MrEMann
05-06-2002, 10:12 PM
I moved to Niagara Falls about 8 years ago, after my parents separated (I moved in with my father and his girlfriend). The previous 16 years of my life had been spent living with my parents (a truck-driver and a housewife) in a rural area in the middle of nowhere, a 30-minute drive away from the nearest town. Not once in those 16 years did either of my parents ever mention anything about me getting a job, so, I never gave much thought to what I would like to do with my life.
Upon my moving to Niagara Falls, I completed my final semester of high school. My father's girlfriend (who had actually become his wife and my step-mom by that time) suggested that I start looking for a job. Well, after my job searches came up empty, she suggested that I go to college. Since I had never given much thought to what I wanted to do, I hesitantly chose Computer Programming -- even though at that time, the only use I had ever had for a computer was for playing video games. After 2 years of classes, I graduated in the top 5% of my class in 1997 (thanks to a proficiency in technical writing and business statistics), and entered the job market.
I soon realized one problem with my chosen profession: since Niagara Falls is based primarily on tourism, there were absolutely no programming jobs to be found. I took a few seasonal jobs before settling for a data entry/administrative assistant job at a local marketing research company (moving to a new city was out of the question, since I did not have my drivers license and I was not yet ready to move out on my own). After saving up some money, I decided that I was finally ready to move out on my own. Unfortunately, I had grossly underestimated how much it would cost to live on my own, and my funds quickly diminished.
Finally, just 6 months ago, an opportunity for advancement within the company came when our one and only programmer decided to leave for higher pay elsewhere. However, another employee was chosen as his replacement, and spent an entire month receiving training from our previous programmer. Three months later, he got himself fired, and I willingly jumped into the position with no training whatsoever (our previous programmer was busy with his new job by this time). I soon realized that the limited amount of knowledge that I received in college was useless. After three extremely stressful months of muddling through, trying to make sense of pages upon pages of code, I finally had enough and told my employer that I couldn't handle it anymore. Well, my boss was quite understanding, and hired an experienced programmer to take the reigns, while allowing me to return to my previous position. However, since that postion does not pay very well, I find myself 24 years old, flat broke, with no drivers license, and moving back in with my dad and step-mom. Plus, the mere thought of spending my entire life trying to keep up with the rapidly-changing computer industry makes me ill.
My first goal upon moving will be to finally get my drivers license (better late than never), but I have no idea of what to do about my career. It seems that I have only 2 choices: either work 80 stressful hours a week for the rest of my life in order to keep up with computer technology, or stick to low-paying data-entry type jobs where I will have no hope of ever being able to afford the things that I want. Due to this realization, I have not been able to sleep for over a month now, and I cannot think clearly as a result. I would like to possibly train for a completely different career, but that will have to wait until I can regain my mental composure (if that ever happens), and I feel that time is running out. If I can't get some sleep soon, I'm going to go nuts. Any suggestions?
Upon my moving to Niagara Falls, I completed my final semester of high school. My father's girlfriend (who had actually become his wife and my step-mom by that time) suggested that I start looking for a job. Well, after my job searches came up empty, she suggested that I go to college. Since I had never given much thought to what I wanted to do, I hesitantly chose Computer Programming -- even though at that time, the only use I had ever had for a computer was for playing video games. After 2 years of classes, I graduated in the top 5% of my class in 1997 (thanks to a proficiency in technical writing and business statistics), and entered the job market.
I soon realized one problem with my chosen profession: since Niagara Falls is based primarily on tourism, there were absolutely no programming jobs to be found. I took a few seasonal jobs before settling for a data entry/administrative assistant job at a local marketing research company (moving to a new city was out of the question, since I did not have my drivers license and I was not yet ready to move out on my own). After saving up some money, I decided that I was finally ready to move out on my own. Unfortunately, I had grossly underestimated how much it would cost to live on my own, and my funds quickly diminished.
Finally, just 6 months ago, an opportunity for advancement within the company came when our one and only programmer decided to leave for higher pay elsewhere. However, another employee was chosen as his replacement, and spent an entire month receiving training from our previous programmer. Three months later, he got himself fired, and I willingly jumped into the position with no training whatsoever (our previous programmer was busy with his new job by this time). I soon realized that the limited amount of knowledge that I received in college was useless. After three extremely stressful months of muddling through, trying to make sense of pages upon pages of code, I finally had enough and told my employer that I couldn't handle it anymore. Well, my boss was quite understanding, and hired an experienced programmer to take the reigns, while allowing me to return to my previous position. However, since that postion does not pay very well, I find myself 24 years old, flat broke, with no drivers license, and moving back in with my dad and step-mom. Plus, the mere thought of spending my entire life trying to keep up with the rapidly-changing computer industry makes me ill.
My first goal upon moving will be to finally get my drivers license (better late than never), but I have no idea of what to do about my career. It seems that I have only 2 choices: either work 80 stressful hours a week for the rest of my life in order to keep up with computer technology, or stick to low-paying data-entry type jobs where I will have no hope of ever being able to afford the things that I want. Due to this realization, I have not been able to sleep for over a month now, and I cannot think clearly as a result. I would like to possibly train for a completely different career, but that will have to wait until I can regain my mental composure (if that ever happens), and I feel that time is running out. If I can't get some sleep soon, I'm going to go nuts. Any suggestions?