28 years old and earning 38K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Non profits pay poorly. Did you not know that before hand? If you want to make more money, you will need to go into the private industry.

I have to say, though, that $38K even for nonprofit seems low. My first job out of college in '93 was for a nonprofit, and I was paid $26K. I switched to private industry a few years later.

I was wondering about that, too. I worked for an environmental nonprofit during a recession circa 1992-1993 and I made $28K. What is that, 22 years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to get out of nonprofits. They are a waste of time unless you are a director - paid well and largely left to their own devices.

You are only 28 and have time to make a change. You should be looking for federal jobs in your area of focus but don't be too narrow. And yes, you should take any fed job that comes along even if the pay is the same - you will be well compensated in terms of other fed benefits which may include grad school assistance.

You shoudl only go to grad school if you can approach it with a plan for how it will advance your career. I don't know your field but if you are in an IR nonprofit think long and hard before going to an IR school - Fletcher, SAIS, SIPA etc. - they are costly and have questionable return on investment (I am a grad of one myself). Don't do IR or JD, etc without a plan for how it will advance your career. This means don't do JD unless you can get in to a top school.

seconded. I'm a grad of one - did it help me get a job offer, yes. But that offer fell through and it has been brutal trying to find something ever since.

To add to this, OP should emphatically NOT get a grad degree in public health. It's one of those things that sounds like a good idea at the time but really is not. Liberal types like myself -- who do/did work at nonprofits like OP -- are the kinds of people tempted by the MPH degree. Don't be. There's no ROI -- jobs are hard to land and they pay squat. And the MPH programs all tend to be at expensive schools.

If you want to "help" poor women in Africa with reproductive choices, let's say, by all means do -- but don't go get a $100K master's first. Just go. They'll take you.

[Anonymous]

28 really isn't a bad age to realize that maybe the path you are going down and may find interesting just isn't working careerwise. You are in a position where you can double down on your area and then you may well be stuck there or you can admit that it didn't really work, you couldn't make a living, etc. and move on. No real shame in that.

I came to DC intending to be a China expert; I soon realized that DC was full of similar (generally smarter) people trying for the exact same thing and we were all in sort of a rut of low paid jobs at think tanks and so forth. I also realized that I really don't have the raw intelligence to be an expert in anything. So now I do business development and marketing which is fine.

A lot of smart young people come to DC and seem to think that there should be a need for expertience XYZ and get frustrated when they don't find that. I don't know what your focus is but if you are only making 38k that might be the market telling you that there really isn't a need for your field no matter how interesting you find it. This country only needs so many Southeast Asian policy, Middle East affairs, West African politics, etc. experts despite what colleges and graduate schools and study abroad proponents will tell you.

[Anonymous]

OP -- 28 is young enough to move on to something else.
I like someone's idea of getting a university job so that you can get free tuition. I work at GW and a lot of people do that. That just changed it -- you have to be here 6 months to get tuition benefits. Check out what other schools in the area offer.

Also OP -- maybe get a second job or do babysitting to earn extra cash, tutor, house sit, walk dogs, whatever to earn extra money and to meet people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should try a fed job. I was a GS-14 by age 28 making over $100k. Contribute to public service.

not op - but getting a fed job is not easy. i've been applying for 5 years for fed jobs. no dice.

I thought only losers get fed jobs. Can't believe it's that hard!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you should try a fed job. I was a GS-14 by age 28 making over $100k. Contribute to public service.

not op - but getting a fed job is not easy. i've been applying for 5 years for fed jobs. no dice.

I thought only losers get fed jobs. Can't believe it's that hard!

OK, only losers get fed jobs. NIST, NIH, NASA, ONR.. but continue to tell yourself that. Lols

[Anonymous]

This is why it is primarily rich girls with a private income stream from the bank of Mom and Dad do non profit work (rich boys go to the Hill).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you have a degree and if so, in what?

English Lit from a public ivy.

Please excise this phrase from your vocabulary. It is cringe worthy.

[Anonymous]

OP, at 26, I went back to school for a different undergrad degree, completely opposite of the degree I had, and a much more marketable one during that economic times. I know you are 28, but it's still not too late. My first job after that second degree, I was making more than 2x what I made my first job with the not as marketable degree.

[Anonymous]

Find a new job at an association or nonprofit that offers tuition reimbursement. My assn. pays 100% of an advanced or undergrad degree. So many of my colleagues have taken advantage of the benefit and left within 5 years for higher paying jobs. There are places that offer similar pay to what you're getting now with better benefits.

[Anonymous]

I went to a public university and landed a job making 35k my first year out, in 20001. In Richmond, VA. In customer service for a print shop.

My second job was 3 years later at age 25 at a nonprofit, 40k but quickly rose to about 50k. This time I was a print buyer.

Which is to say it sounds like you picked the wrong field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you have a degree and if so, in what?

English Lit from a public ivy.

Please excise this phrase from your vocabulary. It is cringe worthy.

Wtf is a public Ivy? Ivy League is an athletic division. There is no public Ivy League.

[Anonymous]

I made $38k when I was 28.

In 1988.

[Anonymous]

I'm maybe the only person in DC who thinks grad degrees over overrated --and nog necessary for many jobs. Lawyer, doctor, technical specialist, teacher sure. But I know dozens of people with completely useless masters and loads of debt. Masters in museum administration to make $35k -- no; tons of international relations degrees (not working in IR); 3rd tier MBAs etc; and lots of Masters in Communications that get you nowhere fast-- even from decent schools.

Try to switch BEFORE thinking of going back to school. Take this from someone who has a useless Masters in English that I thought was a great idea at age 24 -- you know what employers don't care about? My ability to wax poetically about 19th century American Literature. I took it off my resume and rose up much faster. My salary is still a "pittance" on the DCUM blogosphere at $120k at 33 - but I'm doing leaps and bounds better than my grad school classmates.

Best of luck!! Just think out of the box and you will be ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm maybe the only person in DC who thinks grad degrees over overrated --and nog necessary for many jobs. Lawyer, doctor, technical specialist, teacher sure. But I know dozens of people with completely useless masters and loads of debt. Masters in museum administration to make $35k -- no; tons of international relations degrees (not working in IR); 3rd tier MBAs etc; and lots of Masters in Communications that get you nowhere fast-- even from decent schools.

Try to switch BEFORE thinking of going back to school. Take this from someone who has a useless Masters in English that I thought was a great idea at age 24 -- you know what employers don't care about? My ability to wax poetically about 19th century American Literature. I took it off my resume and rose up much faster. My salary is still a "pittance" on the DCUM blogosphere at $120k at 33 - but I'm doing leaps and bounds better than my grad school classmates.

Best of luck!! Just think out of the box and you will be ok.

Well it's damned if you do, damned if you don't - tons of ma ir degrees, sure - but if you do look at people who are working in IR, they do have them (not all, but a lot).

So what you are saying is just give up on a sector and not try?

I don't get why you had to take off your grad degree from your resume? Why would that be relevant to getting a job?