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Thread: Going back on the job market...

  1. #11
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    I stumbled into the university world years ago and it has overall been a very pleasant experience. There are spots for every knowledge set within staff openings and it is inspriing to be around grad students who want to learn. On the other hand, DD's first and only job has been in the nonprofit world and she is starting to grumble very loudly about all the overtime and personality issues. Only once in my time at work was there that sort of craziness and that was when we partnered with a nonprofit group who worked within our unit; they were there physically every day with all of their dysfunctional personalities the like of which I had never known before. After they left, it was an ocean of calm again.

  2. #12
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by redfox View Post
    Maybe leave non-profits & jump to the for-profit world. No idea how to do that. Any suggestions?
    Not a bad idea to open yourself up to both. They both have their pros and cons... however, sometimes I feel there's even more politics at play in non-profits than there is in the for-profit environment. I certainly think your vast experience would be entree enough into certain for-profit sectors. Just make a skill-based resume and post it online and start networking.

    I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, redfox. It sounded great.
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  3. #13
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Politics are at the height in academia. If you don't want politics, stay out of that arena.

    It seems to me that the sweet jobs are those that head up the Foundation arm of a for-profit. Several women I know or know of have had these jobs at places like Ralstan-Purina, UPS, Wells Fargo, Monsanto. I suppose that these jobs are dastardly hard to get. But wouldn't it be nice to, for a change, rather than going out to get money, being in the position to give out the money? Sweet, like I said.

    Some of the non-profits around here are scary dysfunctional. The rational views of for-profit entities might provide a stable influence in the giving world.

  4. #14
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    Politics are at the height in academia
    This is true in the big picture but effect varies on situation. My department is endowed (by foundations and wealthy individuals) rather than relying on declining state support. Those are the situations I would look for within a public university. Not sure how private universities operate.

  5. #15
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    redfox, I don't believe you'll find the for-profit world any less dysfunctional than what you have now.

    At the companies at which I've worked, it seems the people at the top are the ones who are willing to sacrifice almost all their waking hours for the company. Of course, they're very nicely compensated for that level of involvement. And some people are just that way. But -- over the last few years in particular -- management seems to have taken the stance that everyone should be so engaged. Unfortunately for them, many personalities and workstyles don't fit that mold. And so the company often loses what it was that made them successful over the long term in exchange for either keeping stockholders happy or keeping the wolf of acquisition away from the door.

    It does not help that The Great Recession and the continuing globalization of business has made it easier to wield the club of unemployment (and, in the U.S., its attendant loss of health coverage and retirement savings) over people. I also believe management has interpreted incorrectly what they've seen over the past few years, as people stepped up past shortstaffing and flat (or slashed) budgets to get the work done. Management seems to believe this is the new "normal" -- that people who have been sprinting the last few years to get past bad business conditions and low revenue can now run entire marathons (careers) at this pace. It cannot be done. Sprinters and marathoners have contrasting goals and methods. But it seems to be the expectation anymore. And it probably will be until we see some longstanding successful American businesses die for the lack of longer-term planning.
    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

  6. #16
    Senior Member lhamo's Avatar
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    Also sorry to hear it hasn't worked out as you hoped, redfox.

    I think every organization, for-profit or non-profit, has a certain level of dysfunction -- some are definitely worse than others, though! My previous employer was at about an 8 or 9 on a 10 point scale when I started, and went up to about a 15 by the time I left. It is probably at about a 7 now (after departure of sociopathic ED). My current organization, at least the parts of it I work with, is anywhere from a 2 to a 6 -- certain programs more dysfunctional than others, with some shops run really smoothly and professionally and others, well, not so much. I'm still in limbo with my own job situation and how that pans out may make me reassess how much dysfunction there is overall and whether I am willing/able to put up with it. Much rests on how they treat me during this transition phase. I'm still waiting to see how I will be compensated for the extra responsibilities and extra workload I have taken on in the past few months. Unfortunately HR seems to be one of the more dysfunctional areas, so I am feeling increasingly pessimistic. We'll see. I believe in the mission of our organization and really want to continue to contribute, but I know from past experience that if I don't feel respected and valued I take it very hard. Trying to keep the "it's just a job" mantra flowing and not get too anxious about things I can't control. But it's tough.

    Regarding other work opportunities, I would definitely look into higher education. Your background and skill set would be an asset to university development offices, I'm sure, and that is probably one area where there are opportunities even (or especially) during budget crunch time -- lots of pressure for public institutions in particular to bring in non-government funds given the cuts to public funding. There always seem to be tons of grant and program admin jobs in the medical field, as well -- was looking at the UW job listings the other day and I'd say 60-70% of the positions seemed to be in the med school or affiliated with either the UW hospital or one of the affiliated hospitals or biomedical research affiliates. Not all of them require medical/science background. You might have to do some networking and convince people that your non-profit management skills are applicable to that new setting, but I don't think it would be too much of a stretch.

    Obviously a job in a bigger, more established, professionally run non-profit would also be great, but as you already know those are few and far between in Seattle. And I don't actually know that such a rare unicorn even exists!

    I'll keep an eye out for things that might suit you.
    "Seek out habits that help you overcome fear or inertia. Destroy those that do the opposite." Seth Godin

  7. #17
    rodeosweetheart
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post

    It does not help that The Great Recession and the continuing globalization of business has made it easier to wield the club of unemployment (and, in the U.S., its attendant loss of health coverage and retirement savings) over people. I also believe management has interpreted incorrectly what they've seen over the past few years, as people stepped up past shortstaffing and flat (or slashed) budgets to get the work done. Management seems to believe this is the new "normal" -- that people who have been sprinting the last few years to get past bad business conditions and low revenue can now run entire marathons (careers) at this pace. It cannot be done. Sprinters and marathoners have contrasting goals and methods. But it seems to be the expectation anymore.
    +++++

    We were actually told by our boss,
    that "there are tens of thousands of people lined up to take your job, that want your job, so you better work much harder"

    This was a turning point in how I felt about my job. I found myself envisioning tens of thousands of people all lined up to take my job away from me and I started laughing; my bottom line is if that comes to pass, so be it. The job gets worse and worse

  8. #18
    Senior Member citrine's Avatar
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    I am sorry to hear that it did not work out...but it may be a big blessing in disguise! The MegaPharma I worked for was inundated with dysfunctional divas and idiots! Maybe you can open up a small business doing something you love?

  9. #19
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rodeosweetheart View Post
    We were actually told by our boss,
    that "there are tens of thousands of people lined up to take your job, that want your job, so you better work much harder"
    At my old workplace, as part of a huge software purchase made by the CIO (on some golf course somewhere, I suspect), we dumped the software we used primarily in our jobs and replaced it with a steaming mound of code that had a fancy name, unfindable bugs, and some of the worst vendor support on the planet. I was the administrator of the old software system; that was a manageable part of my entire job. When the pile of cr@p came in, admin suddenly became most of my job -- but my old responsibilities did not go away. In fact, along with everyone else in the group, I was assigned more work. I burned out. Then I left. Then I found out that not only did they hire a replacement for me (that's fine; I didn't want my old team to suffer for my departure), but they hired someone to be a full-time admin. So I guess there were two people lined up to take my job. I told them the job was impossible....
    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

  10. #20
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    This was a turning point in how I felt about my job. I found myself envisioning tens of thousands of people all lined up to take my job away from me and I started laughing; my bottom line is if that comes to pass, so be it. The job gets worse and worse
    millions of people lined up to take my job: I'd be like yea but historical data shows you've tried to fill this position multiple times with multiple failures, this takes no particular snooping on my part, so it's a unique few who stay around. Like most companies these days you have no training programs whatsoever,plus you have a documentation system that's pretty much completely unusable, and you throw people in the deep end of the very complex procedures at the company. I would like to say it takes a year to get up to speed on that stuff, but the truth is it might be more like 2. And all glassdoor says about this company is they pay under market, at least that one is easy to change. So does it take some unique oh so special skill to do the job, no, mostly ability to put up with BS
    Trees don't grow on money

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