First and foremost thank you for taking the time to read my post. This is a throwaway account, but I've been a redditor for years.
As the title states, I am turning 32 on the 31st, I am unemployed and was let go from my 1099 part time contractor job. Anyways I have $400 in the bank and $18k in debt. I have enough money set aside to cover my food and rent for April, but nothing else. So I will have to use my credit cards because I can’t collect unemployment.
Over the past 7 years I've been a paralegal for 5 and a Starbucks barista for 1.5 and an Accounts Payable Clerk/AutoCad Drafter for 51 weeks. From March 2016 until November 2017 I worked 2 jobs in order to bring down my debt. Which I did but not enough since I was making $9 an hour at Starbucks and $12 at my accounts payable job. So in November my '"friend" whom hired me to help out in his Custom Home Building company let me know he would bring me on full time in 2017 and give me a raise, so in the interest of having a personal life and ramp up my dating I quit Starbucks. The 7 day work schedule was hindering my life. As most redditors I am an introvert, so it’s not always easy networking and socializing but my work ethic is what has helped me thru out my life. This work ethic is what got me my Accounts Payable/CAD job and Barista of the quarter 6 months into my barista job. In 2008 before the recession hit I worked for the "friend" at major home builder and he reached out to me early 2016 for lunch we caught up and I updated him on my life. At that point I was only working at Starbucks and working towards my elusive Architecture degree so I was taking classes at the local community college on anything that would give me a leg up on the other applicants to the Architecture program. He was excited to hear that I was familiar in AutoCad so he offered me a job. Normally I would not have taken the job because I promised myself that I was living broke working at Starbucks in order to obtain my elusive degree. But the opportunity to learn firsthand how to run a business while putting my dormant Auto Cad skills to work and learning how to properly draw plans were very enticing so I took the job. I learned a little but he never really lived up to his promise, I never got to design homes for him or learn the ins and outs of the business. I was always given administrative projects to complete and kept in the office, doing menial office work. I was learning a little but was patient since I was bumped up to $15 an hour beginning on 2017. In my mind I took it as a sacrifice I would make less money but have a stable job where I would eventually get to do and learn what I was promised and in 6 years I could apply to get a Design Seal and skip Architecture school. But it wasn’t so. On Friday March 24th I was let go. Apparently he was underbidding homes by $30k and could not afford to keep me around. What really irks me is that I was completely blindsided. I passed on the opportunity in February to apply for the Fall semester of Architecture school because I intended to become a residential designer without the degree. Now I have to wait another year to apply, if I apply and get accepted. So I am at that point where I would like your direct and honest advice. I don’t have kids, a GF and only own my car. I’m dating this Woman whom I think is the one so I don’t want to lose my opportunity with her because I can’t afford to care for myself and or date her, before I got fired I asked her out on date #3 and she agreed. So I find myself asking if I should throw the towel on my dreams of becoming an Architect and owning my own home building business one day. And fall in line with a Blue Collar job which I’ve never done or keep trying at what I continue to fail at.
I actually tried to look for Blue Collar job this morning at refineries because they make ok money as an entry job. But even there I could not find any leads and you need OSHA certifications and TWIC cards to work for those kinda jobs which I don’t have. I really need to find a job urgently so I can afford to live but I can’t go back to Starbucks, it’s so demoralizing and humiliating to have to crawl back and I wouldn’t be able to afford my expenses if I worked there. I would be in the Red by $200 each month and make no progress towards my debt. My Main goal now is to pay off my debt and stock up enough money to help me thru any future blindsides like the one I’m living thru now. But I so badly want to get a degree in Architecture but at the same time I need to have a job that pays me a livable wage so I can afford to be alive. I am familiar with AutoCad but I am entirely unfamiliar with entry positions in that field and what they require that you know and understand. I don’t want to apply for a job that once hired I don’t know how to do. I can’t go back to being a paralegal, it was highly detrimental to my health, I barely dodged high blood pressure and my hair is finally growing back and stopped falling out.
Is it time to throw in the towel and just start from the bottom again in the Blue Collar field? I feel to old to try and keep chasing my Architecture dream, but it really sadness and angers me that I might have to give it up.
Submitted March 28, 2017 at 06:38PM by 3rdCoastTXToast http://ift.tt/2ny5zbQ
