So now I'm trying to figure out the direction to go. Right now I'm temping for a large Canadian-based corporation doing similar duties as I'd have done in Farmington. I really enjoy it and I would love to stay here permanently. The problem is they want 3-5 years experience I don't have. What I'm hoping is that in these 2 weeks I'll have impressed them enough to forego that. Definitely not getting my hopes up, but we'll see where it goes. I think this experience will at least help me get similar jobs and the fabulous Staffing Agency I'm working through knows I'd like something permanent and they are really great, so I think they'll help as soon as they have something.
One of my friends is also trying to help me get a high-travel IT consulting type job and I'm hoping something could happen with that for a year or two's experience that would help me get the position my uncle has been trying to help me with at GE. I think the GE position would be my ideal dream job - working with computers, traveling internationally very frequently, and a salary I can actually save and invest money with.
However, neither of those has any reliability because of my lack of experience. So I'm back at square one in deciding what I should do with my time:
- School - this seems to be everyone's favorite and I'm partial to it as well because I'd like to prove again to myself that I'm capable, instead of crashing and burning like I did before.
- Pro - getting better grades, possibly changing degrees to CS or Physics or Astronomy (or Engineering if they'd have me, but that seems unlikely with my GPA)
- Con - I have no idea if I really qualify getting in, it costs a lot of money, I feel "old," why am I pursuing another B.S. when I should move on to an M.S. or PhD?
- Air Force - The perks of being in the military as far as monetary savings and discounts goes, as well as being stationed abroad (I don't care how much Guam sucks, I'll go).
- Pro - I can learn something techie while there, get additional school paid for, security clearance for future potential CIA or FBI work (another dream job)
- Con - My GPA apparently isn't high enough, might be able to do a few CC classes to improve, don't know if they'll accept that, I will be very old in comparison to my team which might feel degrading.
- Community College - solely for programming learning, might even audit depending on how valuable "credit" would be
- Pro - Helping my resume
- Con - Time. Who has that anymore?
- Paying for Certifications - There are 2 I'm thinking about: SalesForce and now a Project Management cert called CAPM. Each one is $200-$300 plus I'd have to do some training. I think I could figure out how to train for SalesForce for free, plus a friend has a cert and could help me study. CAPM, I might have to figure out how to forge transcripts for 23 hours of "education." It's possible, but... who knows.
- Pro - It could open up a lot of job potential and at the very least improve my resume considerably.
- Con - I would need to save up $500, and... I could, but really??? My car is in the shop, I'm months behind in bills, and I have no idea where my next paycheck is coming essentially. No idea what to do. Also, it could take a lot of time to learn, and again, who has time? I don't.
Like always, any feedback, opinions, yelling at me for being lame, and advice are always welcome... to the 3 people who actually read this.
Follow up question:
I am doing okay here in Denver, DR Photo will have work until May I think, this temp agency is really helping me out but it's not as frequent as I'd like. Should I move back to Cali? I almost feel like job options are worse there, but I'm struggling to keep my head high here and I feel I need a reboot from friends and family.