Job (not career) help?

[jay ratkowski]

So I'm in a bit of a quandary. I'm going (back) to school for a degree in marketing. I'm not quite far enough along to where I have much hope of getting a job in my field of choice. I need to leave my current job rather soon. I'm looking for suggestions...

Here's my big drawbacks in finding a job:
- Need to work around school schedule (night classes): need day shift, minimal/no overtime, no weekends.
- Need pay around $30k/year
- Needs to be fairly close to home (to allow time to transit to school), although that probably won't matter for this as I'm not looking for specific openings, just ideas.

Problems with current job:
Right now I work for a large print/copy shop. I run the largest account in the area by myself...
- Doing work of 2 people, was working with someone else but they left. boss doesn't care (let's leave it at that).
- I'm expected to work overtime/weekends to keep up.
- I'm in a job where the customer dictates 100% of the work process and I get in trouble if it goes any other way. There are very strict deadlines that are set by the customer regardless of production abilities. High stress.
- No hope of finding a replacement for me to transfer to a different position for minimum 3 months (assuming that replacement works out). I wouldn't want to stay with the company anyway.

So my job is a crap job that pays crap and is way too stressful when I'm trying to carry 12-16 credits per semester (including summer). I can't afford not to work, so I'm ready to drop out of school... which would be just as bad as not working.

I'm just looking for ideas of jobs that might meet my requirements. I've got experience in the copy world... so I'm good with Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark... although my layout skills aren't nearly good enough to pass as a graphic designer. I'm great with sales, but I think depending on comission to pay the bills would be higher up in the stress category for now.

Not sure what else to say... there's plenty of jobs I'd gladly take that are far from glamorous, but I can't afford to get paid $10/hour or less.

Suggestions?

[Clonetool]

Look for a job at a newspaper layout etc.....

[Clonetool]

Oh sorry you said your skills are not good. Ummm how about moving in with your parents and making them pay for everything.

[JJEMMER777]

Originally Posted by Clonetool

Oh sorry you said your skills are not good. Ummm how about moving in with your parents and making them pay for everything.

Another comment like that and YOU will be moving right out of Jemsite




Sorry to hear Jay. Jobs (that pay the bills) are hard to come by. I was unappreciated too for what I was doing. It was very stressful and I hated it!! I do not have that job anymore, but looking back I wish I did. Grass is always greener!! (especially nowadays)

Chances are if you got a job at another place, the boss would be even less appreciative and the stress would be higher and you'd be making less income.

Weigh out what you have here, Jay!. If you are in fact doing the work of two people then you are probably more valuable than you realize. Talk to your boss! If you leave, that makes his/her life that much more stressful. (you might even get a raise out of it)


2 questions:

1.) Do you really HAVE to leave your current job or just want to?

2.) I can see the overtime issue for scheduling reasons, but why no weekends?

In today's day and age, there aren't a whole lot of choices in finding a job that caters to the "Employees needs"

Trust me, I know

[ohioplayer]

I did commercial radio until my babysitter quit (no license) and I became Mr. Mom. That was six years ago. Now that I am ready to go back and start working, NO ONE IS HIRING. Sucks but I have to roll with it. keep checking the papers or even try Monster. the job market sucks so if you have a job, like it or not, I'd stay with it until you are absolutely sure you have something lined up. have you talked to your boss one on one about your schedule, or is that not an option?

[Eco]

It mite be worth sticking it out and working some weekends, even if its only a for a few years while your back studying.

Cant put a price on education and if you missed out on a good qualification because you didnt want to work weekends, you'd sit and regret it in later life.

The only other thing i could think of really would be to talk to your boss before you go looking elsewhere, if you explain the situation he mite be willing to hire you some help or arrange a timetable you can work around without effecting your studying.

[dex]

Jay, what about temping at some sort of data processing job or something.
Not sure how the labour market works in the US but here we have gazillion agencies that will find you short term work in an office and those are normally 9am - 5pm and pay min of £8/hour.
You need basic Word/Excel and some common sense and you're in.

Temping is also a great way to try 2-3 companies before you settle.
If you like it somewhere and make an effort they'll do their best to keep you and offer you a permanent position at the end of the temping contract.

Best of luck, keep us posted.

[Reaper]

Does your school have a career guidance office? Might give them a shot - they'll probably know that stuff better than most of us...

[jay ratkowski]

Thanks for the responses guys...

I've got my resume in at a bunch of temp companies, but mostly looking for marketing jobs. I should expand that to other options.

For JJEMMER and others who asked, I can't work weekends (or barely can) because I have 4 classes a week, which means weekends are the only time I have to do homework. Each class gives around 3 hours of homework each week.

I'd say leaving my current job is probably in the "have to" stage or very close to it. I'm likely going to get a reasonable raise if I stick it out until fall, but as I said, school is REALLY suffering because of my schedule. I can't afford to fail a class because of work.

I'm really not worried about being under appreciated at a job, I'm more worried about finding a schedule that realistically complies with school (pay as well, obviously).