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Hi, I've posted before about a piece of the problem I'm bringing forward today, and also here and there about career questions. My life hasn't gotten any better and I'm starting to get hurt because of it (and so is my family) so I really need to change something. I'll try to explain myself concisely, but my issues are long standing - I have been confused about my career for about 10 years now, with this summer being particularly awful. What I'm looking for is any sort of advice about anything I post - just anyway to make my life better. I have a very open mind (which might contribute to my problem), and my career issues exist on many levels I think. Lastly.. I have even started to develop some superstitious beliefs about things because of the incessant problems recently. Basic info: 29yo male, Western Canada, living in a stable relationship with girlfriend, graduated in June with a Master's in Education (counselling psychology) degree lining up to be a registered psychologist because we can do that at this level in my province. Debt: $45,000 in student loans, $18,000 in CC/LoC (mostly used for education...), $20,000 family loan (no interest, except for the crushing guilt). No assets. This is embarrassing.. Expenses: No rent, my girlfriend covers that - she's amazing. Monthly roughly $800 for all bills, gas, and some groceries, but I end up spending all I earn to help out as much as I can. $800 is the minimum requirement. Income: $1000, see below. 2015 has been a year of waiting for registration, which never seems to come. Until I get registered, I'm unemployable as a psychologist. Luckily, the company I did an internship with has kept me on and will keep me as long as I need to get registered. During this time, however, I do not have a lot of work with them, nor am I paid well. I earn an income of about $1000/mo. Once registration happens, I can expect to start making about $40-$50k/yr, which will then go up the year after to 70-80. However, none of this is guaranteed, which worries me. My income is entirely dependent on clients booking appointments. If they don't book or show up, no income. Also, this shift towards 40k/yr won't happen quickly either - I will need to build a case load, which is full of question marks. So, overall, I have spent a long summer feeling awful and worrying about the future, and my best hopes along this path are still uncertain. A lot of poo poo has happened too, while I've been waiting for registration. For example, this whole process was supposed to be complete way back in May. Instead, due in part to me and in part to departmental processes, many things happened to delay or cost more in this process. My graduation was delayed waiting for approval, caused me to miss a registration committee meeting, then another meeting was canceled, my application had two technical difficulties, I forgot to include vital information, part of my credentials were denied, I had to register for another course.. all of this stuff costing extra money I don't have. Nothing like that has happened to me in life before, and it really does feel like I'm trying to swim up stream. Does the universe not want me to do this as a career? Maybe this is some adjustment bureau stuff? Unless yet another thing happens, I should obtain registration in December. Overall, I'm conflicted about what I want in a big way. Right now it's money far above anything else (understandably), but I know that if I do something I love, the money will follow. Do I love psychology? I often do, but I don't go home and read about it if you know what I mean. I spend my time reading about technology or just coming up with ideas. I enjoy learning about anything, or even planning creative work. Maybe I'd love psychology more if I could provide for myself with it? Here's where things get even more complicated, but I'll try to be brief. I know I need to stabilize, but I don't know what the best way will be. I need a job I'm happy with, proud of, and will give me the resources I want in life. I'm really questioning if that is becoming a psychologist. All my life, the idea of becoming a doctor has been incredibly exhilarating to me. Nothing comes close to the satisfaction the idea of that brings to me. It's like a qualitatively different life when I look at myself and say I'll be a doctor someday. That job also ticks all my boxes. Now, I have intensively investigated that from afar, but never gone through with volunteer work - probably because then I would risk being disillusioned and having nothing. I'm certainly willing to go get the work now though. Becoming a doctor would mean a lot more debt, and no way to pay it down until I'm 37yo. I'm ok with that, but my family probably isn't. By then, my father will be 80yo. Where to go now? I need guidance, basically. I want a stable high-income career and I feel like that's something I have the ability to obtain. My family will support me going back to school, but they don't want me to. I don't want to if I can avoid it, but I will without hesitation if it's the right thing to do. So what do I do? I could continue to fight for psychology despite the uncertainties and apparently lukewarm satisfaction of it, I could apply for med school for 2017, I could return to university and take 4 classes I'm lacking for dentistry 2017, I could teach myself programming on the side, I could get IT certs, I could enroll in a technical school 2yr program for engineering tech, or comp tech... All of these are things I've heavily considered time and time again, among others. Sales, business, the trades I was open to but decided not to. Part of my trouble is not wanting to feel like I'm stepping "back" from psychology without giving it a thorough try. Lastly, I have done career testing and psychology is always very near the middle of things. At the top are computer related disciplines and psychiatry, and sometimes engineering things but those are so far away from my education. For what it's worth, I'm actually quite good at my counselling job and it's funny that I can't solve my career problem. Thank you for reading this.
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Oct 4, 2015 21:41
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 04:44 |
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You're $83,000 in debt and you want to pile another $20,000 onto that for a year or two at school? There really is no escape here..take the job, spend every dime you earn to pay down your debts, and once you're free you can blow what you make on another adventure in college. If you're lucky you might be able to pay it off by the time you're 35.
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Oct 5, 2015 01:25
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I agree, and that's why I said I would prefer to avoid school. I don't "want" to go back or add more debt. I'm wondering if it's wisest to stay on my present career path despite all the problems with it, or try something else. Edit: but yes, me going back for a 2yr thing would be dumb, you're right. I get caught up on thinking 40/50k isn't a lot when people around me get diplomas and earn six figures. Tenacious J fucked around with this message at 03:57 on Oct 5, 2015 |
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Oct 5, 2015 03:41
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It wouldn't be if that's the actual salary you'll get right away and you're guaranteed employment making that. Do you know both of these things to be true? Have you asked these people who you're referring to? You really should sit down with an excel sheet and run a DCFA with various models of the options you have. Once you have that value over 10, 15, and 20 years, consider the debt you'll have to pay and whether it is a good option. I'm incredulous about the odds of being guaranteed a 6-figure salary simply because you get a master's degree in whatever, but I could be wrong.
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Oct 5, 2015 12:40
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Well I hoped that getting a master's would have made things easier for me, but I'm not feeling it. If you meant you were incredulous about the diploma.. Actually i know someone who did two years of power engineering right out of high school and made over 200k the next year, but that was pulling off 12-16 hour work days in the oil sands when they were in full swing. Still, there are 2yr technical diplomas around here that will garubtee six figures. That isn't work that I want or will fit into my life right now, however. Would you mind explaining the DCFA idea? I searched briefly but didn't find much. Importantly, if I forecast for 15+ years it makes sense to pursue med school, despite the added debt, I would assume.
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Oct 5, 2015 15:12
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Tenacious J posted:
I usually just lurk in BFC, but I just wanted to chime in and say that this is in no way guaranteed, and that the concepts of "a job you love" and "money" are often mutually exclusive. This is not to say they always are, but many people have jobs that they feel, at best, lukewarm about because they know it's necessary in order to make a decent living. It's not to say you'll be doomed to a lifetime of work you don't feel passionate about, just that for the time being, you have to make career decisions based on finances, which is not even slightly unique or something to be in any way ashamed of.
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Oct 5, 2015 15:24
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Tenacious J posted:Well I hoped that getting a master's would have made things easier for me, but I'm not feeling it. If you meant you were incredulous about the diploma.. Actually i know someone who did two years of power engineering right out of high school and made over 200k the next year, but that was pulling off 12-16 hour work days in the oil sands when they were in full swing. Still, there are 2yr technical diplomas around here that will garubtee six figures. Discounted cash flow analysis...it's a model that can find the present value of your professional work based on the salary and growth in that salary over a certain number of years. You probably won't like to hear this, but it sounds like you took that master's program purely because you didn't know what to do with yourself. Your best bet is figuring out a clever way to make money with the skills and aptitudes that you already have as opposed to forever longing for some magical fix to your problems in the form of another degree.
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Oct 6, 2015 01:59
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I got a degree in psychology. I now make 70k per year. I'm a welder. I really like my degree in psychology. I do not regret it in the slightest. It just doesn't bring home the cabbage, that's all. Edit: You sound like me @ 29, except with a masters instead of welding certs. If getting registered is "the club" for a career in psychology then get registered. You sound like you're 9/10ths there already, so why not go all the way. Is your income going to be not what you'd want it for a while? Yes, just like my welding income wasn't at what I'd want for a while too. Get registered ASAP and then get upgrade certifications while paying down your debt. Study in your off time to get more letters after your name, even if it doesn't really float your boat. I put in 12hr days the first few years of welding. Getting loving burned practicing different welding processes wasn't a picnic. It was hard, but now that I'm ticketed four different ways I don't really have to do that poo poo and my pay + benefits are pretty good. ductonius fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Oct 6, 2015 |
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Oct 6, 2015 03:49
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Thanks man.. Yeah that's the plan I've come to over the last 24 hours, which this whole thread helped me with. It is the right thing to do for the foreseeable future. Also, in reply to the above, I picked it for some good reasons, but none of them were "I can't imagine doing anything else with my life". Career prospects are supposedly good, I have a knack for it, and the opportunity was there. I simply haven't experienced the dividends and have a hard time seeing them, now that I'm here. Tenacious J fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Oct 6, 2015 |
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Oct 6, 2015 04:40
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 04:44 |
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Tenacious J posted:2015 has been a year of waiting for registration, which never seems to come. Until I get registered, I'm unemployable as a psychologist. Luckily, the company I did an internship with has kept me on and will keep me as long as I need to get registered. During this time, however, I do not have a lot of work with them, nor am I paid well. I earn an income of about $1000/mo. Once registration happens, I can expect to start making about $40-$50k/yr, which will then go up the year after to 70-80. However, none of this is guaranteed, which worries me. My income is entirely dependent on clients booking appointments. If they don't book or show up, no income. Also, this shift towards 40k/yr won't happen quickly either - I will need to build a case load, which is full of question marks. So, overall, I have spent a long summer feeling awful and worrying about the future, and my best hopes along this path are still uncertain. In the grand scheme of things you could consider setbacks in life, all of this sounds pretty minor. You need to make sure that you don't gently caress up the stuff you have control over with regard to your application. Sometimes with these sorts of things, you end up with a bunch of people not really wanting to help you, and just pass the buck on getting whatever paperwork/registration stuff done. You need to speak up for yourself, and start bugging the people that are in control of this process and let them know that you have everything ready and you want to be registered now. I had a similar issue when I was finishing my undergrad, I have a bunch of lazy administrators not willing to sign off on some transfer credit stuff. It took me going to a higher up and basically saying what the hell, get your people to do their drat job. Just like that, everything finally got finished, and I was out the door. You'll look back on this time and wish you had more of it, enjoy this period of not really having a job and stop worrying about this minor delay.
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Oct 6, 2015 18:54
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