hate clerical work
We really need to know all your skills not what you hate.....but what you could bring to a company.
From there, maybe we could help.
MCCathy
Community Moderator
Monster
That is one reason I dislike temp agencies. They are very good at promising one thing and delivering nothing.
In any case, it is going to be very difficult, if not nearly impossible, to change an office career into a career in, for example, sales, marketing, nursing, computers or whatever, without some additional schooling or formal training.
I don't know which industries you are working in but, a very key part of working in an office is to work in an office in the industry that interests you most. If you don't care about the business or the type of services they provide, you can't do a good job.
For example: if you are working as a secretary in a real estate office and think that real estate is boring, then you aren't going to care about the work.
The same thinking goes for those industries where there are several, shall we call them sub-industries, involved.
For example: The legal field has several branches; criminal defense, criminal prosecution, civil defense, civil prosecution, construction defect, family law, child protection, elderly abuse, workers compensation, and the list goes on. So, if you have no interest in helping those accused of a crime be cleared of any charges, but you like the idea of working in the legal industry, you may want to consider another line of legal work. Like construction.
Really consider going to at least a few courses where you will receive a certificate at the end. Figure out which industry you want to devote the next 15 or 20 years to and go forward with that.
On a more personal note: when I worked for the County Attorney, our division established paternity and then petitioned the court for child support orders and one of the things which was of the utmost importance was providing the children with medical benefits. We took the stance that the non-custodial parent (father in 85% of the cases) was the one who was responsible for this. The reason being, the custodial parent needed to concentrate on keeping the remainder of her family together and a roof over their collective heads, so finding a job with benefits wasn't the priority. Just finding a job.
Jill- I know you won't like this answer but here goes. In order to get someone to pay you, you have to learn how to do something that they're willing to pay for. If you don't like office work and won't go back to school to learn to do something else and don't have any other marketable skills, how do you think this is going to play out?
Sit down and really look at what you want to be doing. You can meet with a career counselor to help you sort out what your skills are. Your local community college should have one or check the phone book. You should certainly have all the skills needed to work in a day care (or start your own), but if you can't do lifting, that's not going to work out. (My 3 year old is 50lbs and my 18 month old is 26lbs- blame daddy he's 6'3"!) So, you're going to need to really take stock of yourself and be open to the idea of getting some schooling.
Schooling does not have to mean 4 years of getting a degree (although that would help a lot). There are tons of 9-24 or 36 month programs out there that will teach you everything from dog grooming to medical assisting and HVAC repair. Your community college offers a number of them as do lots of private schools. Find something that interests you and then get started learning how to do it properly, take advantage of their placement assistance and you're off and running!
If you decide you want to start your own business doing something, then take some business classes at the community college and have a good read of www.sba.gov. Check Barnes and Noble or Borders in the How To Business section and you'll see a lot of books with ideas for all kinds of home based businesses.
Finally, you have unreaslistic expecations about temp to hire jobs. You've only been doing that less than a year. Most temp to hire positions take at least 6-12 months to go through to full hire. Think of it as a probabion period for you and them. And temp to hire is never a guarantee, it only means that it is a 50/50 possibility. Since you hate the work, you wouldn't have wanted to be hired by them anyway!
Tess
Jobs where you can help others without doing any lifting and without any college and without any office work are going to be tough to find.
Have you tried non-profits? Things like the Red Cross might be good. You wouldn't get away from the office work all together but you could mix it up with more hands on stuff that might interest you more and make it bearable. They have a whole disaster department that deals with local disasters as well as things like Katrina. They also have a first aid side where they teach thousands of people a year CPR and first aid. You could start as a Admin Assistant or something in one of those groups and work your way up when they have paid openings. Volunteer Coordinator is another job that might fit.
If not Red Cross then some other large agency might work. They do have paid jobs in those groups and perhaps if you knew that the boring, paper pushing job you were doing was directly touching someone who really needed something it would take you over the hump. Additionally, non-profits aren't big salaries usually but they're more likely to take a chance on someone with limited experience, gaps in the resume, lack of education etc. in trade. And these days most have at least some benefits although they may not be as great as a big company.
Tess
Hi, I am new to Monster postings, but this one caught my eye and felt compelled to respond. I have worked in the non profit sector for 26 years now and am currently seeking a position.
My experience has been in multiple postions, members/donors, financial, business development/management, event planning, communications and web development, etc. I live in a large midwest city. I have found that non profits are much like the for profits and they too want experience and a degree, no matter the position. Non profit work, years back, was a good stepping stone to building experience and resume, but those days have changed.
Non profits receive hundreds of resumes for even the lowest paying, entry level job and many of those do not have an HR staffer on the payroll. I have been told this when awarded an interview. I have to wonder who is sorting through all of the resumes! For any non profit position I have applied to, I customize my resume as well as the cover letter to highlight the experience in that particular area but am not getting the interviews I would like. I believe that for a person with no direct non profit experience, it would be even more difficult to get awarded an interview. It may help to volunteer with the specific agency and let it be known that one is interested to make the transition from volunteer to employee should the right opportunity come along. Non profits look for those individuals who are passionate about their mission and can promote that visibility and the right attitude, a "will and can do", is vital even for volunteering.
I would recommend an assessment test be done to determine the right career path as I think this individual is at a point in her life when there are many changes and much to assimilate and perhaps a more linear insight would be beneficial, black and white so to speak and then some professional development in those areas which is a much more economical path than university and often of more value. At her age, she needs to be focused and more amenable to maybe work that doesn't seem appealing at first. Many office jobs are challenging and rewarding, but it has to be the right fit. And one must know how to market oneself, there are many resources available to assist on this front.
Best of luck, I wish myself that as well. Take care of yourself!