Page 3 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 46

Thread: I may be done with this field of work

  1. #21
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Saint Paul, Minnesota
    Posts
    6,618
    Quote Originally Posted by ApatheticNoMore View Post
    I would have thought banks were steady, shows what I know.
    I think financial institutions and governments maintain a reputation for being conservative institutions (in the general sense of "conservative", not in the politically-charged sense the word has today), so it took them longer to move to the more-prevalent corporate model of organization. As a publicly-traded company, Large Bank has to answer to shareholders just as much as Megamart Inc. and Acme Mfg. do so they have to keep up. And voters (many of them experienced in the corporate shuffle) have demanded that governments be more responsive, too. I certainly see that happening at the county at which DW works.

    Quote Originally Posted by ApatheticNoMore View Post
    I mean I curse myself often now for having chosen skills focus (stupid tech skills and not even very marketable niches either apparently at least not here) when I should have chosen an *industry* focus rather than a *skillset* focus! But then what would have been a hot industry to do my work in? I think banks, insurance, healthcare maybe ... shows what i know. Of course if one works, by definition one works in an industry, but one's career can bounce around industries or be in niche industries and thus leave little *marketable* industry focus on the resume.
    The thing about "niche talent" is that law and demand applies in spades: there aren't many jobs but the ones there are pay pretty well compared to more generic positions. An old friend of mine is a quality-assurance engineer in the medical sector. At this point in his career there are maybe two or three jobs in the region at his level. So it's hard to move about and he's spent more than a few months unemployed when companies left town, etc. When he's working, though, he's a very well compensated QA engineer.

    And it does not help that, in hiring people, most organizations want someone who can hit the ground running, which calls for very specific skill sets. Even within broad categories of jobs, it's hard to avoid specialization. DSiL works in retail banking; it would not be easy for him to move to mortgage banking. A phone-app developer might be a whiz at C language but would flail around in the first few days of a job as a Swift developer unless (s)he got appropriate training. Sometimes the industry focus just isn't enough.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  2. #22
    Senior Member Mrs. Hermit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    261
    It is good that you are exploring other possible fields, Zoe. Maybe you need to broaden your vision further yet. What about looking in areas like Human Resources or Accounting? They use math, and a lot of computing these days. But we need people calculating our paychecks and putting together our benefit packages!
    Mrs. Hermit

  3. #23
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    15,489
    I see the median salary for mediators in Colorado is about 57K; you might revisit that option.

  4. #24
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    6,248
    Yes Jane, I did a great weekend of training on facilitation around conflict. Very exciting and exhausting work.

    What I can tell is many mediators have a law background and do mediation as an extension of that work, therefore get paid pretty well. I need 100 hours of practice to join the mediators society (I have 11 currently as a volunteer). I am both trying to improve my performance and push for some time to take on some mediations and get those hours up. I can see the job I applied for that is before and after programming would leave some middle of the day options for building those volunteer hours.

  5. #25
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    15,489
    I've always liked the possibility of mediation work for you; you would bring a different perspective to it. Have you thought about paralegal work at all?

  6. #26
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    6,248
    Jane, I am also thinking of that. In fact my bff who lives in Salt Lake got into that through mortgage loan default work. They paid for her paralegal training and she really likes it. I have even gone as far as thinking about moving there and getting a big do-over.

    Just had my check in phone call with supervisor, long discussion of the timing of my 'out of office' message for my email when I took a half day on Friday. One person contacted him concerned about an invoice they were sending and I have 48 hours to check and process invoices.

  7. #27
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    15,489
    It sounds like you're expected to be on call 24/7. Does your supervisor have anyone else to nit-pick, or is it just you?

  8. #28
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    6,248
    He nit picks 3 out of 4 of us as far as I can tell. But I do feel treated unfairly in some pretty concrete ways. This was just a total nit pick but I kept my cool, didn't even take anxiety meds.

    I am going to put out more applications and do some research on things in law/paralegal/mediation work. One of my several dreams would be to be a mediator for special education.

  9. #29
    Yppej
    Guest
    You seem to be pretty deep into Buddhism. Have you ever thought of being a nun?

  10. #30
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    6,248
    Quote Originally Posted by Yppej View Post
    You seem to be pretty deep into Buddhism. Have you ever thought of being a nun?

    Haha, good idea actually. I am unvoluntarily celibate anyway! I have considered that or I would love to be a Buddhist Chaplain if money wasn't a big issue. Nuns however are not as well supported as the monks, and there are a few other issues to think about. I really like choosing my own food, driving, and handling money.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •