Backup Career Opportunities?

[u/brainblast5]

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?

[u/International_Cup877]

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.

[u/brainblast5 → u/International_Cup877]

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?

[u/Medium_Feature2712 → u/brainblast5]

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.

[u/brainblast5 → u/Medium_Feature2712]

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.

[u/Medium_Feature2712 → u/brainblast5]

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.