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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of the problems you have in your current job would also be problems in nursing, OP. You know that, right?

The OP doesn’t work outside the home and hasn’t for several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m open to going back to school too. Maybe an associates degree? But in what field?

You don’t have a college degree? That’s your problem. I am a teacher but not a classroom teacher and I make $75k/year and get all the same breaks and summers off with my kids. It’s a dream job. I’m only able to afford the low salary because DH makes a lot more. But his benefits are crap and mine are great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some ideas I had:

MSW to go into counseling or other social work

MLIS for library work or doing information systems work for organizations

Associates degree or Masters to go into nursing

But… apart from maybe library work (which seems to be a dying field) these options seem like they may be even harder than teaching.

Lol. If easy is doing technically sophisticated work while being underpaid and treated like 2nd class colleagues is easy, go for it.

MSW and nursing work is also challenging and draining.

These are all disrespected pink collar jobs, not easy jobs.

[Anonymous]

If you wouldn’t mind working with younger kids, become a certified O-G tutor, and tutor kids with dyslexia. There is huge demand and it easily pays $100+/hour. You would still need to deal with parents, but it might be different than the parents of older kids that are trying to get their kid into a top college.

My mom went from teaching English to being a paralegal. It just required a certificate, not another degree. It was low stress (and fairly low paying) - she worked for a small town law firm, not big law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the problems you have in your current job would also be problems in nursing, OP. You know that, right?

I would want to be a nurse in the sense of getting an associates degree and being an LPN or something. I've read and heard it's not nearly as hard as travel nurse or getting the full BSN etc. but maybe that's not true? It seems more appealing than what I am doing now...

Also it seems like LPN salary is way higher than what I make as a teacher.

LPNs can make about $50k for 12 months of work. You make about that in 10 months, so no, they don’t make “way more.” And if they did, you’d need to stop and ask why, right? Because if a job pays really well, there’s probably a good reason — it’s dangerous, or dirty, or horrible work, or no one wants to do it, or highly-skilled, or takes a lot of education, or long or unpredictable hours.

You sound incredibly naive, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You make more than I do, unless I work summer camp.

-OP

I assume you are not in the DC area? Beginning teachers with only a bachelors start out at over 50K in my district - PWCS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the problems you have in your current job would also be problems in nursing, OP. You know that, right?

I would want to be a nurse in the sense of getting an associates degree and being an LPN or something. I've read and heard it's not nearly as hard as travel nurse or getting the full BSN etc. but maybe that's not true? It seems more appealing than what I am doing now...

Also it seems like LPN salary is way higher than what I make as a teacher.

LPNs can make about $50k for 12 months of work. You make about that in 10 months, so no, they don’t make “way more.” And if they did, you’d need to stop and ask why, right? Because if a job pays really well, there’s probably a good reason — it’s dangerous, or dirty, or horrible work, or no one wants to do it, or highly-skilled, or takes a lot of education, or long or unpredictable hours.

You sound incredibly naive, OP.

I don’t make anything close to 50k, and to a previous poster I do have a bachelors and a masters. The associates degree would be in a different field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some ideas I had:

MSW to go into counseling or other social work

MLIS for library work or doing information systems work for organizations

Associates degree or Masters to go into nursing

But… apart from maybe library work (which seems to be a dying field) these options seem like they may be even harder than teaching.

Lol. If easy is doing technically sophisticated work while being underpaid and treated like 2nd class colleagues is easy, go for it.

MSW and nursing work is also challenging and draining.

These are all disrespected pink collar jobs, not easy jobs.

I am ok with low pay and with being disrespected. But it would be great to feel more human. I don’t think people realize what I mean when I say I make less than Starbucks workers. I make way less than 50k. I’m happy to get a degree and be “underpaid” in a difficult job at 50k. I would like to be able to pee when I want to though. And I’d like to feel my work is somewhat meaningful. I don’t need it to give my life meaning, but I’d like to feel like more than a body.

[Anonymous]

And to people citing burn out in social work and nursing, I think I would look for lower paid positions and prioritize work environment. I fully expect to be exhausted and feel burn out, but it will be easier starting from scratch or a neutral base level in terms of burnout, if that makes sense. I’m looking to make a change and I think that the change can help hit the reset button, even if I do feel the wear as time goes on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You make more than I do, unless I work summer camp.

-OP

Why do you make so little as a teacher? Where do you teach? If you got certified you could probably get a better paying teaching job. It wouldn't be an easy job though.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You make more than I do, unless I work summer camp.

-OP

Why do you make so little as a teacher? Where do you teach? If you got certified you could probably get a better paying teaching job. It wouldn't be an easy job though.

I asked this earlier and I don’t think it was answered. I’m also confused about the certification. Is the OP not certified, but teaching? I’ll have to go back and skim through the thread.

I’ve been an ES teacher for 30 years and the whole “use the restroom when I want” thing seems exaggerated. I’ve never had difficulty making it through the day.

[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.

Sounds ideal for me (NP). How does someone break into these jobs? Do you need a particular degree?

[Anonymous]

OP, you have a fundamental problem that is true of many people who get degrees, especially advanced ones. People who get such degrees are generally not risk takers or ambitious. Instead, they want their degree to get a job for them. And, as you say, they want to be paid professional wages for not doing much. When you really break it down, the argument is, "I'm smart. I have degrees. I should be paid well just because I'm a smart, interesting, and a great resource." The problem is, private business doesn't think this way. Your best best is a non-profit or government job, because they somewhat buy-in to your argument that well-educated people should be paid well. My advice is to get a generic, staff-level federal government job.

[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

With coming tech recession that will be changing.