View Full Version : I may be done with this field of work
I am close to being simply done with this work. I liked my jobs in banking a lot, and it wouldn't pay well to start with but maybe it is just time to change. Something to explore at least. Many companies support volunteer work so my youth work could be in that capacity (still going to run the Girls on the Run 5K in May no matter what). What is burning me out is the job search primarily, and asking to be seen as competent as well as a foundation in deep caring.
Banking will not have the long hours and you get lots of holidays. I think you could really use the work-life balance now.
I think that's why I sought out a university (state) job early on. Normal hours, holidays, weekends, benefits. I can thank my twenty years there for a pension that allowed me to retire at just past 60.
ApatheticNoMore
4-15-18, 1:13pm
It's ok to do another field. I don't think it is so easy to transition, but that of course can be tested so I wouldn't take my word (you can send out resumes, if you happen to know anyone in that field discuss it with them etc., and see where it leads). If you are thinking teller, there is of course some risk there, those people get bank robbers etc., but clearly some people don't mind running that risk. Banking back office (working at the local headquarters etc.) has no such risks of course.
I think it is too early to be burned out by job search. Getting interviews IS getting good results. That is different than wanting to start another field which might be best if you would prefer it. But the job search process is hard period. It is asking to be seen as competent, that's the whole process.
(And yes there will come a time I do a new field too if not something more radical (well if 40s is too old to get work at any but the most senior level in anything, I guess I'll have to look at other options). I can't just look for work forever and ever, I'm trying to get a job in what I've done because I think it's my best bet at a job period, but at times we have to drop our bets. But things seems much worse than they were before 2008 and they aren't ever going to return to those good old days, that part just seems the way things are).
frugal-one
4-15-18, 1:38pm
I am close to being simply done with this work. I liked my jobs in banking a lot, and it wouldn't pay well to start with but maybe it is just time to change. Something to explore at least. Many companies support volunteer work so my youth work could be in that capacity (still going to run the Girls on the Run 5K in May no matter what). What is burning me out is the job search primarily, and asking to be seen as competent as well as a foundation in deep caring.
Research wages in the banking industry. What I have found is they normally do not pay well. YLMV
Research wages in the banking industry. What I have found is they normally do not pay well. YLMV
Few pink-collar jobs pay enough to live on, IMO.
I really like this idea--if your heart is telling you to go back to banking, I think that is very important!
I would enjoy the adult contact, having coworkers, and dressing up a bit! Oh, and banker's hours!
Thanks all, maybe too soon as I am hearing. I am feeling some middle age regret, mid life crisis with some empty nest. But part of me also misses the math. I left math and science because I couldn't quite manage the competitive nature and general sexism. I had no encouragement, little support and I was a small, quite attractive, and it was the 80's. This actually makes me cry, for me and all the women who have had similar experiences.
I am in a pink collar industry because my entire life has been about being trained to make other people feel better, to not tell anyone when I got the best and fastest math score. I literally waited until a boy turned his paper in. To not bring attention to my reading level, I read books 2 and 3 times in the same time as other kids. I passed calculus without studying. And then I stopped pushing for a long time. Now I am pushing and I have to ask myself if I used the same tone and words as a man would I have attitude problem and defiant on my work record.
Maybe over the top and maybe sensitive. And really tired.
Zoe, banking as we've known it is going away or at least changing a great deal. A good friend of mine has been in banking for 35+ years. It's all she's ever known. She keeps getting downsized as branches are being closed and bank chains are consolidating.
Please think about about this. You need something steady and reliable. I don't think banking would be that.
Zoe, banking as we've known it is going away or at least changing a great deal. A good friend of mine has been in banking for 35+ years. It's all she's ever known. She keeps getting downsized as branches are being closed and bank chains are consolidating.
Please think about about this. You need something steady and reliable. I don't think banking would be that.
really? I kind of think it might pay more than what she is doing now, and have reasonable hours. Then, she could use the returned hours to pursue the things she is interested in. Her job seems like a high stress, ill paid time suck, but maybe it pays better than I suspect.
I've never understood that "hiding your light under a bushel" thing. I competed with males all through school and afterwards, and if there was a downside to that, I'm not aware of it. (I did get the "play down your strengths" lecture at home, and ignored it.) I've encountered my share of sexism, but confronted it or shrugged it off. I do, however, greatly regret not studying more of what would be called STEM subjects now. It's never too late to be who you actually are.
My mother loved math and wanted to study architecture but in the early 60's her college told her women couldn't. She became an elementary ed teacher and got the math in that way.
really? I kind of think it might pay more than what she is doing now, and have reasonable hours. Then, she could use the returned hours to pursue the things she is interested in. Her job seems like a high stress, ill paid time suck, but maybe it pays better than I suspect.
A banking job may very well pay better and have better hours, but what's the point of taking such a job if the industry is very unstable?
It's like the people I know who keep asking about doing medical transcription from home. I have a friend who has done it for 15 years, but jobs in the industry are very scarce now with voice to text software. All that's really needed now are people to edit the text. Friend has gotten out of the industry and is going to school for something else.
Zoe needs to do her research without just jumping into a field. How stable is banking in her area? Have lots of branches been closed down, lots of consolidation and layoffs?
frugal-one
4-15-18, 7:12pm
A banking job may very well pay better and have better hours, but what's the point of taking such a job if the industry is very unstable?
It's like the people I know who keep asking about doing medical transcription from home. I have a friend who has done it for 15 years, but jobs in the industry are very scarce now with voice to text software. All that's really needed now are people to edit the text. Friend has gotten out of the industry and is going to school for something else.
Zoe needs to do her research without just jumping into a field. How stable is banking in her area? Have lots of branches been closed down, lots of consolidation and layoffs?
When I investigated companies for the Dept of Labor ... even the bank president did not make much in many banks. REALLY research before you even look at a position in banking.
The position I tuned down recently due to low compensation was at a credit union.
rosarugosa
4-15-18, 7:42pm
I think Tradd makes a good point. I personally never interact with bank tellers anymore. It is all ATMs and online banking.
A banking job may very well pay better and have better hours, but what's the point of taking such a job if the industry is very unstable?
DSiL works at A Large Bank. In the three years he has been with DD, he has been placed in three locations and changed jobs with them at least twice that I know of. A couple of visits ago he was talking about how Large Bank brass were discussing consolidating some of the regional centers containing the people who do what he does (e.g, not a teller or personal banker). As for "banker's hours", I watch the grandkids because his Mondays run from noon to 8 and he works a couple of Saturdays a month (all day). "Anecdote" is not the singular of "data" but take it as you will.
When I investigated companies for the Dept of Labor ... even the bank president did not make much in many banks. REALLY research before you even look at a position in banking.
It's been a long-standing joke that banks are rife with Vice President positions that don't pay anything. Maybe 20 years ago I met a bank Vice President who was making around $30,000 a year. >8) Who cares about the title? Give me the money.
Good to know the inside story of other careers. I know there is a range of experience but I also see the movement to online everything.
About the 'hide your light', I have a lot of self judging feelings about not being able to make it in the sciences. I am glad for women who made it, and I didn't.
ApatheticNoMore
4-16-18, 1:41am
So the local bank tellers that I know well (I'm not one for ATMs much) had their bank robbed just this weekend I just found out. I wonder what teller that I know and have interacted with many times had to deal with that.
See ... I don't make up the danger thing, this is really what I've heard but just got more confirmation of (noone hurt this time, probably not even a real threat, but they have to treat them all as real and hand over the money). But other than knowing it carries some risks, I'm not much one to say what field anyone should go into.
I would have thought banks were steady, shows what I know. I mean I curse myself often now for having chosen skills focus (stupid tech skills and not even very marketable niches either apparently at least not here) when I should have chosen an *industry* focus rather than a *skillset* focus! But then what would have been a hot industry to do my work in? I think banks, insurance, healthcare maybe ... shows what i know. Of course if one works, by definition one works in an industry, but one's career can bounce around industries or be in niche industries and thus leave little *marketable* industry focus on the resume.
About the 'hide your light', I have a lot of self judging feelings about not being able to make it in the sciences. I am glad for women who made it, and I didn't.
I'm really not competitive by nature. So doing the competing thing .... IT SUCKS!!! I wasn't raised that way and I'm not. I'm more modest. So no I don't feel at home with it. HOWEVER everything is really a matter of: pick your poison. And so compared to say manipulation or cliquishness or other workplace vices, "dick contests" are maybe relatively benign.
You don't realize so much what poison you can live with and what you can't when you are young and naive maybe, you really just want to feel completely like you belong somewhere in the work world (good luck with that ...). But eventually ... pick your poison and if it's dealing with a bunch of braggadocios I can live with it I guess, I've seen much worse than that.
Mrs. Hermit
4-16-18, 10:02am
It is good that you are exploring other possible fields, Zoe. Maybe you need to broaden your vision further yet. What about looking in areas like Human Resources or Accounting? They use math, and a lot of computing these days. But we need people calculating our paychecks and putting together our benefit packages!
SteveinMN
4-16-18, 10:22am
I would have thought banks were steady, shows what I know.
I think financial institutions and governments maintain a reputation for being conservative institutions (in the general sense of "conservative", not in the politically-charged sense the word has today), so it took them longer to move to the more-prevalent corporate model of organization. As a publicly-traded company, Large Bank has to answer to shareholders just as much as Megamart Inc. and Acme Mfg. do so they have to keep up. And voters (many of them experienced in the corporate shuffle) have demanded that governments be more responsive, too. I certainly see that happening at the county at which DW works.
I mean I curse myself often now for having chosen skills focus (stupid tech skills and not even very marketable niches either apparently at least not here) when I should have chosen an *industry* focus rather than a *skillset* focus! But then what would have been a hot industry to do my work in? I think banks, insurance, healthcare maybe ... shows what i know. Of course if one works, by definition one works in an industry, but one's career can bounce around industries or be in niche industries and thus leave little *marketable* industry focus on the resume.
The thing about "niche talent" is that law and demand applies in spades: there aren't many jobs but the ones there are pay pretty well compared to more generic positions. An old friend of mine is a quality-assurance engineer in the medical sector. At this point in his career there are maybe two or three jobs in the region at his level. So it's hard to move about and he's spent more than a few months unemployed when companies left town, etc. When he's working, though, he's a very well compensated QA engineer.
And it does not help that, in hiring people, most organizations want someone who can hit the ground running, which calls for very specific skill sets. Even within broad categories of jobs, it's hard to avoid specialization. DSiL works in retail banking; it would not be easy for him to move to mortgage banking. A phone-app developer might be a whiz at C language but would flail around in the first few days of a job as a Swift developer unless (s)he got appropriate training. Sometimes the industry focus just isn't enough.
Mrs. Hermit
4-16-18, 10:51am
It is good that you are exploring other possible fields, Zoe. Maybe you need to broaden your vision further yet. What about looking in areas like Human Resources or Accounting? They use math, and a lot of computing these days. But we need people calculating our paychecks and putting together our benefit packages!
I see the median salary for mediators in Colorado is about 57K; you might revisit that option.
Yes Jane, I did a great weekend of training on facilitation around conflict. Very exciting and exhausting work.
What I can tell is many mediators have a law background and do mediation as an extension of that work, therefore get paid pretty well. I need 100 hours of practice to join the mediators society (I have 11 currently as a volunteer). I am both trying to improve my performance and push for some time to take on some mediations and get those hours up. I can see the job I applied for that is before and after programming would leave some middle of the day options for building those volunteer hours.
I've always liked the possibility of mediation work for you; you would bring a different perspective to it. Have you thought about paralegal work at all?
Jane, I am also thinking of that. In fact my bff who lives in Salt Lake got into that through mortgage loan default work. They paid for her paralegal training and she really likes it. I have even gone as far as thinking about moving there and getting a big do-over.
Just had my check in phone call with supervisor, long discussion of the timing of my 'out of office' message for my email when I took a half day on Friday. One person contacted him concerned about an invoice they were sending and I have 48 hours to check and process invoices.
It sounds like you're expected to be on call 24/7. Does your supervisor have anyone else to nit-pick, or is it just you?
He nit picks 3 out of 4 of us as far as I can tell. But I do feel treated unfairly in some pretty concrete ways. This was just a total nit pick but I kept my cool, didn't even take anxiety meds.
I am going to put out more applications and do some research on things in law/paralegal/mediation work. One of my several dreams would be to be a mediator for special education.
You seem to be pretty deep into Buddhism. Have you ever thought of being a nun?
You seem to be pretty deep into Buddhism. Have you ever thought of being a nun?
Haha, good idea actually. I am unvoluntarily celibate anyway! I have considered that or I would love to be a Buddhist Chaplain if money wasn't a big issue. Nuns however are not as well supported as the monks, and there are a few other issues to think about. I really like choosing my own food, driving, and handling money.
The nuns in my area drive but it is a group not a personal vehicle. I get what you're saying though.
ApatheticNoMore
4-16-18, 6:30pm
Celibacy is said to be the downside. It would seem to me a very small price to pay to escape the world though. However I would not be a very convincing nun. I really just want to escape the world afterall, not so much to pray or meditate.
Yppej what nuns are those? I know nuns in the Thervadan traditioan and they have a lot of rules. It is begging bowls at the farmer's market really. There are a lot of adaptations so that they don't starve in the winter, or basically go hungry in this culture. Our nun stores food, cooks and actually has a pet. All not allowed. Of course in India people are close together, community based, and traditionally monks were closer to the people who gave them food.
I could do the hair style (shaved) and would struggle with the robes! I am uncoordinated enough without trying to keep a wrapped sheet from falling off me!
Teacher Terry
4-17-18, 4:11pm
ANM, why would you want to escape the world?
ApatheticNoMore
4-17-18, 4:49pm
ANM, why would you want to escape the world?
I guess I have had the fantasy about joining a monastery the way some fantasize about winning the lottery (I would not object to that either).
Just to escape the workplace, the job market, etc.. To escape all these things I don't even fully understand, that I can ride the waves of and survive (present circumstances notwithstanding), but that always seemed aimed to destroy or at least hurt me and that are strange and alienating and painful anyway.
I never said I would be hugely devout, there is a reason I'm not *actually* a nun and rather just have being a nun fantasies (although praying or meditating all day wouldn't be the worst thing). And vows of poverty seem minor if there was some alternative path (and that's one of the few I know still in existence), as do vows of chastity really. Neither seem that huge really or ever have.
Teacher Terry
4-17-18, 4:52pm
We all have easy solution fantasizes from time to time:))
Student loans don't care about vows of poverty
If you're low incone enough aren't they deferred?
iris lilies
4-18-18, 10:33am
If you're low incone enough aren't they deferred? Can you defer them forever?
Can you defer them forever?
Not really as far as I can tell. They are not included in a bankruptcy for example so sooner or later you just have to pay them,
iris lilies
4-18-18, 1:06pm
Not really as far as I can tell. They are not included in a bankruptcy for example so sooner or later you just have to pay them,
I know, but didnt know if jeppy understands that. You dont want to be a little old lady in Social Security having to pay off student loans.
I know, but didnt know if jeppy understands that. You dont want to be a little old lady in Social Security having to pay off student loans.
Shouldn't they be nearly paid off by now, with the type of employment ZG has?
Talk about indentured servitude!
I think that loan forgiveness period is 10 years at the qualifying job. That's a long time at one job.
iris lilies
4-18-18, 5:19pm
Shouldn't they be nearly paid off by now, with the type of employment ZG has?
Talk about indentured servitude!
I dont know, are they? Perhaps the OP will give us a status report.
It is 10 years of being on a qualifying plan, turning in forgiveness paperwork, and paying on time for the entire 10 years. So I had 3 years in the program when my payments went from $30 a month to $250 (without a big raise to make it possible!). So I want to get back on the program but waited to see if it was going to be eliminated like other things with the new admin. They seem to have lost interest in cancelling the program however, so I am going to get back on it.
And you can change jobs as long as you are full time in public service.
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