Where should I sell myself?

[minoanmiss]

You know what I just realized?*

Having wandered into becoming a secretary, I don't have to remain a medical secretary. What are some other fields I might do well in, do you think?

*: Yes I'm slow, but I get there.

Comments

[bikergeek]

You seemed to do fairly well in education. You got on great with the students. You mostly got on well with the parents, too. Your downfall there was the same sort of issues that can happen in any workplace.

[sabotabby]

PLEASE go into education; we need people who give a shit.

[minoanmiss]

I was in education for awhile, admittedly at a private school. I just tried to apply to a public school but their Web Page of Application did not like me. But I'll keep trying.

I am getting better at balancing giving a fuck (which I definitely do) with not being sane (a problem for me in the past).

[callibr8]

The thing that immediately pops to mind is medical transcriptionist, which is often a work-from-laptop job.

[vass]

That would require quiet, uninterrupted working time, which might be a problem working from home.

[vass]

Someplace with regular hours and good transport and a happy workplace culture. Sorry that's vague and general, but it's the first thing that came to mind.

My next thought: museum/gallery/art school? I don't know how often they hire their admin staff externally/not from people working or studying in the field, but I think you've earned some time in a less life-or-death field, something with normal hours and less of a culture of competitive martyrdom.

Education's also a good one, maybe especially early childhood education? Somewhere you'd get a regular baby fix?

Or... ooh. Community centre? (including community arts or lgbt centres or immigrant resource centres) I don't know how often they have paid admins, not volunteers, but if you need to find a volunteer job while you're looking for work, that might still work. Higher stress than the gallery idea, but plenty of babies, not as white a field, and lots of making-a-difference.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

If you like to help people, you could look at nonprofits (some of which do pay their staff), support services, or places that work with animals. For a job that involves less intimate exposure to other people's lives, consider libraries or business. And don't forget that art generates paperwork! If you are good at paperwork, you could work directly for other artists, or at a gallery, etc.

[gingicat]

You may notice I’ve been sending you links to jobs at a variety of workplaces.

[minoanmiss]

I have noticed, and appreciated. :D Actually, that's what inspired my thoughts along these lines... I forget which one I thought "this is a stretch" and then I thought, "why is it a stretch?"

[johnpalmer]

I was also wondering - when I think "secretary" I think "knowledge, organization, planning, scheduling, and certain types of 'project management'."

Let me throw out a curve ball: create your own nonprofit to help cancer patients deal with treatment. Wait, you don't know how to do that? Of course not - but you can learn. Verifying pre-approvals, making sure all medical care people are in network, and caught up on medical records, arranging for travel, house cleaning, child care, etc., for people whose lives are far too stressed to handle it easily on their own, etc..

Okay, but you don't know fundraising, especially not to get a pilot project like this off the ground. That's fine - what if you could sketch out the basics of what you could provide and what resources you'd need to do so.

Now, I've read some of your day to day work posts, and you're not an executive secretary (which is where I pulled my thoughts on "what is a secretary?" from), so this might be the wrong direction. I wasn't trying to say *this* idea was good. I was thinking "this would be a way for you to think of something you could do, and also create a portfolio of ideas that might help show off your skills and abilities."

Once you have that, you can also try some networking. If you talk to someone at a nonprofit, and you can bring up some of these ideas, and if they sound good, that could help you make contacts with other people who think those ideas sound pretty good. Wild-eyed dream: someone knows a non-profit who does *part* of this, and thinks "my god, this is a *great* idea, and they already have a running organization, and can take on the fundraising!"

Or, maybe you'll try something like this, and you realize you're just no good at it. Just like Thomas Edison, you learned a way that doesn't work, learned more about yourself, and can now take another new step.

Just a thought from some long-haired weirdo you met on the internet.

[cmcmck]

I'd follow those who say education and I was a teacher of special needs so I know what the field needs and it needs people like you who give a shit! :o)

[princessofgeeks]

I have nothing concrete to offer because I don't really know you well enough, but I think anything to do with food would make you happy. Maybe a catering company?

[nagi_schwarz]

Law office. Banker’s hours. Most federal and state holidays off because if court is closed the lawyers are off golfing. Also they start teaching lawyers in law school to shower love and adoration on their support staff because in a big busy firm lawyers are nothing without their support staff.

For reals. Free food shows up in our break room at least once a week, not to mention random offerings of soda and treats.

[minoanmiss]

I would never have thought of law. Thank you for suggesting this! (ANd I love your logic. Yay food! :D)

[cellio]

What a great suggestion!

[amaebi]

I was going to say "academic departmental secretary/administrator." Where I suspect the Harvard degree would help gain employment. Though the positions are typically not well-paid and academics in my experience have a higher incidence of performative power-deranged crazy than average. And I see that others also recommend an educational setting.

[vettecat]

Likewise thinking education. Should be much lower stress than a hospital environment, plus you like being around kids.

[caitri]

What about libraries? There's a number of clerkly jobs for people without MLSes and stuff. There also tends to be a good number of entry-level (eg no MLS necessary) positions for copy-catalogers which involves selecting and downloading records for new books and inputting them into the system.

[minoanmiss]

Huh! I had ruled out libraries because of how many people have MLS degrees and how backed up the Librarian Pileline is. I could TOTALLY do the cartography job. Thank you, bb!

[caitri]

For better or for worse an increasing number of library jobs--including at academic libraries--do not require an MLS. Most of the entry-level jobs just want a bachelors, and if its anything public service oriented (reception desk, entry-level reference) some past experience with customer service including handling phone calls etc.

[caitri]

Sample search with filers for BOSTON, FULL-TIME, and ENTRY-LEVEL: https://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Library&rbl=Boston,+MA&jlid=e167aeb8a259bcac&jt=fulltime&explvl=entry_level

ETA: Hmm I think it shuffled away from the "library" subfield somehow, but there's still enough there to hopefully give you an idea...