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fuzzy_logic posted:Let me know if I'm in the wrong thread! I've been out of work for awhile collecting unemployment but am starting to score interviews. I'm worried that being without a schedule / out of an office for several months now is going to make it hard to transition when I actually do get a job. Right now I'm trying to set an alarm and get up at a reasonable hour, not stay up late, things like that, but I still feel like a half-feral socially isolated greaseball who spends way too much time watching netflix. Does anyone have any advice for scheduling my day / keeping my brain busy so I don't entirely shut down or just gently caress around when I'm back in an office environment? I'm a software developer by the way, will probably end up in a fairly hectic startup. Is it a technical job? Setup a schedule right now to learn some new stuff. Learn SQL, Java, Machine Learning, whatever. You don't need to spend 8 hours a day, but saying "From 9am until 11:30 every day I am going to work on this list of skills". It's a good way of getting in the groove of actually doing something and you gain some skills. There's tons of free stuff online that is very good quality.
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Jul 18, 2018 15:38
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obi_ant posted:Looking for some advice in terms of a new career path. Wow, yeah you are kind of all over the place. If you're looking to get out of retail I think HR-related stuff would be the closest fit, but that can be hard to get into. I think talking to a contracting company/recruiter would be a good first step. Probably not going to land you that long-term career, but might get you some experience in a new direction. I can speak with a bit of expertise on hiring network security, and usually there wouldn't be much for someone without some sort of background/schooling/certification. A hiring manager doesn't just want to know what you say you know, but they want to know what you've actually DONE. If you can put a good resume together that shows that, then great! If not it's an uphill battle. Recruiter company, contracting company would be my suggestion. Maybe look at jobs dealing with logistics or purchasing, which may fit with your background? Retail is a hole though, so good on you to get out.
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Aug 28, 2018 21:16
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No one will be upset if you negotiate, but based on what you said I sorta assume the salary will already be set and they may not be able to budge. You should still try, but just setting some expectations. Frequently the hiring managers, especially in they public sector, have far less control over adjustments like that than people think.obi_ant posted:Thanks for the reply! It is quite unfortunate, although on a brighter note, I'm willing to go back to school for something that I see suitable (the problem is knowing what I like). Which from the circles I'm around that's not an option or wanted. I usually perform pretty well for interviews (I think). I can speak to my achievements and successes well, but they're all retail related. The couple of times I've been turned down, the coordinating/hiring manager usually talks to me for 15-20 minutes for a rejection, which can't be normal. I think one of the IT threads would give you better advice. I would like to see some sort of IT bachelor's but I admit I am probably overly biased to education vs certs. As far as how long, it's far more merit based, if you're smart (and you know how to automate well) you'll rise quickly. In my experience it's also a field that gets fired en masse pretty often, so less stress it is not.
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Aug 29, 2018 04:46
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General Probe posted:do I nakedly play the positions against one another or just evaluate each offer as it comes in? Basically both of these. I bet the lunch meeting would be the one where you have the most leverage, so take that (for sure) but you need to be prepared. Find out how much a senior claims adjuster makes in both the other cases (adjust accordingly if the job is better or worse than the new TPA). The promotion pay adjustment is probably more rigid than you think, usually managers don't have much say. You usually do get more leeway when hiring someone from the outside, especially if the client is asking for someone specific. So go into that meeting with a number in your head, and it probably should be higher than you think. Get info on the senior role ASAP, if they are bothering to take you to lunch there is probably an offer and the promotions are never a sure thing, so you'll likely need to make a decision pretty quickly. You'll probably get the best offer from new TPA. Check glassdoor but I would expect senior adjuster is probably +/- 10% pay bump and I would look for +/- 25% increase if you're being sniped. This is just a guess, but its not unreasonable. Congrats, its a fun thing when you get pursued like that. It's a good opportunity to suddenly accelerate your career and earnings a few years ahead in one swoop.
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Sep 24, 2018 18:50
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General Probe posted:Thank you, ended up taking the position handling DBA claims, got an 18% raise and will learn a new marketable skill. Plus I still have 3 months to see if my client who's leaving new TPA can match or beat my new salary. Perfect, well done.
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Oct 5, 2018 16:18
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KomeradeCanadian posted:I'm in a bad place, goons, and could really appreciate some career advice. Woof, that's a tough place. Have you considered going back to school? Otherwise Pharmacy Tech is an ok job, but not much of a career. Some places will help fund education to be a Pharmacist, which could be a long-term plan. Thirdly, what are your other skills? If your technical you can look at places like Medtronic to become a device tech for things like Pacemakers, that's a pretty neat job (lots of oncall though) and meeting those guys they come from all sorts of backgrounds, there is some technical skill required. If you are talky, medical device sales is super lucrative and a great way to pickup an early cocaine habit. Lastly, you can just do a career switch and go to a (good) coding bootcamp or something. The degree still helps tremendously getting a job, but you'll need to spend months building skills. I'm just spitballing here to help with some ideas, not really an expert in this field.
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Oct 15, 2018 16:45
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KomeradeCanadian posted:I worked as a waiter, for several years. Unless you mean sales in pharmaceuticals, I don't think it's for me. Coding Bootcamps are basically "Learn Java, Angular JS, and other stuff in 12 weeks". There are good ones and bad ones and I wouldn't suggest it unless you have interest and some talent in programming. Many are getting bad reps, but my company recruits from there, and people do walk out of there to 60-80k jobs. But you can absolutely tell the difference between people who actually want to do that vs people who went into a bootcamp because they thought it would get them a good job but didn't have interest. For Technician jobs it's stuff like this: https://jobs.medtronic.com/jobs/field-services-rep-ii-51737 or this: https://jobs.medtronic.com/jobs/technical-support-iii-51790 I've talked with a few of those guys, and it seemed like an interesting (though not easy) job and a real career, not just a job. Plus you literally save people's lives (or kill them, I guess!). The guys I talked to all had 4 year degrees but from different disciplines. Obv find the right med device company by you, I'm in Minnesota so it's basically throw a rock. For school don't get lost in sunk cost. If right now your best future is going the electrician route do that, but take a bit of time and understand your options. A BS in Biology is not going to open tons of doors, but having the Bachelors in general does help quite a bit.
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Oct 16, 2018 21:26
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KomeradeCanadian posted:Sorry, I just have no clue on that industry, to a comical degree. Like the first question I'd ask is "is it like The Office?" How would you explain "sales" to a completely ignorant person? I wouldn't even know how to structure a resume to apply there. It's building relationships, understanding the breadth and depth of the product line, managing a pre-sales engagement. I dunno, some people love it others don't. If you're the kind of guy who can make someone think you're their best friend over a drink, you'll make (literally) millions. But it can be long hours and up and down pay.
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Oct 17, 2018 20:54
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KillHour posted:If you were looking to hire someone entry level for your team, what would you be looking for? Would you be open to people who have degrees outside of computer science? I used to run a data science team and now I have people who do a wider range of stuff, but data-digging is still on our menu. No Comp-Sci is fine, but demonstrate your skills. Have a github with real stuff. I would look right past the degree if you had a app that screen scraped a bunch of NBA stats and fed it into some off-the-shelf open-source tensorflow implementation and let it spit out gibberish. If you can show you built something end-to-end, even if it's worthless, you'll immediately look good for $80k+ entry-level jobs. Another manager I knew hired a guy for $120k based entirely on him coming in 2nd once for a kaggle competition (which I thought was kind of jumping the gun, but that's data science for you!). Doing some of the easier ones is probably a good place to start. Your background is a fine fit for that if you can sharpen your python and java.
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Nov 12, 2018 18:46
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Java, because you'll probably work with a company that does everything else with it. DB experience, ideally something like Cassandra/Hadoop/Mongo but Oracle and MSSql too. If you want to do AI and deep learning, some experience with at least a high level toolset like Keras. It's pretty easy to build something simple using Keras and it looks great on a resume. Some AWS/Azure experience. Get free accounts for both and figure out how to spin up a quick environment. That list is a pretty robust toolset, the actual skills are problem solving, communicating with stakeholders in a clear way to bridge the gap between domain knowledge and data, and being able to present findings.
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Nov 18, 2018 15:40
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My advice would be try to make it work while stringing them along. Don't worry about leaving "at a good time", you don't need to put a companies interest above yours, they didn't do that with you or your coworkers. I can't say much about your Holiday plans, but I think most people would be more inconvenienced by 2+ months of not being employed vs projects over the holidays. If you quit you won't get unemployment, so its up to you on your risk tolerance. Seems like a job where you work from home and don't have much to do is basically ideal while job hunting.
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Nov 21, 2018 15:57
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If it's actively hurting your mental health, a small gap because you wanted out isn't TOO big of a deal, but it'll be easier if you had a job honestly. Job market is also usually slowest right around this time and gets much better in January as new fiscal year/quarter money becomes available. I'd suggest taking Dik Hz's advice if possible, but ultimately you know what's best for you.
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Nov 21, 2018 23:24
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Dik Hz posted:Agreed. However, sometimes if you give yourself permission to quit, you'll find the job suddenly becomes bearable again. Some of the other advice I've heard is to treat it like you're a sociologist researching a dysfunctional alien civilization. Post-capitalism-society.txt But I agree.
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Nov 21, 2018 23:49
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What is your associates in? Not having a bachelor's is going to be one strike against you. Not a death knell, but with other things it might be a problem. Thoughts going somewhere (cheap) to finish off a bachelors? Have you done any coding/webdev/UX bootcamps anywhere? I have mixed feelings about them, but it might help with your situation of not getting a foot in anywhere. A musician friend of mine went from basically your situation to a front-end team lead in like 2 years via a bootcamp, so they can help certain people. Do you have anything you can demonstrate with your skills? Webpages, projects, etc? That is probably what anyone looking to hire junior wants to see. Saying you can do something or even having a piece of paper is not the same thing as being able to actually show a thing. Thoughts on branching out? I've done software support along with engineering roles and the support roles can be better fits for "misfits" and still be lucrative/rewarding/etc. Desktop support can suck balls, but enterprise or SaaS support can be pretty decent. You may still need more technical chops (Java, even light experience, has been a requirement for most roles I've hired in the last few years).
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Jan 7, 2019 18:44
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buglord posted:Is job shadowing a thing you can ask companies to do for you? I applied for a place, I'm 99% sure I wont get in, but even when I wont, I still want to see what people in this particular business do. Is this something I should have asked about before applying? Don't offer to work for free before applying, no. Some companies offer internship-like things to people not in school, but its pretty rare and I've really only heard of it in San Francisco and a FinTech company in New York. I'm not sure that's exactly job shadowing.
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Jan 10, 2019 18:55
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Yeah, I'd just goose the number. Or say "I make 100k after bonus and incentives, so for this role I'd want a base salary at 110k to offset the risk of a move like this."
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Jan 12, 2019 15:50
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SA Forums Poster posted:I was looking for some help on how I approach the new boss and how to phrase. I can't just go up and say "the old boss promised me a promotion and raise, and a million dollar bonus, give it to me now." Honestly, if I were in that new bosses shoes the promise of someone who left wouldn't mean anything. If you were being groomed, I'd want to see what skills you had and some of the things you've done to prove you can take that position. With the old boss leaving, priorities might be different and a promotion may not make business sense anymore. I'd have a talk with new guy but be focused on the future. You can mention the development plan your old boss had, but don't be stuck on it. That's gone and now you need to build a new plan on your current foundation. I either just stay quiet though, you'll probably not be given any thought I'd you do, but realize that you have to start over conniving this new guy.
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Feb 10, 2019 15:55
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Aginor posted:I'm hoping to get out of hospitality, an industry I've been in all my life, and try a new career path which is more 9-5 Monday to Friday. Been in the management side for quite a few years. Problem is I do not know what I want to do and what I could do. Think I've been in hospitality too long. So there are a couple options, but will require some work. You could probably go into some kind of project management with the experience you have, but usually domain knowledge is pretty important. I have seen people come in and get good jobs in project management with not-dissimilar backgrounds, but it's pretty rare. If you have good people skills you'd probably possibly do well in a recruiter or sales. Mixed results for those, but hey are more 9-5 and you can make a good career. I've always thought a lot of enterprise/SaaS sales guys were able to turn being kinda smart and a good hustler into great careers. Finally, you can also look at something like Customer Success Management, which is also people-oriented and frequently hired from a more diverse skillset. All these options may or may not be good fits depending on your desire, and its like any job most places will have additional requirements you may or may not fit. But some ideas.
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Mar 19, 2019 23:19
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So I don't see a lot of Dev Management in what you are doing today, it looks to me to be pretty deep Product Management. Dev management at SaaS usually does more hands-on with the code and especially manages the fires that inevitably come up in addition to the people management. You look like your doing straight Product Management with maybe a more technical flair (which isn't unusual). So, the question is: Do you see much runway to keep moving up in Product Management where you are? Conditions for this role, to me, would be less monetary based and more based around what doors you can open up. Can CEO create a "Director of Sales Engineering" role for you to fill? Or maybe Senior Manager? if that is a stretch? Can you define what you are doing to fill what he needs to be filled while still doing the stuff that you want to do? He's the freakin CEO, so he can make anything happen. Ideally I'd have a conversation that you are the new Director of Sales Engineering/Enablement/Success (whatever) with a base salary of $90k, a smaller draw & commission cut (maybe based on total sales instead of direct), and duties that are not 100% based around selling. If he says no to that, it looks a bit better on you as you tried to make it fit (though I'd start polishing my resume). That sort of role would dovetail nicely back into Product Management, or you can keep carving your own niche (which seems to be your MO anyway). In general, with your background you seem eminently employable anyway, so if you think you'd hate that job don't take it.
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Mar 23, 2019 20:05
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Bridges will be burnt so just do whatever with company A. Personally, if it were me, I'd come in and ask the boss what they'd prefer you do, and it's likely "leave today", but at least you let them feel like they have some control. Don't tell company B anything until the offer is accepted.
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Mar 24, 2019 05:33
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a dingus posted:My job sucks rear end but I just accepted it 9 months ago, how should I handle an internal transfer or letting my boss know I'm looking to get out? Should I just keep my mouth shut and apply to internal positions? Do you have a good relationship with your boss or someone up the chain? Talk to them before applying to internal roles. If you surprised someone with a move (or even a notification that you applied) that could really screw yourself at that company. You'll probably have to steel yourself that the best way for you to shift careers is to switch companies, but in the meantime if you chat with your management they might have a way to make things suck slightly less or perhaps even agree with your assessment that this isn't a fit and help you move. But don't "spring" this on anyone as a surprise.
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Mar 29, 2019 15:01
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I would focus on the company laying people off and your job duties changing, not so much the personal stuff. Never sounds like you're whining in an interview. You don't need to justify why you want a new job. New job is better, right? So obviously you want that.
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Apr 6, 2019 16:47
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Rand McNally posted:After some thought, I decided to withdraw my name from the list of candidates a day before the interview due to the lack of job stability and in good conscience, not being able to go ahead with it while still being employed. Not being interested in the job due to stability is one thing, but feeling like you shouldn't be going after better jobs while employed is a really dumb thing and not at all noble. The fact that you feel obligated to stay with this job is why your boss is keeping you at entry-level wages. You've already signaled you don't think you're worth more than that. Your current employer is pretty clearly not interested in paying you significantly more so you should probably stop waiting around for them to suddenly decide to spend more money. When you go pick up food do you pay more than the menu price for a sandwich because you like it or do you pay the amount that's listed? You've listed yourself as $2/hr above min wage and you need to find something else if you think you are worth more. Also if a place is offering a significant (almost double? depending what min wage is by you) remember some instability is ok. Put effort into saving some money and even if you end up unemployed for a bit you will still come out ahead financially. It takes some will power and planning to save some of that extra scratch though.
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Apr 14, 2019 21:21
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Something Offal posted:While this is true, I'm pretty sure one needs to be wary that having a string of jobs at the 1-2 year duration, or even less time, could be very problematic when trying to move from applicant -> interviewee in many industries. Yes, I have found this is true even for STEM lord and software engineers. You need to have a really good reason like all of your jobs were at startups that have since folded, but otherwise the HR drone looking at your resume quickly may pass it to the 'no phone interview' pile because their reputation will suffer if you leave after some period of time like a year or so. I've heard this from multiple HR people. A couple short stints is fine. Nothing but 1 year hops is bad but it doesn't do the damage that staying somewhere that is holding you back would. And the guy who was posting was at the place for 7.5 years, that is more than enough. In general way more people stay at places longer than they should vs having too many addresses on their resume.
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Apr 15, 2019 01:25
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Wolfy posted:Kind of related to this discussion, how soon is too soon to leave your first professional job? I’ve been here 10 months. The company is a train wreck and I’m looking to get out ASAP. I'm sure everyone is different but if you have a generally solid background I'll forgive at least one "bad job decision" from anyone. Never bad mouth a previous employer but "the fit was not what I anticipated" is fine. If you have a bunch of those then I may want a better story. I honestly sorta prefer someone who's had a bad job. "Grass is always greener" syndrome is real and it's nice when that's tempered. But if someone comes in saying "My old boss hated me", that's a huge red flag.
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Apr 15, 2019 05:11
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RabbitMage posted:Summary: current job is a dead end, my industry as a whole is underpaid, my options are limited due to health, what next? Maybe look into project management or something similar? I'd assume your background would lend itself to some of those skills, and PMP courses aren't bad. Its a bit of a crowded field too, though much more room for advancement. Solidly office drone though. I wouldn't quit your job to investigate it, but it's an option.
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May 28, 2019 17:08
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Yeah, I've never seen/attended management training that was all that great. I've been to some workshops that were decent but mostly because of the ad-hoc nature.
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May 28, 2019 23:34
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Thumbtacks posted:
He was vague about what will happen? It means he wanted you to think something that won't happen. Maybe you'll be made a "team lead" and get an extra dollar and hour but have more responsibilities. Maybe. I've moved people into management and it was never done with a vague "You'll maybe be a manager or run the department or something". Thumbtacks posted:If I quit, they have literally no one doing what I do, and my job is vital to the rest of the company so they'd kind of be hosed. at the same time i don't really want to hold them hostage with demands for higher pay or anything This is not your problem. They are taking advantage of you. You are worried that the fact that you are now doing a job that provides more value to the company for less money means you shouldn't talk to your boss about money. Really? quote:I'm trying to work out if i can work from home once or twice a week because I think that would help me out quite a bit At the very least this seems very reasonable. quote:on the other hand, i could quit and find something closer to where i am now, but i run the risk of 1) not finding a job quickly, which will suck. (I have money saved up and my fiancee's making a decent amount of money too, but still) 2) the job sucks and i don't have the freedom that i have here, and I'll also be entering back as an entry level guy probably making like 14/hr assuming i try and find a job in the same field Is there a reason you can't look for a job without quitting? It's usually a lot easier to find a job when you have one, and "They moved offices and let go most of my team" is a really good answer if they ask you why you're looking for a new job.
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Jun 1, 2019 02:24
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moana posted:I taught for one year in public school. Then tutored for a private prep company making twice as much handling 1/30th as many students. Teaching math had been my dream since forever, like when I was five I lined up my stuffed animals and taught them addition,. I had been tutoring since I was 13. That first year teaching was the worst year of my life. I spiraled into depression and weighed 95 pounds by the end of the year. I had kids who loved me - not enough. Top performances in student testing- not enough. So much of the job is classroom management and that sucks so much rear end. This post was an absolute roller-coaster from start to finish.
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Aug 4, 2019 04:07
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You sounds like you're approaching burnout, so figuring out how to deal with it is a really good idea. Taking a break like you say won't hurt future prospects, but it will probably pause things and getting back up to speed is going to be a lot harder. But lots of people do it. Sales engineering is one route, you may want to look into DevOps roles too as those are still problem solving and working with different teams but usually less programming and still good money. Also if you think developer pay is not in line with the stress you're going to probably have a really ride awakening teaching. But everyone is wired differently I guess.
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Aug 11, 2019 14:58
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i am keying off of one little statement in your whole post so forgive me if i'm overstating your aversion, but if you do not like working unpaid overtime, sales and business development is 100% not for you Or teaching.
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Aug 14, 2019 18:01
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^^^this is $200/hr advice.
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Aug 16, 2019 13:47
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Code boot camps aren't useless but if you have no passion for it at all it's probably not what you want to do. Do you have a degree in anything currently?
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Aug 18, 2019 00:38
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I think you need to prioritize what you want and figure out what you can compromise on. Because so far your requirements seem to be: High paying Interacting with people Low barrier of entry Not being in an office Recession proof Low stress (in terms of sudden deadlines) I'm not sure that job exists, and honestly it seems a little bit like you're kinda lurching from one idea to another. I think you need to decide what things are really important and be ready to have to deal with some things not being ideal. Maybe practice some coding exercises online and see if you can hack it and just live with an office job. Or pursue something sales related and deal with the stress. Or suck it up and go back to school for something. But you'll probably need to prioritize to figure out the great path.
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Aug 19, 2019 22:37
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QA is all about building automation testing and understanding your release pipeline. You absolutely can get into it at 38 but it's a whole new set of skills. To be a QA engineer you'll need: 1. Have some experience with Selenium or other automation tools. 2. Have some proficiency in the programming language the company is using. You don't need Dev-level but you'll need to be able to show off a Javascript application or something 3. Some level of DB querying. SQL is a nice start, but learning Mongo or some other NoSQL is also important. 4. Be able to communicate and write something well. Your previous experience on this will probably be good. 5. Understand and have some experience with AGILE methodology ISO systems aren't going to come into play at most software companies, though being able to write a good process always helps. Basically, coming from a materials QA you don't have much of a headstart on software QA. If you want to break into the software world, start learning some languages and see where that takes you, but don't let the name QA fool you too much, it's a very different beast.
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Sep 3, 2019 16:33
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The "I automated my commission" is a problem here.They think you're slaving away for that money, and you can't really reveal you're not. I would just get a hard number in your head based on what you think is fair for the new position and just ask for that. Your justification is probably not going to help much here. You could also say you'll be willing to keep generating xyz as part of your regular goals.
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Sep 3, 2019 21:53
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Guinness posted:Just FYI, Agile is not an acronym so don't put it on your resume as such, it'll be an immediate red flag. Yeah, I capitalized it for emphasis, not by convention. I would suggest putting it on a resume even if you just read some Agile Methodology case studies and just sorta make up how a team you worked with integrated you into their sprints. QA is one of those things where most companies don't want to spend a ton of time and effort training these kinds of things since it's usually not that hard to find someone who already has experience working in an Agile environment.
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Sep 4, 2019 02:06
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Thumbtacks posted:Aw man they want to talk about a new comp plan on Friday. I ran the numbers and assuming my weekly output will decrease, which it probably will, they’ll need to literally double my hourly rate to put my weekly rate back fo where it currently is, and that’s ignoring the increase in responsibility Have a number in your head. "If I do XYZ (new duties plus some of your old) I should be clearing this much per month", factoring in the value of the title bump (but don't over-value that, income is usually more important). Give them that number, if they can figure out how to make it work great. If not, don't take the job.
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Sep 4, 2019 20:10
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The inverse is also not true, there are lots of expensive CoL areas that are not all that great to live in. It all comes down to the individual. Sometimes low CoL is a good reason to take a job over a higher paying one in a high CoL area, but its dumb to act like that is the only factor.
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Sep 6, 2019 01:41
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Sending one follow-up is fine, beyond that it gets into badgering and you should probably take the hint. But one follow-up is fine, is definitely reminded me that I had to do something while hiring.
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Sep 6, 2019 13:13
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