Contemplations on my future
Oct. 27th, 2005 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fencerm2So rather than do entertaining and distracting quizzes, I am opting to use this to bounce thoughts off anyone interested.
As I mentioned last month, my personal goal in life is to become a published author. To that end, I have begun to get serious about editing my completed novel, and doing daily work in writing/editing...and looking forward to a new project for NaNo in less than a week. I keep going on about this.
Ok, so in the meantime - I need to earn a living. I am working a decent job, pay wise right now - but it is not satisfying, nor is there any upward or forward mobility available here...and I really need to do something that lets me feel some sense of accomplishment or achievement. So I drop resumes...and wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Yeah, this is getting me nowhere fast.
I need more than just a job...even though I wish to be a writer as my career, this is something that will take YEARS - even if I sell Seeker in a few months, until it is in the stores and being sold in vast numbers, it will not be a career I can live off of. I very much believe in this as my future...but I cannot neglect myself and my own contentment and basic needs in the mean time.
So I have to look for more than just some job...I think I need to seriously examine my career path. In doing so, I have come to see that, aside from my writing, I have none.
In the 10+ years since leaving college, including the year I lost while broken, I have lived in 4 places, 2 communities, and held 7 or 8 different, diverse jobs, never for more than 2 years. I have been a cable installer, audiophile music salesmen, graphic layout artist, level 1 tech support and call screener, retail sales manager and level 1 I.T. guy, and now paralegal. I have an eclectic range of skills - and find myself at too high a salary level, and either over or under-qualified for most of the jobs I apply for. Frustrating is an understatement.
So...now what?
Today I took a long, hard look at exactly that question. And I have drawn a conclusion - either I need to find some way to accelerate the process of getting my novel published (which, judging by the speed at which I received the rejection from the agent I sent to last week, is right out) - OR - I need to consider returning to school, focusing on a useful degree program - and taking it from there.
To that end, I evaluated in my head what it is I would want to do, if I cannot be writing. Two answers have come up more than once over the years - Music/Art/Drama Therapy, or Teaching.
Research today showed me that I COULD, through NYU, do a graduate degree program for Drama Therapy. I do not have the practical art skills nor ability with musical instruments to do art or Music therapy. So, it is a possibility...but not my favorite one.
For years, I have pondered again and again finding a route into teaching. I love to share knowledge - I love to teach fencing, or all about the architecture of the Cloisters, or computer software, or whatever. I have always thought I would make an excellent teacher.
The subject I could most easily qualify to do an accelerated Master's program in is English Education. My Drama BA is very close and relative to the requirements of an English degree. But while I am a writer, my love of education is not mostly in English - it is in History - Social Studies.
So I sent a query to NYU, again, about their accelerated Master's program in Social Studies education. I did minor in ART history, in college - maybe that is close enough that I could still be admitted to the program (accelerated means 12 or 15 months of full-time schooling - then I'd have the MA).
Any thoughts from the teachers out there? Any thoughts from anyone else about this?
I do not wish to continue menial labors...I need to do something more satisfying. I want to, if not love my work, find a sense of accomplishment, and at least take home some pride in what I do.
So this is where I am at. Thank you for reading this VERY lengthy missive on my existence. Any questions or comments would be appreciated.
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 10:27 pm (UTC)Seriously, if you don't want to be doing menial work, do not, under any circumstances, become a high school (or, worse, middle school) social studies teacher. If, on the other hand, you want your soul sucked out? Go right ahead.
I have known so many people in your situation--they love teaching, they love history, why not combine the two? Two great tastes that taste great together. But you have to realize that the history you love is not the history you will get to teach. As a rookie teacher, you will not get the "fun" classes--world history, renaissance, medieval--most schools only have a few of those, and the teachers w/ seniority get their pick of the goodies. You will get stuck teaching the required 2-3 years of American history to bored teenagers.
Even should you happen to like American history, you will have to teach from a dumbed-down, jingo-istic textbook. If you want to supplement this material, it will be on your own time, out of your own pocket, and you will still be responsible for getting through the book.
You may be blessed with some students who also like American history. You will, guaranteed, have at least 2-3 students per period who will hate American history, or you, or school, or their parents, or themselves so much that they will actively sabotage your efforts to teach not only them, but everyone else in the class. You will have no way to boot these kids out of your class so you can spend your time and attention on the ones who don't piss all over you. Their parents will be unsympathetic, since they are, after all, paying you to nurture and teach their precious bundles of joy. You may get lucky and have a phone on your desk to call for help if you need, it, but the administration will be unsympathetic, since they are paying you to contain and handle problems in your own classroom, and if you can't, you can't hack it.
Do not do this to yourself. If you truly love teaching, get a master's and try teaching at a community college, where at least your students will be, at least nominally, adults and you can kick them out of class. Or try private tutoring. Neither of these is lucrative, or particularly secure, but trust me, you do not want to bury yourself in the grave that is American public school teaching.
nothing lengthy now but...
Date: 2005-10-27 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-27 11:22 pm (UTC)You want to WRITE!!
Date: 2005-10-28 03:55 pm (UTC)For the past 9 years I've consistantly had employment that utilized my writing skills and allowed me to actually write and deal with language.
2 years writing for both print and online technical journals and magazines.
3 years as a technical writer/editor
4 years as in Search Optimization (online marketing to search engines) where I writing site content, search ads, meta-tag ads, etc. based on keyword research involving how internet users use language to search the internet for products and services. It is actually very interesting.
In my new position I'm utilizing vast amounts of my past skills and knowledge, I'm working at Network World, a print and online computer journal/magazine as an Audience Developer. My job is to market Network World in as many ways possible to obtain a larger audience. This includes, search optimization of how the site uses language for meta-tags and content, working with writers in our editorial department and educating them about how internet users search using keywords and how to use that knowledge in their writing to make their writing more search friendly. I also write ads for paid search programs in Google & Yahoo. And I work with the Newsletter and White Paper writers with editorial suggestions. There is a lot more I will be doing, I'm only in week 3
But what I'm saying is that there is a demand out there for writers again. you should check out the various job search sites and look at technical writing or other writing positions in your area. I really think that you have the background and skills to write in a business setting and I think that even though it isn't the 'creative' satisfaction of writing your own novel it's definitely gratifying to be able to apply your writing skills and abilities in a position that pays you to do it! :)
If you want to bounce ideas feel free to give me a shout!
Re: You want to WRITE!!
Date: 2005-10-28 07:38 pm (UTC)*pouncehug*
Date: 2005-10-30 02:18 am (UTC)I have an eclectic range of skills - and find myself at too high a salary level, and either over or under-qualified for most of the jobs I apply for. Frustrating is an understatement.
Believe me, I understand. Well, other than the too high salary level - I never really had that. What I did have was almost five years of a job that screwed up my mental and even physical health, and the knowledge once I found out I was pregnant that I needed to damn well get the hell OUT.
I'm in a Master's of Public Administration program, of all things, at this point...looking to do research on the effectiveness of social programs and/or go into nonprofit management. I originally wanted to go to graduate school for English literature, but the world doesn't need yet another paper arguing the true meaning of the Canterbury Tales as much as it needs someone capable of skilled data analysis using those skills to make sure that people who need a particular set of services GET them. At least the five years of the Job From Hell taught me what NOT to do, in that vein. *sigh*
Anyway, hi. Glad to see you, even if only online. :)
teach college not HS
Date: 2005-10-30 06:07 pm (UTC)Re: teach college not HS
Date: 2005-10-30 06:08 pm (UTC)Re: teach college not HS
Date: 2005-10-30 11:25 pm (UTC)suggestion
Date: 2005-10-30 06:37 pm (UTC)Re: suggestion
Date: 2005-10-30 11:26 pm (UTC)Re: suggestion
Date: 2005-11-01 04:22 am (UTC)...oh and good luck!!!!