because most people change careers a few times in their lives. Keep trying until you find a career that pays well.
That is true, problem is that I know someone that just got a job at a history museum and she doesn't even have a degree in history!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Felix C
Damn my BA was in History. Never seen such desperate times. You were smart, interviewed well, you had a job with prospects.
Public Admin is for Govt work. Look into the Feds or local govt. I know CBP is hiring hundreds of GS-5/7/9. You would be a 7 with the degree.
I am going to start looking into that, i have been applying mainly to city jobs though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Camlon
That's not realistic options. There are jobs like this, but they are very hard to get.
He needs to look at what useful skills does he have, and how can he apply them to jobs that are in demand. I would persume he is good at writing, he should know a decent amount about how government function, and he should have communication knowledge from his call center jobs.
So a better option is to apply for advisory or marketing roles. But to get those jobs, he will need to get some experience first.
How would I get experience? I even looked for internships and even they wanted someone that was at least studying communications/marketing
At this point, I am considering a BS in Corporate Communications or a Phd in Political Science. I still sometimes think about being a lawyer, but I already have a lot of student loans and I honestly don't have the money for that,the other two options are cheaper.
How would I get experience? I even looked for internships and even they wanted someone that was at least studying communications/marketing
At this point, I am considering a BS in Corporate Communications or a Phd in Political Science. I still sometimes think about being a lawyer, but I already have a lot of student loans and I honestly don't have the money for that,the other two options are cheaper.
So you want to do marketing? You should not be looking for an internship, you can't afford it, and I don't believe it will lead to a job.
I would recommend to get a sales job. If you have to, get a commission based sales job. To move up to marketing, you need to know how to do sales.
At the same time, take a part time masters in marketing and management. When you are finished you will have 4 years of experience and a relevant master degree. Now you can get a marketing internship, or you can just get a better sales job. After this, just work yourself up.
At this point, I am considering a BS in Corporate Communications or a Phd in Political Science. I still sometimes think about being a lawyer, but I already have a lot of student loans and I honestly don't have the money for that,the other two options are cheaper.
Rate this post positively
again... not making sense to me... you are not building on your history degree or mpa. what does a random career change do?
i get people switch careers, but they dont jump into the next one with no plan, no network, no skills that applies to new career field.
communications, administration, political science, you sound like you want to be someone that "manages" a business... ie you think that defines success... but it takes decades of work experience to get the skills required for it. with both a ba and masters, i would say you have spent a decade or close to it in college. do you plan to spend another decade and come out with no experience?
my suggestion is to get a job in a large company, learn to do job, after a year or so once you have established a reputation of good work, networked, gained skills. Ask the company/boss to be put on a promotion track. maybe not direct promotion, but ask for more duties where you learn more skills. switch companies if you need to pick up a skill that isnt offered that you need. over time, you will be forced to learn more, and if company wants it, they will pay for the degree. then you can get your third degree with all the creditentials of having worked way up so you have the focused degree and work experience.
when you did the MPA, did you know what was "important" to different companies? having never worked in administration, how does someone get a masters and know what to take away from it? If you revisit it later, your company may be looking for it, if you still remember it, you can poke hand up and say you can do it. if not, you will be back in class again... draw back to getting masters early on, ou are trusting someone else to say what is important, and not deciding it yourself based on what you do for a career.
and "getting a job" isnt too difficult either if people didnt try to skip around so much. its just a year or so at an entry job, after that its moving on. jumping from entry to entry jobs doesnt build a career.
At this point, I am considering a BS in Corporate Communications or a Phd in Political Science. I still sometimes think about being a lawyer, but I already have a lot of student loans and I honestly don't have the money for that,the other two options are cheaper.
OP, I hope you realize that the above is more randomness.
again... not making sense to me... you are not building on your history degree or mpa. what does a random career change do?
There is nothing to build on. Neither of those are marketable skills, unless he wants to become a teacher.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eyeb
my suggestion is to get a job in a large company, learn to do job, after a year or so once you have established a reputation of good work, networked, gained skills. sk the company/boss to be put on a promotion track. maybe not direct promotion, but ask for more duties where you learn more skills.
Except the only job he can get at a large company is call center work. You can't ask for more duties, you are already busy answering phone calls.
Actually, it is better to get a job at a small company, they are more flexible.
Don't call centers have people they report to? Figure out what they do from the inside and move over there?
Sorry, I don't have call center experience. The term actually makes no sense to me. I mean, I get they sit there and answer calls. But no idea what the calls are.
Does he have marketing experience from the calls? Is he cold calling sales leads?
Or does he troubleshoot problems from customers? Is he skilled at instructing people on how to fix things remotely?
Taking phone calls about healthcare insurance problems? Does he know some medical coding that he can just become a coder for?
Does he read the future? Is he taking calls as a telephone psychic?
Maybe he is just a sex worker taking calls?
Even during the election season, he could be working at a political office's call center... turning it into a community organizer job, then moving up. Obama started as an organizer and made it to president
What I mean is call center jobs are not just talking on the phone each day. The job wouldn't be around if they didn't serve a purpose. Take a look past the computer screen and figure out what they are doing all day and if they can take any of that to the next level.
he might get more at a smaller company, but I took his "randomness" as him wanting to be a "company" man... sticking it out in a larger corporation until he develops those skills would be the quicker way. Smaller company, he gets more various skills, but they don't tie together as cleanly either.
Don't call centers have people they report to? Figure out what they do from the inside and move over there?
In call center work you don't really report to your boss, they come to you. Your boss is likely to be very busy, and he won't have much time to help you. Call centers often have a lot of employees per manager.
Quote:
Sorry, I don't have call center experience. The term actually makes no sense to me. I mean, I get they sit there and answer calls. But no idea what the calls are.
It depends on the job, doesn't sound like he is doing sales. So it is probably support or taking surveys. The phone calls will come almost all the time, and if not there will be plenty of emails. You don't have time or opportunity to do something else.
There is a reason call center work is considered terrible and they have an extremely high turnover. Its not just because it is extremely boring and frustrating. But also because it is a dead end career that gives you few skills. A person who has worked 10 years in call center, may not be a better employee than someone who has worked for 1 month.
You won't get much expertise either, because you will use most of the day to talk about things you already know. To make it worse sometimes the company changes focus or you lose your job. Then you get a different call center job and you start from scratch.
A person who has worked 10 years in call center, may not be a better employee than someone who has worked for 1 month.
no I get this. It's the same with any entry level jobs. McDonalds/Walmart/all of them.
Entry level means entry level, the number of years doesn't mean the skills "grow" just by being there. It is a stepping stone into the company. You use it to prove yourself to them, to gain an understanding of what the company does (something someone not working there might not get), and the direction of the company.
Why are customers calling the company? It isn't to tell them how well they are doing... so what problems are the people in call centers being trained to resolve? Is there a reason he can't use that training to build on to and move out of the call center?
The closest thing to call center that I've seen is just taking donations over the phone for a radio station. And outside of the donation drive, they were normal radio hosts...
right... except when you look at many of the degrees in college, few of them teach anything that are "unique" to the degree. STEM ones are some what more focused, so the skills they get aren't as easily picked up by someone with a passing interest. So it limits the competition somewhat.
What skills does a history major have that is unique to history? Research? Writing papers? STEM majors research and write as well... Different subjects but the skills can be translated. But can a history major do lab work/computer work that a stem major does? A bit more unlikely, none of the skills translate directly. The soft skills, STEM and other degree classes are required to take generic classes at about the same frequency, so non-STEM majors can't claim they are better at "soft skills" either.
Technical writing is not a major in college, neither is instructional writing nor copywriting... Sure, being skilled means people can get jobs, but when someone's skills from having no work experience amounts to just a rehash of the same set of skills everyone else has, it's harder to find work because everyone else is a direct competitor.
Yup, and think of it this way.
A person with a STEM degree can more easily transition to a 'soft' career (HR, customer service, etc.), than a person with a liberal arts degree can transition to a highly technical job.
In other words, you can always go down, but not always go up.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
