Okay so the past 2 weeks, I have been futzing around post job loss. I took the kid to the psychiatrist today and we were talking. She says I look different, happier! She asked me what had changed, so I told her I had finally lost my job (I had been doing counseling so she already knew my issues with this job). So how crazy is that, that she can tell how much less stressed I am like that LOL. Anyway I really am less stressed for now, but definitely I have a kid and a senior citizen to raise so I cannot stay jobless forever.

Here are my options:

I can apply for a job doing the same old same old at a different place.
Pros: there are actually many jobs available (not necessarily around me), pay is usually good, if I can find a drama free environment maybe I would finally feel fulfilled in the career I actually wanted to be in.
Cons: I am scared of the drama! No joke-this career has about worn me out mentally and physically, I am burnt out in it and tremendously disappointed and just plain mad however if I found a place committed to growth and high standards, but it is a stretch to find places like that. Plus I would probably have to relocate and while some places would help I would have to do the actual work myself. Also it is hard for me to get around for interviews in other states since I have the kid and senior to take care of.

Career change/school
Pros: if I can get into pharmacy school then in 5 years I can be making 6 figure salary easily and pay off my debts and have serious savings, I can learn something new and exciting (for a while), I can even find a way to combine my degrees and start my own business by 50 if I plan it right! I would not have to relocate though.
Cons: having to go to school for maybe up to 4 years and trying to raise kid by myself at the same time would be very hard, debt would be high (unless I can go in under a pharmacy program like Walgreens or CVS and have them help to pay) and it would be really really hard with school/job/kid/senior citizen.

AirForce (military)
Pros: pay and benefits would be sick! If I can do it for 20 years I would be set before I am 60. I have never gotten to travel and I would like to travel and see new things and meet new people. I would not be "active" military either.
Cons: it's military! I'd definitely have to relocate (but they do pay for all that and pack your stuff-plus!) which would be very hard with kid and senior but there is a slim possibility I could remain where I am since I am near a Air Force base, and traveling would be hard trying to find someone to take care of kid and senior while I am gone.

The hardest part is I am the sole provider to kid and senior and I have no backup right now but depending on which route I choose I caould possibly move back up north and have a little family support. I really should move anyway since where I am is boring as hell and I basically hate it! But I do have slight support here or back home and I just don't want to move somewhere where I have no support at all.

Aaargh!!! I should be glad I have my options but my lazy ass just don't want to work at all LOL. Anyway, I am kicking around my choices so I can know which way to swing by New Year's. Luckily kid and senior have their own SSI benefits so we won't technically starve while I futz, and I had put money in a savings plan and have a little PTO that they will pay me (we'll see if I ever get the money I am really owed )

My :

1: Go back to school and hide out until the recession is over. In five years, hopefully things would have turned around. The only thing is, I heard it's harder to get school loans these days. But if you can, it's an investment into yourself and well worth it.

2. If you do the military, I'd do the Navy before any other branch.

3. Girl, you better get in the job hunt ASAP cuz it's BAD out there.

Good luck, mama!

BklynBabe said:

This is my vote. I am embarking on a similar path right now. It's scary and hard, but I know I can do it. I also know I will look back and be so fucking glad I did.



Good luck to you, and God bless you for raising that kid the best way you know how.

One vote for looking for a similar job to what you just had.

It's not normally like me to vote against education, but in this situation I think you should take what you can get and just focus on getting through one month/year at a time because like SCNDLS and PunkMistress have pointed out, a lot of people are using this recession to go back to school. There is no guarentee that the job market is going to bounce back enough to absorb all of those new graduates* (as well as all the currently unemployed) who are looking for jobs. You'll be in the same situation as now (unemployed), but with thousands of dollars of student loan debt.


*I currently work with a lot of law school students. They told me that this year, out of 450+ 3rd year law students in their program, ELEVEN were offered jobs. (And this is at a top 100 law school.) I recently applied for a job that I'm perfect for (of course! ). They auto-replied that they had over 600 applicants so processing is going to take longer than they expected. Those are the kind of numbers you might be competing against. (I'm in NYC by the way.)

Also, do you even know if you like pharmacy? That's a big committment (time and money wise) if you're not sure.

well right now I'm a little chunky so I don't expect the military to hire me for a while. On the plus I did start back at the gym so I can beef it up and at least get talks started and see what they can work out for me with my situation. Also since you have to be gone for 4 weeks for training and that means I could not go anywhere until summer because of the kid. I am the only means of daily transportation in my household, otherwise it wouldn't be so bad. The run thing scares me because my knees are really really bad.

I am still going to put in an application at the place up the block...just in case.

The pharmacy test is in February so I couldn't get in probably until next fall so no rush with getting to school. I haven't heard anything from the online applications so I will go in tomorrow in person and see what the deal is.

And thanks for reminding how BAD the job sitch is yeah, wasn't very brilliant of me to lose my job LOL!

Shit, gurl, I got 2 fucking degrees LOL. Somebody had better fucking hire me or else

BklynBabe said:

You two???

I was outta work for the first 6 months of this year so I know how it is. And I'm a consultant usually holding down two jobs. I haven't heard hardly anything from companies this year. I still have a laptop from IBM, one of my client's last year, waiting for more work and it's been almost a year.

Did you apply for unemployment yet? Is your old job trynna fuck you out of your benefits???

jone70 said:

the only thing that saves my ass is that I have a degree in a field that has more jobs than qualified persons, so I could get a job anywhere, but it's such a shady ass cheap field on some levels that I'd probably be shooting myself in the foot to think I can tolerate any more BS.

The thing with pharmacy is that there is a HUGE demand (one field even more short supplied than my own current career) and they pay HUGE salaries. And I'm tired of "skrugglin' " It's not as physical as my own field which is good, but education wise I am very well pre qualified and well placed to slide into it. And I can actually combine all those degrees into 1 very very short staffed need and be well placed to make some serious ducets!

I would like to make serious ducets in life now, and not be fucked over anymore.
[Edited 11/12/09 18:20pm]

BklynBabe said:

Girl I got my two degrees too and I'm looking for a better full time job. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful I got one, but this job is not where I'm supposed to be at, its definitely a brick wall as far as growth goes. I should be making way more money than what I am right now, and I'm not going to get it by settling for this shit i'm in now, but like others have said, the job market is rough and tough these days. You can apply, but you going up against the jobless and other unhappy folks who have jobs but looking for something better. You would think with two degrees that people would be falling over trying to hire us, but definitely not the case. Experience weighs in over education any day. Sad but true, its a reality I hate to hear myself, but it is very true. Experience gets you the job, education helps secure your job and allows you to move up the ranks.

My advice to you is to apply for a similar job and try to get what you can. Still do the school thing (if you really feel that is your passion for the Pharmacy field), but for right now, as you said, you have peeps you need to take care of. These times are so bad nowdays, I can only imagine the stress you feel wondering how you are going to get more income, but it will come. It's going to take a lot of praying, and a lot of networking to get you there, but you will be able to find...something. It's not impossible getting a job during a recession. Good Luck to ya sista!
[Edited 11/12/09 18:24pm]

SCNDLS said:

...and yet I still play like a kid on the internet and drop words like the f-bomb with no remorse. I am a bold ass bitch

SCNDLS said:

that is what my pals did. worth it!

BklynBabe said:

Okay, so it sounds like you have a plan and some time. I'd say keep looking for jobs, take the pharmacy test and then you'll still have plenty of time to decide whether you want to follow that path.

What does your heart tell you to do? This sounds corny, but sometimes when I am really worrying about a decision, I repeat this quote to myself, "Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart." Everything will work itself out.

missmad said:

My sister was in and my cousin joined a couple years ago, I think it's definitely the best of the four branches that will pay you, educate you, and keep you relatively safe.

missfee said:

y'all rock, thanks for all this advice!

see this is why I am so pissed at my last job because I have mad experience. I have been in my field for almost a decade. I came in fully trained and was a very hard worker and yet they wanted to play with my pay and expect me to be treated with severe disrespect by some minimum wage type idiot staff. And then expected me to bring in the money. Saddest thing was...I was bringing in much money for them!!! But I couldn't because it was some shady I will get sued shit going down, and they would not have backed me up (obviously!)

I live in a no fault lose job state so I could go the unemployment route but then it would get ugly. I will give it a while with the find a job route but if not, I might actually have to take the get a lawyer and sue the previous job route.

jone70 said:

It's not corny, that's how I get through most of my tough decisions as well. The bad thing about me is that I'm not the most patient person in the world...but I'm still learning.

BklynBabe said:

SCNDLS said:

missfee said:

Yeah, I have a BA and an MA, also. I'm what they categorize as "under-employed." I technically work "part-time" although I put in 35+ hours/week. (The org. just doesn't want to pay for health benefits.) I resigned from my previous job last fall because it was making me physically ill and six weeks later the economy collapsed. The job I have now is a million times less stressful, but it's not in my field and it's not a place where I can picture myself working for more than 2-3 years. (January will be my 1 year anniversary - originally I was hoping to leave at the end of this year, but the job market is not cooperating.) So I am just keeping my nose to the grindstone and trying to pick up more skills so that when companies in my field lift their hiring freezes I'll be even more qualified.

jone70 said:

Your story is similar to mine in a way. My previous job was okay, but two weeks after I got the job, the bank announced a big merger, and the price that had to be paid was that the headquarters were moving to the mid west. At first I considered moving, but then decided against it when I found out that basically my position was going to be put out there for the other employees who worked with the corporation of the merger as well as I had to compete and apply for it. I said thanks, but no thank you. Plus, the company would pay for you to move out there, but if you decided that it wasn't for you in less than a year, then you would have to repay all of the moving expenses back to the corporation. Isn't that fucked up? I mean I know business is business, but still, these are peoples lives here. So I opted out and just decided to look for another job, which is the dump I'm currently in now. Their organization culture is so old fashioned its a trip. The director is a sack of bones who should have retired years ago and mgmt is incompetent. I didn't even plan on staying in this position a year because the department is that disorganized and unprofessional. I even went to mgmt with some of my ideas on how to make the department better, for the employees and for mgmt, I even drew up a proposal and presented it to my supervisor. Know what she said, "I'm glad that you took the initiative to come up with something new, but we will have to wait and see what the new director will come up with when they have been hired"...wtf? Yeah so I've just been using this job as a way of passing time, and collecting a check until I get into a real professional environment that will utilize my talents.
[Edited 11/12/09 18:46pm]

well the last job had me so stressed over stupid I thought I would damn die and that wouldn't do my family much good either except to get some life insurance (I do have some good coverage though )

Have U perhaps thought about seeking the assistance of a career life coach? I know peeps that have and with that direction of a professional have achieved brilliant jobs out of it.

Plastics.

update: so I just applied for a pharmacy technician online course which I can do at the school right up the block, AND I applied for the PCAT test (now I have to review biochem, organic chem, calculus, and shit), AND I started my application for pharmacy school today, AND I remotivated myself!!! I committed myself to it!!!! Like money and shit

AND I am not going back to my old career beccause the thought of it makes me nauseous to the utmost degree!! Maybe once I can get this pharmacy thing done, I will find a way to combine all these degrees for some serious lucrativity, but for now, I have to walk away from the bullshit I have dealt with before I fall over from a heart attack. Shit, them mofos finally won an award for Best Of...and do you think they correlated that with all the work I put in. Naw, they are patting themselves on the back. Meanwhile every place I have ever worked in always has done better...made more money....educated the staff.....so I stay mad at being treated like shit!

If I am going to deal with folk and drama I need to get something out of it for me and my family too. I am too old, and too broke, to keep fucking around with ungrateful and hateful ass folk.

Good luck, mama.

omigod my head is gonna explode trying to remember this shit from 10-15 years ago

on the plus side at least I don't have to buy expensive books. Gotta love the internet!!!!

I really, really hope this pans out....

*don't mind me, I just feel good to lay it out for myself somewhere*

okay I got my transcripts sent out.

I got approved for a loan to take the online pharmacy tech courses (good thing I took time to get my credit back up and paid off my car and all!) I should be rocking and rolling by the end of next week. it's 300 hours and they have an externship with Walgreen's (where I coincidentally have already applied anyway LOL) so hopefully I can knock that out-I already have much of the knowledge needed anyway so I don't anticipate having to take the whole 6 months, thank God! Plus I have to study for the PCAT too ( ) My brain should be swollen with useless knowledge again pretty soon. I hope it's still in there just buried deep...

I cashed in my 401K (it wasn't a whole lot, I would have had to cash it anyway)

Set up my COBRA (health insurance, gotta have some when you have a kid )

Got my references! (sent an email to my professor from 15 years ago and he's all "no problem, I will always give you a good reference" it's funny how people that knew me years ago still have good things to say about me, yet I'm such a terrible person!

I've also started working out again and dieting, working on my weight and my stress levels. Feeling kinda optimistic and ready to get somewhere and live my life. I felt so stagnant in my career (it shouldn't have been that way, I kept learning things but could not find a place to upgrade themselves and get with the new millenium)