Ever felt like you just can't get the right job?

[Damaramu 0]

Ok, so I graduated college last May with a bachelor's degree in journalism. Well I used that to secure a job as sports editor wtih the Dodge City Daily Globe last August.

I worked by myself in a town that was used to having 2-3 sportswriters and was just generally miserable. My boss was a complete idiot and wanted me to always do more with less. People around the paper were dropping like flies and I was constantly yelled at by cross country mothers for not driving 2 1/2 hours to cover a meet. Other than that I got a lot of compliments. But, Dodge City sucks ass and the job sucked. It's hard to cover a main high school. a JUCO and 13 area schools by yourself with no stringer or part-time help.

Plus I was on salary and only making 22K and working 50-60 hours a week. So I quit and moved back to OK at the beginning of May.

 

Since coming back I've taken a few temporary jobs, but I'm still looking for my career. I don't want to work for a newspaper anymore. You make close to pennies working there and I can't handle it. I still like to write about sports, but that can be accomplished by strining on Friday nights at high school football games.

 

So, I've applied to become a police officer and to work at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Both pay about the same, 30K. Everyone keeps telling me that's nothing but it's a hell of a lot more than 22K and there is room for advancement (nobody at the Globe had gotten a raise in 3 years).

 

So I hear the general horror stories about cops and people try to discourage me saying I'll be miserable because everyone I encounter will hate me, etc. They also say that I'll become a shady person if I become a cop. That doesn't make a ton of sense to me. And my mom is afraid of me getting killed in the line of duty.

 

Well the other one is Enterprise. I worked there as a car prep in college and enjoyed it. I got along with the people I worked with and I had fun driving the customers around. Obviously now I'd be renting cars. And their pay scale is really good. The only problem is you have to be a salesman. I can handle that.

 

Then I discovered failingenterprise.com and read all the stories from jilted customers and employees. The majority of the posts there seem to be from people that are just pissy. And some of the anti-employment stuff seems flat out made up. They tried to say their employees work 13 hour days with no break (enterprise is only open 10.5 hours M-F and 4 Sa) and they work 60-70 hours a week (enterprise is only open 58 hours or so a week). And then they all say 30K is laughably bad and no college graduate should work for that wage.

 

Well, 30K may not be good for most people but I live in the cheapest state in the union and just came from a job that only paid me 22K and I was a college graduate!

 

 

So has this every happened to anyone? You go job searching and everything you seem to land on is shot down by everyone you know or just be reading around online. I'm still going to take the job at Enterprise if it's offered because I worked there and I know a lot of that site to be BS.

 

And also, has anyone ever been about to take a job and heard horror stories that later turned out to be not true? Or did they discourage you from taking the job?

[bob_barron 0]

Your newspaper situation sounds a lot like the paper I worked at upon graduating college. Just a mess.

 

I left in March and am now working for another paper. It doesn't pay as much, but I get a gas card and it's a lot more fun

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

30K with a college degree? Christ, I make more than that at my job and my secondary education consisted of 2 years of C's and no major.

 

 

[Damaramu 0]

Well the place completely fell apart.

 

It was owned by Morris Communications (shit) and then bought by Gatehouse (more shit). I guess privately owned papers are the way to go.

 

The managing editor left in December and the penny-pinching publisher decided not to fill his position. So we had a reporter in the interim position who was pulling double duty. Our publisher liked to talk about how we all wore many hats at the Globe. Then our education reporter left, then I left, and now the crime and city reporter is leaving. Oh and the publisher quit and left his mess for someone else to clean up. Right now they have an interim publisher, reporter/interim ME, a part-time kid helping design sports (he can't write just design), one clerk/page designer, and a page designer/photographer.

 

I'm just not a fan of the newspaper business right now. Everyone is going downhill and jobs are being cut left and right. At Enterprise I may be a corporate whore, but at least I afford my family a future. Plus the hours are more family oriented. At a newspaper your hours are just all over the place. I worked about 12 hours a day, but it was never straight. It was always spread out and crazy. I'd work 5 hours and go home for an hour and then go back for 2 or whatever.

 

Plus, stringing allows me to do what I really want to do: just cover a game and then write the gamer.

 

 

And, on the subject Tzar brought up. I hear that a lot, but I never know exactly where these jobs are. Like when I sit there and try to think of a job to work I just draw a giant blank. Seriously the only jobs that have occured to me are at the newspaper, Enterprise and being a cop. Everyone suggests TV, but I don't want to work for TV. My family says "You're throwing your education away if you don't do what your degree is exactly for." That's complete BS. I know people that get jobs that require a degree, but it's not in their field. They do just fine. And I think my dad just really wants to push me into TV.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Get a job with a textbook company. Edit something other than a newspaper.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

On your drawing a blank statement:

 

Here's what you do. Drive by an industrial park near a satellite city of OKC. Look at one of those big plain brown box pole buildings that house some kind of packaging company or whatever. These places have managers and managerial periphery that get paid decently well, and really don't require a whole lot in terms of background. In fact, most of them promote stoners like me from within. HR departments, corporate stooges, production line supervisors...there are thousands, millions of jobs like that in the country. Even working in a foundry pays more than 30K per year.

[Damaramu 0]

You know, 30K isn't a bad wage in Oklahoma. Like I said before, it's the cheapest state to live in.

 

The only problem I have with Enterprise is it loses a little bit of it's "glamour" or whatever. At least as a journalist or cop people go "oh wow, that's cool." and are interested in your job because it's kind of out of the ordinary. At Enterprise it's like "Ummm....ok. That's cool." Then again I need to make a living, not have people be interested in my job.

 

Right now I'm working temporarily in a call center answering DirecTV technical calls. It really sucks the meat missile and I'm surrounded by retards. When the teacher in the training class holds up an S-Video cable and says "Does anyone know what this is?" and people are confused and need to study said cable to figure it out, you know you've hit the bottom.

 

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

When you tell people you're a cop, they'll think you're a directionless loser with no aptitude to do anything truly worthwhile. At least they should think that.

 

Don't be a cop. Cops are the lowest form of life that aren't Amish. Janitors deserve more respect.

[Twisted Intestine 0]

You know, 30K isn't a bad wage in Oklahoma. Like I said before, it's the cheapest state to live in.

 

The only problem I have with Enterprise is it loses a little bit of it's "glamour" or whatever. At least as a journalist or cop people go "oh wow, that's cool." and are interested in your job because it's kind of out of the ordinary. At Enterprise it's like "Ummm....ok. That's cool." Then again I need to make a living, not have people be interested in my job.

 

Right now I'm working temporarily in a call center answering DirecTV technical calls. It really sucks the meat missile and I'm surrounded by retards. When the teacher in the training class holds up an S-Video cable and says "Does anyone know what this is?" and people are confused and need to study said cable to figure it out, you know you've hit the bottom.

 

I've worked in a call center answering Verizon technical calls. How much do they pay you?

 

Also, you can just apply to be a cop? I thought you had to go to school for that.

[Damaramu 0]

Most of the police stations around here require you to basically have completed half of a college degree. You go through all the testing and billions of interviews and then you get hired and they send you to CLEET (the training academy) and you get paid while doing that. So you go to school, sort of, but get paid to go to school.

 

I get paid 9/hour at DirecTV. I hate it just because we're a 3rd party center that works for DirecTV and training would only last a week if they didn't spend so much time shilling DirecTV to us.

 

Also has anyone ever heard of that FailingEnterprise website? Seriously from my experience it's absolute BS. Yeah they try to sell you the extra insurance (which isn't a bad thing. go total their car, you paid the insurance) and they do try to force you into upgrades.

But some of the stuff they accuse Enterprise of doing (not holding reservations, etc.) is done by every rental car company. Seinfeld made fun of it in the 80's for gods sake.

Also they flat out make stuff up about employment. Saying you only get paid 7 bucks an hour, you work 13 hour shifts, you work 70 hours a week. That's all a lie and not even possible because Enterprise is only open 10.5 hours a day!

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Sure it's possible. You don't think companies have employees who have to work outside business hours?

 

Don't be a cop. No one think it's cool to be a cop, and you'll have miserable hours there, too. Tzar's suggestion about trying some middle-management slot at a big company/factory/warehouse/whatever is a good one. If you don't know what you really want to do, maybe look for local government jobs or work at a university. Tons of different kinds of positions that are probably pretty steady and reliable. Or, if you have a decent base of support from your family and can afford it, try an internship somewhere cool. It's worth 6 months of little money if you manage to get involved with something that really interests you.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Dama, many local newspapers are like the one you described in your first post. That's the nature of the business.

 

Don't get too involved in what other people say about the way you make a living. If it pays the bills, gives you a bit to save and spend freely, and you like waking up in the morning, then do it.

 

If you still want to write and do all that stuff, look into corporate communications openings/etc. Granted you aren't an attractive female, so you have that going against you, but would you enjoy producing a company's newsletter/web site/etc.? Just remember that when it's time to lay-off workers, you'll be first on the chopping block.

[Guest Epic Narcissism]

When you tell people you're a cop, they'll think you're a directionless loser with no aptitude to do anything truly worthwhile. At least they should think that.

 

Don't be a cop. Cops are the lowest form of life that aren't Amish. Janitors deserve more respect.

I wish I had a font size 7 headbang smiley here.

[Nighthawk 0]

A cop once told me that maybe two thirds of cops are total pieces of shit.

 

 

You know, I looked into becoming a mortician, but you have to do some college and only make an average of 40K a year and probably relocate. Excellent job security, though. I still might become a butcher, that's an ok job. Mortician, butcher... these are excellent day jobs for me while I work on being a comedian and musician (and I also write screenplays now).

[Jingus 0]

Jeez, a whole lotta Fuck The Pigs sentiment on here. I feel more sorry for them than anything. A miserable and dangerous job with shitty pay.

 

30K with a college degree?

Depends on the job. My mom, a teacher, doesn't make a hell of a lot more than that. And she's a special ed teacher with uncommon skills and training... working in a relatively wealthy county... having thirty years' experience in teaching people of all ages with all kinds of mental and physical handicaps... with a good track record for actually helping thse people improve... and she's got a Master's degree from Vanderbilt. Still gets paid bullshit. She only does it because she loves the kid so much.

[Damaramu 0]

Dama, many local newspapers are like the one you described in your first post. That's the nature of the business.

 

Don't get too involved in what other people say about the way you make a living. If it pays the bills, gives you a bit to save and spend freely, and you like waking up in the morning, then do it.

 

If you still want to write and do all that stuff, look into corporate communications openings/etc. Granted you aren't an attractive female, so you have that going against you, but would you enjoy producing a company's newsletter/web site/etc.? Just remember that when it's time to lay-off workers, you'll be first on the chopping block.

 

That's why I was going to look into stringing. I know a lot of smaller (and bigger for that matter) papers are always looking for stringers during high school football season. I'd love to string and just go to some local high school games and write. I really enjoyed covering prep football and basketball too. I just didn't like all the other BS.

I've covered D-1 and preps, and I found the preps to be much more enjoyable.

 

I think I'm going to take the Enterprise job. It's got good advancement opportunities (i know someone that was a branch manager after 13 months), decent pay, and I like the hours. I really kind of want to be a family man. I want to be able to be home with my kids in the evenings, see them on the weekends and be able to afford to give them a decent living. This really seems like the job I can do that at.

I remember when I was growing up my dad was P.I. and he didn't make shit and he worked shitty hours because he investigated employees ripping off businesses. So he'd usually get hired as an assistant manager at Godfather's Pizza or somewhere and work for a month or so until he nabbed the person in question. The payday at the end was good, but until that point it was shitty pay. I didn't go without, but at the same time they couldn't afford to do stuff like let me play sports for a community team because they couldn't afford the equipment. If my kids want to play football or baseball I want to be able to let them.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

It sounds like something you want to try, so go for it. But I'd hesitate to look towards a first or second job as a lifelong career that will help you define whether or not you can be a "family man." I mean, you're 23 and gonna get a job renting cars. It shouldn't be more than a payday, and when you get tired of it or want more money in 2-3 years, you can just go somewhere else.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

At the very least, score a management job.

[At Home 0]

I've had 50/50 luck with jobs.

[Copper Feel 0]

I'm thinking of getting my first job this holiday. I hear that Somerfield are hiring.

[Damaramu 0]

It sounds like something you want to try, so go for it. But I'd hesitate to look towards a first or second job as a lifelong career that will help you define whether or not you can be a "family man." I mean, you're 23 and gonna get a job renting cars. It shouldn't be more than a payday, and when you get tired of it or want more money in 2-3 years, you can just go somewhere else.

 

Yeah, but that's where I draw a blank. Do I parlay that business and possible managment experience into a better job with a new comapny or do I start at the bottom again at a new company?

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Preferably the former. If you really jump industries broadly, then maybe you start closer to the bottom again. For the most part, generalized experience being successful, managing people, etc. can be applied across the board to some extent. You make your most money jumping from job to job every few years, or leveraging another job offer at your current place of employment. When you find something you love, stick with it, but everything else is just a means to an end. At this stage of your life, you should do one of two things: take something just for the sake of getting paid and saving up cash, or take something low-paying in a field where you want to get some experience and connections. It sounds like you're more interested in the former.

 

If you really have difficulties, give OU's career services department a call. Pretty much every university offers employment advice, resume evaluation, and the like to alumni, either for free or for a small charge.

[Damaramu 0]

Yeah, I actually have Gaylord College's career lady on my facebook page. She wanted to meet with me, but I couldn't get any before the summer because I was still living in Dodge City.

 

Yeah I'd do the latter you suggested (working somewhere because i want to get into a business), but I was honestly miserable doing it. I really think all the fun was just sucked right out of writing. Maybe I'll make some connections stringing and find an opportunity I really want to have. Who knows.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

I'm a farmer now!

 

Also, Edwin, you should get a Dear Abby column. You give great advice and you could put some of your wordsmithing skills to good use. Like Ann Landers, only more references to filling one's bottom with majesty.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

IMHO, more important than the money is the stress level/convenience of the job.

 

I'm a 4yr college graduate making $33k w/ a little room for advancement. It pays the rent/bills and gives me a buck or two to throw around at the end of the month. But all in all, I love it (in as much as one can love a job) since I've practically mastered the job, I hardly ever deal with customers, managers don't put any more pressure on me than I do to myself, and it's close to home. Bottom line, I wouldn't put equate success with $$$ at least not in your early-mid 20s.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Your newspaper experience seems to completely mirror everyone else I've known who has worked in that industry. Long hours and low pay for thankless work. It's an industry in turmoil right now, and doesn't seem to be getting better. Honestly, the only people who read papers anymore are middle aged and older. A lot of advertisers are finally realizing these facts, and cutting back on the dollars they put towards newspaper ads. Consequently, positions at papers don't get refilled, or one guy is expected to do the work of three people. Not exactly a big growth field.

 

$30,000/yr isn't that bad, starting out. People often think that a college degree automatically entitles you to a great high paying job, but it doesn't anymore unless you graduate with something you can use in a high demand, niche sort of field.

 

Hell, when I graduated, the economy was horrible (shortly after Sept. 11th), and all I could find was a mediocre retail sales job. I wasn't making much more than $20,000 a year. Thankfully I soon got married and my wife had a good job where we didn't have to worry about how we were going to pay rent or utilities. Worked there a couple years, gained sales experience, and then when I realized I basically had zero advancement opportunity, I left and did outside advertising sales for a couple years. Wasn't making tremendously more money, but at least I could wear a suit to work and carry myself with some self-respect, usually. The benefits were at least OK, and I didn't have to literally go into work angry every day, like when I was in retail. Now I'm self employed and finally making decent money.

 

My point is, it doesn't happen overnight. It usually takes at least a couple years to really establish a career for yourself after college. If you want to be a cop though, be a cop. Don't let other people affect your life...you're the one that has to be happy with yourself, not other people.

[Damaramu 0]

Yeah, making good money motivates me, but not so much in the greedy "I want to go out and buy a speed boat iwth this!" kind of way. It's more that I want the money so I can give my soon to be wife a nice home and so I can give my future kids a decent living.

My fiancee is an LPN soon to be RN, so she'll be making decent money too.

[NoCalMike 0]

I got rear-ended the other day and the other guy's insurance set me up with a rental through Enterprise, and the rep there actually recommended I NOT get the insurance, because there is a good chance the insurance company covers it. So he had an oppurtunity there to fuck me over by saying "nope, you better get it" but he didn't.

 

Thanks Enterprise

[Jorge Gorgeous 0]

A cop once told me that maybe two thirds of cops are total pieces of shit.

 

 

You know, I looked into becoming a mortician, but you have to do some college and only make an average of 40K a year and probably relocate. Excellent job security, though. I still might become a butcher, that's an ok job. Mortician, butcher... these are excellent day jobs for me while I work on being a comedian and musician (and I also write screenplays now).

 

Have you been up on stage, yet? For the comedy?

[Nighthawk 0]

Not like you, no. But thanks for keeping on me, it'll motivate me.