career change questionFirst a little background: After college graduation, about five years ago, I took a job in inside sales. After that, and several moves for my husband' s career, I' ve ended up with mostly clerical positions, sales assistant, ad coordinator, and program assistant--all admin type jobs. Since 2004, I' ve been in these "assistant" type positions. I' ve tried to move up, I' ve applied for more "advanced" positions, but secretarial positions are the only types of jobs I get interviewed for. Not that there' s anything wrong with secretarial/admin jobs, its just not my cup of tea. My degree is in business administration, specifically management. I' ve only applied for and taken these jobs because it was something to pay the bills while looking for a better job. I had to work somewhere. My question is: Is it possible for me to change careers or am I "stuck" being someone' s admin forever? I guess I feel like people see me now as an "order taker" and don' t feel like I can do anything beyond that. (why, they feel this way, I don' t know, but that is the vibe I get from my coworkers and boss, and that the only job I' ve gotten a call back from was a receptionist position). I feel stuck. I' m nearly 28 and feel like I' m going nowhere. I always thought that I' d be well on my way to either owning my own business or at least getting closer to the top of the ladder in the corporate world, not still stuck at the bottom in a worse position than my first job out of college. Any advice/suggestions/answers are greatly appreciated. The search for a new job/career path is getting frustrating.
I'm bumping your thread b/c I'm hoping someone with greater insight than me will offer you advice. I'm not sure why you haven't been able to obtain a position with more authority, or that's not just administrative. Maybe it's the wording in your resume? It might help to phrase things as accomplishments and not "duties" or "responsibilities". If you have a business degree of course you can do more. What is it that you want to do? You have to find something that you have to have passion for. What is that in you? I did a mid 30 career change about five years ago. I went from marketing major w/ several different jobs I knew I was better than to database developer. I just interviewed last week for a 90k/year job k-to-hire and I am on my way. You WILL pay your dues but it can be done. Define yourself FIRST and go forward. ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS think about your marketability. I' m working to try to find that passion. I realize that I don' t know what it is and ultimately that is causing me to be stagnant. There are lots of things I like, but none that I feel able to make a career out of. How did you find out what you wanted to change to? I started considering things when tech was hot. That' s interesting, I wonder what I would have done had that not been the case. In any event I started learning HTML on my own and started asking questions as you are to people in the field. After some investigating I decided to take two courses at a local jc. That was as much to determine if I had the time to go to school as much as the interest in the subject. Once I completed the courses I determined that it was something I could do and would like to do. I eventually completed my CIS degree thereafter. Yes, it is difficult if you haven' t "found yourself" yet. For me, to be very frank, I got "bounced around" at my jobs. I tried sales and fizzled at it, I tried managment and it was not very rewarding. All that time I knew I could do more. I don' t like dealing w/ people so programming was a comfortable fit for me. To be honest, you may need to have the bumps to get fed up enough to obtain direction. It is kind of rough but once you make the change and get direction then you will be fine. I always say to myself that I must keep learning so I don' t go back to that type of work. I am somewhat of a career changer, I had worked 8 years at one of three CRA' s in California. I got a little sick of the credit reporting job, but I did like the job I had... The problem at my company was that the managers were not going anywhere, in terms of leaving the company... so that limited some options within the department I worked. What I did then was save up some money, left the company, went to Costa Rica for 10 days . Then came back and started looking. I have to say though, you go through some of dry spells thinking that someone MUST certainly be sabotaging the resume, or... you' ll .. have someone call you for an interview, then retract the opportunity the day before... those are frustrating! .But then the next week you' ll get several calls, and have 2 or 3 interviews. and you' ' ll get some confidence back. It' s a bit like riding a roller coaster. The one thing that I have a problem with is recruiters... some of them know the job, and some are horrible at it. I would say that only 2 out of 10 that I talked to, were productive. On another note though... the best thing to do is Network. Four 4 out of 5 of my jobs I have acquired through Networking. Additionally, you have to know what you want to do. I just want to echo the excellent advice from Greg....the key to most great jobs is Networking. The traditional job search will often be frustrating when you try to make a career change. Employers too often judge you only on the work you have done and not the work you are qualified to do. Begin increasing your network by talking with those already in the line of work you want to enter. Talk to your friends and trustworthy colleagues about the work you are interested in and ask if they can put you in contact with anyone who may assist you. And don' t assume that someone can' t be helpful just because they are not in a position to hire you. I was recently referred to someone who considered hiring me because of another business relationship I had developed. The fact is, you never know where the door will open, but you have to be known in order to learn of these opportunities. So, network, network, network. Make friend, get connected and let folks know you have other skills besides those needed for your current job. | |
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