Career decisions... what to do....

[Cuda1447]

I guess I'm in a frustrated mood today. (see other thread) And ATOT has always been my go to place to get shit off my chest. Often times i get good advice here too!

I'm pretty happy with my life. I have a great wife, live in a good area and am in the process of buying a beautiful home. More than I could ever have wished for. My wife has stable employment that she enjoys, even if it isn't the highest paying job in the world.

The one area of my life that I'm frustrated with is employment. For the last few years I have been *trying* to do something about it. I'm not one of those people that sits on his ass and does nothing about things in life he doesn't like. But I just keep running into brick wall after brick wall it seems.


A little back story. I have a B.A. Psychology. I know I know, stupid field to go into. When I was 19 I didn't know what i wanted to do in life though. True be told, I actually like Psychology a lot, but I don't use it currently.

I was working a sales related job, making good money. I paid for my undergrad degree while working, so no student loans. The job was not a 'career' though and so I changed it up. I went into banking a few years ago. I quickly realized this wasn't for me. I took a chance and took a marketing position with a company run by an old acquaintance. It was a small company, with about 5 full time employees. It paid the bills, but the boss was kind of a hard guy to work for. Further, he had a LOT of turnover with his full time guys as well as the contracted guys he would hire. Long story short, the situation scared me and I went back to stable employment in the banking world. I told myself I'd deal with it till I found something else.

I thought about going the route of becoming a financial advisor. I'm really not far from being able to become one. A promotion and a test away, basically. I'm more than 50% qualified. But I just can't stand working for 'the man'. The corporate world drives me nuts. It's all about how can we make more money for our shareholders. Nobody gives a damn about the actual customers, in a genuine way. I feel like a bit of a crook and it's just not a good environment for me.

So I decided I needed to work for myself. Started a business. It's still running. I've done.... ok. Perhaps one day it'll get me where I need to be, but it hasn't allowed me to quit working in banking. Day by day I'm slowly rotting here! So I go back to the drawing board.... again!


I like Psychology. I want to use my education. Hell, I want to be more educated. So what fields in psychology can I go into. Well there is Psychiatry, but that requires med school and a ton of money. Not going to happen. I could become a clinical psychiatrist, or parapsychologist. Both fields I'm highly interested in, but both requiring not only a great deal more of schooling and money, but more importantly practicum and internships that will amount to multiple years a piece. Being honest with myself, I see that's not really an option for a man with a wife he wants to provide a good life to. I can take a short term setback, but not a 5 year setback.

Social work pays shit. Like $30k a year shit and that's WITH a masters degree. Substance abuse counseling is the same.

I do find a field that seems to be promising though. Applied Behavior Analysis. In short, its working with people who have mental disorders and developing/implementing behavior plans to help them.

Salaries are very difficult to figure out. Payscale and glassdoor.com sites give a broad range of 30-75k for someone with a B.A.

I managed to meet a girl who is planning on going into that field, works in that field currently while still in school and claims that an ACaBA will make $65k with a B.A. I should be able to make more with a Masters, which I plan to get.

I am having a hard time verifying this, so I emailed her. She basically told me that I would have two options. Being an independent contractor that bills per hour, if I worked 40 hours per week for 52 weeks, that would be my salary. Throw in some vacation time etc and you can call it 60k. But no benefits.

Or, I could work for an established company, doing the same type of work but my pay could be a lot lower. How much lower... I have no idea.


Now I've laid out a pretty solid plan to get into this field. I plan on taking a few graduate level classes in the next few months, then I need to get 1000 hours of supervised experience.... somehow. I'm not sure exactly how I do that prior to being a certified acaba, but I'll figure it out. After that I can sit for my acaba cert and once I pass, I should have decent employment. Then I take my GRE and apply for a Masters Program I've already scouted out. Once I get to that point it should be easy sailing. The initial transition of careers is the difficult part, I can't really afford to go down to making 25k a year. I'm not a college student, I'm an adult with adult bills and responsibilities.



The frustrating part: I'm starting to second guess myself. I don't really know anyone reliable in the field. I've reached out to a couple people to no avail. I feel like I'm flying really blind here and I HATE to make decisions like this without having a solid plan. Spending thousands of dollars on further education to find out that the field isn't what i was hoping it to be. I think the work will be fine. It's something that I really am interested in/passionate about. I'll be able to help people, won't be working for a megacorporation only concerned with profits and will be able to go to sleep at night knowing I've done something good. But what are the working hours like? 9-5? Weekends? What really can I expect out of my potential earnings? I just have all these questions that I can't seem to find the answers to.


And when I do find an answer, it just seems to put up another wall in my way.




Aaaaaaaaaggggghhhh!!

I'm not opposed to putting forth the effort to find my ideal career. Hell, I want to! I'm excited about going back to school and learning something. I just need to know I'm making the right decision here and it's so hard to tell. If it were just me, it'd be fine. But I have a wife that depends on me. I can't be messing up here. But I have to try something. I'm just spinning my wheels at my current employment and it makes me miserable!!!


TLR - Frustrated.


I'm probably being a big baby about this, but like I said... sometimes I just want to get shit off my chest. These aren't the type of stories you go bitching about to your friends, cause they probably don't give a shit.

 

[jaedaliu]

How badly do you need money? You're buying into a nice neighborhood, and your wife has stable (but low salaried) employment.

Is her salary enough to pay for the upcoming mortgage? What about when you have kids? What kind of pay cut can you take and still afford everything and put money away every month?

To me, it sounds like you may need to nix the home buying right now, get to school, and get your masters. Once you figure out your job prospects, then figure out what you can afford to buy.

 

[Cuda1447]

How badly do you need money? You're buying into a nice neighborhood, and your wife has stable (but low salaried) employment.

Is her salary enough to pay for the upcoming mortgage? What about when you have kids? What kind of pay cut can you take and still afford everything and put money away every month?

To me, it sounds like you may need to nix the home buying right now, get to school, and get your masters. Once you figure out your job prospects, then figure out what you can afford to buy.

I can afford to get the Masters right now. I could realistically probably cut my income down to the 35k range, temporarily and be fine. I don't see a need for that though. I can keep my current job and make good money while getting the Masters etc.

I'm just worried that once i do it, it won't pay off like I hope it to. It's so difficult to tell what the employment looks like in my new potential field. If the field pays what I'm making now, or less... I don't care if its something I'll enjoy or not... its pointless to go into. I need a career that makes decent money.

 

[jaedaliu]

I can afford to get the Masters right now. I could realistically probably cut my income down to the 35k range, temporarily and be fine. I don't see a need for that though. I can keep my current job and make good money while getting the Masters etc.

I'm just worried that once i do it, it won't pay off like I hope it to. It's so difficult to tell what the employment looks like in my new potential field. If the field pays what I'm making now, or less... I don't care if its something I'll enjoy or not... its pointless to go into. I need a career that makes decent money.

Actuary. Make bank, then retire young and do what you really want to do.

 

[Cuda1447]

Actuary. Make bank, then retire young and do what you really want to do.

Haha. I don't like math THAT much.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

Are there any forums for people in that field? I've found forums often have information that isn't available from any other source.

 

[Tweak155]

Honestly it sounds like to me you're focused way too much on the money aspect. Focus more on what you want to do than the money. Money can't buy you 40hrs of happiness a week.

I used to focus on the money when I was in college and for a few years after. I found myself disappointed because no employer wants to pay you more anyway. So instead, I focused on what I like to do and what is fair and just fought for money as more of a side point.

If you can pay your bills, feed your family and be happy day to day, you're more successful than any 6+ figure salary who has to sacrifice their life to make that much.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

selling out to 'the man' is a small price to pay to provide a stable financial environment for your family.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Go the contractor route if your wife has stable employment and benefits which you can use. I don't know about psychology, but in my field (IT), I decided to leave my job and am going to do SharePoint Consulting full time. I'm going on my wife's benefits and will be making quite a bit more money. It is a little risky and I may not like it, but at my age (42) it was time for me to get out of my box and try something different which has a huge potential payoff. If it doesn't work out, I'll simply find another job. I had 3 job offers more or less simultaneously, so that gave me confidence to try this new job.

 

[Cuda1447]

Are there any forums for people in that field? I've found forums often have information that isn't available from any other source.

I've been looking. Can't find much. I'm trying to reach out to professionals in the field and hoping someone will let me bounce some questions off of them right now.

 

[Cuda1447]

Honestly it sounds like to me you're focused way too much on the money aspect. Focus more on what you want to do than the money. Money can't buy you 40hrs of happiness a week.

I used to focus on the money when I was in college and for a few years after. I found myself disappointed because no employer wants to pay you more anyway. So instead, I focused on what I like to do and what is fair and just fought for money as more of a side point.

If you can pay your bills, feed your family and be happy day to day, you're more successful than any 6+ figure salary who has to sacrifice their life to make that much.

You know, that's the funny thing. I'm not really focused on money, even though I am. I just want to know I can make enough to support my family and eventually kids if we decide to have them. I'd be comfortable making 70k a year, which I don't think is unreasonable for someone with a Masters degree. *shrugs*

 

[Cuda1447]

Go the contractor route if your wife has stable employment and benefits which you can use. I don't know about psychology, but in my field (IT), I decided to leave my job and am going to do SharePoint Consulting full time. I'm going on my wife's benefits and will be making quite a bit more money. It is a little risky and I may not like it, but at my age (42) it was time for me to get out of my box and try something different which has a huge potential payoff. If it doesn't work out, I'll simply find another job. I had 3 job offers more or less simultaneously, so that gave me confidence to try this new job.

Yep, I'm thinking I may need to go the contractor route. It just makes me nervous knowing I may not have stable employment. Tons of people do it though, so it's probably not that big of a deal.

 

[Cuda1447]

selling out to 'the man' is a small price to pay to provide a stable financial environment for your family.

Working a job you hate is a BIG price to pay though.

 

[sze5003]

Contracting can feel unstable but most contractors get paid more because they don't get benefits. I'm a developer and we have 30% contractor rate where I work. Most of them are on work visas so it's limited up to 3 years. But depending on who their contracting firm is and what relation my company has with them, some get overtime. It's funny because they do the same work I do but get a lot more per hour than I do.

My company also has financial advisors. They get a good amount of money too. The company even pays to get your license too, I think they require series 7 but I'm not sure what you need to start. Masters should be enough.

If you get in with a good contracting firm, finding employment shouldn't be hard if something happens at one job.

 

[FleshLight]

BCBA

/thread

 

[Cuda1447]

BCBA

/thread

care to expand? Are you saying do it, or don't do it?

 

[Scarpozzi]

selling out to 'the man' is a small price to pay to provide a stable financial environment for your family.

This. As long as you don't sacrifice your health.


I know a lot of psychology majors....most work the phones for health insurance companies because they couldn't find jobs elsewhere. It's never too late to learn a trade or find a new grad school major in a different field. An MBA, for example might help you get in the door in a company.

 

[Cuda1447]

This. As long as you don't sacrifice your health.


I know a lot of psychology majors....most work the phones for health insurance companies because they couldn't find jobs elsewhere. It's never too late to learn a trade or find a new grad school major in a different field. An MBA, for example might help you get in the door in a company.

I have my foot in the door. I make good money and have a decent career path if I want it. I don't want it. I hate it, I despise it.


I think you may be generalizing a bit. There are certainly tons of psych majors who have done very little with their degree. I also know of lawyers who aren't practicing law. *shrugs*


I have a field it seems I want to go into, I guess I'm just having a hard time taking the plunge when there is a lot of unknown.

 

[drinkmorejava]

It sounds like you want to spend a lot of money to get a degree for something that you don't know if you will really like and it still might not provide a stable income.

You should spend less time planning how you're going to get there (applied behavior whatever) and more time determining if it's really what you want. Find an internship or work 1 day a week for some company.

Personally, I would spend that Masters money on a completely new field. I like political science and economics a lot, but that doesn't mean I want a poli-sci or econ degree or need to make a career out of them. I chose engineering because I was good at it, it was tolerable, and it was a great stepping stone to a lot of things. Ultimately, I think that where you work and who you work with are going to make you happier than any random field, so focus more on your life goals--money, success, supporting your family, helping others, w/e--than limiting yourself to one field.