Teaching jobs are very hard to come by now - they haven't picked up with the recent improvement in the economy and the current fiscal crisis is not helping. My daughter recently got her Masters in teaching and all she can get is an Associate Teacher position which pays very little, and she's lucky to get that. You would be competing with many laid off experienced teachers. Based on her experience, I wouldn't recommend going back to school to go into teaching at this time.
I second going the temp route. I think you have a good chance of getting your foot in the door for a good position that way and it gives you a chance to try out different things. You would need basic computer skills (Word, Excel, etc).
One area I see often at work (in the pharmaceutical industry) where someone who is very organized with a good work ethic can be very successful is in project management. Maybe you could take a course at a community college in that area or some other area that might interest you? Not terribly expensive and would give you an idea of what is out there. Community colleges also have placement offices for their students.
My career was a 911 dispatcher. Good money (here, $30/hour), good hours (long 12 but less days), flexible hours, and your Spanish (even if just rusty) would be an excellent asset. They prefer people with a bit of life experience/common sense. You would get on the job paid training, it's not stuff that is taught in university.
Have you thought about it? I promise it's nothing like that stupid new Halle Berry movie
I have a degree to teach ESL - I find myself falling back into dispatching though. The money was too good and the job was fun.
Teaching jobs are very hard to come by now - they haven't picked up with the recent improvement in the economy and the current fiscal crisis is not helping. My daughter recently got her Masters in teaching and all she can get is an Associate Teacher position which pays very little, and she's lucky to get that. You would be competing with many laid off experienced teachers. Based on her experience, I wouldn't recommend going back to school to go into teaching at this time.
California is a bit of a different in terms of teaching. There is definitely a flood of laid off teachers in California. Also, there is a bias against inexperienced teachers and Masters in California and it is very difficult to get hired in CA if you have no experience and a Masters. I have friends that are teachers here in the DC area and they said the bias doesn't exist here.
Have you thought of going to job fairs? That is how I got my job; of course that was 11 years ago but a lot of employers do there or send representatives to "scout out" the people there and pick up resumes.
I have to admit my job is nothing I can say I am "passionate about" but it is okay and it pays the bills.
Have you ever tried a temp agency? Having general skills and good references is a plus, and you get to try out a lot of different jobs. Lots of times temp jobs can turn into permanent.
Thanks for the suggestion - I had looked, but looked again (more carefully). I actually did find a job at a temp agency, but ironically, for a full-time job working for the temp agency helping other people find jobs! LOL
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Originally Posted by Mozzy
Good luck finding something. Maybe try a non-profit organization?
My experience with a lot of non-profits (BTDT) is that they pay crap. Maybe I'll be lucky and find one, but man... it's tough to find anything full time around here.
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Originally Posted by mandypandy2246
No advice but just .. good luck! It sounds like someone would be very lucky to have you in an administrative assistant position if you are willing to do that and think it will fulfill you (as you said)- did you try applying for those jobs? You are clearly bright and way qualified.
Thank you. and quite honestly, I would be a kick butt assistant. I used to have admin. assistants!!!! But I don't care about glory and "being the boss". I just want a good job with good people and to contribute usefully in some way. Now... if people would just SEE that!
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Originally Posted by JohnP
I'd suggest you look into selling property and casualty insurance. You're smart, you like people, and you're bi-lingual. You're perfect. Too bad you're not local I'd hire you. After you get some experience you can decide if you want to open your own agency or just coninue working for someone else.
Where I live P&C pays around 30,000 a year to start.
LOL thanks JohnP! I'll take that as a compliment. Haven't really thought about getting into sales or insurance, etc and if I do, I have to feel it's something legit and not scammy (I could never do sales at like pharmaceuticals or something). Something to think about!
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Originally Posted by annieway
Teaching jobs are very hard to come by now - they haven't picked up with the recent improvement in the economy and the current fiscal crisis is not helping. My daughter recently got her Masters in teaching and all she can get is an Associate Teacher position which pays very little, and she's lucky to get that. You would be competing with many laid off experienced teachers. Based on her experience, I wouldn't recommend going back to school to go into teaching at this time.
I second going the temp route. I think you have a good chance of getting your foot in the door for a good position that way and it gives you a chance to try out different things. You would need basic computer skills (Word, Excel, etc).
I don't think the teaching situation is dire here. Though, I don't think there's tons of openings either. Though, I think I would be pretty good and with some 'ins' with volunteering a lot at schools, I might be able to find a way in locally - maybe, hopefully!
And I did look up and applied to something through a temp agency today.
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Originally Posted by sacha
Do you have common sense?
My career was a 911 dispatcher. Good money (here, $30/hour), good hours (long 12 but less days), flexible hours, and your Spanish (even if just rusty) would be an excellent asset. They prefer people with a bit of life experience/common sense. You would get on the job paid training, it's not stuff that is taught in university.
This post made me laugh because I read the first line and I read it at first kind of like an insinuation that I "didn't" have good common sense. Actually, I have extremely good common sense and a level head. But I think that a job like working a 911 call center would stressful, no? I'm a person who would be good in the moment and calm and collected, but would worry, bring it home at night with things that worried/bothered me.
My best friend is a paramedic. I have no idea how she handles that job!
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Originally Posted by Misti in Seattle
Have you thought of going to job fairs? That is how I got my job; of course that was 11 years ago but a lot of employers do there or send representatives to "scout out" the people there and pick up resumes.
I have to admit my job is nothing I can say I am "passionate about" but it is okay and it pays the bills.
I should look. I haven't put a lot of effort/leg work into looking for jobs yet as it's hard when you don't have a passion about a particular "thing".
Just had to share with you all my experience with applying for a job today.
So, I found this job locally that I could apply to online. It took TWO HOURS to get the application done! For one job!
First, I had to tweak my resume a bit - update my one reference, make my temporary job that ended just before Christmas a "past" job and not current. Ok, that took a little bit. Then I had to write a cover letter for the job application. Then, the online application which duplicates a lot of my resume and references.
After that the usual - what sex, race, are you thing. A promise signature that everything I've stated is true, but then there was MORE!!! There was a type of intelligence test/"problem solving" test. that took 10 minutes. That was followed by a 150 self assessment survey. it asked me things like, "Are you late to work often?" "Do you like to work on new problems?" "Do you like to be the life of the party?" "Do you feel everyone steals from their employer?" Etc. For real?
The ONLY reason I think they have those things is to weed people out. To discourage people from applying so that instead of 200 applicants they only get like 80 or something. But TWO HOURS to get it all done! UGH!!!!! And I probably won't even get an interview!
I always thought those personality tests were kind of silly because it is usually pretty clear what the "right" answer is. Supposedly, they have parallel questions that ask something in a different way to weed out the fakers but even those end up being pretty obvious once you are looking for them.
When all else fails, we always need nurses! But you would have to go back to school for 13 months and it IS a stressful job. Good luck to you!
I live in your area and I have worked in 2 non-profits over the last 20 years. The pay is pretty darn good. My degree is in Marketing but I do much more. Non-profits love a well-rounded employee and your mix of skills and interests would be very attractive to some organizations. There are plenty of openings in the Maryland/DC area.
I live in your area and I have worked in 2 non-profits over the last 20 years. The pay is pretty darn good. My degree is in Marketing but I do much more. Non-profits love a well-rounded employee and your mix of skills and interests would be very attractive to some organizations. There are plenty of openings in the Maryland/DC area.
I guess I just need to know where to look.
Actually, I think the hardest part of job hunting is sifting through the crap - the fake stuff. It's really hard to know, "are you for legit" or some scam company? I've had a couple of those... um... no way!
Teach! I am a teacher and I love it! The hours work well with your youngests needs and you can have a life beyond teaching. Brush up on Spanish or check out charter schools (which in AZ don't require teaching certification although they pay considerably less). You are articulate and energetic and a school would be lucky to have you! Or even begin by subbing. It is not as fun as having your own classroom but it is a paycheck and the days and hours you choose are yours to determine. Good luck!
It really depends on your interests. The first non-profit I worked for had me working closely with clients. My current job has me well removed from the clients and working to make things run smoothly.
I have had people cold call my office to ask if we have openings - we don't. But we do have a website where our member agencies post their job openings every day. I can give you more info on that if you want to PM me.
You can also try www.indeed.com to search available nonprofit jobs in your area.
Last edited by ImImportant; 03-13-2013 at 05:28 AM.
Do you have a LinkedIn profile??? I highly recommend using that and adding it to you resume. If you've been out of the job market for several years it will at least show that you are up to date with technology. It is an amazing networking tool, and I found my current job on there. Have you looked at event coordinating? Travel agent? I am a corporate incentive travel planner, which is a combo of the two, and aside from really needing people skills, there isn't all that much to it! I'm not even at mgmt level and I'm at quite a bit more than your minimum. I've known some travel agents who make mad cash, and they can do that from home!
Actually, selling property and casualty (p&c) insurance is not a bad gig. That's auto, home, farm, inland marine, etc. Products people need. Here in Nebraska, getting a license isn't to hard. A three day course and a test.
Nice weekday hours. Monday holidays. There are insurance offices everywhere, so you should be able to find one close by. Being bilingual a plus as well. Another possibility, would be if any of the big insurance companies do work from home, taking claims calls and such.
A friend of mine does tech support for Verizon from home. What about house sitting or in home pet sitting? When some one goes on vacation you check on their pets a couple of times a day, walk, feed, etc. Or dog walking? May not be a ton of money, but you could set your own hours and not have to worry about daycare.
If you're not sure you want to through the hassle of being able to teach, what about teachers aide? Maybe not as much $, but no daycare worries, summers off, etc.
This post made me laugh because I read the first line and I read it at first kind of like an insinuation that I "didn't" have good common sense. Actually, I have extremely good common sense and a level head. But I think that a job like working a 911 call center would stressful, no? I'm a person who would be good in the moment and calm and collected, but would worry, bring it home at night with things that worried/bothered me.
My best friend is a paramedic. I have no idea how she handles that job!
Haha, sorry!
No, it's actually a lot less stressful than teaching (my subject is ESL). You learn to leave things at work. It's not like teaching where you have an ongoing relationship with a student, once you hang up, it's done. You learn very quickly to separate emotion from your life. And it's mostly routine mundane things at times, it's quite rare to get things that are actually bothersome. If anything, it sort of helps you learn to relax about life in general as you realize things aren't as bad as you think
Something to think about. I think it is quite suitable for people with a background in education (at least I found it is), and is the kind of job that parents are quite good at! Life experience/common sense is the most important skill.
When my son was only 10 weeks, I would work 7pm-4am. I could make 9 hours @ $30 an hour and be home before he even knew I was gone (my husband took care of any feeds). Most of these places also have gyms for 24/7 use as well, plus a paid 1-1.5 hour break where they encourage the gym. I miss that!!!
