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One of my old girlfriends just graduated with a criminal justice degree last May and has been unable to find meaningful work since then, being stuck at a clothing store working part-time making minimum wage. The economy is devastated where she is (TN) and probably among the worst in the country. She had a small inheritance after her mother died, probably enough to keep herself afloat for a year. She's applied to some law enforcement related roles but hasn't gotten much interest. I'm thinking she's just going to have to go somewhere else, take what she can get, then sort it out.
Where would you go looking for general work in her situation?
I have a Bachelor's in Justice and Law Administration. Utilized my human service degree to work in human service roles. Also picked up a quick four month health certification landed me a $14 an hour job in healthcare. That with my degree landed me a $18 an hour job. Then with my degree landed another $14 an hour job...it's enough to keep head out of water; so I can look for better employment and return back to school.
Encourage her to go to Temp agencies, mental health job's, substitute teaching,and security job's.
My advice to anyone in college, regardless of degree sought: Have a plan! Speak with advisers! don't just get a degree for the sake of it. Intern/co-op. Why don't more students do this?
If I were her I would consider a medium to large(ish) city that has a low COL on it's outskirts. A few places in TX come to mind (Dallas/Ft Worth area, Houston, etc.), maybe Phoenix too.
Last edited by PJSaturn; 01-06-2015 at 02:16 PM..
Reason: Off topic.
A criminal justice degree is in the league of degrees like psychology and communications. It basically allows you to check off "have degree" box on an application, but it's not especially going to have employers jumping for you. To start I would definitely get out of that rural east Tennessee area.
Did a search in Johnson City not many job's outside of IT. A few security guard job openings at least four. If she can get herself close to Knoxville seems to be a lot more job opportunities. Best of luck again.
It's nothing great but the lab field is pretty easy to get into and fairly easy to get a job in also.
Since her degree isn't in the lab field but it lets her check the have degree box, have her look into lab assistant positions. I can't say what the pay is there but here in KC it is $12-15/hr pretty much at the larger hospitals. If TN is a little cheaper, I'd guess it would pay $10-12, but I wouldn't be surprised if was like $11-14 either. There's shift diff to make a bit more if she doesn't care about a day shift position. Yeah this isn't a high paying job, but its better than minimum wage, and it's fairly easy to get hired as well. I'd guess within a week or two, if there are a few labs/hospitals in the area that is. Those jobs have a high turn over rate, a lot use them to get "clinical" experience for PA/Med/etc school. Anyhow, it'd be a decent enough job to hold someone over until they find a job they really like.
Don't worry about the phlebotomy skills, they'll teach it normally even when they prefer someone have experience in it before hand. The same with the basic life support/cpr. Just take the class once you are hired if they require it.
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