This is more of a personal post today, but I don’t mind sharing it and hopefully you’ll find it worth your while…
Thursday was my last day of work at the job I had for two years. As some of you may remember, I started working part-time for the local YMCA as an enrichment teacher in September 2009, with my subjects being Japanese and anime. After the enrichment gig was over in June 2010, I continued working for the YMCA as a childcare aid at one of their elementary school sites. I was never thrilled with the job as an aid, but it was okay and certainly better than nothing.
There were a few reasons why I decided to quit, the main one being that the wonderful director at the site I worked for was quitting due to getting a better job, and I know the site would fall into chaos until they got a new director. Having to deal with the bedlam that would ensue, and not knowing how long it would last and whether the new director would be any good, would be more stress than I’m willing to bear. Another reason is that my already meager hours would be even less in the coming school year due to the YMCA eliminating split shifts. These and a few other reasons not worth mentioning are why I felt it was time for me to move on. But even if these things didn’t happen, I never intended to stay in the education/childcare field to begin with and eventually I need to find a job where I can earn more than just enough to pay one bill.
But rather than frantically rush into searching for a new job, I’m taking a bit of an overdue vacation. The most vacation time I’ve had in the past two years is a few 3-4 day weekends each year. Luckily I can afford to take some time off now before I’ll have to start the job hunt again. I don’t want to be a bum for too long of course, but an extended period of time where I don’t have to stress about work is what I need right now. I plan to use this vacation time not just to relax with anime and games, but to do more important things I didn’t get around to when I was working such as dieting (nothing intense but I really need to lose some pounds!), rewriting my resume, having more Japanese self-study sessions, and possibly giving up my animeyume.com domain name and moving Mainichi Anime Yume to a free server (if it’s able to be done without an exhausting amount of work). I also plan to do other self-improvements like getting a physical and going to the eye doctor (it’s been too long) and maybe taking driving lessons on the freeway since I never learned to drive on them and they’re vital in finding good jobs in the Los Angeles area.
My main concern though is exactly what kind of job I’ll be able to get when I do start looking again. I got my B.A. in East Asian studies (emphasis on Japan/Japanese) because that’s what I love. But obviously there are very few jobs, at least in my area, that require skills in such a field. I don’t know enough Japanese to be a professional translator, so that pretty much eliminates whatever jobs are available for that major. When I graduated, I thought I would be an English teacher in Japan via programs like JET or AEON. But after I didn’t get accepted into JET, I realized that I’m not ready for being on my own in a foreign country for a long period of time yet, mostly because my mom is starting to feel her age and she doesn’t have anyone besides me to help her out with things. Sometimes I feel like I should have picked a major that would be more useful even if it’s not my favorite field of study. I’m not good at jobs involving sales and a lot of customer service, nor do I have a head for finance and business. So unfortunately my options for jobs are limited.
However, I’m trying not to be pessimistic. There are some jobs I’m willing and able to do – perhaps working in an office environment where I can put my slightly above average computer skills to work. Or really, any job I’m able to do and don’t hate. My life’s in a bit of a limbo now but I know it won’t stay like this forever. Actually, so many people I know are experiencing major events and changes in their life right now. Maybe there’s been something in the stars lately?
Anyway, as for now I’m going to enjoy my self-appointed vacation and continue making new blog posts once or twice a week. If you’ve taken the time to read my personal rambling here, thank you. I’ll be back with an anime-related topic next time ;)
It’s definitely a good thing to take a nice vacation once in a while. Especially at the rate you seem to have been going at.
It would be sad to see the main site go.
Did you minor in anything?
Whatever happens, I hope that you have a nice break and hope that you manage to find a new job soon!
Thanks for the encouragement!
Getting rid of the main site, or even my animeyume.com domain name, are still things I’m not sure I’ll do. It depends on how much time and work would be involved and if the blog and site would be able to be the way they are now if I did move them after nine years ~_^ It would be nice to not have that monthly bill but we’ll have to see.
I didn’t minor in anything. The only skills I have (besides general things like being organized, punctual, responsible, etc) are advanced Japanese and computer skills that are slightly above average. And I guess I’m pretty good at reading/writing English =P Of course I have great knowledge of anime but that’s not a very useful skill for the real world XD
Its possible to move to WordPress.com by exporting the XML and reimporting them. Be aware that using a domain name costs $12 per year and it costs extra if you need more space than 3 GB ($15 a year for 5 GB extra) . Providing the age of the blog, the images may be over 3 GB. Also, know the limitations since you won’t be able to customize the theme without plunking extra money down…
The best possible option may be is looking for cheaper hosting. Probably check out Hostgator as their prices are slightly cheaper than what you are currently paying.
Anyways, good luck in your search for a job… the job market is pretty rough at the moment. :/
Forgot to mention, you may also want to check out AnimeBlogger.net as they will be doing hosting too.
I pay $20 a month for 10GB of space and 400GB of monthly bandwidth for the blog and main site combined. What I had in mind is possibly moving the blog to WordPress.com instead of WordPress.org (which it’s currently on) because WordPress.com is free. But even if that would be possible, all of the images and other things on the blog are hosted on my animeyume.com domain name. I would have to manually change the URLs for every image on the blog, which is more work than I’d want to do =/ It’ll probably be too tricky to make the move without substantial work involved.
You could do a find and replace, which would help, or even use a python script, once you export the XML file. What I mainly do on my blog is use relative links, instead of full. The images will all appear, when reading the full post, but do not work on front pages that have multiple pages, as only the first page will display images. As you are thinking of going to wordpress.com, it should be a bit easy to convert image tags over to relative addresses.
Yikes, thats very expensive hosting… but I think moving to cheaper shared hosting would be less of a hassle than moving everything to WordPress.com. Even if you move the domain name to point to the WordPress.com blog, there will be a lot of broken URLs to posts (on Anime Nano/Google Reader) and everyone would have to resubscribe since the blog will be at the root address (not /blog). Moving to another host would be easier since you can just reupload the files and restore the database on the new host.
If you decide to move to WordPress.com, you need to transfer the domain to another registar. Namecheap or Godaddy are some of the popular ones and make sure to auto renew. Afterwards, get the domain mapping upgrade and set the name servers. If you decide to go that route, check the size of the /wp-content/upload directory.
The best decision I ever made in my life was to work at the YMCA. It’s my third year and this was my first as a director at the local YMCA Camp Sloper. I’ve honestly improved my life in so many ways. I’m better at speaking to groups, more organized, and way more socialable. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I can’t wait till next summer….in the meantime, I’ll be working at school programs and enjoying that.
Good luck with finding a new job and all that as well. The pay is indeed pretty low for anyone working at a YMCA.
Cool, I didn’t know you worked for the YMCA too! Small world =D
I’m glad to hear working for the Y had a positive effect on you. My time there was certainly valuable experience, mostly because I had no prior experience with children before. I would say the job helped make me more sociable too. But ultimately working with kids and families just isn’t my cup of tea (plus I need to earn more money too =P)
You’re brave for making this decision. :) And it’s always good to get some time to yourself! It’s much easier when you’re at school or university because they give you allocated holiday slots, so you don’t have a choice BUT to go on holiday, but I imagine it would be much harder once you’re working full-time.
As for the kind of jobs you could do – I know you don’t think you can do sales jobs, but they are actually not that hard as long as you plaster a smile on your face and have something flattering to say about every customer. I don’t mean the very competitive sales jobs where your salary depends on how much you sell (those are stress-inducing) but if you can find something more relaxed, it would be a great notch on your resume. Also, have you considered working in the food industry?
Good luck, and all the best!
Thanks!
Boy do I miss those school days when I had all of summer off =P And my university was on the quarter system so if you weren’t taking summer courses you had practically all of June through all of September off!
I worked as a clerk/cashier at a Hallmark store several years ago. Sales were involved but it was just helping and being friendly with customers, which I can do. I earned minimum wage there though – the high paying sales jobs often involve being “aggressive” with selling products to the point of pestering people, which is something I can’t do.
By “food industry” do you mean cooking? If so then that’s the least likely job for me since I don’t know how to cook anything. My mom is the one who cooks, I use the microwave ^^,,,
Well I was thinking more waitressing or helping prepare food in a cafe, but now that I think about it waiters & waitresses don’t get treated particularly well, so maybe that’s a bad idea lol.
Having a degree and experience can go a long way, but definitely work on your resume. Also, the driving would definitely help. I have no idea how you’d survive in Cali without freeway ability. Hope things look up for you soon!
Thanks for the support~
My main reason for never learning to drive on the freeways is that my mom hates driving on them so she was never able to teach me. I never needed to drive on the freeways for school and work either (my jobs were always local) so I just never got around to it. But yeah, if I want to open up more job opportunities for myself, and be able to leave my hometown without having to get a ride from someone, driving on the freeways are a must!
it’s really great and brave of you that you chose a major of your interest :)
personally, I sometimes feel like chef school or culinary school would have been “fun”…cuz I really love baking and making food. But I ended up in engineering LOL and I convince myself that all the work is worth it and that I’m not falling asleep in lectures >_<
Even if engineering isn’t your favorite thing, there’s definitely jobs out there for it. There are jobs for culinary skills too though maybe not as many. Jobs for an East Asian studies major however are extremely rare =/ Having a B.A. is good on its own so I’ll just have to emphasize my other skills for now.
It’s important to take a vacation to yourself, you can use it to regroup and make goals as you look for a new job. I’m sorta in the same boat as you, though I’m still doing some classes until I decide what to do next.
Best of luck with your search and vacation time!
Thanks, and good luck with your classes! =D
All the best for your new adventure :) I haven’t been replying to your blog for months, but I keep reading all your posts through RSS reader.
Please keep up the good articles, and if you have time, watch some good old shounen sport anime (like Major). Those might help you motivate yourself.
Hey, long time no see =) Glad to hear you still read my posts even if you don’t comment as often as you used to.
And thanks for the encouragement!
Enjoy your vacation! Vacations are good to clear your head as well :)
Regarding jobs, the only thing I can say is that you never know what you are really good at, or going to like, until you try it. You tried childcare and found out it was not really your field. So just like with everything, you’ll probably have to go through a few jobs to find something you like. So try a few out over the next couple of years.
Over the 17 years I’ve been working, I started in customer service (phone technical support), moved to 2nd level, then manager of a team, then tried another company down as technical support (but more complex), then supervisor, then moved to a 3rd company where all my experience helped and I now work at IT. I have a job I like (pretty technically complex), good schedule, and great salary. Oh, and I have no university degrees :P
So try things out, give it your best. And remember that your attitude is your best resume. As a manager I did not really care too much about educational background. I prefer to hire people that are willing to learn, and have a positive attitude, and are reasonable people. And I have found that to be the best assets as a worker as well. This does not mean that you have to work 20 hours a day either. I always work my regular shift, but give it my best every time.
Anyway, good luck in the job hunting, and do not be afraid to try out a few things! You never know what you may like or not in the end :)
Thanks, I’m certainly willing to try different career paths. I actually did attend a lecture/interview about jobs in insurance but that’s definitely not for me. Like I said in the post, high pressured sales jobs would kill me XP Technician type jobs sound good but unfortunately a lot of employers want you to already have experience and/or have a certain degree.
It’s great that you did well for yourself with your current job. It sounds like you had the opportunity to “move up the corporate ladder” until you reached the good job you have now =) Working for a company where you’re able to get promoted and earn more for being a good employee is great. If I can find a job like that that isn’t too pressured and doesn’t require certain experience, I would give it a go too.
Have you considered further studies? Maybe a degree in another field might be what you need to open some doors.
Yes, I’m slightly considering going back to school, probably to a college where they teach specific skills and you can graduate quickly. It would just have to be cheap (no job=broke) and not terribly far from where I live. But yeah, it’s definitely another option.
As far as I’m aware, as long as your resume is suitably padded, the important part is that you HAVE a degree, not necessarily what field it’s in. I read something somewhere about how a fairly large number of people have jobs unrelated to their major. Good luck with your resume!
As for driving… be careful with that! LA freeways always kill me. I’m so glad I was out of state during “carmageddon” a few weeks (months?) ago, haha. Enjoy your vacation!
I’ve also heard that any degree is fine for a lot of employers. It’s just a matter of finding those employers and seeing if they have the job that’s right for you =) Most of the jobs I’ve seen while looking online require either a degree in a certain field, or more likely, prior experience in a certain field. There are much fewer jobs that don’t require prior experience or a certain degree. Just gotta keep on looking!
LOL, I can’t believe how blown out of proportion “carmageddon” was. It didn’t affect me since I didn’t have to drive on the freeway then but darn were people acting like it was the end of the world XD People need to get their priorities straight.
I’m in unemployment limbo myself, but after a summer break I’m simply back at school now. So unlike you, I am not too deserving of a vacation anytime soon. It’s really important to have some time to really think things over and get what you’ve always wanted to done.
3 out of 4 people in my immediate family work at the YMCA. It’s sort of weird how it is becoming the “family business”….I wouldn’t really like to work there because those 3 out 4 people always seem to be complaining about it (it always depends on which one you’re working at of course). I’m starting to get desperate for money, but as someone already mentioned the pay there is quite low for anyone…I also agree with you that I don’t really mind where I work as long as I don’t hate it.
Anyway, I wish you all the luck on your new endeavors!
Thanks for encouragement!
Oh wow, what a coincidence that you also know people who work for the YMCA. Either it’s getting more common or people are desperate for jobs (probably the latter). But yeah, unless you have one of the “higher up” jobs in the Y you won’t be earning much. I would only recommend it to someone if they love working with kids and families.
Yes, I would be happy to have a job in any field as long as I don’t hate it and it earns enough for me to live comfortably. It’s just getting harder and harder to find something like that =/
You might want to consider a federal job. Most are in office settings and many are good fits for liberal arts-type majors. I’ve worked as a state employee for years, but was offered a very cool federal job (which I eventually turned down) because of my work in analysis and writing. I think people often overlook the possibilities of great jobs in the FBI, ATF, IRS and other agencies that aren’t directly related the occupations we generally associate with those organizations. Additionally, your language and educational backgrounds may be well-suited for and attractive to some of those employers.
Good luck with whatever path you try to take and with all your other plans in the coming days!
Thanks for the supportive words!
Hmm, I’ve never thought about those kinds of jobs. But sure, if they’re something I’m able to do without a certain degree or experience, I’d definitely give them a try. And if I enjoy them, that would be perfect =) I’ll take a look into federal jobs.
How neat…I was going to be an English teacher in Japan, too. Your blog is fascinating and always so lighthearted, I really enjoy it. :) (Sorry to be talking about myself so much!) It’s great that you’re finally getting a vacation and can relax a bit. You said you learn Japanese through self-study; have you ever searched for foreign language schools where you are? I’d be surprised if there aren’t any, because of where you live; though I’m sure you’ve already searched. I’m learning Japanese through self-study as well, but recently found a place that has Japanese classes…and I currently live in a small town, so I was pleasantly surprised. ^_^
Anyway…
I wish you success in whatever path you choose. (I don’t believe in luck;) Keep up the good work and bright personality.
Thanks for the kind words!
I didn’t learn Japanese through self-study alone. I majored in it for five years at college, first at junior college and then at a university. I took it up to the end of Advanced level and I’ve also spent about seven weeks in Japan over the course of two trips. But yeah, since I graduated self-study is all I have.
I actually did look for Japanese schools in my area but the closest one is a bit far and only goes up to Intermediate level anyway.
I hope you enjoy your Japanese classes ^_^
You’re making plenty of large changes, a break is always good at times like those. Definitely don’t let it get the better of you.
I read your blog a lot but rarely comment. I also follow the Otaku Journalist. Anyway, this entry reminded me of one I read a while ago on the Otaku Journalist’s page (about how to get a career that involves your hobbies) http://otakujournalist.com/fan-to-pro-review-and-giveaway/ and here’s the fan to pro link: http://www.fantopro.com/
Hope everything falls into place for you! Love your blog :)
I realize that your future is pretty much none of my business, and that solely reading this blog, I can only get the most superficial idea of what kind of person you are really are. That said, sometimes we follow people online and we find ourselves just really rooting for them to succeed. I don’t know why, but I’m really pulling for you and I hope the next year has you finding some of the answers you’re looking for.
I hope that didn’t come across as too creepy or weird. You’re fairly open with your readers. I appreciate that about you and I’m sure most other people leaving comments here do too. We all want you to make it. Good luck!
Somehow I missed your original post on this…. I am in a very similar situation to you. Lost my job at the end of July and am still looking for new work. I have a degree, and that doesn’t seem to help on its own like everyone seems to think.
As far as the blog, self-hosting works fine. I have done it for a long time with Dreamhost, and the rates have been very reasonable. I have unlimited bandwidth and nearly unlimited storage for like $10/month plus $19/year for the domain registration. The only reason my blog is down right now is, well, the unemployment situation…
Are you ever considering going to Japan in the future, just not right now? There are alternatives to JET for a degreed individual.