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I've been in my current job for fifteen years, and I get paralyzed by anxiety whenever I try to think of specific ways out of it. Currently, I deliver and troubleshoot instrument interfaces for one of the major Laboratory Information Systems companies. The role has involved every step of the process, primarily because nobody outside the group understands even the most basic element of how lab instrumentation works, is used, or functions. A list of my main responsibilities and "job description" accomplishments are along the lines of: Handling this as a quote block as I am lazy posted:
...but I also did a lot of things that would normally be handled by other groups, were our specialty not so...unique: dear god he's still talking posted:
There's more, but this is already extraordinarily long and I don't want to lose track of the point - it's more to provide context than anything else. None of what I do is in a commonly used programming language. Our current software is written in a distant relative of an archaic language written in the late 60's by the founder of the company. I can do very baby level programming in C++ (or I could like six years ago), but beyond that, I have very litttle useful programming experience. I went to college and got an English degree, so none of my education really comes into play with what I do. At the suggestion of some friends, I've looked into DevOps a bit, and I've done some very simple Ansible/Docker/Vagrant work with a spare PC I had lying around to make it function as an HTPC with *arr integration and such. This was fun, but I don't think "fun" is necessarily what employers are looking for. I've been watching the free AWS class stuff Amazon put out, and that's....fine, if a bit boring and self explanatory most of the time. I don't want to continue where I am for a number of reasons. The main one is that the company is on a blatant downward spiral, and after a decade and a half of seeing coworker friends come in and burn out in 3 year increments, COVID accelerated the process so now the group I'm sort of attached to is a quarter the size it should be, and workload has increased for everyone. I can't help a whole lot with it (it's well outside my expertise), but I know how this place works, and I know when the remaining 1/4 burn out and leave I'm gonna be stuck holding the bag. Whenever I look at LinkedIn or Indeed or whatever I get a giant pit in my stomach, and I've woken up in the middle of the night and had an hour and a half long waking anxiety attacks about what I'd even do in an interview, or if I could make enough to keep paying the mortgage or for my kids, or if I'd ever really be happy. I realize this is my fault for staying where I've been for as long as I have - I'm not exactly ambitious, I just like doing a job for a set period, not being treated like total garbage, and leaving at a reasonable time. I just don't really know where to go. The DevOps thing seems like a neat idea, but the more I look into it, the more I think "I'm gonna be stuck doing 60 hour weeks and being on call, aren't I?" I've dealt with critical hospital issues before, so it's not so much the prospect of "whoopsie, production is down and everyone is mad" that I'm concerned about, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a bit of seasoning on an already bitter milkshake I keep chugging down. I'm just not really sure what to do here. My resume is polished up (it hasn't changed a whole heck of a lot), so that's good, but I think I might be approaching this incorrectly. I guess I don't know what I don't know, so I have no idea what sorts of jobs I'd be qualified for or like. Would a career counselor be helpful in this instance? Has anyone else been in a similar rut, and if so, how did you get out of it?
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Dec 10, 2021 22:36
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That's a giant text block so I won't quote it. But have you looked at lims admin positions in pharma / biotech companies? Often they need low level programming, lots of user training, SOP creation, ui help and solving user caused bugs. Good pay, usually good hours (not hospital hours), and you're not tied into a company that sucks and have more options. Honestly your resume sounds great for that role, and there's a lot of those positions out there.
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Dec 11, 2021 01:55
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That anxiety is super normal. 15 years is a long time. 2 weeks into a new job it will be fine. Same with interviewing, weird and hard at first and then gets better.
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Dec 11, 2021 03:17
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I'm at a point about 8 years into a career, where my salary is becoming unsustainable but I know I don't want the next job in the career ladder very much. I make $150k/year in an individual contributor role, and have numerous offers to move into a ~$200k (still very low for my extremely high-CoL area) role but I've done it before and it involves 100 hour workweeks and traveling half the year. It's specialized blue collar stuff, and I've never worked in an office, but covid has made me realize I've made the extremely wrong choice. Have any of you bailed on a career at this point? I'm feeling really lost at this point, all the jobs in my city if I do not travel are very specialized tech/biotech. I qualify as maybe a high-level janitor, or a junior maintenance tech, if I actually worked in town, so talking 40k a year, and I feel super trapped. Moving is 100% out of the question for family reasons I can't really get into. Everyone I talk to in my job about this either thinks I'm crazy or feels trapped in the same way, I have a good reputation but people are starting to question why I'm not stepping up into the obvious next role.
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Jan 7, 2022 03:10
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What skills do you have that net you 150k but are only qualified for glorified janitorial positions? What do you want to do?
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Jan 7, 2022 15:14
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if you go in to entry level nontechnical corporate jobs there's a possibility that you could in a decade or two be making nearly $150k just so you're aware
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Jan 7, 2022 15:29
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Mr Newsman posted:What skills do you have that net you 150k but are only qualified for glorified janitorial positions? Engineer on a container ship. Like engineering officer, not an actual degreed engineer. I like, work on the engines and equipment. I'm not sure what I want to do really, just something with less travel and preferably WFH eventually.
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Jan 7, 2022 18:31
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Wang Commander posted:Engineer on a container ship. Like engineering officer, not an actual degreed engineer. I like, work on the engines and equipment. I'm not sure what I want to do really, just something with less travel and preferably WFH eventually. Gotcha. Hard to give any suggestions based upon what you've shared but people absolutely change careers all the time. They go back to school at 45 and get a degree, take a lower position to break into a specific field, or do transitions within their current company to gain specific skills for their future. With that said, it all depends on how badly you need to make your current salary. Family of 3 to support and a mortgage? Bit harder. I think some things to look into might be related to your proximity to biotech. Maybe you'd be interested in laboratory ops? Field service engineering? FSE would include travel but would likely be territory based and if you're close to a hub then you'd be home most nights. Edit: totally possible to be flying all over the states though. Could be worse than what you do now. Just some thoughts. Mr Newsman fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jan 7, 2022 |
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Jan 7, 2022 22:05
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Yeah, working container ships makes sense. What concrete skills do you have, what are some jobs that are interesting. You almost certainly have more skills than you think, now is not the time to be modest. I'd say come to terms with taking a pay cut for sure, at least for a while, since a significant part of your current compensation is being out on the boat. How tied are you to where you are currently based out of?
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Jan 7, 2022 22:30
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Hello. My career (teacher) is riddled with covid and I am not interested in doing it in-person for the foreseeable future, nor am I interested to do it online because I'd rather do it in-person if I am doing it at all. I'm taking a full break from my line of work, but I am not abandoning it permanently. I don't know how long I'm looking at working in something else, but a year sounds about right. Maybe two. Heck, I have no clue these days. My goal is to work some something on the lower end of pay that allows me to stay fully remote. I have two separate questions about my prospects: 1. I am going to take up a basic monkey-work data entry job to pass the time and pay the bills. Other than being rad at Excel, are there any certs or skills that might help in branching to better levels of pay (or less bullshit) in that area without having to make it like a career path or work towards upwards mobility? If that makes sense. If that seems a bit much, should I just stick to monkey work and not put too much thought into trying to get something better out of it than it is? 2. My undergrad was in English. I really enjoyed writing and researching during that time, and I was the type of student that had no problem cranking out papers and posts. During graduate school, my writing amount increased exponentially to match the reading and research while time limits on assignments dropped significantly. I almost always enjoyed the challenge. Due to this ability to write under pressure and not hate it, some people have recommended I look into copywriting as an alternative career idea or for part-time income. I've looked at entry-level jobs on several job sites, but without experience it seems like I am SOL. The internships I've seen all require me to be enrolled in a school, and it doesn't seem like training is part of any listing I've seen. Does anyone here have any advice on how to get into a basic remote copywriting job for peanuts or experience that isn't a scam? Is there anything I could study in my spare time to help (besides marketing, I guess)? This is something that might actually be an alternate career path if I could figure out how to find that Goldie Locks company that offers training, etc., and/or takes on newbies so I could actually gain experience. Also, I'm probably going to sign up for a year of unlimited Coursera, so if you know of any courses on there that would help me in any of the areas mentioned, I'll gladly take a look! Thank you. PITY BONER fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Jan 8, 2022 |
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Jan 8, 2022 00:54
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Lockback posted:Yeah, working container ships makes sense. What concrete skills do you have, what are some jobs that are interesting. You almost certainly have more skills than you think, now is not the time to be modest. I'd say come to terms with taking a pay cut for sure, at least for a while, since a significant part of your current compensation is being out on the boat. How tied are you to where you are currently based out of? My problem is I am 100% tied to living in an area where the only jobs are tech/biotech. I have no skills in that arena whatsoever. My skillset is basically "plant operator" and if I were in the North I could make substantially the same income at a power plant but in the South blue collar pays nothing.
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Jan 8, 2022 01:01
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I'm curious for an outside perspective on my career, if folks have the time. Any insights appreciated! Background: In 2013, I graduated with a liberal arts bachelor's degree in political economy, which was an interdisciplinary consisting of politics (know a lot about that), economics (forgot everything), and history (somewhere in the middle). After about a month, I found a job as a writer at a nonprofit for $30k/year. A few months in, I was promoted to lead a team of writers and got a bump to $32k. The next year I got bumped to $40k, then two years after that I got another promotion and a raise to $58k. We had a restructuring a few years ago that resulted in kind of a lateral move, and I received a couple more big pay bumps during that time to $88k. Last month, I got a small raise to $90k. In that time, the nonprofit has grown from 40 to 65 full-time employees. Pros: - I've tripled my salary in less than nine years, and I'm earning more than I ever expected to given my degree/profession. I have no debt aside from a mortgage, and I'm on track to have that paid off by 34. The nonprofit is financially healthy, so there isn't significant risk of disruption. - I get to work from home, and that's unrelated to the pandemic. - I now have more than eight years of management experience; my current situation is 11 full-time staff, one part-time staff, and 15 part-time contractors around the world. I've mostly managed front-line staff, but I've also managed other managers. I enjoy management a lot, and I'm very good at it. I'm the only manager in the company who has been nominated by his team for the leadership award every year, and I've won it three out of eight years. - I love my team. At this point, it's a handpicked group of very skilled, competent, and kind people. I respect and trust them. We've been extremely successful. - My boss has enormous trust in me and has designated me as his successor for years. He confides in me regularly. - I spent five years as the only non-department head on the organization's executive team. During that tenure, I created many of the organization's systems and literally wrote the company's mission statement and core values. I have an excellent relationship with the COO, and a good one with the CEO (although she's always kind of hot-and-cold on people). Cons: - I work a lot. I know it doesn't compare to some people, but I probably average close to 60 hours/week, which is more than anyone I know aside from a doctor friend. The nature of the work tends to involve a lot of creative problem-solving, so that's nice on one hand because it's mentally engaging, but it's also tough because it's so mentally taxing. - I'm pretty much at the peak of the salary ladder for my position at this point, and I believe that I'm something like the sixth-highest in the company behind my boss, the three executives, and our lead tech developer. I don't think my boss or the executives are going anywhere, so unless a new position/department is made, I don't see my compensation substantially changing in the foreseeable future. - Although the health benefits are fine, the retirement benefit is lame. There's a 401k, but no matching whatsoever. - When I joined the nonprofit originally, I was recommended by a woman who I had worked with during a collegiate internship, and we became very good friends. That friend group expanded to four of us over the years, and we went on multiple trips together. In the past year, though, two of the four (including my original friend) have resigned. - The executive team was disbanded last year, so I no longer have a direct line to the executives. This has occasionally caused some bad initiatives to get through that I was previously able to kill in the cradle. - One of the executives, a new VP, was hired last year after briefly being a consultant. The position was made explicitly for him and I heard that nobody internally was ever actually considered for it. That annoyed me because the role was so in-line with my experience/skillset that several people congratulated me when the position was announced in the belief that it was obviously meant for me. Bitterness aside, he's not an idiot, but it's a real "new guy is saying what we've all been saying for years, but he believes it's new and that he's a genius for saying it, and he's getting rewarded accordingly" situation. When there are articles all over the place about the Great Resignation and half of your work friends leave, it's easy to think that you should leave too. I feel like the holiday gave me better perspective on things, though, and in typing this up, my current opinion is that I'm letting my ego get the best of me and that I should cool it about this VP thing. I do think that the lack of future earning growth potential isn't ideal, but on the other hand, it's not obvious to me that I actually need to be making more money. I'm also skeptical that I could make as much elsewhere unless we were acquired (we're a data vendor for some Very Big Companies that might want to bring us in-house at some point) or if I were headhunted, but it's a tiny field. I think if I went to the private sector and took an entry-level management position somewhere I could get higher eventually, but I'm sure it would be an initial paycut (and maybe no longer working from home). I also don't know if my lack of an MBA (or quantitative/statistics skills in general) would bar that from happening, either. My takeaway is that I've been lucky and I shouldn't screw with a good thing. I'm inclined to keep doing what I'm doing for a few more years and get the house paid off so that I have complete financial freedom.
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Jan 9, 2022 01:59
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With a staff of that size and what you described for responsibilities, 90k seems kinda low. There's no reason you can't look on the side and see what's out there. Either just grind for a few months or find efficiencies in your day. Your degree and previous expectations don't matter anymore, don't let it hold you back. You don't need an MBA and I doubt you take any kind of paycut. The risk, actually, is that you anchor on your current wage and underprice yourself.
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Jan 9, 2022 03:44
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I'd maybe consider talking to a headhunting or consulting firm and see what they might find for you. Management experience in a data vendor is probably less niche than you think.
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Jan 9, 2022 07:26
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PITY BONER posted:Copywriting I do this in-house. I made a resume and cover letter making fun of old jobs, and had a couple upwork projects with a radio ad I somehow got to do at another job. The right person saw it, thought it was funny, and I got lucky. I advertised my voice well, and that’s what my team wanted. You need a portfolio. To get that you need either design skills or work. Yes, it’s a catch 22. Figure it out on upwork or watch some TikToks on how to break in. If you have design skills, make an ad for your favorite brand. Read the Adweek Copywriting Handbook and the Boron Letters. The first is a good how-to. Read the second to see if you can stomach this industry. If you find it smarmy and revolting, well…yeah that’s a lot of advertising. It’s not smarmy everywhere, but I cannot stress enough how different academia is. Your experience is applicable, but no one cares about it in the way other academics care. The only thing that matters is your ability to create good work. You’ll probably get edited by someone who knows less than you about writing, but they get projects done on time so it doesn’t matter. Read Strunk & White to learn how to cram lots of meaning into short sentences. Maybe some agency people here can give more input. Offer to work for cheap maybe? The official channels don’t always matter, especially for large creative agencies with tons of volume. Network, flex LinkedIn (peep the LinkedIn thread) and get your name out there. If you’re just clicking applications all day your odds are low. There’s also content writing, SEO, email marketing and so much out there that you could get into. Generating lots of (good) words fast is certainly an in-demand skill.
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Jan 9, 2022 17:29
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surf rock posted:I'm curious for an outside perspective on my career, if folks have the time. Any insights appreciated! I agree with Xguard86 that you might be surprised what's out there and you could find something where you're making as much / more and working less. There's no harm in looking anyway, maybe you could be the "new VP out of nowhere" guy somewhere else.
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Jan 9, 2022 18:54
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Thank you for the advice, everyone! That perspective is really helpful. 
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Jan 11, 2022 01:52
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I'm starting off a new career in ontology, just started my first full time job. The owner of my company asked me what job title I'd like, to help me with my career. There's sorta an informal understanding between us that I'd work here for a couple years and move on as/if I outgrew the position. What job title should I ask for? I was thinking of just honestly saying junior ontologist for my experience level. For the record I'm coming from am academic background, so these things are not ones Ive thought a lot about.
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Jan 11, 2022 05:36
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Look around job postings and see which ones look like you want to do them as a next step in your career, then ask for that title. Also, i am curious: What the gently caress does an ontologist do?
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Jan 11, 2022 08:33
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moana posted:What the gently caress does an ontologist do?
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Jan 11, 2022 09:02
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MOVIE MAJICK posted:honestly saying junior Na, no need to reduce it for that reason. I'm still getting used to this too, coming from academia. Like, you don't need to embellish (chief ontology officer), but a flag just to say hey guys I'm new is just letting your new guy insecurities have too much power
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Jan 11, 2022 13:50
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Ontologists engineer these https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology_(information_science) It's a quickly growing field because 'big data' and any sort of AI needs an ontology
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Jan 11, 2022 13:57
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I was going to say, Data Analyst is probably the "base" or umbrella for that, but you can have a bit of fun with it. I'd maybe go with a bit more industry title than "Junior Ontologist" (My first thought on that was you were doing Quantum Theory or something) but something like 'Data Analyst, Ontology Engineering' sounds good. You can probably even call something like that "Associate Data Scientist" if your boss is cool with that, that might be the most impressive. Remember, your title you call yourself at work and what you put on your resume don't have to be the exact same thing.
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Jan 11, 2022 14:37
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that is deeply lame compared to what it ought to be 
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Jan 11, 2022 14:37
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Yea I agree. I was going to suggest "Metaphysicist" as the job title
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Jan 11, 2022 14:44
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I'm in my 20s with a B.S. in computer science and people are constantly telling me that I should get a Master's degree to move up in my career. But I don't really see it the same way. In the tech field, the people I see who usually get a Master's are from foreign countries where their B.S. doesn't make the cut here. Getting a Master's to move up as a programmer at my company doesn't happen because the skills needed to move up are pretty specific to the job itself. For me, the only reason why I would get a Master's would be to try and change career completely - I've been thinking of maybe getting a Master's in computational linguistics. But even then - and here's the general questions for everybody - is it best to do the Master's while working? Or take time off to focus solely on the degree? America Inc. fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Jan 15, 2022 |
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Jan 15, 2022 00:18
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proletariando posted:I'm in my 20s with a B.S. in computer science and people are constantly telling me that I should get a Master's degree to move up in my career. But I don't really see it the same way. In the tech field, the people I see who usually get a Master's are from foreign countries where their B.S. doesn't make the cut here. Getting a Master's to move up as a programmer at my company doesn't happen because the skills needed to move up are pretty specific to the job itself. Just wondering, who's telling you to get an MS? You're right, MS CS programs are a waste of time and money if you have a BS and only want the MS to move up as a programmer. Maybe if you want to move into management in an environment where some form of advanced degree is required or expected it might help, but at that point you're better off with an MBA. To answer the other question, it kind of depends on why you're getting the degree. But MS programs are pretty expensive on the whole so you might be better off working if you can handle the combined workload, unless money is no object.
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Jan 15, 2022 00:51
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The only time to take an MS is when someone else is paying for it. Is that MS in computational linguistics really gonna open many doors for you? If you already have a CS degree I imagine you can work your way into a computational linguistics job by taking online courses or working on side projects. Your new employer should then pay you to work while doing the degree, if you still want it at that point.
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Jan 15, 2022 01:14
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There are a few good reasons to go for a master's in CS. I can think of four:
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Jan 15, 2022 04:25
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I would but suggest a masters as the right option to moved up, no. But saying it's a mistake of it's something you really want to do but go look and see if there are jobs with hard Masters requirements in your area. I'm betting there won't be.
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Jan 15, 2022 07:22
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Any ideas for a late twenties dude who has worked office for the last 1.5 years doing inside sales and establishing an ERP/work analysis program in a fabrication/manufacturing setting? I have no degree, went from general labor to welder to lead fabricator/shipping/everything to worming my way into an office, all with no experience. I’m super tenacious when it comes to any work put in front of me, and really badly want to get into something similar to what I’m doing now, but making much more money and would love a WFH setup. My wife is about to graduate and can give me enough time to let me quit me job and focus on getting a 2-year degree (an associates..right?), but I don’t have any clue what fields will truly yield a worthwhile time investment Goons, please, please help me make bank. I’m incredibly hardworking and as a current example I’m the ERP software my current employer hadn’t enabled to track jobs for regular items we manufacture and can see through raw material and labor data where our pricing should be, went through and made lists to corral like items so they could be price adjusted when their common raw material goes up in price, the list goes on. Mind you I also had to come up with the backbone for this ERP software and actually has to basically translate what the lovely xml table backed software does so it works for our unique manufacturing process. Please help thank you :S
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Jan 23, 2022 17:13
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you could probably roll in to implementation consulting but you will need a Bachelor's, probably. figure you could get in the door right now if you had a Bachelor's and your experience just under or around six figs as an individual contributor, going up from there as an IC with pretty rapid advancement, or if you make the leap in to management at some point at least twice that doesn't really matter the field. in general, more quantitatively oriented degrees are more valuable in the labor market. so figure BBA, finance, econ, some kind of industrial engineering to align with your background etc. you can start at CC part time and then transfer credits to a state institution assuming you have good ones in your area, this helps lower cost and allows you to work concurrently for some of the four years of your bachelor's
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Jan 23, 2022 18:09
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:you could probably roll in to implementation consulting but you will need a Bachelor's, probably. figure you could get in the door right now if you had a Bachelor's and your experience just under or around six figs as an individual contributor, going up from there as an IC with pretty rapid advancement, or if you make the leap in to management at some point at least twice that First off, thank you! I figured I would have to get a bachelors, but couldn’t help asking if there was a way out of it, and it’s nice to know that my feelings line up with what you’re saying - that is to get a degree in roughly anything pertaining to the strains of work I find myself doing. So, I’ll end up doing what I thought I would need to from the get go, which is asking my wife to give me more time in order to choke down as much schooling as I can get. May I ask, do you have experience in implementation consulting? And can you see me running into trouble trying to get a job in this field 4 years from now, when the world has continued to devolve? I know, it’s stupid to ask given you just recommended it, but I’m hoping you will be willing to humor me
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Jan 24, 2022 01:44
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I'm a strategy guy but have worked with/against a ton of implementation teams. I don't anticipate that companies will have to stop replacing lovely legacy systems any time soon, and they certainly won't develop internal expertise at doing it. The only real risk is increasing competition from lower cost offshore labor, but companies will still want a good local resource to be face to client at minimum. Right now there is a huge delta between resource availability and work to be done, so the market is very, very good for employees. The world continuing to devolve generally favors consulting firms. Seriously consider not taking that much time off work and instead adding a part time course load at a local CC to start. There are probably paths that don't involve getting a bachelor's but that's basically the unlock path to making a lot more money especially if you want to work from home and not be on call
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Jan 24, 2022 02:38
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Any reason for the caution? I do on doing our local CC for my two years, and I’m situated next to a ton of schools I could transfer to once completed. My wife will make twice what I do now once she graduates, which will be my opportunity face my schooling head on - but if I’m missing something, I’m all ears! Thank you for the reassurance and insight, the logic makes sense to me, regarding future security. And honestly, if I need a bachelor's I’ll go for it, the most important thing is that I come out with a career that I can make bank with, but as I’ve never really had much exposure to ‘professionals’ in my life, I honestly wasn’t sure if I could swing it with an associates. I’m good at devoting myself to challenges when I know the outcome is more stable, so it’s not the end of the world. How’s working against the consultant pan out? I’m used to a major amount departmental headlocking, but most of it stems for ignorant business owners and “I’ve been here for 20 years” types, and so my hope is that this is a career that doesn’t rely on me cracking everyone’s skull just to get operations straightened out.. god I hate my gig
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Jan 24, 2022 03:08
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eternalvictory posted:Any reason for the caution? I do on doing our local CC for my two years, and I’m situated next to a ton of schools I could transfer to once completed. My wife will make twice what I do now once she graduates, which will be my opportunity face my schooling head on - but if I’m missing something, I’m all ears!
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Jan 24, 2022 03:52
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eternalvictory posted:Any ideas for a late twenties dude who has worked office for the last 1.5 years doing inside sales and establishing an ERP/work analysis program in a fabrication/manufacturing setting? I have no degree, went from general labor to welder to lead fabricator/shipping/everything to worming my way into an office, all with no experience. I’m super tenacious when it comes to any work put in front of me, and really badly want to get into something similar to what I’m doing now, but making much more money and would love a WFH setup. My wife is about to graduate and can give me enough time to let me quit me job and focus on getting a 2-year degree (an associates..right?), but I don’t have any clue what fields will truly yield a worthwhile time investment Apologies for the long effort post but this is kind of in my wheelhouse. FWIW, I started out in inside sales a long time ago and was in ERP software in that role for awhile at a global megacorp well known in this area so can somewhat relate. A couple of thoughts:
I'm happy to discuss via PM and however I can help.
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Jan 24, 2022 20:46
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Holy smokes, thanks for getting back to me in such a manner, folks. I’m lucky to have my partner who is just finishing up her schooling and went CC to state, and she’s gone ahead and already got a lot of my paperwork end of things started, like getting me signed up for financial aid. But it is clear I need to get ahold of someone like a counsellor, I think that’s number one on my list at this point. Rapstar - First off, thanks again for taking so much time, I appreciate all the insight and hearing about your background - I’ll try address everything I can without creating too much filler. I’m really torn on what do when considering a sales path or not, I’m inside sales at the moment but my company is so fast and loose that I often end up as first contact where I find myself selling. I wouldn’t say I enjoy that side of things though, even the inside sales part of sales wears on me pretty hard. Which is why the idea presented by kyoon is so intriguing to me, I love building systems and I also love educating others on how those systems can be utilized and how they’ll benefit from incorporating new tools. I haven’t been exposed to even a half assed decent sales environment, so I can’t/won’t neg the idea completely, but I also know that my social anxiety combined with the wrong fit would be a disaster for me. I don’t have a specific pay in mind as I’m pretty unaware of any of these topics, and it’s partly my motivation for putting myself out there and asking y’all these dopey questions. I know it’s gross to say, but I’m just looking to earn as much as I can, and betting on goons knowing about solid niche fields or otherwise even normal career paths that I’m just wholly unaware of. I had figured I would be told that sales is my best bet for earning 200k and onwards, and I think that’s the baseline I’m after. I know I’m smart and have excellent experience that can relay how I’m a good fit in most any situation I can think of, and I’m dying to figure out how and where I can best throw my weight to get the best outcome possible for my income. I have more I need to respond, but I have to cut myself short at the moment. Apologies for any points I haven’t yet address, I’ll try to continue this later tonight.
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Jan 26, 2022 21:24
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"Sales engineer" or "presales" might be a fit too. Basically what you described as fun: show people the product, explain why it will solve their problems. Latter part is far more important. Often, it's more about teaching and being hyped about your solution vs the more sales-y stuff which also might be a fit. People also transition between these roles and full on account executive (or whatever title) all the time, so it's not an option-limiter. Comp is still really good 100-300k depending on commission at a big SAAS co.
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Jan 26, 2022 21:44
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yeah sales engineering is a good fit
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Jan 26, 2022 21:54
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