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Dec. 23rd, 2015 05:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sathorThere's a Gas Plant Operator position being advertised locally, in the Warren/Kane area. I just finished writing my resume for it. Is this the right course of action? Well, maybe. Depends I guess.
They advertised it as, besides doing the normal operator thing (something I'm completely familiar with) the operator will be assisting mechanics with maintenance on compressors and pumps as well. That's what I wanted to do at United, and I was years away from it. If by some stroke of good fucking luck I land this job, I'll have just skipped a few years of waiting around. Who cares about the pay? They want a salary requirement in the resume, so I put $35,000 - well below average (average is $52,000) but this area IS economically depressed, and I don't want them to throw it out because they think I won't take anything less than average. I'd rather have a conversation with an interviewer about it, if it comes to that.
If it's a straight shift of some sort, with just call outs, I'd be willing to do it for $35-$40k. So I guess my salary requirement is okay? I'm not really sure if I SHOULD ask for more or not.
It took me quite awhile to write my resume out, and I've had to reduce it multiple times. The number of tools I'm familiar with, and skills I built at United, are pretty extensive. I wanted to keep it all on one page though, which basically left no room for any other employer in my history. I barely squeezed my education and salary requirement in at the bottom. Kinda crazy - back when I had just finished at endeavor, I think I could've fit my entire work experience on a couple lines.
I really doubt I'll get a call, and I doubt even further that I would be taken after an interview (I'm just not a super personable person) but I suppose I should at least make the attempt. I know this area lacks people with the kind of experience I have, and I'm hoping that maybe I can serve this smaller propane company well for a little while if they need it.
Even though I know I should probably be doing something else with my life. But whatever. The more I think about all of that, the less inclined I am to do anything about it. Investing so much money (and future earnings) paying the salaries of other people already living the dream (professor, college admin, whatever) just seems almost...ridiculous, doesn't it? Especially when I'm already a fairly well-educated person...
They advertised it as, besides doing the normal operator thing (something I'm completely familiar with) the operator will be assisting mechanics with maintenance on compressors and pumps as well. That's what I wanted to do at United, and I was years away from it. If by some stroke of good fucking luck I land this job, I'll have just skipped a few years of waiting around. Who cares about the pay? They want a salary requirement in the resume, so I put $35,000 - well below average (average is $52,000) but this area IS economically depressed, and I don't want them to throw it out because they think I won't take anything less than average. I'd rather have a conversation with an interviewer about it, if it comes to that.
If it's a straight shift of some sort, with just call outs, I'd be willing to do it for $35-$40k. So I guess my salary requirement is okay? I'm not really sure if I SHOULD ask for more or not.
It took me quite awhile to write my resume out, and I've had to reduce it multiple times. The number of tools I'm familiar with, and skills I built at United, are pretty extensive. I wanted to keep it all on one page though, which basically left no room for any other employer in my history. I barely squeezed my education and salary requirement in at the bottom. Kinda crazy - back when I had just finished at endeavor, I think I could've fit my entire work experience on a couple lines.
I really doubt I'll get a call, and I doubt even further that I would be taken after an interview (I'm just not a super personable person) but I suppose I should at least make the attempt. I know this area lacks people with the kind of experience I have, and I'm hoping that maybe I can serve this smaller propane company well for a little while if they need it.
Even though I know I should probably be doing something else with my life. But whatever. The more I think about all of that, the less inclined I am to do anything about it. Investing so much money (and future earnings) paying the salaries of other people already living the dream (professor, college admin, whatever) just seems almost...ridiculous, doesn't it? Especially when I'm already a fairly well-educated person...
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Date: 2015-12-24 06:55 pm (UTC)I'm not sure teaching per se was ever any easier. It's one thing to learn a curriculum; quite another thing to induce a random bunch of children to learn it. But the public school system that's grown up around teaching (like strangling ivy) makes it extremely difficult to actually teach. What you'd learn in a College of Education - that you will not learn from independent study - is how to be part of that system. (You might also learn why you didn't want to be part of it.)
If what you want is just to teach, there are many ways to do that without either a certificate or a classroom, but most of them pay poorly or not at all. Even with a Ph.D, teaching pays relatively poorly, unless one is lucky enough to make it to full professorship with tenure in a well-heeled college or university - and that's a long, bloody climb. I don't think most associate professors see themselves as 'living the dream'.
If you stay in industrial operations, where does that take you? Do you have a particular field of interest, such as hydro-electrics or city water, that you'd like to specialize in? Would you like to become a plant manager or an actual engineer, or do you prefer to remain an operator?
Seems to me that you've got a great many viable options open to you - "an embarrassment of riches", as they say; so many that it's a lot harder to choose among them than it would be if you only had two or three. Which one would be best? Well, you'll never know that, because there is no 'best'; there's only what you make of whatever path you choose. But after you've analyzed all the risks and benefits, what does your heart say?
*hugs* Thanks! Solstice was great; now it's Christmas Eve, and that'll be nice too. Blessed be, my dear friend; here's to joy and success in the coming year!