I have had me a day. Not good, not bad, not great, not horrible, just a day. Today is the day that I had to go down to a place called workforce one to look into getting a new career. There were about 20 of us in the room, either looking for additional training or a whole new career, like I was.
A viddy from a few weeks ago on Unemployment numbers. The important point here, I think, is made by Richard Amarone at the 4:00 - 5:05 mark. The last ten seconds are good as well.
I went down, and they didn’t really help me look for a job, they gave me the resources and let me look for myself. I was pretty happy about that, though. I didn’t want the unwanted pressure of someone looking over my shoulder trying to “help” me decide what to do with my life. That would not have turned out well. They happily left me alone. The only problem with that, and it is a minor one, is that I can’t really make up my mind what kind of training I want to go and get.
We were handed a list of jobs we could train for that were in demand and we were told that the city would pay for training in any of them, to an extant, up to I believe 3,800 if it is a “tier 3 job”. We were instructed to go to a few different websites to look for job openings to prove that there are viable openings in that particular field. I saw a few that interested me, and a number that i knew I would never take.
There are a few of the jobs that were listed that are no longer available. No job in the list is easy either, but the ones that were supposed to be there but weren’t paid well, somewhat better than the ones I was looking at afterwards. Know now that I have no experience at any of these jobs, but the training provided would go a long way to getting me in the door in any of these careers. You can call this the three reasons I am unhappy about today.
Elevator Installation/Repair, Tile and Marble Setters, and Brickmasons. Each of these jobs paid at least $18.00 to start, and the Elevator I/E job paid $24 per hour to start, and paid quite well after a few years on the workforce, but when I went to look for them in the job bank, after having seen them on the printed list the class was handed, the training for them was simply nowhere to be found on the website we were asked to go to the NYC job training guide.
Ah well, the pool is still deep, but they threw me a curveball. See there is this second list they never mentioned, which lists training, by tier and amount of money they are willing to give in a grant. This doesn’t have the three jobs I listed above, but there are jobs listed.
I could go into carpentry, which pays a little less than the pipe-fitters, but not much less. I could become Homer Simpson(D’OH!!!)…well, almost. A Hazardous materials removal worker gets the same as a carpenter…OK a few cents less on average. Work with lead and asbestos and get paid less than you would to work with wood…I dunno. Call it a fallback option. There is Legal assistant.
I know i said i would die shoveling shit before I went back to the office, but the pay isn’t half bad. Now, legal assistants get less than Paralegals, and since they are lumped together when talking about average salary, it muddles the numbers. Call that a fall WAY back option.
There is pharmacy technician, basically the pharmacists assistant, doesn’t pay as well as any of these, but it is available. There is electrician…, not too sure about that. There are already several of those in the family, no need for another, much as it would be nice to work in that field….Ya know, I shouldn’t look down my nose at any work, if it’s there and it looks good, why not?
There are several that I have yet to fully vet at this point, like General maintenance, fitness instructor (me, the runner, get PAID to sweat? Hmmmm…. that gets a serious think). I was unhappy that there were no real “green jobs” in the list. I’ll ask over at workforce one when I e-mail them tomorrow.
Right now it looks like it will boil down to Carpenter, Fitness Instructor (sweat=love=money?), Legal assistant, electrician, or Hazmat removal(D’OH). That may change, depending on how likely it looks that I will actually get the grant to do the training in any of these fields.
Second viddy, how to use a tap and die set, not entertaining, but today’s blog is about work, so why not toss a work viddy?
Wish me luck! Catch ya later!
Today’s Nuggets, Via Wikiquote: I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein
There’s a time when you have to separate yourself from what other people expect of you, and do what you love. Because if you find yourself 50 years old and you aren’t doing what you love, then what’s the point? Jim Carrey
We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Natures inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. Thomas Edison, 1931
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