I occasionally lurk here. Just coming to seek a little advice. First, a little background: I have a steady help desk job for the past eight months, it pays the bills, and that's about it. I kind of got the job because of a contact high in command. I majored in Asian studies and my passion was Japanese. I still study it now in my free time, but I'm not at a level to be a translator or use it for work. At the same time, my IT skills are too low to find a job with a decent salary, and I'm not sure what I like to do in IT. My job is easy enough, minus the fact I hate talking to end users on the phone (which unfortunately is where all my work comes from). My job basically feels like I'm an underpaid actor who fixes stuff that people are too dumb/impatient/etc to do a Google search.
With that said, I do realize not everyone knows how to solve computer problems. I realize it's not the end users responsibility to have basic computing knowledge. But I can't help myself for hating to associate with those type of people day in and out. Now saying this, I treat all customers the way they want to be treated. I do my job to the best of my ability.
But I really don't know what to do to advance my career. I tried to look into networking, since it there isn't much human contact with people, but I honestly couldn't find the material interesting. I thought about Windows administration, but that's more work to deal with end users. I've tried learning programming languages like Python and C, and I can get my head around the concepts, but honestly I can't think of something I would want to write a program for. Programming seems like an art where you're given tools to give great things to accomplish with if you have the imagination for it.
Sometimes I feel like I want to get a job teaching English in Japan, but I've been down that road already and I did not like it. If it's going to be a job I'm going to enjoy, it will be in something IT. I think. I'm not sure what my other choices are. I thought about grad school to get back to Japan, but that's a road to get me to the location I want, not the career I desire. And that's my problem. I guess if it came down to it, I would be happy doing manual labor, but I have to much in student loan debt, so I need to find something I can bear to at least pay off those in a timely matter.
I had a good therapist who specialized in aspergers, so I've learned to at least act normal enough to handle everyday work. But it's really tiring. Honestly, if the chance presented itself to me, I think I would do better at acting then trying to get a better IT job. My life is just about acting when at work, so at least I could get paid for just doing that. Hah! I act normal around my friends, just at work do I put up a social act. I've tried a few auditions...but I don't have the flexible schedule to be taking a chance on that. If I didn't have any debt, I'd even think of it more seriously.
I don't think I asked a question here. I think I just wrote about my current problems and vented a bit. I know a lot of people here are struggling to get jobs. I know I'm lucky to have what I do. But I know I can do better than what I am. I feel if I had a clearer path to walk down, I could do better with my life. I know my job is secure for now, but I know anything can happen in the future. I need to be prepared for that change before it's too late.
11 Aug 2012, 11:21 pm
