A Series of Unfortunate Events: NYC

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > A Series of Unfortunate Events: NYC

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

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Alder fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Sep 7, 2017

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 14:17

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 16:02

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

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Alder fucked around with this message at 07:03 on Sep 7, 2017

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 15:21

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

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Alder fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Sep 7, 2017

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 17:20

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

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Alder fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Sep 7, 2017

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 21:21

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

John Smith posted:

Look, it is quite simple. ***IF*** you are suitable for college, then cost (in and of itself) should not be a concern. You should take out however much you require, at as low an interest rate as you can obtain. It is quite unlikely that somebody as poor as you claim to be is unable to qualify for sufficient grants and loans.

The more important question is whether you are suitable for college. If your SAT is above 1200 upon 1600 and you are willing to put in the work, then go for it. Just don't pick a poo poo major with no career prospects and a poor ROI.

You asking about how to get a better lovely job is really not seeing the big picture, because you shouldn't be looking for a lovely job to begin with!!! Unless your SAT is below 1200, in which case you need to disclose this. Hard to give advice when you don't tell us poo poo.

This odd obsession with my SAT is a bit extreme as it's been nearly one decade since I took the SATs and I'm already in enrolled college and not transferring out. Colleges don't care about my SAT? They do care if I can repay grants/loans if I don't graduate on time though.

Just because I can max out loans/grants does NOT mean it's the best idea because you need to repay them back even if it takes me the next 30-40 years.

I have the most boring major ever: It's Computer Information Systems part of Baruch's business program.

A FUCKIN BONG BOMB posted:

Work construction. For real.

My brother did construction but I don't think many companies would hire a woman over anyone else.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 14:00

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

BarbarianElephant posted:

It's more a question of "Do you have the aptitude for college?" than whether the college cares about it. Are you a person who is good at studying, or do you sit down at a desk and hate every minute of it and dream of doing something more practical? You can't afford to take out big loans if you aren't going to finish. But if you *are* going to finish, it will benefit you.

This would make more sense if one believed college were based on a meritocracy not a business. I have no doubt I will return to college once have extra money available and not 100% reliant on loans/grants. I don't recall writing anywhere how college is a Bad Idea or that I hated class? Just that I'm worried about other issues right now.

fantastic in plastic posted:

OP, I looked at your resume and have some ideas to help you improve it.

Move your skills to the top. If you're looking for a programming/IT/sysadmin type job, put things like HTML, CSS, Git and AWS in your skill section, along with any other technical things you've worked on. Given that you're looking for general office work as well as IT stuff, I would suggest writing two resumes, one focused on highlighting your technical skills and the other highlighting your office/customer service/sales skills.

Move your work experience to right under your skills. It's relatively clear what you did (which is better than some peoples' resumes, believe me!), but I don't get a sense of how those activities made an impact at your employer. It's obvious from your posts that you're good at writing; apply that skill to your resume. Keep in mind that it's a persuasive document, one intended to intrigue someone enough to make them want to pick up the phone and give you a call.

Get rid of the high school art club section. No one cares (unless you're specifically applying to be an artist, I suppose). From a corporate point of view, it makes you look like you don't know what professional norms are.

A general weakness of your resume as currently written is that you use vague terms where more specific ones would probably help you improve your callback rate. A few examples:

"Oversaw numerous repairs and maintenance of various computers, peripherals, and smartphones." - how many? what kinds of computers, peripherals, and smartphones? Did you "oversee" the repairs or did you actually perform the repairs?
"Deployed, installed, and configured various hardware." - What kinds of hardware? Computers? Televisions? Radios? Speak-and-spells?
"Managed the advertising and promotion of the business." - How much advertising budget were you responsible for as an ad manager? What kind of return did the store get as a result of your managerial activities?

Hopefully you get the idea.

Assuming that your resume is not fundamentally dishonest, I have every confidence you can leverage your technical skills and sales background to get some kind of a 9-5, especially in a market as big as NYC.

e: Also, don't do a loving unpaid internship unless you're a trust-fund kid trying to get into a niche that's entirely built on connections.

Thanks for the advice, I'll update my resume soon. Unfortunately, the internship is required to be considered for a shot at PT/FT employment from the work program. I'll still be working on weekends to cover rent/bills.

I've considered splitting my resume b/t IT and Customer Service parts but I don't think I have enough info to cover 1 page.

Alder fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Jun 8, 2017

# ¿ Jun 8, 2017 19:27

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

BadSamaritan posted:

Hey, I went to a CUNY on the Pell Grant, because I was an independent student with very low income. My student loans and $12/hr part time retail job covered my expenses, and I went full time and sprinted as fast as I possibly could toward that high ROI degree (a licensed allied health field). I would be in a much worse situation if I hadn't gone full time- taking out the loans to finish faster was absolutely the right call.

Like some of the other posters have said, borrowing money for school isn't, by itself, a bad thing. It is bad if you don't finish your degree, or don't leverage it into a 'real' job.

CUNY is good and extremely affordable if you pick a major and get a paid summer internship so you have something worthwhile to apply to real jobs with. Baruch has a pretty strong hiring network in the city if you don't goof off there.

Thanks, I'm glad you were able to complete your degree with loans. TBH, I didn't know many people (within my family) who attended college so the entire college grant/loan process was a bit of a mystery until I got accepted. I'm glad CUNY/SUNY are providing free tuition next year which made me wonder if it's more than just a pipe dream.

BarbarianElephant posted:

That's not very nice, John Smith. I see where you got your avatar! I'm more concerned about calling the major "boring" than wanting to imply the OP is a moron. If a person doesn't like to study, then studying with so many many financial challenges will be extra hard.

Please refrain from quoting/replying to him since he's been blocked for going OT/spam.

Sigh, I don't mean boring as in I dislike the subject. Actually, I like coding and learning about networking/IT as a career. I just want a effective way to jumpstart it if I don't have a degree right now. For example, a good portion of my resume is self-taught knowledge but I'm always wondering if I'm lacking a good foundation for hiring.

I much rather prefer working with machines than service jobs which I've had for the last 3-5 years and I'm aware how some businesses look down on people w/o formal degrees.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2017 16:43

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

BarbarianElephant posted:

AFAIK coding is a more in-demand topic than general IT. Are you more interested in code or IT? Very different jobs.

I started reading up on IT/Networking threads for a career direction a few years ago and then I picked up coding with my friend who encouraged me to look into web development careers.

However, I'm at a significant disadvantage compared to newly minted CS majors who have a formal foundation and basics completed. Also, not to mention the amount of boot camp grads who paid $10,000 for a rushed intro to full-stack dev and job hunting too.

Yes, I'm aware of tons of free coding lessons/courses online and Meetups. Coding is always something I do on the side like updating my site or trying to build simple widgets.

IT/Networking seems to be more approachable as in you can go complete certs and/or related degrees and find a job. Then again I lack both networking and work exp so my resume is a desert.

If I had to decide on one topic I would say IT/Networking since my college has a related major and I'm not exactly the world's best self-taught coder who can compete on the job market.

Alder fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Jun 9, 2017

# ¿ Jun 9, 2017 17:38

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 16:02

Alder: Sep 24, 2013

xpander posted:

Here's my hot take: ditch the post-secondary plans and learn by doing. You could spend a fraction of the cost of a single semester of post-secondary on some elearning stuff and bootstrap yourself into a real career much faster. This isn't necessarily for everyone, but it feels like it fits what I've read of your story so far. I work in devops/cloud infrastructure, and while the learning curve can be steep(it requires both coding *and* systems skills) I think it has the kind of job future-proofing that makes the time investment worthwhile.

Thanks, I'll check out the guides later as I'm currently hosting my site on AWS and it can't hurt to know more about new tech. I confess, I've never paid for a online course before other than the free coding courses available so this will be a new exp too.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2017 15:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > A Series of Unfortunate Events: NYC