View Full Forums : Career Advice????????????


TeriMoon
04-23-2003, 09:04 AM
I'm tired of being a social worker and having to do the following tasks everyday:

1. Get yelled at by people when I don't have money to give them.

2. Tell people I don't have money to give them.

3. Telling people that I can't change their husbands, but I can help them change themselves, and seeing that look on their face which gives me about a 65% certainty they aren't going to come back to hear more.

4. Getting yelled at a lot for not being able to fix the unfixable and only making a pittance for the honor.


I would like a job where:

1. There is a beginning and an ending to a task

2. THe amount of effort I put in will have some relationship to the quality of speed of the outcome.

3. Less people contact.


Any thoughts????????????

FwinPeaks
04-23-2003, 10:44 AM
Become a Recruiter.

UPSIDES:
- Money is tied to performance
- Closure on assignments
- Don't have to deal with people face-to-face if you don't want
- Can work virtually (helllooooo Sun Valleyyyy!!!)
- You still get to help people
- Highly transferrable skill

DOWNSIDES:
- Very competitive
- Can be very difficult at times
- Availability is key; you never get to leave your work behind
- Can run across a lot of a**es ('course it sounds like you already do)

FyyrLuStorm
04-23-2003, 05:11 PM
Fwin,

"3. Less people contact."

Kinda blows that recruiter idea.


And there are thousands of seasoned veteran recruiters looking for that position right now.

I don't know an answer, as I said to Tweil, be thankful you got one right now?

Miss Foxfyre
04-24-2003, 11:59 AM
/shrug

I don't like to give advice that often, but I think you should stay in social work but change to a different aspect of it. I don't know which kind of social work you're doing now, but if you get out of it and go work for a different kind of nonprofit agency or company, you might be able to expand beyond the dealing with negative people day in and day out.

Cloudien
04-30-2003, 03:15 PM
Hmm....

Any technical abilities?

I'm in the voluntary sector working as a database designer believe it or not, and it's great. It's nothing professional like Oracle but just relational databases in MS Access... however being a charitable organisation with a number of different projects they are quite happy to hire me full time to design systems that can track the information that they need.

I know it's a bit of a bizarre suggestion, but given that you're on here it shows at least a reasonable amount of computer literacy... more than most ;) Access is really not very difficult to learn.

BricSummerthorne
05-02-2003, 10:10 PM
These are tough times to be looking for a new job. That being said, a position with a Human Resources department might fit your skillset.

You would still have a fair amount of human contact, but most of that is the "I'd like to change HMO's" variety.

Borras
05-04-2003, 11:59 AM
Don't go into computer programming.

Since they started tracking the stats of employment as a "computer programmer", this year the UNemployment rate of programmers is at the all-time high since 1982.

Unless you have an "in" into a job position, stay away from general programming (including database work). Trust me, I know. :)

Borras

TeriMoon
05-05-2003, 11:32 AM
The job market for social workers continues to be healthy. I dont' know that I have the energy for more education. I think probably the best bet is to move into a different are of the field which is less emotionally demanding for me.

Miss Foxfyre
05-05-2003, 12:44 PM
Woot. Heheh. That's what I was thinking. Another area.

Regarding programming, yeah, it must suck nationwide, but if you are midlevel or senior, you can still find a job in the major tech areas although it might not be the "sweet" or "tricked-out" job you were used to five or ten years ago. It might not be a field or product you're interested in, but hey, money is money.