I need some advice about my career direction

[Unregistered]

I'm currently a year and a half out of college and not quite happy with my current position. I realize that I'm young and fresh and that a dream job at this point is somewhat unlikely. However, I had a job that was pretty close and left it for another that seemed to present great opportunity and better money, but now I'm regretting it. Some background:

I graduated in December 2000 with a BBA in Marketing. My first job was for a Web development company, but I left there to move to Memphis. Once in Memphis, I joined another Web development company and soon rose to Marketing Manager. Its a small company, but sometimes the small companies allow you to learn alot more in a shorter period of time b/c everyone wears multiple hats. I loved the responsibilities I had and learned a whole lot. Only thing was, the pay wasn't great. I left for another company that I interviewed with when I first moved to Memphis but wasn't hired b/c of a slight slowdown. We were in contact again and I started here the middle of May. I'm an Account Coordinator here and I'm not really enjoying it at all. I asked a lot of questions in the interview and thought this would be a great job. Now I think differently. It seems the most one can ever truly be here is an Account Manager. I don't want to be a sales person, and I'm not totally motivated b/c I'm not interested in the growth opportunities. Needless to say I dread coming here each morning. But the money is better and its paying my bills and keeping my creditors happy. But I'm not happy. Any advice on this matter?

Also, I'm keeping my eye out for other jobs. And wouldn't you know it........there are quite a few jobs out there I like. Great timing! Why couldn't they be around just three weeks earlier? Anyway, I need some help creating a good cover letter. Anyone have any tips?

[M4A1]

You have a job. You are already better off than many people.

Cheer up. :D

What's the first job that you liked? Better yet, what did you like about it? Would you go back to it even if it means less money? or working in the exact same enviroment as it was before? What if the enviroment is different now?

I like to make a list of what I like about the job, and what I do not like. It's easy to have some of kind of a "feeling" towards to your job, but what exactly is that "feeling"? Break it down to a list, weigh them against one another, on a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being the most liked, and 1 being the most despised. This way, you'll find what's important to you.

Use that list to look for jobs that you may want to pursue in the future.

[crazy-girl]

I understand how you feel. If you aren't happy with a job, it sort of obsesses your whole life. That's where you spend most of your waking time!

Since you have a marketing background I think you should definately use your cover letter to sell yourself. I like to tailor my cover letters to the specific position I'm applying for. If you haven't been at your job for a very long time you might want to acknowlege that in your cover letter.

Monster.com, hotjobs.com and vault.com have all been very helpful to me in my job search. They all have sample cover letters you can look at and vault has career message boards. Some are visited more often than others but I believe there's a message board for Marketing and also for coverletters/resumes.

Good Luck and Don't Settle!