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I graduated with a bachelors in IT back in December 2007. I landed a very high paying job directly out of college but my position got offshored in November 2008. I then quickly landed a position with my state government doing IT. The pay was less, but the experience was far better. It was a great way to get my foot in the door for my dream career. Unfortunately in the summer of 2009 I lost control of my personal life and ended up getting myself fired. It was the biggest lesson of my life and I have completely changed since then. I am however still trying to pick up the pieces.
After being fired, I moved to Charlotte for almost three years and worked a low-end telemarketing job. I tried to find something in the IT field there but in three years could not. Now I've moved back to Arkansas with the intention of finding a job in one of the nearby larger cities (OKC, Tulsa, Dallas, etc), figuring that I would have better luck here because unemployment is far lower than it is in Charlotte. However, the issue of my firing keeps coming up, be it in an interview or when they check my references and I never get hired. I am now facing the prospect of having to work in a retail job or factory job to make ends meet in a small town that I absolutely hate living in.
I have come up with a few options. Many people say my career in IT is over and I should just pursue a new career field, but doing so would require I go back to school for a second bachelors degree. I am not sure how I would fund that as I've heard government loans/grants are near impossible to get when going for a second bachelors. On top of that, many schools will not accept students for second bachelors degrees. My other option is going for my masters, but there is no school nearby to where I live that has a graduate program. UARK Fayetteville does but its too far to commute from Ft Smith and I am not sure how I could support myself on $9/hr at a retail job and pay for school. I could probably do an online master's program somewhere. I was to go for my masters degree, would it even be of any help in making my firing less relevant?
Part of the issue is going to be what you were fired for. I don't expect you to go into details over the internet, but some firings you can recover from with time and some you can't. Examine that first.
Part of the issue is going to be what you were fired for. I don't expect you to go into details over the internet, but some firings you can recover from with time and some you can't. Examine that first.
I partied on work nights and when I was at work I was not at my best. I made it a habit of coming in a few minutes late, many times hung over, and doing half-arsed work. The thing is, when I started that job I hit the ground running and was an excellent employee. In July 2009, I lost control of myself for about a month and a half. I then began to try much harder and gave it my all but it was too little too late and they let me go in September of 2009. I have since completely changed myself and have a much stronger work ethic now because of it. I was young and immature at that time but have matured much since. I have almost 3 years of steady work at my telemarketing job in Charlotte since then, but it wasn't in my field so its nearly irrelevant.
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