Regrets...

One of the things I most regret while chugging through my quest for employment is education, or lack thereof.  I'm not from a well-to-do family, my parents always struggled while we were growing up.  College savings?  We were lucky to come home from school and still have power, money for college was a pipe dream.  I was always a middle of the road student, certainly not straight A's, but rather a mix of A's, B's with the occasional C thrown in for good measure (i.e. Chemistry...ugh.).  I never thought of college, after all, where was the money going to come from?  Scholarships?  Nah, there were 100 other classmates that were geniuses and swallowed up the available scholarships.  In those days there was no internet, and the thought of sitting in the guidance office shuffling through paperwork hunting for a couple hundred bucks scholarship was not my idea of a fun after school activity.  I just resigned myself to the fact that I was to work straight out of school, and get my education the way my parents did....on the job.

I had expressed some interest in college, but when my chosen path was shot down by my mother as "impractical", I threw in the towel.  Design wasn't something she thought was going to help me in life, or payback any student loans, so I gave up.  If I couldn't pursue something I was truly interested in, I may as well continue on with my grand plan of finding something local that would get my foot in the door and stick with that.  I don't like change, especially changing jobs.  So the mother figure shocks me and suggests I apply to the local community college.  At least it's something, she says.  So I did, and you know what?   I was a rock star in college.  No, not "Animal House" rock star, but I really understood what it was that I was learning.  I studied Office Management, a 2 year program, and earned my Associates Degree with a 3.9 gpa.  I learned that accounting is fun (twisted, I know), programming was fascinating, and presentations?  OMGEEEE!!  Presentations were a blast!!  Not only did I rock my 2 years in college, I did better than in my 12 years in public school.  I "got" it.  The best part?  I was working at the company for my entire second year, as a temp, but I already had my foot in the door so to speak.  They worked around my course schedule, easy to do given I was working in the records area and could easily put in a full day of course work followed by a near all-nighter amongst the files.  It was perfect.

And here is where the regrets come in.  While I have a degree, it is now 15 years old.  My degree is accentuated my 13+ years of hard experience, but not good enough for today's job postings.  It's heartbreaking to see an opening like this: 

"Administrative Assistant wanted!  $11.00\hr, Bachelor's degree required."

Not preferred, required.  As in, "don't bother applying, we'll see you don't have those extra 2 years and will toss you in the shredder faster than you can say unemployment isn't going to pay you forever" required.  Who knew that you needed a Bachelor's degree to remove a jam from a photocopier?  Or answer the phone?  Or run a report in Excel?  I think mom would be disappointed if she forked over $100k in tuition for me to make $11\hr.  Suddenly, Design sounds more appealing to her.

Another regret?   Not taking advantage of the company's education benefit.  They pay a certain amount of your tuition if you are a full time employee.  My first two years of employment were spent planning a wedding and getting divorced.  The next two years were spent working out the bugs from that divorce, meeting my wonderful new husband, and birthing my first child.  Work full time and go back to school?  Yeah, I didn't think so.  Work and home kept me so busy that finding time to add to my education was impossible.  I always thought I would eventually do it, but then baby #2 came along and seriously?  It was not going to happen.  Why start now?  I have a stable job, with a stable company and earning enough to get by.  Education...back seat please.

When looking at the job postings in my area, narrowing down the fields into Accounting, Administrative\Office Support, Insurance and Customer Service, you generally get a grand total of 75 openings within a 25 mile radius of my homestead.  Weed out the healthcare based administrative jobs (most require RN designation or prior experience in healthcare setting, even for simple reception or appointment scheduling positions), Bachelor's degree or state licensing required, managerial experience needed and sketchy fly-by-night call centers, that usually leaves 12-13 jobs left to choose from.  Break those down further by removing any openings with the company and it's in the 9-10 ballpark.  Not good odds. 

With college graduations looming, I may as well burn my resume.  The heat will come in handy in warming up my van down by the river.