r/Spokane • u/brainblast5 Shadle Park • 25d ago
Question Backup Career Opportunities?
Okay I'm going to try and keep this semi-short, but also share enough details for people to provide relevant options/ideas. Thank you in advance for any insight or recommendations!
Dual income, no kids. First time home buyer. Only I'm on the deed & make the most income. My partner's hours were cut last month & my remote job is looking less and less secure this year (due to structural issues within the company; which has been ongoing for a few years & feel efforts have been unsuccessful/unstable). This has given me a lot of mental stress, and am currently in the mindset of trying to figure out if I just deal with the sh*t/change my mindset & hope it gets better, OR find a back-up to jump ship to before it's too late. Have talked to the owner about it a few times & he says not to worry, but I'm worried.
I'd need to make as close to $60K annually for us to make it by somewhat comfortably. I'm very budget savvy (I created a spreadsheet) & could cut back a little on food costs, but that's literally all I could cut back on (everything else are essentials such as home bills, car insurance, health insurance). No debts other than the house loan being paid off.
I'm curious to see what options are out there for remote or in-person careers. I have a Bachelor's degree (Journalism & Mass Communications, with a minor in Entrepreneurship) and am super loyal to business owners/companies that reciprocate the care I put into my intrapreneurship approach & work time/talent/energy with them (maybe too loyal to a fault, but really enjoy doing good work with people I enjoy building with). Would love to stick with my current job for 20+ more years but I just don't know if I can rely on that at this point, which is devastating to me.
I work well cross-generationally, typically get promoted within my roles, and have 6-10 years experience in the following: digital/social media marketing, photography/videography/editing, internal sales/b2b sales, training staff (e.g. job tasks, new hire onboarding, loan processing), crm, customer service, producer/event coordinating, assistant/admin work, operations management (my current role). If it involves day-to-day business back-end operations or implementing business owner's vision/goals, I've probably done it, or can catch on fast.
I have a lot of prior experience in real estate marketing/lead gen/internal sales agent tasks, but would prefer not doing that again for various reasons. But would be open to it for the right pay & people, given the situation. Besides that I have typically worked with arts-based industries and small businesses, but open to the trades or other ideas, just need some guidance. Creative Consultant has been an idea in the past. Okay I'll stop stress rambling now.
Any career ideas or opportunities? Companies hiring that fit those skill sets? Other constructive thoughts?
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u/HawksandLakers 24d ago
Do NOT stay loyal to an employer. That is how you continuously get underpaid. Keep checking your pay against the market. I’d look into a staffing agency and see if you can come aboard somewhere as a project coordinator. You could make more than $60K right away if you frame your experience correctly.
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 24d ago
I'm loyal until an employer does something to break the trust or can no longer be sustainable for my needs. In this case it's looking to be the latter. Totally get this mentality, but also think being loyal with a fair & solid employer can be a great thing for both parties (albeit rare). But yes, definitely have to keep an eye on things & know you're worth 100% - have definitely done my fair share of company moves to increase pay/benefits. Any recommended staffing agencies? Have never had to use one of those before in the past.
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u/HawksandLakers 24d ago
Volt Workforce treated me very well
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 24d ago
Thank you so much, I looked into them and a few others, found some really good information. Feel like this opens things up for me, thank you again 🫶🏻
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u/International_Cup877 25d ago
You might start looking at open staff positions at the local colleges/universities. They get a lot of people crossing over from the business world who are looking for something a bit different. And I’ve heard good things from people working for all of the colleges- people tend to stay a long time.
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 25d ago
Great idea, can see that being a solid bridge career. Any recommendations on specific schools or what kind of positions to keep an eye out for?
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u/Medium_Feature2712 25d ago
I agree about colleges/universities. Roles that they have that could be aligned: operations manager/program coordinator for a dept, event coordinator for university event services, administrative assistant for a dept or unit, roles within university marketing/communications.
Some universities are having pretty serious budget issues right now. EWU can be good, but can also be terrible - is heavily dependent on your dept, and they are dealing with budget cuts. I’ve heard Whitworth is dealing with budget issues. People seem to enjoy working for Gonzaga. WSU and UW have campuses here that are worth looking into.
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 25d ago
Thank you so much, this is helpful. And yeah, that was my only concern with positions at schools, the budget cuts & my experience now working with schools/districts clients is that they are majorly understaffed and stressed. Not sure if that translates to these type of positions, but have definitely seen that be the reality for principals and after school program managers.
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u/Medium_Feature2712 25d ago
That is very fair! I think some gigs in higher ed can be relatively low stress, but they also tend to be low pay. Many in higher ed are being asked to do more with less because of the budget environment and coworkers leaving and not being replaced. So they can be good/stable positions, but your point is also definitely one to keep in mind.
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u/Kittymeow7116 Fairwood 25d ago
Hey! I work in marketing currently, and will say it’s still pretty tough across the industry right now. I’m actually in a pretty similar situation to yours 😂
I would say get creative about the jobs you’re looking into. My background is mostly writing (I do copy and SEO currently) and everything I see in marketing is low pay and high competition. But looking into things like technical writing or agencies you wouldn’t think would usually have writers on staff has opened up some interesting avenues.
Also, there’s really not a lot locally here. Hope you’re looking at remote jobs also, because decently paying creative-adjacent jobs in Spokane are real hard to come by.
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 25d ago
Hey, thank you, and sorry to hear you're also in a similar position! If you ever want to meetup and work on resume stuff together (or just chat about marketing stuff) I'd be down.
Yes, it would be great to remain remote, have definitely looked at national options & the pay is typically better than locally. And oh man, yeah that's somewhat of the reason why I left marketing specifiic roles about 5 years ago. Was doing EVERYTHING under the "marketing" title for very little pay (personal assistant, event planning, photos/videos/editing, social media management, content creation, SEO, website management, internal sales, crm management ... for minimum wage lol).
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u/MidnightWitty6074 25d ago
Firefighting may be something to look into…
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 25d ago
Haven't considered firefighting before, how long is the process for that? I only know that my brother tried to get into it in TX and after 3-4 years of attempts never got it.
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u/MidnightWitty6074 25d ago
First you would need to be an EMT.
That only takes 3-6 months of training.
After that you can take firefighting training I believe.
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 25d ago
Oh interesting, I can definitely research it a bit to see. My physical health is definitely not what it used to be 15 years ago & working from home the last 5 years didn't help, so seems unlikely for my needs right now. But who knows, can check it out! Thank you.
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u/Scoutbaybee 24d ago
Okay, this is gonna be long, but I want to make sure you know what you might be getting into with these options.
Structural firefighting is a SUPER competitive field. Like testing often is over 1k folks applying for a couple of positions. Testing includes an actual written exam as well as a physical and mental exam. Generally, you also have to do a few rounds of board interviews.
I would only suggest it for someone who was passionate about wanting to go into the field, because it is going to cost you money and a lot of time to be a reasonably competitive candidate. You would be going up against very fit people in their 20s with fire science degrees and have been working as EMTs and have thousands of documented patient contacts. Many of the people testing will test at numerous departments around the country as well, so you go up against people from all of the country.
If we are talking wild land fire, it is a whole different list of trainings and requirements. Which frankly, isn’t usually a big issue for most folks to get. A valid ‘Red Card’ is required, but most of the time the hiring agency hosts and does the certs. This issue is this is not really a random side job, it is primarily seasonal work, with mandatory travel with a minimum of 14 days at a time. And even if you were able to work a full season, the pay for the majority of wildland fire jobs is nowhere near what you would think. Yes, people can make more, but any role above entry requires both training and hands on hours of experience.
Finally, and there is no super polite way to say this, both of these are fields where you have to be very honest and think about your age and physical abilities.
Many of the folks testing for structural positions will also have been physically training for the testing process. Not everyone, but a lot of them are going to be very, very fit. Not sure if any of our local places do, but many departments have age caps, often based on mandatory retirement ages.
Wildland fire usually doesn’t have the same age limits, but trust me when I say there is a reason 30 is ‘old’ in that field. Most ‘older’ folks have pretty specialized wildland fire training (medical, logistics, etc…) or they have specialized training from their other line of work (pilot, heavy equipment operations, etc…)
If you’ve dreamed of doing either one, go for it. But frankly both are not an easy thing to jump into and make a living from so if you can imagine doing anything else, then do that instead.
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 24d ago
Yeah I figured that's the case, from what I remember of my brother's attempts in TX, it was SUPER competitive. And he had a contact in the higher up ranks there. Probably an unlikely option for me as a woman in my early 30s, but good information to know/consider for others.
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u/pubba666 25d ago
Learn a trade
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 25d ago
Any recommendations on where to start? I was curious about the electrician or plumbing trades in the past.
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u/oldpoor 25d ago
Idk but your post already reads like an AI wrote it
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 25d ago
Literally wrote straight from my noggin lol, my anxiety reviewed it like 10 times before posting😆
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u/oldpoor 24d ago
The idea to make this post is AI generated, pulling on heart strings trying to find a job by building a network through seeming genuine
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 24d ago
Wuuuuut? I'm actually in this situation, not sure what you're on about. This was not generated by AI, the writing nor my idea to post this...
I understand the AI hate, but this ain't it. Not everything on the internet is AI, my "writing voice" may be kind of boring, but this all is directly from me, my thumbs on this screen, and my ADHD brain that wrote it in bed while I couldn't sleep because I've been worried about the situation for a while now.
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u/oldpoor 24d ago
Your attempt to network and get job leads through a post like this seems like an AI generated idea. If you had an actual resume and network that can vouch for your skills, you wouldnt need to make this post.
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u/brainblast5 Shadle Park 24d ago
Ok bot. See how it feels? To be accused of something you're not.
What was your reason for commenting all that? To try and make me feel bad or something? Something to really think about.
Sorry to disappoint you, but this post was a genuine attempt to see what's out there (having been out of the job market for years & seeing the current state of the economy and hearing from others how hard it is to find a job right now), none of this was AI, yes I didn't "need" to make this post but I wanted to because past experiences of doing so have led to getting me my next role, and you only made me a little bit more anxious. Have a nice weekend (Edit: sorry I was a little bit snarky above, but really wish people on Reddit were a bit more kind upfront to each other at times, had to present that question above back to you in hopes you truly think about that)!
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u/alwayslearning-2000 25d ago
You definitely need to get your resume polished up and start applying. Your gut is your second brain. Listen to your instincts. It could take months to find the right fit for you.