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Careerchat III


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1 hour ago, Triskele said:

Sorry to hear about that stuff, guys.  I have never actually even grappled that seriously with the possibility of losing my job, and perhaps this is simply evidence that my mask of sanity is starting to slip.  Because if I pause to think about it there's one side that sounds OK but another that sounds utterly terrifying.

The part that sounds OK is that I've learned a bit of a niche skill that takes place at all academic medical centers in the US.  That's not a terrible place to be.  There are dozens of them, and they all need folks that know this little world of stuff that I do.

On the other hand, I ended up randomly in a city 1,000 miles from where I'm from, and I have no connections in the city I'm in outside of my current institution.  If I got kicked to the curb I have absolutely no idea how I'd handle it beyond just blindly send letters nationwide to the folks that do this thing.  

Considering the ongoing rate of mergers among hospitals, you should always have a contingency plan for redundancy.  Niche skills in a sector that continues to grow in aggregate is a big positive, but niche roles mean that there are fewer of them in any given city.  It’s not so bad though: every major town has a hospital and cities have several.  You’ll have options.  In my industry most of the good roles are in a very small number of very expensive cities: NYC, SF and Boston.

Just make sure you have an idea of how you would network toward another job if you needed one: your postgrad program, a good recruiter, former colleagues who’ve gone elsewhere, people you meet at industry conferences, etc.  No need to be paranoid about it like a doomer with a go-bag constantly to hand and a bunker hidden in the hills, but mentally rehearse how you would go about it.  Better to do it before you are stressed and overwhelmed, and you can take some steps now to fill any gaps in your plan.

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3 minutes ago, Triskele said:

Thank you so much for your feedback.  I think that the particulars of my situation probably do insulate me from the hospital merger phenomenon (which is real).  I'm more precisely at the medical school connected to the hospital which is the research hub, and everything I've seen suggests that these med schools are silos even if they're connected in certain ways to the university hospitals.  

Good situation to be in. 

At most hospitals now the doctors and nurses are pretty safe but the admin function know they’ll be at risk from any consolidation of shared services in a merger or just an operating partnership to reduce costs.

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Held off sharing this widely until all my checks and vetting were done but as its finally all sorted, i am set to begin my job as a paralegal at the beginning of July :) Yes, its only temporary (I’ll be assigned to a specific project and work until its complete, minimum of 6 weeks, likely longer) and yes its the less “prestigious” position of paralegal (as my dissertation supervisor says, all the work of a solicitor, none of the prestige or glory) but I’m honestly just riding a real high from getting this job. Its a foot in the door, and valuable experience for future applications. 

It may not sound like much, but its a big deal to me! :) 

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On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 8:02 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

Held off sharing this widely until all my checks and vetting were done but as its finally all sorted, i am set to begin my job as a paralegal at the beginning of July :) Yes, its only temporary (I’ll be assigned to a specific project and work until its complete, minimum of 6 weeks, likely longer) and yes its the less “prestigious” position of paralegal (as my dissertation supervisor says, all the work of a solicitor, none of the prestige or glory) but I’m honestly just riding a real high from getting this job. Its a foot in the door, and valuable experience for future applications. 

It may not sound like much, but its a big deal to me! :) 

It IS a big deal.  A foot in the door is the first step!

Dress for the position you WANT, also, not the position you currently have.  When people start mistaking you for the solicitor, it'll plant some seeds.

Gawds, feet, seeds, plants - what the HELL am I talking about.  I hope you get my gist.

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I've changed companies recently. It wasn't working out at my previous job. The project was in complete chaos, it became apparent that things are not going to change and I kept losing all the motivation to work there. Had a sit down with the bosses, we went through everything and decided it would be best to go our separate ways.

Took a month off to go through some stuff I wanted to work on but couldn't at my previous job, got a new job, spent another month with my wife and daughter before I start my new job next Monday.

At my new job I'll be working on that stuff I couldn't work on previously, offices will be closer to my home, it pays better, I'll have more vacation days and, most importantly, I will be moving on from that insanely chaotic project. Hopefully, it turns out to be as good as it sounds.

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3 hours ago, baxus said:

I've changed companies recently. It wasn't working out at my previous job. The project was in complete chaos, it became apparent that things are not going to change and I kept losing all the motivation to work there. Had a sit down with the bosses, we went through everything and decided it would be best to go our separate ways.

Took a month off to go through some stuff I wanted to work on but couldn't at my previous job, got a new job, spent another month with my wife and daughter before I start my new job next Monday.

At my new job I'll be working on that stuff I couldn't work on previously, offices will be closer to my home, it pays better, I'll have more vacation days and, most importantly, I will be moving on from that insanely chaotic project. Hopefully, it turns out to be as good as it sounds.

Best of luck Baxus, it sounds like a good move. 

It’s really hard to make a decision to leave just when a new baby is triggering your paternal instinct to ensure a stable financial/provider situation.  I’m glad you were able to go through that transition, and get some extra time at home.

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I'm still in limbo on my new job across the pond. Been in limbo for roughly 7 months. Part of it is my fault by asking for more money than was originally set aside for the role (they had to create a new role with bigger responsibilities to up the pay grade) and part of it is the idiotic bureaucracy of a big bank (to create a new role, they need to finalize a massive organizational change that they're not ready to implement). We're trying to get past the latter part by getting specific approval to hire me prior to org change but who knows. I'm tired. I hate this uncertainty.

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Started a new role in my company this week.  I've been in the same area for 5 years and am looking to get promoted, so I got put on a new team to do some front-end web development.  I've been doing it as a side project for the last couple years or so, but this will be the first time I'll be developing enterprise level web apps at the scale required for a Fortune 50 company.  Much different than the back-end stuff I've been doing most of my career with a lot of visibility at the Director/VP/CIO level.

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22 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

Best of luck Baxus, it sounds like a good move. 

It’s really hard to make a decision to leave just when a new baby is triggering your paternal instinct to ensure a stable financial/provider situation.  I’m glad you were able to go through that transition, and get some extra time at home.

Thanks, Isk. I hope that it does turn out to be as good a move as it sounds.

To be honest, transitions are not that difficult for me, since I make them quite often. It's good that I'm in software development and I have an option to relatively easily change jobs.

My paternal instincts were triggered that's for sure, but I figured that it's better to come home from work happy and playing with mu kid than coming home frustrated and snapping at everyone.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think I'm going to have to do some rate/days/conditions bargaining on a consulting gig tomorrow, and obviously I'm stressing out about it - its a (very, very) large international organization that this would be my 4th contract for over the past almost-two-years, and my rate is still the same one I had as an MA student when I started. Asking around a bit, I seem to be on the low side, and also I've generally been very accommodating (probably too much) with letting projects accumulate more and more work onto the initial contract.

I'd probably let it keep sliding for the moment - its still more than anyone else has ever paid me for anything and the flexibility is a godsend vis a vis the PhD, plus its related work I get data, travel and connections out of towards research - but this new gig seems like its going to be on a somewhat bigger scale. If I get enough days to do it properly, its also probably going to too many days to be able to teach - not to mention fit within my student visa status - that semester. Since my university tuition is tied to teaching for that term, I would need to officially take a leave - so I need this project to either be rather trivial, so only a handful of days and minimal travel so that I can stay and teach, or to be such a big deal that it justifies taking the semester off. I'm worried its probably going to be right in an inbetween zone where I couldn't teach, but also wouldn't add up to enough to, like, pay my rent.

(And then a whole bunch of where to go and live and pay tax and get healthcare stuff kicks in, since if i'm on leave, I can't physically be in California. Which is sort of exciting but also nervewracking. Simplest might be just to be based in Israel - no visas plus fairly close - but there are more potentially interesting possibilities too, in the US or in Africa.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is hot and need advice:

Job searching has been slowed due to lack of reponses from applications.  It happens.  Today though, was contacted for a phone screen for a very desirable poisition thatvwould het me back into hotels.

The screen call went well, but now I have to do a short personality survey and give 5 personal/professional references. Two have to be current or previous managers/bosses.  

My conumdrum is: I don't have much contact with many old bosses. One I'd like to use is still with my company, though somewhere else now.  I think I can trust her pretty well to not blab to my current bosses, because I can't use my current boss as a reference as she's the one I want to escape.  Otherwise, I have some very very limited linked in contact with one old GM from back in day, but not really any others.  Some of my old directors?  No idea where they landed when they left the company.  One possible source wasn't truly a boss, but was more my client counterpart. But I haven't spoken to him in three years since we the company I'm at now wasn't renewed contractually. 

I'm at a loss what to do, as this could be a supremely excellent opportunity if I advance in the process.  

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I had my second phone screen in 10 years today. The first was in the fall last year. In both cases I tanked it. I mean, I do not expect to get called in for on-site interviews for this one unless my resume wins out [spoiler - it surely won't]. I'm so mad at myself but also I was far too self conscious about not having direct experience in this particular industry. Also I hate phone screens. I'm on speaker phone with who knows who else is in the room. No social or facial queues. <sigh> I prepped too but the questioning format wasn't asking questions about my resume or experience. Instead it was 'go through our job posting and tell me how you meet the requirements' and I just choked.

 

Ah well. 

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20 hours ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

This is hot and need advice:

Job searching has been slowed due to lack of reponses from applications.  It happens.  Today though, was contacted for a phone screen for a very desirable poisition thatvwould het me back into hotels.

The screen call went well, but now I have to do a short personality survey and give 5 personal/professional references. Two have to be current or previous managers/bosses.  

My conumdrum is: I don't have much contact with many old bosses. One I'd like to use is still with my company, though somewhere else now.  I think I can trust her pretty well to not blab to my current bosses, because I can't use my current boss as a reference as she's the one I want to escape.  Otherwise, I have some very very limited linked in contact with one old GM from back in day, but not really any others.  Some of my old directors?  No idea where they landed when they left the company.  One possible source wasn't truly a boss, but was more my client counterpart. But I haven't spoken to him in three years since we the company I'm at now wasn't renewed contractually. 

I'm at a loss what to do, as this could be a supremely excellent opportunity if I advance in the process.  

5 references seems a lot. Or is that just my lack of experience showing?

That does seem a big ask though, how many people retain contact with old bosses? Can you not reach out to the companies you previously worked for and get a contact who could give a reference?

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Ugh, same old same old. I still hate my job. I still desperately want to do something else. I still have absolutely no idea what, or how to find out, or even where to start looking. I'm sick of feeling useless, and spending 90% of my time on pointless bureaucratic box-ticking.

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Couldn't find the old PhD thread we had floating around, and grad school is my job right now so posting here:

I had my candidacy exam yesterday and passed! This means I am officially a PhD candidate and now only about 3-4 more years away from getting my PhD. :lol: This is not a fast process by any means. I also had my first paper accepted last month, and I have another one that my advisor is going through right now to see if we can submit it in the next month or two. I absolutely am loving my program and my research and being a PhD student! Still have zero clue if I want to try to stay in academia or not, but at least I don't have to decide that *quite* yet.

I also applied for a part-time, distance fellowship in science communication. They're expecting to announce the fellow in August, so trying not to think about it for now. I'm interested in scicomm as a potential career path, so this would be a great opportunity for me to both gain experience and help figure out if it is something I want to pursue more. They extended the application deadline for 10 days, after I submitted, so I'm convinced they've seen my application and decided they still needed more anyway, so I'm not too hopeful. It was good to put myself out there, at least! And my advisor (who had to sign off on my application) was super supportive and not at all upset that he might be losing part of my time to do research.

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8 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

5 references seems a lot. Or is that just my lack of experience showing?

That does seem a big ask though, how many people retain contact with old bosses? Can you not reach out to the companies you previously worked for and get a contact who could give a reference?

5 is a lot. This is a senior level managment position though, so I guess it makes some sense.  

I don't talk to many old bosses, and some are just off the map these days. I mean, LinkedIn, but that isn't something I actively communicate with people on much.  

Took a stab with some people in my sphere. My one old boss, who is still with the same company I am with, sent something in for me right away. So there is that. Plus I can trust her to not tell my current bosses. 

Hopefully, I can make it to the next round. 

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56 minutes ago, Starkess said:

I had my candidacy exam yesterday and passed! This means I am officially a PhD candidate and now only about 3-4 more years away from getting my PhD. :lol:

I'm not sure what discipline you're in, but so basically you mean you're now what my guys call "ABD" (all but dissertation)?  Congrats!

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1 hour ago, Starkess said:

I had my candidacy exam yesterday and passed! This means I am officially a PhD candidate and now only about 3-4 more years away from getting my PhD. :lol: This is not a fast process by any means. I also had my first paper accepted last month, and I have another one that my advisor is going through right now to see if we can submit it in the next month or two. I absolutely am loving my program and my research and being a PhD student! Still have zero clue if I want to try to stay in academia or not, but at least I don't have to decide that *quite* yet.

Congratulations! If you already have a paper, with luck you might be able to do it in 2-3 years rather than 3-4. :cheers:

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3 hours ago, Starkess said:

Couldn't find the old PhD thread we had floating around, and grad school is my job right now so posting here:

I had my candidacy exam yesterday and passed! This means I am officially a PhD candidate and now only about 3-4 more years away from getting my PhD. :lol: This is not a fast process by any means. I also had my first paper accepted last month, and I have another one that my advisor is going through right now to see if we can submit it in the next month or two. I absolutely am loving my program and my research and being a PhD student! Still have zero clue if I want to try to stay in academia or not, but at least I don't have to decide that *quite* yet.

Congrats! Woot!

(And fingers crossed for the fellowship!)

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