A Little Help

[sisabet]

I am on my 3rd cup of coffee and I've been awake for about 4 hours. This is apparently what happens when I go to bed before midnight. That or the extreme stress of my job has just come to a head yet again. I'm sick of it - it is making me emotionally volatile. Well, more emotionally volatile and not in a fun way either.

So, this is my idea - I have NO idea what kind of career to pursue instead of this. I actually never had any intent to be this, it just kinda fell into my lap and the money was good and I was good at it so I stuck around. Now I am stuck. However - I have a really large fList and even considering the Law of Diminishing Averages (and actually, I have no idea what the Law of Diminishing Averages means, I mean maybe I do when I am not stressed and exhausted and overly caffeinated, but right now I am just including it here because it sounds kinda mathy. I shouldn't be allowed in SGA with that kinda attitude) that means, even with people filtering and skimming and no longer existing or what not, at least 100-200 people are reading this right now.

I need ideas about what to be when I grow up. You guys are smart. Brainstorm.

Comments

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Seems like now everyone in our age range is doing the same thing you're doing - "I just kinda fell into what I'm currently doing and I don't want to do it anymore."

So you have to figure out what you *want*, because the main reason you're leaving the job, it seems to me, is that it's entirely unfulfilling *to you*.

Move to a big city and pursue a career in video editing and post-production. You are good at it *and* you love it. Two for two.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I don't know what I want. And I don't want to leave my job because it is unfulfilling to me - it has ALWAYS been unfulfilling to me, but I had trade-off in security. Now I am losing that tradeoff so I need to find something else.

And I can't just move to a big city and pursue a career in video editing. I have no idea how to even go about that - I have no formal training and really and truly very little understanding of how any of the programs even work. I have essentially no savings so how would I finance a move? and it is just - this is my hobby. Vidding is the one place I have to go to be purely creative and me. If I did it day in and day out, I'd start to hate it. Or worse yet - have to give up on the hobby aspect.

And anyway - even considering editing professionally would be like the end of Waiting for Guffman.

I just want an idea of something else that is out there, that I can perhaps work toward, that I can do. I need to fall into something else again.

[astolat]

I have essentially no savings so how would I finance a move?

Actually, this is the piece that I would suggest working on first, if you at all can. If you have a buffer of savings behind you, enough to support you through at least a few months without work and to pay for a move, then a lot more possibilities open up because you can spend the time to explore things right.

About moving to a city -- all big cities these days have craigslist as a great online way for finding a temporary roommate situation without your having to be here first, and you could definitely find someone via lj to vet it for you before you jump in, even assuming you don't move someplace that already has a significant group of friends and acquaintances there with someone who can put you up at least for a while. I am not necessarily recommending that; whether you want to move is a lot more about where you would be happy living.

I would suggest checking out monster.com for actual real jobs that might be appealing, as opposed to just trying to brainstorm about a general area or career. IE, start a job search as if you were looking for a job, and while you do the investigating, just imagine you do have the qualifications for any job that sounds cool and also that you can move anywhere in the world. Then when you have a list of jobs that you'd like, you can see what qualifications you'd need, and decide then whether the jobs that need extra qualifications/moving would really be worth the time/money/risk involved in getting those qualifications or changing location.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I suspect if I had more savings - I wouldn't be freaking out the way I am now.

And yes - this makes much more sense than my previous plan of just waiting until someone mentioned something that sounded cool. Although Laura Shapiro mentioned cruise director, except I am sure that job is not at all like it seemed on The Love Boat.

Wow, in order to get a new job, I need to go out and look for a new job. When you say it like that it seems so obvious! I'm being serious when I say that that had never really crossed my mind.

[miss-pryss.livejournal.com]

Street food vendor.

Um, paralegal.

Systems administrator! Web designer?

Personal shopping assistant!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I could and probably would, if I were suddenly unemployed, apply to be a case manager at a PI law firm. I'm qualified for that - but even less security and I'd be doing the same thing now only in reverse, which could give me a few years of sustainability just based on the novelty aspect. It is a thought. It also makes me feel less likely of hyperventillating in panic mode.

Systems administrator! Web designer?

Unlikely seeing as how I was incapable of updating my website with front pages.

Personal Shopping! I am a really good shopper! I am really good at matching people to items! I could do that... except don't you have to have a degree in something design-y or marketingish? How do you become that? I'd think the competition would be stiff.

[luminosity]

I've never known what I wanted to *do* with my life (other than art), so I've ended up doing all sorts of shit that I'm really good at and don't care about at all. I only know what I want to BE, and that's happy.

[pet]

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well, I can be happy. Happy is not dependent upon what I do - happy is more dependent on just having something and knowing I will continue to have something and can pay my bills and have a home and you know - all those luxuries like food and heat.

[luminosity]

It's hard to be happy when you're too hot or too cold. And there's a limited happiness factor in Ramen noodles. I speak from experience.

This is something that we just *know*--that what we do can contribute to our happiness, but it doesn't define it.

from mom

[retired-mom.livejournal.com]

GO TO LAW SCHOOL...you would make a terrific lawyer...and you can finish before Cappy begins...or go back to school for a degree in computer or vid something...how about a dentist....

Re: from mom

[retired-mom.livejournal.com]

hit the wrong button...was not finished.....RUN FOR OFFICE....you would be so good as a government offical.....you could change laws....and give speeches.....and have soundbytes....all I know is you have made me so happy agreeing to have your picture made....see email if you do not have the date....Cant' tell you what it means to me because I know how much you hate this...but will do it anyway for me....is there enough guilt there to ensure you will go through with it? or do I need to add more of how much it means to your elderly, failing health mother???? love, mom

Re: from mom

[retired-mom.livejournal.com]

It is not my spelling but my typing.....sorry

mom!

[caphricacorn.livejournal.com]

and you can finish before Cappy begins

Uh, hello. We can only have one doctor and lawyer in the family. And I called serious dibs on the lawyer part first.

Re: mom!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

You did.

[falzalot.livejournal.com]

You can move to CA and be my little sister!!!

Oh wait. I'm allergic to dogs. Darn.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

You know - it is hard to make a living as a Professional Sister, although I usually get excellent performance evaluations.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

This is a tough one. I mean, you are charming and attractive and funny, so I kind of feel like you'd be great having a job where you interact with people and can demonstrate your wit, like tour guide or cruise director. Or teaching comedy traffic school. And then I think, but then you'd have to work with "the public" every day, and if that were me? I'd eat my own liver in that situation, and I sure wouldn't wish it on a friend.

So, hm.

Do you have any interest in teaching? I can see you being good at that, especially if you got to teach, like, film classes at a JC or something.

I'll think more.

[cofax7]

I don't have any advice, since I don't know what you do now. But it may work to think about what you want to have done, if that makes any sense. Educated young minds? Helped save the whales? Kept a nation from self-imploding? Written a novel? Edited a novel? And so forth. From there you may be able to reverse-engineer something that is (a) fulfilling and (b) sufficient to support you.

I sympathize with your worry about making your hobby your livelihood, though: I've seen that fail badly for several people.

Good luck.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

No good ideas either and considering that I ended up becoming a teacher because I fell into it and it was the one job I kind of knew and my mom was one... :-)

While I agree on the worries about making your hobby your profession, it might give you ideas about what you're good at. Are you got with details, like to organize etc.

[E.g., I always thought I might be good at being a copyeditor but after working with one close yup this last week, I suddenly realized that I was neither good at finding the wrongly inverted quotation marks nor enjoyed it...]

I sure wish I had more constructive suggestions!!!

[caille.livejournal.com]

Maybe what you need is a little variation on the same employment theme, like you alluded to about becoming a case manager at a PI firm.

Or you could work directly for one of the medical insurance companies (:::shudders!3V1L:::) as an investigator. You'd get to do the initial investigation when a claim is made against a doctor or a facility. You could make 'em sweat, all for their own good.

You already know what investigators' reports are like, I'm sure. (And so help me, if you ever write something like "The eyewitness has now been statementized" I will rap your knuckles.) I'm sure you could do a better job. And if you're working for the evil empire insurance company itself, you know that your bills will be paid promptly.

Or...I wonder if this is remotely possible: is your firm large enough that it could afford to subsidize some very part-time volunteer work? It mustn't be in addition to your regular hours, but maybe like two days a month you could work at a legal aid clinic. Your firm would pay you, get tax benefits, plus community credibility. And you'd get a small change of pace.

If all else fails, you might think about a sex change operation. Oh of course I don't mean really. But you could tell your employers you are considering it, and that you must spend a year cross-dressing and using the men's room (eww) and being addressed as Mr. Bubbabet. Then write a book! You and everyone else at your work will learn and grow from the experience.

And definitely take a film class at your nearest community college.

[retired-mom.livejournal.com]

Yes, you would make an excellent teacher...especially high school...and all the young girls could relate to you and the boys have a crush on you...or you are good with young kids and could go the elementary route.....but as a retired teacher, can I really encourage you to do this...when I could not wait to retire...there is a lot of burnout in teaching....especially with No Child Left Behind..because, of course, everyone is the same....and in the "work world- real world" no one is ever left behind...Not even Ms. Myers....love, mom

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Video editing/production. One of your songvids can be evidence that you know your way around prolevel video editing. Don't want to have a fannish vid? Tape a shitload of sports and set some great plays to music.

(Think that's not "proper" enough? Chicka, three of the Tarts have used their work on ST to land professional IT jobs because it showed (a) they could meet deadlines (b) they knew what they were talking about (c) they knew how to communicate.)

Also, since you have broad interests and good communication skills you might look into working at a library or archives.

[caphricacorn.livejournal.com]

You should work at the unemployment office! That would be ironic.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

You are soooo funny. Go to bed.