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Finding myself, finding my career.

Discussion in 'General Support and Advice' started by Joey4, Sep 4, 2013.

  1. Joey4

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    Maybe the answer is right in front of me, I just need a little guidance.

    I'm just about at the one year anniversary of having come out to my first person. I'm in the same job I was this time last year, no further and questioning if it or something like it is still right for me.

    Having admit to myself that I'm not the totally straight person I was hoping that I was, maybe a career change is also in order. I know it's a stereotypical question to form, but is there a certain field or are there qualities in a gay or bisexual person that point toward certain paths as far as work is concerned?
     
  2. LD579

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    Apparently, there's a higher amount of gay guys in customer service things.

    But besides that, are you happy with your career? Is there something about your current job that you aren't satisfied with (hours, pay, coworkers, boss, location, the work itself...)? What do you want to do? It doesn't matter what others do or want, 'cause they're not you, you know? Realizing that you're bisexual doesn't mean you have to have a career change. But if you'd rather have some other job, there's nothing wrong with going for that. So what are your interests? We can brainstorm this together, and it could be helpful =)
     
  3. Chip

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    There are poofs in most fields. I wouldn't let your career be dictated by your sexual orientation.

    What sort of things you most enjoy?
     
  4. Feijoa

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    It sounds like you're dissatisfied with the work you are doing, either just bored or not seeing any future joy from it. Everyone experiences that, and unfortunately there's no magic careers based on sexual orientation (besides the obvious...) so maybe take a look at what interests you. Have you been drawn to a particular field lately? Maybe you are in a position to go back to school or take some courses?
     
  5. Joey4

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    I don't want my sexual orientation to dictate my career either, but I'm going along with the thought that maybe I'm still trying to do things that aren't true to me.

    I do overhead power line construction. I didn't want the job in the first place. I was fired from the job before this one, which was working in an office. I hated the office job. This job is okay, but I think it lacks structure and the people aren't my kind of people. There's a lot of southerns and red necks in this line of work. Some are cool, but a lot of them are scummy. The schedule changes all the time. We work 10-12 hours a day. That's way too long for me. Most of these guys are married with kids that come up for work from out of state. All they wanna do is work. I just like to get my 40 in and go.

    The best job I ever had was a retail job. I managed Lids, a hat store, years ago. It was fun and easy. I do really well working with others, but there's no money in it.

    I've progressed in my current job, my I know I don't love it. I'm just not sure where to go.
     
  6. AKTodd

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    Some questions:

    When you say you enjoy working with others, do you mean working as part of a team of people all working toward the same goal, or more a customer service thing, or teaching people, or something else?

    Second, what sort of skills/knowledge do you either have or might be interested in learning? For example, do you know electrical or mechanical stuff as part of your job or more like carpentry or something else?

    On the other end of the scale, what kind of office job was it and what didn't you like about it?

    Just trying to get an idea of what interests you and what you have going in or might be interested in learning.

    Todd
     
  7. Joey4

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    Hey Todd. Thanks for helping.

    I hate team efforts and working with other people to complete a singular task. I love at work when I get a task that I can work on by myself. I do, however, like helping and working with other people. I do really well with strangers. And yes to teaching. I have an incredible amount of patience and understanding and I do pretty okay conveying thoughts and ideas.

    The office job didn't work because I think I hated the atmosphere of being inside at a desk, constantly being interrupted by phone calls and in-house customers. I did well dealing with the customers, but balancing 5 tasks at once was more stress than I cared for. I rather begin one task and see it through to its completion.

    I've had friends tell me they always saw me as a teacher or a cop.
     
  8. AKTodd

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    Hey,

    Not that I think you're just sitting around waiting to hear from me, but I actually do have some thoughts I meant to post yesterday. Yesterday turned out to be a bit crazy and a lot tiring so by the time I got home I was kind of crispy around the edges. Spaced posting, sorry.

    Will post tonight after work.

    Thanks,

    Todd
     
  9. Joey4

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    I actually was waiting for a response, ha.

    It's cool man. No hurry.
     
  10. AKTodd

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    Ok, let's see here. Various thoughts. At this point I'm kind of spitballing/brainstorming since obviously we don't know each other. Please bear with me and let me know what hits on or near the mark and what is totally off the deep end. Hopefully, I can then adjust as needed and offer other suggestions/ideas (if you want me to, of course).

    Ok, with that said and considering your earlier post:

    a) You mention enjoying retail management but correctly point out that the money is not great (I did a bit of retail mgmt just out of college - I feel your pain). One thought that comes to mind is Costco. They are retail, the avg. salary is (per a recent article my partner read/told me about) $20/hr, provide benefits to most employees, they score 90 out of 100 on HRCs Corporate Equality Index, and from personal experience I can say as a member of more than 10yrs that there are people working there now who were working there the day I first walked in the door (which in my experiences is almost unheard of in retail).

    Possible downsides - they seem to require their employees with tattoos/piercings to keep them covered (looking at your photos in your album you have a fair number of tattoos). However, some of these employees are also the same folks who I've been seeing there for 10yrs + now (and some look to have as many tattoos/as extensive tattoos as you do from what I can see). So apparently the company is giving them a nice enough experiences that its worth the hassle of wearing socks pulled up or longer sleeves or ace bandages to cover the ink. Not sure if its a corporate thing or just the local store.

    From what I've seen they also seem to have some sort of internal advancement program, so if you're interested in mgmt and up front about that then they may have a track for you to follow or something. I will admit I don't know any details on this beyond what my partner has found online in the course of his travels (although he's mentioned considering applying there as well). In this respect, their website and Google can both be your friend.

    Anyway. one possible option.

    The other ideas that came to mind in reading your post are:

    a) Call Center - this would fit in with you liking a job where you just put in your 40hrs and that's it, possibly combined with you liking to work with people and maybe teach.

    I know you mentioned you didn't enjoy an office job and a call center certainly is that. But there are lots of different types of call center. I live down in the Hampton Roads area about 3hrs South of DC and there's something like 80 call centers in this area. Some of them do a more customer service/educational thing. We have both Panasonic and Canon here and I've toured both centers before. Both of them include units that assist people (either online or on the phone) with figuring out how to use their newly purchased products. The Canon center was particularly cool because they had test racks and samples of a lot of the stuff Canon makes so they could actually 'hands on' the hardware while talking to someone on the phone.

    Call center reps tend to be fairly focused on their task, although some centers (or positions within a center) may also do other tasks between calls or for part of each workday when they aren't on the phone.

    Possible downsides - if you don't have call center experience you may have to do some hoop jumping before you can get into the sort of center you want. Here in HR, its common for folks to start at a less nice/lower paying center with higher turnover and work there a year or two before quitting to move up to a center that pays a bit more/has a nicer environment and so on until they get to where they like it or want to be. Pay varies a good bit, but is usually (at least here) in the $11-$15 per hour range depending. Some centers doing more specialized stuff (insurance, pharmacy, etc.) may pay significantly more.

    b) Corporate Training - This is actually a field I've been in for about 15yrs now (within the call center industry actually). Basically this is teaching adults how to do the job after they are hired or teaching existing employees about new tech/processes/procedures/policies/etc. You get the teaching element w/o needing a teaching degree or dealing with kids (unless you really like kids of course). Hours can vary from straight 40hrs and that's it to tons more than that plus travelling for weeks at a time to different locations (depends on the job and industry). Pay is in the 40K to 75K range depending on the industry you're in and where you live (DC area probably pays on the higher end, but cost of living is higher there too).

    To be a trainer you usually need to do the job first as a rep (and demonstrate yourself to be really good at it), or have past experience in training (different companies look for different things in this regard) or both. Most trainer positions want you to have a degree but aren't picky about what it's in. A good friend of mine, who actually trained me for my first job in VA, and worked for years in the training industry has a degree in Marine Biology :thumbsup:

    Anyway, my initial thoughts and notions. Hopefully at least some portion of it won't be a complete waste of your time. Like I said, please let me know what you think and if there's anything else you can tell me about your likes and interests and 'dream job' ideas that might inspire other suggestions.

    Hope this helps,

    Todd
     
  11. EscapeArtist

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  12. Joey4

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    ^ That article may be more confusing than helpful. All it says to me is that there isn't any one job for gay or bisexual men. Though, I'm not looking for thee job, rather a direction to go in. I think they're trying to break the stereotype.

    @ Todd

    Thanks for really putting out the effort to go through all of that. A Costco type job may be toward the direction.

    Definitely not call center. I've determined through the jobs that I have had that I can't just be picking up the phone and putting it down all day. I don't even like talking on the phone in my personal life, let alone it be what I do with the majority of my time. And I like the idea of corporate management, but demonstrating my ability to do the job before I get there it what may stop me. Sometimes my ideas may not match with that of corporate's and that could easily make me a cancer in the company.

    I feel like whatever I end up doing just really has to be tolerable long enough for me to make the money I need to live life outside of work. I'd like to love my job, but I've just never been that guy.

    Maybe I'll be a bum.
     
  13. KyleD

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    Joey, what are ur hobbies?
     
  14. Joey4

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    That's a hard question because I don't know that I really have any. I watch a lot of television, like every good American, ha.

    I've always love to cook, grill. I don't grill as much as I used to because of how I've changed my diet most recently. I've stopped eating meat, so a good amount of my free thinking is consumed by nutrition and expanding my horizon as far as food is concerned.

    I picked up ice hockey recently. I'm decent for a beginner, but I'd like to do a few clinics so I can be a good player.

    I go to a lot of baseball games. They're inexpensive and accessible. I go to football and hockey games, but sometimes they cost too much to do often. I love grilling/tailgating at football.

    I've run beer pong tournaments for the past 6 years. Designing logos, tables. I like the marketing aspect of it. Hosting the event and running it. I don't do it as often because it is consuming, time wise and financially. But they're are a lot of fun.

    I love traveling. LOVE traveling.

    That's me just about.
     
  15. KyleD

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    Since so much of your free time is consumed by learning about food why not become a nutritionist? You'll be able to interact with a lot of people that way (something which you say you love) and give them advice. Maybe you can learn how to grill vegetables since you love grilling you know - that is an option.

    Also, you could write reviews of sporting events or maybe even create your own sports magazine since you're so interested in sports. You'll be able to travel a lot (another thing which you love) to attend the games at various places to write reviews.

    You can even go into coaching. Why not become a coach of a baseball or football team? That way you will again be able to interact with a lot with people while doing something that you truly love. All you need to do is pursue a training course to become a coach them apply to a school or small town league or something.

    You could also become a consultant on designing stuff by dispensing your advice on what works and what doesn't.

    Does any of this stuff interest you?
     
    #15 KyleD, Sep 14, 2013
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2013
  16. Joey4

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    Nutritionist sounds kind of awesome. I wonder how much school that entails.
     
  17. KyleD

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  18. Tightrope

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    Two words: aptitude test

    And then, interpret the results with caution and guidance.

    Basically, they ask a bunch of questions about whether you'd rather do this or that, or rank order skills you like using ... stuff like that.

    I hear in the responses that you should not be limited in what you want to do. That's true. However, if you are lukewarm about something, it might be harder to passionately fight for your progress and mobility than you would if you were doing something you were passionate about, or really liked. What I mean by this is that if you don't see yourself as a high powered banker, and you sort of end up on that track, it could be an environment that is still conservative and intolerant in some geographic areas, and having to deal with the added stress of discrimination would be far from a picnic. Some lines of work are shedding intolerance much more slowly than others, FWIW.

    Good luck, man! Do some research on this.
     
  19. Joey4

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    You guys have been a ton of help, probably the best advice I've received on this forum. I'll be taking it with me in my search for a career. Thanks a bunch.