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So I’m having a bit of job / career trouble. Any suggestions are welcome. I’m willing to try many things since the normal, day-to-day job application process isn’t yielding any results. I’ll try to make my life story as brief as possible. I know it is long, but I will try to keep it to relevant issues so the community can better understand my situation, and offer advice:
I’m a pretty bright and hard-working young man. I’m 28 years old, never been arrested, never done drugs, never had a speeding ticket, was a boy scout / order of the arrow / etc…
I went to college for 4 years (8 semesters / 140+ credits) at a very good (expensive) private school. I was an engineering and music double major. Due to administrative reasons (upper level courses being offered at the same time / only spring semester) I was unable to complete both degrees in 8 semesters, and required a 9th semester to finish the engineering degree. No big deal right?
I didn’t apply for graduation with the music degree since I knew I’d be back to finish the engineering degree the next spring after taking a fall semester off. Well, I got cancer during my 8th semester and ended up using tuition (loan) money to pay for my medical expenses. I’ve been fine since then, as far as the cancer goes.
Since I didn’t finish paying for my 8th semester, I legally didn’t complete it, and wasn’t eligible to enroll again to finish my engineering degree, also, I couldn’t apply for graduation with just my music degree since my registration had a hold on it due to not paying for the 8th semester.
The universe decided to pour it on thick that year (2007), when my dad died from heart disease. I was left to deal with that, his medical bills, my medical bills, and ultimately I had to liquidate what little we had and I hit the streets.
I was homeless for a few years, but that sounds worse than it actually was. I lived out of my car, held a part-time minimum wage job, had a Gold’s gym membership, showered there, did laundry at a public laundromat, kept clothing in my trunk, used a local drycleaner as a make-shift closet. It wasn’t that awful since I only slept in my car, the rest of the time, I was at work / the gym / restaurant / library / other.
During that time, I ended up deferring my loans, eventually putting my loans in financial hardship forbearance, then finally defaulting on them basically due to not being able to earn enough money, after my meager living expenses, to make the minimum payments. I didn’t have the money to travel for interviews either.
After I officially defaulted on my student loans, I just stopped paying them. I figured, what was the point? Even if I were to pay every cent I had after basic living expenses, I’d never be able to even pay the interest, so I might as well keep that little bit of money and try to better my situation so I could get a better job and pay back my loans.
I have spent about 7 years applying for various jobs that would give me a small salary and benefits, but have never been offered anything. Instead, I’ve spent those years working temp and dead-end, part-time jobs just to make ends meet. I have averaged earning $4800 per year for those 7 years.
Each time, I resigned my part-time job and started a new one. I realize this isn’t the best thing to do as far as my resume is concerned. I have great references from all of those jobs. I worked hard, wasn’t late, missed very little work (maybe 1 day a year due to illness), and was well liked by all my coworkers.
Last year (2013), a friend recommended I try taking some actuarial exams since that might be a career I could get into given my no-degree, but 4 years of college status. I had solid quantitative skills to begin with from all the math/physics/engineering/chemistry courses, so the first few exams and economics/finance requirements were pretty easy. At the moment, I don’t have the money to take any more exams since they get progressively more expensive as you go along ($750+ each, and $2200 for certain learning modules).
So basically, I have acquired some business and finance skills over the years, as well as some motley work experience, in addition to my music and engineering educational background.
I have had a few companies reject me due to my poor credit too. These are mostly jobs in the financial sector. This has been a bit disheartening due to my catch-22 of: bad credit prohibiting me to get a job in the finance/actuarial field, which perpetuates my bad credit since I can’t pay back student loans, and makes me even less likely due to even worse credit and further unemployment to be able to find a job.
I went to college and have been learning ever since so that I could get away from hourly work and earn a salary with benefits, but that simply hasn’t happened. I am getting a little desperate with not having had health/dental/vision insurance for over 7 years now. I haven’t had a follow-up visit with an oncologist or other specialist, which I really need to do. I believe I have been in complete remission so far, but I don’t really know for sure. I also chipped a tooth back when I was homeless in 2008. The last time I went to a dentist was in 2006 for a routine checkup, but I just haven’t had the money to have that fixed. I’ve just been brushing/flossing/mouthwash like crazy for these last 6 years since it happened so that I don’t get a cavity or an infection that spreads to my brain or something and ends up killing me.
One solution we’ve considered is just having a quick pseudo “shotgun” wedding so that I can be added onto my fiancee’s insurance, but we really need to talk to a lawyer about an antenuptual agreement so my debt and credit doesn’t haunt her. Plus, we really wanted to be more solid with both our careers and finances before we actually got married, but if we have to for my health, then we won’t hesitate.
So far, we are considering me just working temp jobs for the next little while, her putting in 2-3 years at her company, then looking for a “remote” job that she could do wherever, thus opening me up to seek out a headhunter to find me a job anywhere in the country and giving me time to finish my actuarial credentials.
I am not restricting myself to only actuarial work. I am open to and looking in manufacturing, QA, engineering, finance, retail, and whatever else I feel I can do when browsing postings on Indeed / other places.
I’ll stop now, this has become a very long post, but thanks in advance for any advice.
28 years old
4 years of college (music / engineering), no degree
post-graduate self-education in business and finance (recognized by professional society)
limited to current medium-sized city
7 years of really sketchy looking job history consisting of non-skilled labor
Since you live where the state capital is you might try for a state gov't job in the financial/pension/actuary field. They most likely have a group that deals with pensions/investments. Of course they might check your credit/loan default but its worth a shot.
Go out and figure a way to make money! I think it was a former CEO of GM that said "Knowing how to make money isn't in a book. You have to go out and learn how to do it." Or something like that.
Amazing story of bad luck and survival. Maybe you can get a CAD drafter job, since you do have some engineering knowledge. Just practice up on a copy of Solidworks, Proe, or Autocad. The General Manager of Platt Luggage was a 3rd year college flunkie.
How did you survive bad or cold weather sleeping homeless in your car?
28 years old
4 years of college (music / engineering), no degree
post-graduate self-education in business and finance (recognized by professional society)
limited to current medium-sized city
7 years of really sketchy looking job history consisting of non-skilled labor
interview rate less than 1 in 500 applications
advice?
So you're looking to break into the Financial or Actuarial fields and have some self education in both areas.. have you tried taking the CFA or Actuarial exams? If you're motivated to self study for a prestigious credential without incurring more debt, definitely consider this route (but both sets of exams are no cake walk and that's a bit of an understatement.)
- Have her introduce you to some of the people in her network.
- For each person she introduces you to:
1. Do extensive research on the companies they work at. Figure out the inns and outs of each company based on all publicly available information, news, reports, commentaries, etc.
2. Do an informational interview with that person, inquiring about their career path, what they like/dislike about their company/career, etc. Ask them about what skills they needed in their career.
3. Make sure you've taken notes in your informational interviews and organize them by career path. Pick a path you'd like to pursue and start targeting your job search to that industry.
Not sure if you have the luxury of working for free but this guy built a killer network and reputation doing that and many people ended up hiring him for pay this way: http://charliehoehn.com/wp-content/u...lie-Hoehn2.pdf
Also, I'm curious how you're managing your money? Back when I graduated in 2009 with an MS in Finance (the WORST possible time), I didn't find a job for about 10 months and I literally survived on a budget of $1000 a month. I had about $12000 or so in savings when I started and had about $1000 left in the bank account before I found the job. I rented a room in someone's house for $500/mo (about the cheapest option available at least in California) and spent hours each week figuring out how to squeeze the last cent out of my savings every week.
For now, you definitely need some additional motivation:
First off, glad to hear that you are doing well and your cancer has not returned. People do what they have to when faced with a crisis like that. Life doesn't always go to plan, but it's good that you want to work and get things back on track. I don't think you have anything to hang your head about.
So it sounds like only have one semester left to get an engineering degree, but you also owe money to your school before you can re-enroll. Are they really still carrying the balance since 2007 or has it gone to a collection agency by now? I'd find out. 6-7 years is a long time for someone to sit on a debt. It may have been charged off by now. Since your credit was already hit hard by default on the student loans, you might actually come out ahead if that happened. I'd also talk to the financial aid department at the school about what happened and see if there's anything they can do for you. It might be worth looking into the possibility of going to a less expensive (public) university and seeing if your credits can transfer as well.
Your existing credit doesn't affect your fiancee's just by virtue of getting married. The only thing you have to make sure of is that you don't get added as a joint account holder on any of her credit accounts. That would make your credit a factor in the interest rates and credit lines on those accounts. You CAN be added as an authorized user without affecting her. That gives you the ability to use it and the account gets added to your credit profile, so if the history is good it'll positively affect your file, but your negative history doesn't affect it in any way. She can cancel you as an authorized user at any time. Also, you probably won't be able to apply for new joint credit until your credit improves. But with your fiancee and soon to be spouse making six figures, and if she has good credit, you can just use hers until some of your stuff starts to drop off (after 7 years) or becomes less of a factor as time goes on. This is what my wife and I did when we got married. She didn't have terrible credit, but it wasn't as good as mine. I applied for any new credit we needed for the first few years. She had some outstanding accounts that we paid off together.
Whether or not your fiancee becomes liable for your debt is another story. I believe that really depends on what kind of debt it is and what state you live in. If you live in a community property state, she may become liable for it once you get married. This is something you'll want to look into. A good resource for that is ficoforums dot com.
I know you don't want to be a burden to your fiancee, but she may not see it that way, especially since cancer was the cause of your difficulties. Marriage is a partnership and you work together to support each other.
I'll be brutally honest here. What you are is closer to what most people would call jack of all trades but master of none. In today's market, nobody wants a jack of all trades. Employers want people with specialized skills, not people who can dip his hands in everything but can only do a half-assed job of it.
You need to specialize in something. Get good at it. Don't just do a semi-job of it and then move on to something else.
@ragnarkar: I have passed some actuarial exams. I spoke with two different headhunters. I think one was DW Simpson, and I forget the other one at the moment. Both told me not to take any more exams because I'd get stuck in the "too much credentials, not enough experience" hole. They explained that after me passing another exam (essentially finishing my ASA), I'd be looked at as a mid-level employee, but never get a job due to not having experience, and I'd never get an entry level job because I'd be labled "overqualified". So I'm just waiting until I maybe get an actuarial job.
I have looked into numerous government jobs as an analyst, and several state employee pension actuarial positions, but no luck so far after a dozen or so applications and email - cover letter - resumes sent to the chief actuaries.
As far as the CFA exams go, compared to the actuarial exams, they are incredibly easy. Passing all 3 of the CFA exams only gives you credit for 3 of the 10 requirements necessary to get your actuarial credential. I already have those requirements taken care of.
@Jessie69: I basically just heated the car, turned it off before bed, and used a -40 F rated mummy sleeping bag I had from boy scouts. I never had a problem with staying warm.
@brian571: Yes, the school still is holding on to my debt, and transcripts. They have sued me a few times (while I was homeless). I now owe them about 4x what the semester cost due to interest, legal fees, and finance charges. That's not counting my defaulted student loans for the actual 8 semesters I went to school. I've tried a few times to get them to release my transcripts, begging that if they did that, I might be able to get a job, or sit for Professional Engineer exams, or apply for graduate school.
I did have one job offer a couple years ago, but they wouldn't give me the paper contract until they saw my transcript. I talked to my university, saying that I had an offer for a 55k / year salary if they saw my transcripts, and that I'd be able to pay my debt to the school if they released it, but they wouldn't budge, and the company never ended up giving me a formal job offer.
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