Oh, how I long for the innocence of youth...

[snapdragon76]

We recieved a letter from our landlord yesterday. He's going to be raising our rent by $200 starting in September. It's hard enough trying to come up with the amount we have to pay now. He did say that if we were able to get it to him by the 10th of every month, he'd reduce it by $50. *sigh*

I also got the cable bill yesterday. Due to the fact that I accidentally missed the last payment due date by a few days, I now have to pay $200. On top of that, I have to pay my Student Loan. I'm not sure I'll have enough. I know I have no one to blame but myself for missing the payment, even by a few days. I have no one but myself to blame for all the troubles I seem to find myself in.

I really need to find work. soleta_nf was saying that a lot of companies hire people with Psychology backgrounds. I must not be looking in the right places then. Maybe I need to redo my profile on Monster.com or something. Find a career counselor. Something. It's not as though I don't want to work, it's just I guess I didn't pick a degree that seems to be specific enough for the job hunt. *sigh*

If all of this is another test of faith, I have a feeling I'm going to fail...

Comments

[flamika.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...have you tried looking at couseling jobs in the school systems? I know down here in Texas we're really hurting for education jobs so they try and force everyone in all majors to get a teaching certificate of some sort. How is the hunt for a job at the bookstore turning out?

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

I did try that actually. You need at least a Master's, so I'm basically boned.

I haven't heard anything yet. *keeping fingers crossed*

[bananasloth.livejournal.com]

O.o Omg, that is terrible! I am so sorry. He just raised it without warning? That's harsh. I understand the money issues. I live in a family of six and living paycheck to paycheck is always stressful. If I had a dollar for everytime I had a money issue, well then I wouldn't have any more problems heh. Hang in there kiddo, life always has a way of sneaking in a solution just when your sure your down for the count. If you ever need someone to talk to you know where to find me *huggles* I'll be sending postive thoughts your way.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Well, in the letter he explained it was due to increase in property tax and stuff. But yeah, it bites the big one.

And any good thought that are sent are mucho appreciated.

*huggles*

That sucks......

[dracschick.livejournal.com]

good luck finding a job. I'm teaching private school because you don't need a certificate for that one.

*hugs*

take care,
Chris

Re: That sucks......

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your support. It's greatly appreciated.

Teaching doesn't really interest me. I mean, I don't have the sort of personality to be able to stand in front of a classroom and all that. I took a speach class one time and I barely made it through alive...

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

You know, I had the same problem when I looked for a job, because I had a liberal arts major. I finally wound up the library (which I'm not happy with, oh well). I think the career counselor is a good idea.

Good luck, wish I could be more help.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

There's a job fair at the local community college I may pop over and stalk through. I'll probably come up with bupkes, but it's worth a shot at least.

And I actually considered a job at a library, believe it or not. It must be the bibliophile in me...

Hell, I have to find some way of supporting my highly addictive manga/anime habit. Anime really IS like crack!

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

This is true! And it gets you out there and who knows, you might find something. ^^

See, the thing about my working in this particular library is that I know not all libraries are like this. They all can't be this bad.

*laughs* Do what I did. Work in a bookstore partime and get the employee discount. *boogies*

Good luck!

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

I actually applied to a couple of bookstores. I haven't heard from any of them yet. I hope I didn't shoot myself in the foot due to the fact I have no real prior work experience...

*crosses fingers*

I have a feeling that if I did work in a bookstore, I'd be chucking back half my paycheck back to them just from feeding my manga (and novel) habit.

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

Noooo, bookstores should hopefully be pretty decent about hiring someone in order to give them experiance. The bookstore I worked for was really great like that.

*crosses fingers, too*

*cackle* My boss at my bookstore told me that he deliberately hired people who said they read on their resume, so that we'd spend our paycheck in the store. *cackle*

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, the application didn't mention anything about reading... *eep*

Well, I'm sure many of the employees at any of the bookstores I frequent should know me pretty well by now. I mean, I pop in there at least once a week...

[zelamenomiko.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I think that was just Al. ^^

I know the feeling! I'm surprised my bookstore doesn't know my name yet. ^^

[soleta-nf.livejournal.com]

I meant to reply to this before. Sorry for the delay!

I guess I didn't pick a degree that seems to be specific enough for the job hunt

No, an Arts degree is not specific enough for the job hunt. That's not what Arts degrees are meant to be. They're meant to be general educators that help you develop who you are as a person and citizen. You may not have developed specific skills that directly lead into a job (as a tradesperson would learn at a trades college), but you have learned many transferable skills. Meaning, you know how to write essays. You can communicate your thoughts. You can organize a bunch of information and summarize it. You can research. You know qualitative and quantitative research methods. You can communicate your ideas well.

The trick with Arts degrees is that *you* have to put the work into figuring what you have learned and how those things can benefit a potential employer. These will not be apparent to an employer, but if you have spell it out for them, they will understand and appreciate and value your strengths.

Here are some web sites with information on this:

http://www.d.umn.edu/student/loon/car/self/career_transfer_survey.html
http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/~ianm/skills.html
http://chronicle.com/jobs/v45/i16/4516beyond.htm

Psychology-specific:

http://web.apu.ac.uk/appsci/psychol/opentalk/tsld009.htm
http://www.sps.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/skills.html

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Hell, I'm not even sure about exactly all I've learned. I guess I've been out of school for too long. I'm sure it'll all come back to me eventually.

Thanks for the links...

[soleta-nf.livejournal.com]

You don't need to figure out what you've learned in terms of what theories and psychologists you learned about. You need to figure out what you've learned in terms of your skill set - writing well, researching, etc. As long as you commit to doing some soul-searching, it wouldn't be that hard. There are plenty of tools and tests and information online about this sort of thing.

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

Writing-well and researching, yeah I have learned well, actually...