If you want to eat, you've got to earn a bob

[sovay]

Dear internet, talk to me about jobs.

Please note that this post is not a request for money or offers of employment. The situation which I'm reviewing is the fact that my Nokia job is not sufficient income for half a household. I could afford last year's six-month apartment with adrian_turtle partly because it was a smaller place and partly because I had built up savings. It is in the nature of savings to be finite. As things stand now, we are secure only if derspatchel remains responsible for two-thirds of the rent and similar expenses, which is really not a long-term option. I had been meaning to ask for advice on this front at the beginning of the year, but the beginning of the year was rather more medical than planned—it took until this past week to feel that we were starting to stabilize again after the whole exciting bone-break experience—and now some developments have made the question particularly acute.

I have pretty much no fucking idea how to find a more than part-time job with my scattershot qualifications and physical limitations. I am aware that I am almost certainly overestimating the degree to which I am unemployable: I have two master's degrees and I'm very good with the written word, even if my resume displays almost as impressive a break after 2006 as Rob's ankle in January. I also have several chronic health issues: I fail to sleep on a regular basis: I have real reservations about any kind of work that requires me to be on my feet a lot of the time or holding down a fixed schedule. The Nokia job is great because it's work-from-home and doesn't care what hours I work so long as it's the same number every week, but it does not suffice. I have been recommended teaching and I worry about my stamina. I have been recommended editing and I don't know that my previous experience is professional enough. I'm sure there must be other options that are not retail, but I don't know where to start looking. I mean that almost literally.

And I know the economy is garbage right now, as it pretty much has been ever since I needed a job rather than a graduate student's stipend, but there must be something I haven't thought of. Hence leaving this post unlocked. I am trying to cast as wide a net of other people's opinions as possible. I will try not to bristle if you suggest things I have already thought of, or know for one reason or another will not actually work. Telling me that you would set me up for life as a writer if only you had the resources, however, is probably not very helpful to me.

(We will return to your regularly scheduled reportage of New York City sometime after I have slept and this migraine-like headache has stopped flickering at me. I am very pleased with how my portion of the reading went. It was cool to hear rinue perform and meet marlowe1 in person again now that his hair has changed color. Someone asked me to sign their copy of King David and the Spiders from Mars afterward and I had not been expecting that. There was currywurst. Definitely worth the trip.)

Comments

[sovay]

Or it might help you think outside the box!

That's the point of this post—I feel I'm thinking up against a brick wall when I try to imagine jobs that wouldn't fire me, so unbox away!

Have you considered tech writing?

I had not considered tech writing: I assumed it required a technical and/or scientific background which I do not have. Fluency with publishing tools is also something I'm lacking—I understand Scrivener and otherwise the only word processor I use is the ten-year-old version of Microsoft Word I've installed on every new machine since college, because the later versions are full of auto-garbage I don't need and can't turn off. I feel comfortable saying I could learn, but if the job expects me to come in with a working knowledge of Adobe Acrobat, I will feel like an idiot and not apply. I feel very badly as though everything I know is out of date. It may or may not be true, but it's demoralizing.

I do have excellent writing skills, though. I have no trouble saying that.

I can put you in touch with someone who has one of those jobs, and she can tell you more about how she got her foot in the door.

That would be extremely useful, actually. At least I could get an idea of whether it's something I could do.

Can you code at all? Can you learn?

(a) Unless HTML counts, no. The amount of Fortran I learned for the radio telescope was minimal and almost certainly useless to me outside of its original application. (b) I have no idea; I don't assume I can't. I used to learn human languages at above-average speed. I don't know if that would correlate to computers.

Best of luck!

Thank you!

[phi]

I feel comfortable saying I could learn, but if the job expects me to come in with a working knowledge of Adobe Acrobat, I will feel like an idiot and not apply.

Okay, so, I see Tiny Wittgenstein there. And even if I'm wrong about that, I'm not wrong about the fact that every job in the tech sector asks for more skills than they really expect to get. I have never in my entire career met all the requirements in a job posting that I've applied to, including the job I hold now. Tech companies reward arrogance confidence.

I feel very badly as though everything I know is out of date. It may or may not be true, but it's demoralizing.

*hugs* I don't know that I have anything useful to say to that. My problems/brainweasels around job hunting are somewhat different.

I don't assume I can't. I used to learn human languages at above-average speed. I don't know if that would correlate to computers.

I know one person who had a good experience with http://startupinstitute.com/, and several people who have hired Startup Institute graduates. The local Python users' group also does occasionally crash courses specifically for women who are learning computing for the first time. Would you like me to forward you information the next time they host one?

[sovay]

Tech companies reward arrogance confidence.

Heh. Point taken. I will bear this in mind if I decide to go for a tech job.

The local Python users' group also does occasionally crash courses specifically for women who are learning computing for the first time. Would you like me to forward you information the next time they host one?

Sure! Thank you.