Need some advice ...

[jujubees]

So I've been working for the UC system as a web publisher/developer for almost 2 years, and ever since we moved to a new building, I've become increasingly unhappy with my job. I'm the youngest person here by about 15 years, and from what I can tell, they hire cackling hens to fill 90% of the jobs around here.

Before this, I was a secretary for 4 years at the Berkeley campus, putting myself through school. The atmosphere was different on campus -- the staff consisted of people of every age, primarily students & grad students. Although I usually keep to myself, it was a really informal workplace, and it was fun to goof around with people my own age.

I don't have such an opportunity at this job, and while I'm not here to make friends, it's just easier to relate to people who don't have kids who are my age. I try to chit-chat with folks, but it quickly veers back to work. Initially, I thought this place was really strict about downtime, until I noticed people chatting it up on Friday mornings, and the building being deserted by 3pm.

I'm pretty good at what I CAN do, but if I don't branch out and start hitting the back-end database books, I won't be moving up in THIS job, nor will I be qualified for web jobs elsewhere. The department director wants me to develop some PHP proficiency, and he's willing to pay for some classes if the BIBLE books don't help.

Before being immersed in HR-lady hell, I was completely content with this prospect, but now I find myself wondering if I even want to stay ...

[DoPeY5007]

Originally posted by DarkFury
Go for the expanding opportunity... I say. (Don't get stuck in a dead end position)

yeah, I would start looking around

[attgig]

so, it's been a year...

1) can't you ask to be moved around in your office - to be near other web designers or what not?

2) if they pay for your classes - are you required to stick around for a certain amount of time?

i say try to move around, to a part of the office with other people you CAN relate to.
think of a stupid excuse.

milk the job for classes as much as you can.
and if you're still not happy...then leave.

[brainsmile]

transfer to another UC... San Diego is where I am... I like it here

[Jenny]

That sucks, juju.

What does R. say about it? And how are things going? Geez, girl, talk to me!

[latingirl]

Last February 1, I gave my permanent job (I was there 2 years) one month notice that I was leaving (I did it for a month, because I was still a bit scared with the job market barely starting to pick up at that time and there was no guarantee it was going to get any better). I HATED my job, I wasn't using my technical/creative skills and there were issues that lead me to know that unless I was part of the "click" my supervisor was in I wasn't going to be given any responsibilities that would help me move ahead. Well, I don't play that so there goes that. I was at the point where my performance was detiorating and I didn't want to go to work in the morning. I knew I HAD to leave. I had already been there too long.

Anyhow, I ended up with appendicitis 2 days before my last day on the job. They were gracious enough to extend my term date to be sure I wouldn't have any problems with insurance (the HR director was a very nice lady) which meant they had to pay me for those days as well. My doctor put me on disability for 6 weeks (I managed to end up getting 7 weeks), which was a blessing because it meant I got to take some time off. I was only without pay for 2 weeks and landed this gig in a slowly creeping back to normal job market. I'm an assistant in the online marketing department of a division of Disney, making the same money AND the agency I'm with provides full benefits (Aquent - you should look into them esp with your creative background). Of course, I have to thank God for everything (Not trying to offend you). And, not to mention, I'm an aspiring developer/designer (still in school) and I'm in a position where I am learning so much about the biz. Things aren't perfect, of course (never expected them to be), but they are ideal in my situation.

Also, I worked hard to get this agency to accept me because they are VERY picky AND I have a finance background. But I persevered, stayed in thier face and showed them that I have the skills that thier clients need AND I'm teachable.

Anyhow, sometimes we have to make our mind up and just put ourselves out there with faith that we are going to be alright. You never know what is going to come your way, it may just be somthing new and exciting that takes your skills in a direction you never thought you'd go.

I don't believe in staying in a situation where you're miserable for comforts sake ($, benefits, etc), because it WILL make you sick emotionally and physically. We spend too much of our lives at our jobs to stay unhappy. Content maybe, but not unhappy.

[revil]

Originally posted by brainsmile
transfer to another UC... San Diego is where I am... I like it here

are you hitting on jujubees?

[jujubees]

Originally posted by attgig
1) can't you ask to be moved around in your office - to be near other web designers or what not?

Umm, there are two of us. His cube's next to mine, and he's the one who's 15 years older than me. Everyone else is even oldER. There's NO ONE at work I relate to, or even want to relate to. As far as I'm concerned, they all belong on another planet.

Originally posted by attgig
2) if they pay for your classes - are you required to stick around for a certain amount of time?

Nope. In theory, I could take the classes and bail, but I should stick around long enough to develop a few databases and get some experience under my belt.

[latingirl]

Excuse me, I am a MARKETING COORDINATOR!!!! I just got promoted...

[jujubees]

Originally posted by Jenny
That sucks, juju.

What does R. say about it?

"Learn lots, stay there as long as the job market requires, and get out."

We're doing great, btw.

[mojo]

have you considered hemlock? i don't mean for you, but for them

that's a rough way to go

[Jeffbx]

Start looking around, but do NOT give notice until you have someplace new to go!! The job market isn't what it was a couple of years ago, especially for web design.

[dbax791]

Originally posted by Jeffbx
Start looking around, but do NOT give notice until you have someplace new to go!! The job market isn't what it was a couple of years ago, especially for web design.

What Jeff said. Plus DO take advantage of the PHP training and learn back-end databases. It will really help your market value.

I'm in the same boat - When I transferred to my new job I ended up working with a bunch of older people that are hard to relate to. Nobody even talks about the football games on Monday! Yeah, it REALLY sucks not to have at least a little social interaction in the workplace.

[gear02]

yeah I know how you feel,

I was a new college hire two months ago. First, they haven't had a college hire for over 6 months so I'm one of the first. Second, I started before any other college hires due to some start date issues, so I don't know any other college hires.

My work place is great, but most of them are older or have their own lives. A bunch of people are married. A lot live far away. A lot have their own lives. The youngest beside me is 24.

Also, I just moved to a new place and I don't have any relatives here. I have a couple of college friends who live in the area, but they're going back to school tomorrow (plus they're taken =( ).

So basically during the weekends, I just sit at home and do nothings...blah...



It's so much harder to make friends outside of school...

[brainsmile]

Originally posted by revil
are you hitting on jujubees?

no... just that most people in sd like it here other than the high cost of living.

[Ladogaboy]

Well, I'm just about to turn in my letter of resignation tomorrow... and I don't have another job yet.

[Jihforce]

Originally posted by brainsmile
no... just that most people in sd like it here other than the high cost of living.

SD is a beautiful place. But its boring. There's absolutely nothing to do there.

[Jihforce]

Originally posted by jujubees
Umm, there are two of us. His cube's next to mine, and he's the one who's 15 years older than me. Everyone else is even oldER. There's NO ONE at work I relate to, or even want to relate to. As far as I'm concerned, they all belong on another planet.
Nope. In theory, I could take the classes and bail, but I should stick around long enough to develop a few databases and get some experience under my belt.

Your situation sounds a little similar to mine. However, I do have a lot of coworkers around my age. But the problem is that they are weird. They are your typical "beach bums" and I can't get along with them.

Anyway, I definitively wouldn't just leave. I know its easy to just tell you to get a new job. But its very easy to hate your job that much more when you're looking to jump ship. I've been wanting to leave for about 1 year now. But the current economic situation makes it difficult to go anywhere. For every job you are applying to, there are probably 5000 applicants looking to get that same job. There is no lack of skilled workers, just a lack of jobs. So what I would do if I were you is to sit down tight, learn everything you can possibly learn from your job and maybe you can start up something on your own. I'm doing that right now. I don't like working for other people so I figure I'd start my own thing on the side. Got nothing to lose and everything to gain really. Since your job is offering the opportunity to get training, I'd take it. Try to compensate your lack of social interaction at work by doing some things with friends outside of work. That should help balance things out.
Hope it helps!

[whitak24]

juju....there's not too much to say that hasn't already been said, but here's my advice....

you're in a great position right now, because even though your job sucks, you still are employed, and i would guess that as one of two web designers, you're probably relatively safe employment-wise. it also sounds like your job offers some down-time (after 3pm, at least ), so that's also good.

i would advise doing the following:
1.) figure out what your dream job is. not what job you would have in another life (ie, an olympic-caliber 100m sprinter or an actress or whatever your long-standing employment fantasy is ), but what job positions you really want, that match what you like to do. find out what the "titles" are and what kind of industries hire those sort of employees.

2.) determine where your skill-set is relative to your dream jobs. if that means you need to work on php and back-end database admin skills, develop those. if you need to practice design skills, find avenues to do that. basically, at all times, you want to be trying to make yourself as qualified as possible for your dream jobs.

3.) as all this is going on, keep watch for openings in your dream positions, and apply for all of them (given that location, pay, and all the other factors match what you want). even if you aren't totally qualified, you might get lucky, and at the least, if you get a few interviews, you can practice selling yourself as an ideal candidate for one of these dream jobs.

oh, yeah, and in the meantime, try to post here as much as possible, because we're like you

[jujubees]

Thanks for the wise words, everyone. I'll try to keep my chin up, think positive, and aim for long-term goals. PHP & MySQL, here I come!

latingirl, congrats on the promo!

mojo, I'll keep that in mind.

Jeffbx & dbax, I don't have the confidence to leave one job before obtaining another, especially in a job market like this.

brainsmile, San Diego is too close to my family. They'd visit me every weekend and drive me batty.

gear02, I totally hear ya about the difficulty in making friends outside of school. Most of my friends from school either dropped out of college, are in med school on the east coast, or live in L.A. (6 hours away). The ones that are in the area are really flaky ... and no, I don't mean psoriasis.

Ladogaboy, good luck on your job search!

[jujubees]

Originally posted by Jihforce
Your situation sounds a little similar to mine. However, I do have a lot of coworkers around my age. But the problem is that they are weird. They are your typical "beach bums" and I can't get along with them.

Anyway, I definitively wouldn't just leave. I know its easy to just tell you to get a new job. But its very easy to hate your job that much more when you're looking to jump ship.

Duuuuuuuude, that's gotta be like, SO ungnarly. Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Put away Leon's guns.

You're right, it was really easy to get down about my job when I was LOOKING for things to hate about it! I usually try to avoid being so pessimistic, but things really came to a head this week when the loudest HR lady in the entire office began training a new recruit (who's easily the second loudest) in the cube next to mine.

Time to turn up the mp3's.

Good luck on your venture, btw.

[jujubees]

you're in a great position right now, because even though your job sucks, you still are employed, and i would guess that as one of two web designers, you're probably relatively safe employment-wise.

Excellent point!

Originally posted by whitak24
i would advise doing the following:
1.) figure out what your dream job is. not what job you would have in another life (ie, an olympic-caliber 100m sprinter or an actress or whatever your long-standing employment fantasy is ), but what job positions you really want, that match what you like to do. find out what the "titles" are and what kind of industries hire those sort of employees.

2.) determine where your skill-set is relative to your dream jobs. if that means you need to work on php and back-end database admin skills, develop those. if you need to practice design skills, find avenues to do that. basically, at all times, you want to be trying to make yourself as qualified as possible for your dream jobs.

3.) as all this is going on, keep watch for openings in your dream positions, and apply for all of them (given that location, pay, and all the other factors match what you want). even if you aren't totally qualified, you might get lucky, and at the least, if you get a few interviews, you can practice selling yourself as an ideal candidate for one of these dream jobs.

Now that you've brought it up, my dream job isn't even in web development. This was just a really good opportunity that came up when I graduated, and as a dedicated netgeek, it seemed like a good avenue to explore.

I've always loved copy editing, but by the time I graduated, the whole dot-BOMB phenomenon was beginning, and startups weren't paying $100k for copy-editing gigs anymore! Generally, copy editors make ~$20k for the first 5-7 years, but after that, the pay increases almost exponentially. I was tired of living the student life, so I just had to put that dream on the back burner and find a job that would help pay off my student loans.

Besides, with everything going digital, I figured that this job would give me an "edge" when applying for an editing job at online pubs. I've also had my eye on a cluster of editorial extension courses over at Berkeley, which, upon completion, would furnish me with a certificate for being the "Supreme Goddess of Editing."

Thanks for helping me remember how much I love the power of the written word. I've been so bogged down by other stuff lately that I'd almost forgotten the euphoria that words give me. Great way to start off the weekend!