Serious Dallas-Mavs.com board Advice - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

Nash13 · 07-22-2009, 01:55 PM

So it seems like i ask for ya'lls advice everytime i need something............So let me drop the scenario:

So i currently work as a waiter in a restaurant, and i hate it. It's a dinner-only restaurant, so it takes up all my evenings, and most nights i don't get off until 11pm-1am. And the money is VERY inconsistent. It's taken away my family, and my Mavs. And at this time, i'd rather work full-time and go back to school within the next 2yrs. Having said that, i just got called in for an interview for a job that i will most likely get at a local hospital taking food to patients. It's an easy job, and the pay is really good considering the work i have to do, but i'm not completely sold on the hours. The hours are from 11:30am-8:00pm. Also, i'd have to work every other weekend, and those are 13hr shifts. Although i would get off a little earlier than i normally would where i currently work, and would get my Mavs back, i'd be sacrificing football on sundays, playing pick-up hockey (which i have fallen in love with), and going to NHL games (something else i have fallen in love with). Oh yeah, and there's a lady that used to work with me that currently works a similar position at the hospital, and she told me they start people out at the minimum, which that's still decent pay, to me it's not enough to ditch the things i love doing.

My family and I have a divided stance. My mom doesn't think i should take it because she thinks it'll take away from me getting back in school. My sister's for it. My stance is if i can get the salary i want, than it should be a no-brainer, if not then i probably won't take it. Now i know how it is to be a free agent.

What would you do if you were me?

left texas · 07-22-2009, 02:13 PM

You Mom is right, first and foremost Nash13, concentrate on your education. Sacrifices made now are much easier than down the road. Do what you have to do so you can finish school as soon as you can. Then you will have the opportunity to persue higher paying jobs (career) and usually better working hours (even though entry level positions can mean nights, weekends, or other not so inviting hours), but soon you would be able to do all the things that seem important now.

Just remember that a wife and kids can also keep you from doing everything you like, but most would say that they are worth it. Priorities must be set in your life and right now I would say education should be number one.

PS by making alot of sacrifices early in my career I was able to retire at 55. And let me tell you it will be here before you know it.

Usually Lurkin · 07-22-2009, 03:43 PM

left texas is right. Do school first. A couple years of sacrifice can lead to greater payoff afterward.

My advice: take the hospital job, do school with 8 and 9 AM classes, major in something that will help you take advantage of government run health care.

92bDad · 07-22-2009, 04:26 PM

This is a cool way to utilize this board. Best wishes as you sort through what is best for you.

I know you are asking for advice and as such my advice is to believe in yourself and your knowledge of what is best for you.

If I were in a face to face dicussion with you, I offer questions to help you sort through the decision. After all, it's your decision to make and whatever the results are both short and long term, you want the confidence that you made the choice because you wanted to and not because anyone else said what's best.

What I am hearing is the following:

*You are frustrated with the current job due to the hours (Basically taking you away from other things such as family and Mavs etc...), inconsistant pay
*You have an offer for a job that you state is easy work and easy money, but your concerned that the hours will take you away from other things such as school, etc...

Thus I would ask you the following:

*What do you want to do, list them in order of highest priority to lowest priority?

For example, you state that school is on the list of things to do.

For this question, don't worry about any obstacles, just figure out your goals and what order they should be prioritized.

The key is based on what is important to YOU, after all you are the most qualified expert on your life and anyone else who thinks they know what's best for you, may have an alternate agenda or life experience.

Keep in mind, that this list doesn't mean you will do them in the order of priority, but it helps to sort out how you want to manage your options, from Work, School, Relationships, etc... It helps to determine what sacrifices you will choose to make in order to achieve the things you really want...ultimately helping keep distractions at bay.

Once you make the list, you can tackle each item one at a time and determine what your options are to accomplish those goals...from there you can list out your obstacles within the options...

Ultimately, you will come back to your question about this job offer, but you will be able to make an educated choice based on your own desires and circumstances.

Bottom line, I do not know what's best for you...heck, I don't know all the details and quite frankly never will. But I can provide you some questions to help you do some internal searching so that you will be equipped to make the choice based on your own advice.

Best wishes to you...feel free to drop me a PM if you want to chat a bit further, I promise I will not tell you what to do, but rather ask you questions to sort through the haze of the decision making process.

Robillion · 07-22-2009, 06:21 PM

It all depends... how old are you?

I am 22. I have always worked in advertising, promotions, sales, marketing, etc... So by the end of my 2nd year in college I was offered a very high paying job for a 20 year old at the time($31,000). I dropped out of school and took it. I was happy with the move at first with full confidence that I had a future with the company. Well, the company wanted me there as well even giving me raises over the next year and a half to over $40k, but I just was not happy anymore with the company. I left the company, and now it has been 2 years since I have been in school almost. I will be going back to school this next semester most likely.

Since leaving my old job, what I do is event managing/promotional modeling. I make around 25k a year now just working on the weekends mainly at events like the Taste of Dallas and such. Event promotions (brand ambassador/promotional modeling) is a great way to make good money on the side. Basically anyone can do event promotions part time if you are personable. Unless you are butt ugly.. its definitely an industry of vanity. The only thing is the events are mainly on the weekends and the days you do work.. 2-3 days a week if you book yourself actively.. you work 8-15 hours in the day.

Bottom line... find out what you truly want to do. What you will enjoy. Then, even after you do that, you need a fall back in case you do not like the place of work you goto. That fall back is a degree. If I stayed in school, I would have graduated by now, would be making more money now when I am actually needing it more than I did when was 20, and I would have options if I didnt like my place of work after awhile.

mavsgirl4134 · 07-22-2009, 08:44 PM

I work at a hospital serving food to patients. I only work part-time but I go to school full time. I know you said that you would have to work 11:30-8 and every other weekend you have to work 13 hours. (which is really weird..) Do you know if they will be flexible with your schedule? The hospital I work at is really flexible with school schedules. Every other weekend isn't THAT bad.

I have to work every weekend which really sucks.

I have to say it is easy work, but you will see a lot of stuff that you probably will not want to see, and be around a lot people that you have NO idea what they have. I personally have delivered trays to two dead people and didn't know they had passed, and I've had to be tested for TB because there was a patient that had it and somehow noone knew about it. But then again, every hospital is different, so you may not deal with the same stuff I do.

Oh and another thing, will you be going to school for something in health care? Even though you would be working with dietary, you still meet a lot of people from different fields and can learn A LOT. That is one good thing.

Education should really be your priority, so I would go with something that will be better for you while you're in school.

Nash13 · 07-22-2009, 09:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mavsgirl4134

I work at a hospital serving food to patients. I only work part-time but I go to school full time. I know you said that you would have to work 11:30-8 and every other weekend you have to work 13 hours. (which is really weird..) Do you know if they will be flexible with your schedule? The hospital I work at is really flexible with school schedules. Every other weekend isn't THAT bad.

I have to work every weekend which really sucks.

I have to say it is easy work, but you will see a lot of stuff that you probably will not want to see, and be around a lot people that you have NO idea what they have. I personally have delivered trays to two dead people and didn't know they had passed, and I've had to be tested for TB because there was a patient that had it and somehow noone knew about it. But then again, every hospital is different, so you may not deal with the same stuff I do.

Oh and another thing, will you be going to school for something in health care? Even though you would be working with dietary, you still meet a lot of people from different fields and can learn A LOT. That is one good thing.

Education should really be your priority, so I would go with something that will be better for you while you're in school.

To answer all ya'lls questions........................I'm 24. After i graduated high school, i majored in Restaurant management. I was so sure i wanted to do it. And 2yrs into college, i grew to hate it. Something that stuck in my mind was something my manager said to me 4yrs ago: "I see you more than i see my family." He said it so subtle, but it stuck in my mind. And when i told my advisor that line, he really couldn't rebutt it. He mentioned 1 major restaurant that had decent hours.

All the while i went to college for restaurant management, i was a volunteer figherfighter. And i originally wanted to major in Fire Science, but the only college that had the major was about an hour away from my house. So a buddy of mine was telling me about becoming a Paramedic. At first i just thought nothing of it. Then the more i thought about it, the more warm i was to the idea. So i switched my major to EMS.

At that point, i was kinda like Robillion. I was 20yrs old, and i got a little tired of school, and starting from scratch was going to be so stressful, so i took a semester off. And after that, i took some core classes. I was in and out of school for 3yrs. And i finally took my EMT-Basic class last semester. Although i loved it to death, i had to drop it because it was hard to focus in class at 7 in the morning, i didn't have a steady work schedule, and i had to learn so much in so little time.

The bottom line is the reason i want to work full-time is because i don't need to go to school full-time. With EMS, you take 1 class at a time, and after each class you have to work a certain amount of hours as an EMT before you take the next class. So i could work a regular 9-5 job and go to school during the evening. But the job i'm offered, school is out for at least the fall semester.

mavsgirl4134 · 07-22-2009, 09:53 PM

Oh.. ok, scratch most of what I said. I worked with a guy that went to school for EMT and worked at the hospital full time. I guess it just depends on what hours you want and how much you want to give up for whichever job.

I would choose the hospital.

Nash13 · 07-22-2009, 11:02 PM

And another thing...........I'm applying for a lot of jobs. And i don't want to take this job and decide not to go to school this comming semester, and then turn around and get the job i want and still be out of school. Actually, when i applied for the hospital job, i didn't think i was going to get it. I had applied for the same job at the same time but with the hours i wanted, and they turned me down. And a few years ago, i applied for the same job with the hours i wanted, but i was going to school full-time for restaurant management at the time, so they turned me down. The more i think about it, the less likely i am to take this job. Unless they give me an offer i can't refuse, i'm not taking it.

Nash13 · 07-23-2009, 02:14 PM

BTW, i didn't take the job. They said they'll probably be hiring for another position with better hours soon, and that i'd probably get that job. I could tell they really wanted me to work there.

left texas · 07-23-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nash13

The bottom line is the reason i want to work full-time is because i don't need to go to school full-time. With EMS, you take 1 class at a time, and after each class you have to work a certain amount of hours as an EMT before you take the next class. So i could work a regular 9-5 job and go to school during the evening. But the job i'm offered, school is out for at least the fall semester.

Nash13, at age 24, it is definately time to make your career decision. Your quote that is underlined above makes it seem to me that you are still not sure what you want to do. I will say that the health field is definately a good choice. Good luck on your decision and my advice is still to finish your schooling as soon as possible.

Nash13 · 07-24-2009, 02:20 AM

I don't think you get it. It's more like i can't go to school full-time, even if i wanted to. They're are 3 classes that take place over 2yrs. Unless i want a degree, which isn't necessary, there's no need to go to school full-time.

Five-ofan · 07-24-2009, 02:33 AM

im similar in age(23). I work for the local sheriffs dept and am actually a supervisor(its slightly scary that i can be a supervisor at only 23 in a law enforcement field) If you want a decent pay job thats really not very hard, the local jail usually isnt a bad place to start. Its not very hard work and you generally make somewhere between 30 and 45k a year depending on the size of the jail. I wouldnt advise it as a life time career(im doing it for a few years because i dont wanna just live off my parents while im still trying to get into writing) or anything but there is job security because quite frankly, there will always be criminals. I realize this is a completely different way to go then what you were talking about but just thought id throw it out there.

MavsWiLLHaVeRinGs · 07-24-2009, 04:41 AM

I'm not saying for sure this is for you but it's just a suggestion. There are good things you can go to school for in the medical field and you only have to go to school two years. Like me I'm a respitory therapist and make pretty good money and I really like my job. In the next year or two I'm going to travel and do the same thing and get paid even more. I know being a nurse just wasnt for me because I worked in hospitals quite a bit before I went to school. RT is cool though. I mean you still see some gross stuff like when you deal with patients that have trachs and you have to deal w/ them, but it's really not that bad you get used to it. Check into that or maybe Echo Tech. (they deal with ultrasounds, I'm considering eventually going back to school to learn that too. Good money there as well.) The medical field is job security and there's things you can do other than just being a nurse that you may discover you like.

So I suggest take that hospital job, talk to some RTs get to know them. Nine times out of Ten an RT is pretty cool. Nights is really laid back, I mean I work nights and I spend more than 50% of my shift on dallas-mavs forum. :P

Murphy3 · 07-24-2009, 10:20 AM

If you're interested in the medical field, then Mavswillhaverings is correct. You can make good money in that field.. and there's sure to be a need in that field for years and years to come. A friend of mine (age 29) is already making almost $35 an hour as a nurse. Last year, he made around $90k will working an average of about 42 hours a week. And yeah, he's always getting a bonus for this or for that. By the time he's 35 or so, he'll be making over $40 an hour base pay. When he works weekends, it's another 6-8 dollars an hour. If he works a night shift, it's another $8 dollars an hour. If he works a holiday, it's time and a half. There have been times where he's made almost $70 an hour.. base pay + holiday pay + weekend pay + time and a half.

It can be a very lucrative career from what I hear all with getting 3-4 days off a week and 5 weeks paid time off a year.

92bDad · 07-24-2009, 10:42 AM

Nash13,

Sounds like you've got a pretty good grip on what you want to do? Glad to see someone looking at development through what some may consider a non-traditional education.

Most of us are stuck in the perspective of college with 4-6 classes per semester, spend 4-8 years depending on what degree we are seeking.

But there are many many many other paths to gaining an education and from what I understand, you are now looking at the EMT path. Honestly, this is an area I know nothing about, which brings me back to the purpose I was throwing questions your way. You are the expert and you are the one who will lay out all of the options to determine what best fit your needs at this point in your life.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but what I understand based on the information in this thread is the following:

1) You do want to go through the EMT Training/Certification but the schedule is a bit different that traditional school.
2) You do want to work and earn some level of income while you pursue the EMT route.
3) The position you originally asked about is off the table as a new position is coming open?

What are other factors, if any that you are trying to sort through at the moment?

Nash13 · 07-24-2009, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 92bDad

Nash13,

Sounds like you've got a pretty good grip on what you want to do? Glad to see someone looking at development through what some may consider a non-traditional education.

Most of us are stuck in the perspective of college with 4-6 classes per semester, spend 4-8 years depending on what degree we are seeking.

But there are many many many other paths to gaining an education and from what I understand, you are now looking at the EMT path. Honestly, this is an area I know nothing about, which brings me back to the purpose I was throwing questions your way. You are the expert and you are the one who will lay out all of the options to determine what best fit your needs at this point in your life.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but what I understand based on the information in this thread is the following:

1) You do want to go through the EMT Training/Certification but the schedule is a bit different that traditional school.
2) You do want to work and earn some level of income while you pursue the EMT route.
3) The position you originally asked about is off the table as a new position is coming open?

What are other factors, if any that you are trying to sort through at the moment?

That's correct. And there aren't any other factors at the moment. The main thing now is i want to move out. I figured i'm old enough.

92bDad · 07-24-2009, 02:22 PM

Cool,

So if it's okay with you let's call 4) Getting your own place.

So you now have 4 factors:

1) EMT Training/Cert
2) Income
3) Possible "NEW" offer
4) Getting your own place

Now you have something to work with.

The trick with all of this is taking some level of the emotion out of the process and simply take a step back to see what the logic facts are around each, specifically to get each accomplished as you best see fit.

My first question: What priorities do you have the 4 items ranked?

Long and short of it, if getting your own place is more important than EMT Cert, then you may need to explore different options regarding EMT Cert...on the other hand, if EMT Cert is more important, then you may need to see what options you have getting your own place...basically, which one can wait...if at all.

If both are equally important, what do you need to get them accomplished...is it money, is it time, is a job, is it a location...the details if you will.

What are you options? With this question, give yourself permission to explore anything and everything...no matter how wacky it may be.

I'll give an example, I've had a client who was struggling with weight issues and she was at a block on where to get started. So we brainstormed some ideas...during our brainstorm we hit stuff like, diet, exercise, join a gym, personal trainer...and out of the blue we talked about video games...ultimately we got to the game "Dance, Dance, Revolution"...now my client was also a Grandmother and all though the idea was a joke to lighten the moment, she wound up selecting it as a starting point. She felt that she could play the game with her (at the time) young grand kids, ultimately giving her the opportunity to be active and have quality time with her grandkids.

She has gone on to other actions and changed her lifestyle to have a more active and healthy life...but it started with simply a desire and then a bit of a goofy idea that turned to be exactly what she wanted to do...and thus because she wanted to do, it was easier for her to stay motivated and follow through on her goal to get healthy.

The same applies with what you are sorting through. Explore the options, brainstorm ideas...heck brainstorm ideas on each topic...get with some friends/family and have fun with creating a list.

Best of success to you as your exploring the next step...I'll check back periodically, however I am traveling next week and may or may not be on-line during my trip. I'm certain that the many opinions on this board will serve you well in your search.