Uppity-Negro.com: In Memoriam

How about library school? That's what I'm thinking about.

I second that. Then next year, when I get no job offers & we're Both in an MLS program, we can carry on at UIUC like it's 1995...

Go for some writing courses, but get a degree/certificate in something practical.

That's what I did a few years ago and ever since I've...

Nevermind.

Library school seems good. Also, I have no idea where your interests on such matters lie, but there's a nursing shortage that's REALLY severe right now, the money is good in the profession, and you can specialize in a variety of different types of nursing, some of which (like public health) are even extra-super-socially responsible, and others of which (like ICU or surgical tech or nurse-anestatist) do not require lots of warm fuzzy people time. An RN might be one very practical way to jump.

Laura, you're not the first person to suggest this. What's the attraction for you?

Neo, you're not the second person to. . . never mind. I am considering your Shampoo-Banana party notion, though.

Ronn, um, this does not inspire me with confidence. What was your practical degree/cert.?

Garrity, that's a thought. Never really considered it, but I've never considered lots of things.

Aaron: My certificate is in Publishing from City College (NY). I won't go into details, but it's not a profitable field for older people -- recent, well-off college female grads in their early 20s maybe, but not someone like me.

OK. Rambling.

No worries. It's all about the rambling here, Ronn.

Sorry to hear about how things are in publishing. Can't say I'm surprised, though. . .

Are those Wi-Fi/802.11 certification programs up and running yet? That seems wide open at the moment, and I'm sure my almost, but not quite, complete lack of background in wired networking would actually be a plus.

Librarian school /information science is rockin'.

Though a little long in the process.

J-school?

The public health thing is a definite option, though I have heard very mixed things in terms of ease of gaining employment/acceptance within the profession from the male RNs and LPNs I've known.

Dunno 'bout the wireless thing, but it wouldn't be a bad thing to look into, not at all. I think the latest Wired had a big spread on wifi, dunno if they mentioned the training/cert end of things, though.

My brother-in-law is a nurse. Seems to be ok for him -- he was Student Nurse of the Year, for which we all teased him mercilessly -- but I think at this point the shortage is so severe that in a lot of segments of the profession, they'r just thirlled to peices to have you, male or female.

a quick search of monster.com reveals that the best thing to do is become a loan processor so that you can give money to people who don't have jobs anymore.

Or become a talent scout for the Wilhemina Talent Agency.

At least that's what's going on in chi-town.

Jason, I just checked my emailed Monster.com job matches, and, um, it appears I haven't got 'round to telling it I'm no longer in Minneapolis.

I did change my resume there, though, he added defensively. And I have to admit, this sounds good, if it's legit. . .

Garrity, I'm just not sure Nursing would be such a great match with my skill set. Which does not include so much of the people skills. How long was your brother-in-law in school for it?

Hanne, thanks. There's a joke here somewhere about library science and Giles (from BtVS) and j-school and the other Giles, but I'm not seeing how to work it at the moment.

That, and I'd forgotten you don't (well, didn't) watch Buffy.

Clearly, more coffee is needed. Who cares that it's 7:30 in the evening?

Talent scouts work odd hours, I hear.

Y, wireless networking is also a possible move for me. Wanna know something funny? I got the idea a couple weeks ago, while on the bus. For some reason I was thinking about Shirley Jones, which made me think of The Music Man, in which she plays Marian (the librarian). Seriously, that is what gave me the idea. I thought it would be a way to keep the IT skills and potentially be in an academic environment, keeping the dork quotient alive and well.

Plus, I worked in the music library for much of undergrad, and really dug it.

As someone who is in library school I can tell you this:
You'll absolutely love it.
You'll absolutely hate it.
If you're a man in library school, you will either be ignored, or deified.

Sounds conflicting? Such is the nature of library school. All in all, I'm glad I'm doing it, but if you're really going down that route, decide if you want to be a traditional librarian (in the library and all that) or if special librarianship (corporate, law, government, media) is more your style. Me? I'm going into systems librarianship.

Best of luck to you no matter what you do.

Laura, I really didn't need that song stuck in my head, thankyouverymuch. . .

Cecily, thanks. Bon chance to you, too.

I'm taking it men in library school are like men in nursing schoo--

Hang on, exactly what are you people trying to imply with these suggestions?

As someone who was in an intensive one-year (yes 11 months) MBA Media Mgmnt program, I suggest that if you go to grad school you have to want to go...not just go b/c it seems like the right thing to do at this juncture. You have to be committed and committed to the program. You could always study something in the humanities and hope to be a professor when you get out...yeah, right.

Nah, but seriously, think about where your interests lie and what you feel you'd feel like being committed to for a year or two of serious study and then to undertake a career in it.

But hey, those IT certifications aren't a bad bet either. :-) At least not financially...though when the dot.com bombed...well, there just wasn't quite as many jobs to go around.

Marketing and sales are always fool...I mean cool...aw forget it.

What do you want to do?

Lynne, thanks for the advice. I think my main problem right now is that I still don't have an answer to that very simple question you posed at the end of your comment.

I have, however, eliminated marketing and sales from consideration.

Meaning this is where I'll probably end up.

Did you enjoy the MBA program? For certain definitions of "enjoy" I mean?

Greetings.

I recently had to shift careers. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say that I was a technical writer (most I made was $35/hour -- from home). This ended with the "Dot-Bomb" and the events of 9/11.

Did some training (Web Design and Development); no work from that arena. Took more tech classes (C++, DHTML, Software Testing), then finally gave up waiting for the tech sector to recover.

It was obviously time for a change ... now, what to take?

I had a few basic requirements: I wanted something that wouldn't be (too) rocked by world events, was in demand, and paid well.

Health care was out, because in the event of a biological attack, all the infected folk end up in the hospital. SARS? No thanks. Smallpox? Nope. Monkey Pox? Ditto.

Library Science was also an option, but after talking to a recent graduate who didn't have much good to say about her new profession, that was a pass also (though to be fair, she was "just" a reference librarian, so ....).

Acupuncture/Traditional Chinese Medicine sounded promising ($100/hour pay rates?) but the prerequisites were frightening!

Wireless (cell phones, etc.) was also an option, but after 14 years as an electronics technician in the Navy, I just don't want to do that any more (that, and the bad taste from my forced exit (a lengthy and sad story, from which I'll spare you) from said service).

Finally found a school where my typing (70WPM) and English skills would do me some good ... and where, after graduation, I could work part time ... and *still* make $65,000 per year (at least, according to one of the school's grads).

The job: Court Reporting.

First, there will always be criminals (alas), so there is some stability job-wise.

Second, if you've ever turned on the captions option on your TV, all those words are produced by someone trained in the use of a stenomachine.

Third, the Feds have decided that ALL television programming will be captioned by (I believe) 2006, so they will need more captioners. I read somewhere that a steno-captioner can work part time (24 hours per week) and bring home $75K/year.

Fourth, due to the practice of audio/video taping court proceedings, several schools teaching court reporting have closed over the years ... which means there is a serious shortage!

Oh, and the tapes usually suck: bad audio, people shuffling papers in front of the microphone, sirens in the background, and, of course, the mythical Blank Tape Syndrome(tm).

Interestingly, the NCRA (National Court Reporting Association) is trying to position court reporting as an IT source career field, now that the stenomachine interfaces with laptops for "RealTime" translation.

If you're a "technogeek," take a look at this one:

http://www.stenograph.com/m&s/body3h_mira.html

So for me it was an easy decision (besides, my (now ex) boss, a court reporter herself, had been telling me I'd be great at it for about three years now ... if only she had bothered to tell me how much money was involved!).

But.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to "get it," this machine shorthand stuff ... so I went to my local school and asked to audit Steno Theory 101 for a week.

They offered me two weeks, if I would fill out the appropriate financial aid paperwork and register, with everything being destroyed should I decide I was unable to grasp machine shorthand basics.

Been there three months now. Last year was so (financially) awful I've been given full financial aid.

Hope this helps ... and good luck, whatever you choose .....

--gdw

P.S.:

Here's a relevant link:

http://www.stenograph.com/about/index.html