I should probably acquire some sort of job skill

[Elok]

So, my term at the census is ending. I can't parlay my term there into anything useful, and as an English major pretty much the best I can hope for is an office assistant opening, which is a career dead-end. And now even the competition for those openings is fierce. I'm tired of being a useless prolonged-adolescence manchild skating through on nothing. I get a cold, empty feeling just looking at job listings, because I'm qualified for nothing. Yes, you all told me so, I know. But I'm in good company, with the hordes of English, Humanities, Sociology, Philosophy, Art, Music, American Studies, Women's Studies and a host of other majors. **** our worthless educational system. **** it sideways, with my whole redundant generation of man-children and the career services toads who tell us employers are looking for good communicators. If Western Civilization ends, we will be in the vanguard against it, tearing it down with our retail stocking and customer service jobs while the Chinese build spaceships or something.

Anyway, I'm going to try to think constructively. I have about $10K saved up from living with my parents while working at the census. It seems the best use of that would be to learn something useful, but I'm not sure what's useful. Pharmacy school? Learning some kind of computer language? I can't go back to college, but some kind of vocational training could be useful. Maybe. Who knows. I'm barely above average at math, but had a decent aptitude in programming and the sciences in HS. I don't have the physical build to be a mechanic.

Right now I'm leaning towards something in computing, because in my few shallow forays into the field I did pretty well. I took a BASIC class in high school, got bored and read ahead in the book to program the computer to play a primitive form of blackjack while everyone else was learning about nested if/thens. That's something, I guess, but obviously I'm going to want something better than muddled memories of BASIC and I don't know what's useful. I'll ask my folks too, but I figure it doesn't hurt to get advice.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

the best I can hope for is an office assistant opening, which is a career dead-end.

No it isn't.

[Snotty]

Youve got to start somewhere. get your foot in the door, prove you are competent and reliable and start climbing the ladder

[Jon Miller]

My sister works call center type jobs and makes over 30k. She doesn't have a degree.

Service workers, like waiters/etc, can make good money. Also doesn't require a degree.

Educators make some money, requires a bit of extra education. Don't make a lot of money though.

Journalists/writers/news editors/etc make a bit of money.

Career advancement is almost everywhere though, if you can move into management.

Sorry, I am not much help, I don't know much about these sort of things.

JM

[Asher]

Aspies do well in programming. If you enjoy it, consider taking some courses then getting your foot in the door as a tester or QA person.

[DanS]

Whatever you do, work in an office environment. Take it from a humanities grad who found jobs in a tough job market: you will find a place eventually. Bugs and Snotty also seem to have experienced how this works.

[DaShi]

No it isn't.

Agreed, my sister started as an office assistant at a small company and made huge strides over the past few years.

[Asher]

Peggy from Mad Men

[Al B. Sure!]

Whatever you do, work in an office environment. Take it from a humanities grad who found jobs in a tough job market: you will find a place eventually. Bugs and Snotty also seem to have experienced how this works.

Wait... don't you work in Finance? What was your humanities degree?

[DanS]

History.

[Arrian]

I was a history major. I sort of fell into this job (coverage analysis of a very specific subset of insurance claims), but it's a darn good one, all things considered. My writing/analytical skills are a good fit. Of course, there are about 15 of us in the whole company.

You never know what you might find. I didn't know this job existed until I stumbled into it.

What DanS said, basically.

-Arrian

edit: "sort of stumbled" = taking a crap call-center job trying to sell overpriced auto/home insurance to Californians, being laid off a few months later (because, shockingly enough, nobody was buying), attending a "college career fair" even though I had graduated a year prior, applying for a job in one department but being snapped up by another, related one (my dept is technically a subset of the one to which I originally applied, but operates independently). I fit into the department's culture rather well and here I am, 11 years later.

[Al B. Sure!]

History.

Bachelor's degree? From where? And you work as an analyst?

[DanS]

BA from a reputable institution. I do not work as a securities analyst.

[Flubber]

Peggy from Mad Men

I really liked her reaction to the artist guy that "found clothes too confining"

[Al B. Sure!]

BA from a reputable institution. I do not work as a securities analyst.

Well you're awfully cryptic. I ask because I was a Finance major and I couldn't get my foot in the door in any financial firms.