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Location: In a city within a state where politicians come to get their PHDs in Corruption
2,907 posts, read 2,069,650 times
Reputation: 4478
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bobdog357
Lack of career progression bothers me as well. It's a foregone conclusion and I don't dwell on that anymore.
Like the other poster says where you went to school has not a lot of correlation to career track. There were VPs I worked with who just have an AA degree so really anything is possible. Of course it does bother me when I see that because I say WTF was the point of all that studying if this guy didn't and makes more money than me anyway. Such is the life.
Why wouldn't you dwell on that? Why wouldn't you want to address from what appears to be a glaring weakness (on paper at least)?
I am sorry about your situation. I don't think it is you.
I have been applying for 2 years and had just a few interviews. I have a masters degree in a different area, my resume has been professionally done and everyone, incl. temp agencies and recruiters tell me I have a lot to offer ... but I don't get hired. I send about 20-30 applications per week.
Hang in there. Don't give up. Make applying your main job. Put yourself out there at monster, indeed, linkedin... housing is so freaking expensive and salaries haven't adjusted. It is an employers market right now and they are extremely picky. If you do not have a ton of experience in EXACTLY what they are looking for, your resume won't make the cut. Too many people want to live in CA, the competition is insane.
2 years? Wow I feel you. I hope you get something soon. Realize soon that the economy will slowly start regressing as we've been on a long expansion and some signs are showing that the economy cannot keep expanding forever including flat to inverting yield curve, rising rates, high stock market/housing valuation, trade wars, and the effects of tax cuts slowly receding. We need to get a job soon before things start going south. I remember looking for a job back in 2008 and 2009. Yeah there were no jobs. I saw jobs on craigslist at the time looking MBAs offering $12/hr at the time.
Why wouldn't you dwell on that? Why wouldn't you want to address from what appears to be a glaring weakness (on paper at least)?
I switched a lot of jobs and I just didn't get promoted. It was not like I wasn't trying to get promoted. I distinctively told my last boss who was a director that I wanted to be a manager.
Based on all you have said I would go back to working contracts if I were you. You can always continue to send out resumes as your contract gets close to expiring. I did relocate to NYC when I couldn't get a break in LA 47 years ago, with a degree from UCLA. I did well in NYC and retired about 8 years ago. My last two years of working was contract work (a 6 month contract and an 18 month contract). I found no age discrimination there, it was purely driven by job performance and nothing else. Totally outside the loop of office politics. Maybe you, like me, are a person who does well in a technical niche field as an individual contributor or team member. I just wasn't suited to manage people and maybe you aren't either. I was a manager for 7 years and it ended badly, but taught me that a job I enjoyed doing and took pride in, with decent money was priceless. Titles and more money couldn't compare to that.
Working for a good contractor agency you can fund your own 401K and health insurance at group rates. You have about 20 years to set yourself up for a comfortable retirement. Now's the same to work for that. When I stopped wanting what others told me to want the light bulb really went off in my head and I enjoyed my last 18 years of employment a great deal.
Great advice. When you put your resume out there on monster/indeed more than half the calls/emails you get are for contract positions. I do respond to those as well. I even applied to some 3 week gigs to make a few bucks without any luck. The competition is fierce. You are lucky you do not have to deal with this stuff nowadays. Congratulations on a fruitful career and doing things your way. I think ultimately, that is the wish for many out there but only some get to do things more on their own terms than others.
Location: In a city within a state where politicians come to get their PHDs in Corruption
2,907 posts, read 2,069,650 times
Reputation: 4478
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobdog357
I switched a lot of jobs and I just didn't get promoted. It was not like I wasn't trying to get promoted. I distinctively told my last boss who was a director that I wanted to be a manager.
I'm not talking about changing the past. What I'm saying is to present a clear case for the future to the potential employer.
I would just say I have kids. 2 or 3 kids just to be safe. Wouldn't that solve the problem.
No. Having kids takes away from the job they feel ... like you will do things for your kids instead of for the job. I have been told that. That's why I don't have kids. It's very jeopardizing in my line of work, unfortunately.
But just b/c I don't have any yet doesn't mean in their eyes, I won't.
You don’t have to move as far as NYC. Chicago is viable for a finance background also. Very viable. The major banks and financial institutions here would welcome your MBA and business analytics degree.
Also, are you open to some travel? Consulting companies could be an option also. Experience is necessary for consulting and again, your MBA, business analytics, and finance background would be a big plus. If you were in an area like Chicago, you’d have a lot of local assignments, but yes, inevitably you would have to travel.
Just throwing in some additional thoughts.
My IU MBA would probably open a lot more doors in Chicago than in LA. But I just can't get myself over the fact that LA is a huge market and doesn't make sense for me to have to replant my life thousands of miles away to fish in a different pond when the pond her is huge.
Was there anything negative that caused your termination? LA is a small town in many ways. A negative firing can get you blackballed.
Sent work files to my personal email because we use a virtual desktop so I can work out of my own laptop since the virtual desktop was too slow. It's a long story. Anyways I wasn't trying to steal company information or anything.
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