Need some advice, help, direction

[scooter63]

I have posted queries for help in this forum in the past and received some good, solid, and insightful advice. If anyone goes back and re-reads those posts I have overcome a lot of the depression and mental health issues in the past 2 years. In fact I am now off of medication and so far doing good.

However, there is a glitch in the system and that is the reason that I am posting this query now as I am getting the feeling inside that I may be slipping some and I don't want to return to those days of the darkness.

In a nutshell of the past, I was home taking care of my parents and assisting them with trying to live their lives. I spent a lot of time with my mom and helping her and especially after she was diagnosed with cancer and through her end of life experience. I didn't have much a life, was not out before during that, gave up and lost my career previously because of the mental health/depression issues, and now that both of my parents are gone and now that I have addressed the gay issue and the depression issue, I was trying to get my life back on track and once again gain something in life to make me happy.

So, here is the problem. I have yet to find meaningful, full time employment. I am still working on a call basis, part time on low wages and no benefits. My gross income for 2010 was not even $16000. I pay for my own health insurance, all utilities, and living expenses out of that. With my health insurance now cresting $500 a month once again, I am looking for cheaper alternatives but have been turned down twice already. I own the house that my mother was living in so I only have heating, electric, water and sewer and property taxes to pay on it along with the insurance for the house and the car. Needless to say, I have spent down my savings to almost nothing, less than $500 dollars of that left and have borrowed against my life insurance to help out. A couple weeks ago, I had to break down and ask my sister for a loan in order to pay my January bills as I haven't been called in to work much in the month of December and January. I have a little money left to help out for a couple more months if I watch the expenses. I have turned the heat down in the house and keep it at 58 degrees, have reduced my water usage because the water bill went up 300% the first of the year, don't eat out much, have reduced to one meal a day for food and have some snack for morning and noon.

I make applications to jobs every day and spend a couple hours each day looking through websites for jobs. Craigslist, Monster, CareerBuilder, state website, neighboring website, indeed.com and apply and apply and apply. I had previously even made contact with a recruiter from Manpower who had said that he could place me in a job commensurate with my training, education, and experience. Never heard a word from him since even after I have contacted him to see how things were going. Oh, and yes, I am registered with Manpower but they have not placed me in anything and I have received a couple phone calls at 1 in the afternoon telling me to report for work at 2 in a town that is a 2 hour drive away, and I am already working that day as I took a sub assignment. Right now I make applications for everything that I see however, I will not sell insurance for Bankers Life and Casualty or for Combined. They are rip offs and Bankers preys on the older people selling them stuff they don't need and they have no plan to pay on the policy either. My mom would rise up from the dead and kick me in the ass if I accepted a job offer from them. When I do hear back from on the applications I get the "you're over qualified" statement. The others I check back on their website and it is posted that I am no longer being considered.

I know that I am in the middle aged bracket being 47 and they are probably looking and thinking that I won't work very long. Hell I still have another 20 years of good productive work time in me seeing how I have no savings left to retire on any time soon! I am probably over educated seeing how I have a Master's Degree and have taken course work beyond that. I was a classroom teacher and a building administrator and have been subbing while I was home and taking care of parents. I have over 20 years experience in education. I apply for training positions with companies to teach employees new skills, new methods, and new programs and they say that I don't have the necessary experience. Isn't teaching the same regardless whether it is a first grade, seventh grade, high school, or adult learner? You have an objective that you want them to learn, you find a method to teach them the objective and then you assess their learning to see if the objective has been achieved. Makes me wonder who is doing the hiring and where they received their training at.

So any way, before this gets too long and out of control, my purpose here in posting this was to ask for your help, advice, direction, or insight into what do I do or where do I go? I am totally mobile in relocating from here and can move within days if need be. I already have a couple who will rent or rent to own this place and all I have to do is pack and roll. I only have a couple months left before I don't know what happens next. How do I break down the barriers? I am being to think that the problem is that I don't know someone who knows someone who knows someone. I am not demanding top pay for my education and experiences and will entertain offers.

Any ideas or suggestions that any of you have will be greatly appreciated and some times it is better to have someone who is disinterested and who has no stake in things to look at and comment and evaluate things. Maybe I am missing something here. Education is tough right now as funding has been scaled back and many schools, especially around here and in neighboring states, are all being forced to reduce budgets yearly because they don't have the funding coming in and when they do hire, they don't hire experienced people and people with advanced degrees as they have to pay them more money. Around where I live, school consolidations are beginning to happen as we lost our school this past summer.

Sorry this has turned out so long and I hope that it wasn't boring and that it all made sense. I really do hope that someone out there has some ideas to help me with or give me something to think about and work on. I know this really isn't a topic for the CO&R forum but there is really no other place to ask and the other forums on JUB just don't seem to match up.

Thanks again everyone. I really do appreciate your time.

 

[Seasoned]

You might have to parlay a couple of part time jobs in order to make a living wage at least for now. Since you need to move and move fast I'd suggest you seek out a headhunter, but the type that the employer pays rather than you.

You may also need help with your resume so that it is tailored differently for different jobs.

I never had luck with obtaining trainer jobs either. They really value the company experience over anything else.

What about a part time job that pays health insurance? Sometimes the salary is not much but that's a good benefit. This is what I would do when being interviewed. I taught up until the time my mom took ill. I was her sole caregiver up until the time she died and then spent months getting her affairs in order. Although I've been managing with a small inheritance, I prefer to have a regular routine and be part of the world of work. I'm living in my mom's home which requires a lot of work and that is why I'm seeking part time employment.

Anyway, this is just a suggestion. PM me if you want to discuss this further. I'm wishing you well and I'm sorry for you loss. You've probably had enough of it but there might be a professional position available in a retirement community. I'm not speaking of nursing home. Good luck to you.

 

[NineOfClubs]

Any extra rooms in your home you could rent out?

Could help to pull you through...

 

[KaraBulut]

There's lots of options in education- from teaching part-time at community colleges to private tutoring. There's a big demand for kids who need after-school supplemental tutoring, along with exam preparation classes for the SAT, GRE, etc. All of these provide steady income and don't have the time demands of teaching primary and secondary education.

But the problem is that you have a perfect storm of a resume that is overeducated, overqualified but undermotivated. Employers these days are looking for results- people who have experience that proves that they are employable and performance-oriented. It's a conundrum- you can't get a job because you don't have recent full-time experience and you can't get a full-time position because you've been out of the game so long.

The key is going to be networking and getting into a full-time teaching position of some sort. From there, you need a plan. You may want to look into career counseling once you get back onto your feet financially.

 

[scooter63]

Thanks guys for your replied. Sorry it has taken me a bit to get back to you but my provider, Verizon, doesn't always want to cooperate and give me service.

I have re-worked my resume once again, had some other people critique it and go over it and make suggestions and changes. It looks nicer, more modern, and has a little bit of a flair to it now. Will hope that those simple little changes will help bring results.

I live in a small town, only 258 people, mostly elderly, and seeing how I live in the thirld poorest county in the state and currently has the fourth highest umemployment rate in state, there are no jobs around here and hence no people moving in. So with that, I wouldn't be able to rent a room out in the house if I wanted to. The only employer in this town was the school and that closed in July.

I have no problem addressing the reasons for why I was out of the loop and game for a period of time and why there is a break in my work history. I think that is becoming more common in our society as children become caretakers to our parents as no one is able to afford the cost of care in any type of home.

And yes, I do believe my situation can be addressed as the perfect storm. Everything has come together at the same time, a poor/slow economy, high unemployment and a high pool of workers looking for work, over educated and trained for available work, and employers looking for the bargain in workers. I am hopeful that I can ride it out long enough to see the crest beginning to build once again.

I am not familiar with the process of going about finding a head hunter or a recruiter. Where do I look? What do I Google? How do I go about finding one and contracting with one?

Thanks again for the insight and I know it is hard for people to offer suggestions and such as it really is difficult. There are no quick fixes and no easy answers.

 

[Eagle653]

Hi scooter, it used to be easier to slide between K-12 education and corporate training and vice-versa, than it is today. Everyone is so specialized now, and the job applicant pool is so flooded, that it really is an employer's market (vs an applicant's market).

So, what to do? If I were in your shoes, I would begin by visiting the public library. They can probably give you information regarding employment agencies and "head hunters." Second, visit your county's website. Most counties now have various re-employment programs that help folks brush up resumes, acquire interview skills, and may even have counselors who do aptitude testing and job placement counseling.

In addition to that, play on your own strengths and education. You are obviously an educator--you're bright and think well on your feet. Visit your nearest community college and inquire about adjunct teaching positions. If a 4-year university or college is near by that has a school/college of education, inquire about being a student teacher supervisor or internship supervisor. These schools never have enough supervisors and are always begging for teachers to do it part time, even. To find someone with your credentials would probably be a God-send to them.

Since you're willing to relocate, and you have options on renting or selling the house you're living in, you're ahead of the game on that, too. So, look beyond your county or even state, and decide where you'd like to end up and concentrate on those areas, too.

Good luck to you! Check back in , as you're able, and let us know how it's going.

 

[somedude987]

I have no problem addressing the reasons for why I was out of the loop and game for a period of time and why there is a break in my work history. I think that is becoming more common in our society as children become caretakers to our parents as no one is able to afford the cost of care in any type of home.

Try addressing this in your cover letter, instead of waiting to mention it or be asked about it in an interview. The job I got was one where I specifically mentioned the break in my cover letter. I said something like "a series of personal and family crises slowed my career growth" and about how I was "now ready for full-time salary work" or something to that effect. I think what that did was that it explained it enough for them, since they didn't mention it (or so they didn't have to mention it) in the interview.

You should mention that you're good to "switch gears" away from supply teaching because they'll just assume you're doing it multiple times per week. You don't really want to disabuse them of that notion, since it makes you look good; but you can say that you need to make a change to something full-time.

And look for medium-sized companies that seem to be growing--they're hiring more than one person or for more than one job. These companies want someone -now-, not later (make sure you say you can start immediately). They're not some big corporation with impersonal HR, and they're not so small that they can wait for a 'perfect' candidate.