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Hi everybody.
I joined to get ideas to help me find a niche area to work in as I get closer to retirement age that will allow me the ability to travel and work remotely. I'm currently taking an IT course and a bookkeeping course through Coursera. I enjoy the IT course but I'm not sure that's an area I want to work in. Having people screaming at me that their computers won't work would be too stressful. I've worked in the medical field in various areas since I was 15. I just left the CNA field after a double hip replacement last year and I'm currently working as a Patient Access Rep at a hospital. When I took the job I didn't realize it would be basically a collections position and I don't like hounding people for money. I could downgrade a level and take a pay cut so I wouldn't have to do collections but with having to drive almost 3 hours (round trip) to get back and forth to work it would take a huge chunk of change out of my paycheck to downgrade. I live rurally so I have to travel to get a job. I'm hoping by the end of the year to get an apartment in town to save money, especially with the cost of gas as it's about what my rent payment would be. I love working with people, especially the older ones. I also have a side business helping the elderly in their homes. I'd hoped to make it a full-time job but just can't find enough clients.
Sue Gordon- retired Career Coach
3.27k
05/29/23 at 12PM UTC
What I hear the most is "I love working with people"-- based on my personal experience and those of my clients/student over the years, it is rare to enjoy IT work when what you love is working with people. Or anything that has you hidden away typing into a computer- whether it be coding, bookkeeping or data entry.
Could you expand your side business? As a relatively new realtor, I get the challenge of finding clients, especially if you are in a rural area -- but is there opportunity to expand services or geographic reach? (remember you can deduct the mileage you use in driving to clients' homes-- whereas you cannot for a W2 - employee commute--- consult your tax attorney- I'm not one!).
Can you help with things like downsizing and moving to senior living situations? Maybe combine your new IT savvy and help seniors with their computers and phones, or even their monthly bookkeeping, however simple it might be?
Maybe speak to your local Small Business Administration and find some courses on how to create a business plan and do the marketing? (Apologies if you've already done all this).
If you need the security of a salary and benefits, consider IT or bookkeeping for a senior living facility --they may need someone on-site to help with these things at the office and perhaps helping their residents. Not all IT jobs involve dealing with people yelling at you!
Anyway, my takeaway from your post is working with people in a helpful way is what you want to do-- many ways to do that.
Good luck! You'll find your way!
Anonymous
04/25/22 at 4:40PM UTC
Since you're taking bookkeeping and IT courses, you could consider a pivot into Finance Analysis and/or Data Analysis. If you're looking for something less time consuming than an 8-hour day, you might consider billing and coding; or ghostwriting if you like to read and interpret medical findings. The ghostwriting is usually something that pays by the word or by the page; so, you would control how much or how little work you would need to take on. I don't know specifically what you mean by "IT course" but you could also consider programming work if you're into that.
Joanne RosenResume Writer Extraordinaire!
1.66k
04/25/22 at 7:48PM UTC
I have worked with hundreds of data analysts and know that the analytics programs they need like mySQL etc take a lot of time to learn and master. As a career coach, I have to tell so many of them that they have to start at the bottom in a career shift and that is usually with low pay.
Remote positions have approximately 7X the number of applicants as on-site so competition is fierce.
You could look for something like this: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/3026156729/
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2990261360/
Make sure you have a resume that translates your previous jobs into the new one.
We rock at doing transitional resumes. If you'd like a FREE analysis of yours, please upload at: https://www.analyticadvantagecc.com
Cheers
Joanne
Anonymous
04/28/22 at 1:43PM UTC
Programming and analysis are two different things, as your hundreds of data analysts will tell you. I came from an administrative management position that required my interpretation and presentation of data and am now in a Data Analytics position that is neither "at the bottom" nor "low pay". Though I have completed courses that give me a very basic understanding of programming language, I have not once used those skills in my position. Instead, I make business recommendations based on the data available to me from our very capable IT department and my own mining skills.
