“There’s no easy job” … but help me find one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The easiest job is something you like. If you like English, maybe become a copyeditor or journalist or writer for blogs? An editor of books?

I’ve thought about these but how to break into this work? I see lots of random freelance websites and the field just seems very over saturated.

My friend finds copy editing work on upwork. She also has an English degree but is a certified teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain what you don’t like about your current job? Not sure what you are hoping to change.

I guess the things I don't like add up to feeling almost inhuman:

-not being able to go to the bathroom for hours (because you can't leave kids alone and there isn't a second adult)

-being massively underpaid-- I calculated by hours worked and if I break it down by hour, Starbucks and other wage workers make more than I do.

-being disrespected by students, parents, admin. Of course some are lovely, but the bad apples are... bad.

-having to skip meals or choke down a granola bar in the bathroom because of being pulled into subbing and having no lunch time. The reason for eating in the bathroom is because I don't think we are supposed to eat in front of students / in the classroom.

I guess I'd like to be able to drink water and go to the bathroom. And maybe make a little more than what amounts to about $17/hour. Summers off are nice, but I often end up working or doing classes so I don't actually take summer break.

Are you making less than $40k? If you work 55 hours a week (I’m usually in the 50-55 hour range) for the entire school year and average it out to $17/hour, it would be about $36,500 a year.

ES Teacher

Kids are in school 6.5 hours a day, 32.5 hrs/ week. Elementary students don’t have much (or any in most DMV districts) homework.

What in the world are you doing the other 20 hrs of the week? Sure, your first year teaching planning maybe daunting, but once you have a curriculum you just tweak from year to year (parents were teachers)

Thanks for demonstrating exactly why teachers feel disrespected and underappreciated

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you explain what you don’t like about your current job? Not sure what you are hoping to change.

I guess the things I don't like add up to feeling almost inhuman:

-not being able to go to the bathroom for hours (because you can't leave kids alone and there isn't a second adult)

-being massively underpaid-- I calculated by hours worked and if I break it down by hour, Starbucks and other wage workers make more than I do.

-being disrespected by students, parents, admin. Of course some are lovely, but the bad apples are... bad.

-having to skip meals or choke down a granola bar in the bathroom because of being pulled into subbing and having no lunch time. The reason for eating in the bathroom is because I don't think we are supposed to eat in front of students / in the classroom.

I guess I'd like to be able to drink water and go to the bathroom. And maybe make a little more than what amounts to about $17/hour. Summers off are nice, but I often end up working or doing classes so I don't actually take summer break.

Are you making less than $40k? If you work 55 hours a week (I’m usually in the 50-55 hour range) for the entire school year and average it out to $17/hour, it would be about $36,500 a year.

ES Teacher

Kids are in school 6.5 hours a day, 32.5 hrs/ week. Elementary students don’t have much (or any in most DMV districts) homework.

What in the world are you doing the other 20 hrs of the week? Sure, your first year teaching planning maybe daunting, but once you have a curriculum you just tweak from year to year (parents were teachers)

Thanks for demonstrating exactly why teachers feel disrespected and underappreciated

Yep. And curriculum changes a lot. Maybe not 30 years ago or whenever PP’s parents taught, but these days? There are so many committees and studies and pilot programs and initiatives, people would be surprised. And a good teacher will change the coursework year to year anyway, of course they do! I’m an old millennial but part of what I find challenging is learning and incorporating all the new technology coming out.

[Anonymous]

If I had teaching experience I would become an Orton Gillingham certified reading tutor for kids with dyslexia.

The one we used had been an ESOL teacher for a few years and now charges $100 an hour for reading tutoring and is booked solid.

[Anonymous]

Tutor SAT
Tutor students at colleges for writing papers

Technical writers make $100K

I like the Orton Gillingham Tutor idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you like to be around people? Working on teams? Do you need your work to be interesting?

If not, I recommend “back office” work for a federal contractor. It’s in house and mostly remote. Subcontracts, compliance, purchasing, contract closeout, accounts payable, records retention. There are a ton of jobs, I supervise several, that are fully remote, 40hrs a week if you work slow, that pay $65-90k. The catch is you work from home and talk to people 1-3x a week. It’s self paced, but detail oriented work. For some people, they would lose their minds with boredom and loneliness. For the right person, it’s a perfect job with minimal stress.

How do I get this job? What’s the job title?

[Anonymous]

I was a teacher and went back to school and became an Xray tech and am working on my xray diagnostic certificate to make more money. From there, I want to become certified in ultrasounds. I am loving my job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There’s tons of easy jobs but most of them don’t pay well. I do literally almost nothing on my shifts but I only make $50k a year.

What kind of business?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Admin is not an easy job. Sorry it's not. It usually requires lots of facetime and a good admin ends up being procedure police without any real power/respect.

I have an easy job. I work a good 4 hours a day and the rest is intermittent. Have busy periods a few times a year where I may put in a full 40 hours or even work overtime. I started at mid 40s and have gotten up to 70s recently in less than < 5 years. Pay is low but so is responsibility. leave is okay, health insurance is fantastic.
Retirement is x contribution at the end of the year based on salary.

Pay raises are consistent. I get to WAH FT and travel every 2-3 years for a few days, which is a nice break. I work with chill people who treat me like an adult and understand that I have a life outside of work. Some days are interesting, some are dull. Not a job for an extrovert as 99.9 of my communication is via email or website.

I thought about teaching or going back to school but I'll make more than my teacher friends ina few years who have masters degrees. Our HHI income will be 200k in a few years and that's good enough for me.

This sounds perfect. What do you do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admin is not an easy job. Sorry it's not. It usually requires lots of facetime and a good admin ends up being procedure police without any real power/respect.

I have an easy job. I work a good 4 hours a day and the rest is intermittent. Have busy periods a few times a year where I may put in a full 40 hours or even work overtime. I started at mid 40s and have gotten up to 70s recently in less than < 5 years. Pay is low but so is responsibility. leave is okay, health insurance is fantastic.
Retirement is x contribution at the end of the year based on salary.

Pay raises are consistent. I get to WAH FT and travel every 2-3 years for a few days, which is a nice break. I work with chill people who treat me like an adult and understand that I have a life outside of work. Some days are interesting, some are dull. Not a job for an extrovert as 99.9 of my communication is via email or website.

I thought about teaching or going back to school but I'll make more than my teacher friends ina few years who have masters degrees. Our HHI income will be 200k in a few years and that's good enough for me.

I agree that admin wouldn't be a good fit. That's why I don't want to go into school administration, even though that's where the money is and where more senior teachers want to be.

What is your easy job?

I work for a tech company in a non-tech position

What kind of non tech position? Hope you are still in this forum to answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree there is no easy job but I feel burned out and unappreciated and underpaid. I’m an English teacher (uncertified) and thinking of transitioning to a different line of work. I took a few years off to SAH and am just starting teaching again. What is a good option for me as a career changer? Library? Nursing or some kind of medical assistant? I actually do not need to worry about salary since DH makes enough, but I did the calculations and I make less than Dtarbucks and McDonald’s workers as a teacher, which is kind of demoralizing.

Nursing is the opposite of an easy job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you like to be around people? Working on teams? Do you need your work to be interesting?

If not, I recommend “back office” work for a federal contractor. It’s in house and mostly remote. Subcontracts, compliance, purchasing, contract closeout, accounts payable, records retention. There are a ton of jobs, I supervise several, that are fully remote, 40hrs a week if you work slow, that pay $65-90k. The catch is you work from home and talk to people 1-3x a week. It’s self paced, but detail oriented work. For some people, they would lose their minds with boredom and loneliness. For the right person, it’s a perfect job with minimal stress.

What kind of degree would these jobs require?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: You can check the local public library systems for a job called “library associate”. These are for bachelors degree people and seem to be very basic reference jobs. I think pay starts in the $40,000 to $45,000 rage and goes up to about $60,000 over time. If you have a Master of Library Science degree, you start out a bit higher. You can also work as an assistant checking out books to customers, dealing with fines, basic directional questions and the like. Not hard work.

Libraries aren’t dying and librarians are being hired. But it is a pink collar profession as are nursing and teaching. It gets little respect in terms of status or pay as compared to other professions.

I see so many openings in my area for assistants and they all are asking for a MLIS degree.

[Anonymous]

I would get a literacy certificate like orton gillingham and do specialized tutoring or tutor sat/psat.