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Default Nov 22, 2019 at 11:39 AM
  #1
Hello all. It's been a while. I hope everyone is alright.

So I'm in between a rock and a hard place right now. Long story short, I went to school for a mental health counseling degree but I need a job that will give me the 3000 hours to get the license. Every mental health counseling job I'm seeing wants the license and a couple of years of experience. But how am I going to get the license if no one will hire me and give me a chance? I've been having this issue for 2 years now. I don't want to let my degree go to waste but this is beginning to feel like a lost cause. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse. I've wanted to be a therapist for so long because I genuinely enjoy helping people but it wasn't my true passion. My true passion is something else that I'm trying to pursue and I've already gotten my foot in the door with that. I wanted to get my mental health counseling license as a backup while I try to fully get into my passionate field but I didn't think it would be this hard. I don't have the money to go back to school to get a degree that will be in an easier field where there might be more jobs.

My current job sucks and I've been here for 2 years now. It's not mentally healthy for me. I've been told that I have to tolerate people's racism and bigotry and I'm a person of color so that hit me really hard. And it's just an unhealthy office environment, in general. I work on a crisis hotline as a peer and we get perverted callers, bigoted callers, rude callers, and we just have to take it because the center cares more about numbers. We're micromanaged like no tomorrow and the supervisors don't really know what they're doing. When we need help for a crisis situation, different clinical supervisors tell us to do different things because they weren't trained properly and when we make mistakes it's on us, not the supervisors who gave us the wrong instructions. The peer supervisor actually knows what they're doing and is good but even he is annoyed with the way things are run at this center.

I know some people on here might know that situation but I just wanted to give a recap. I'm sorry if I'm being annoying by talking about the same thing but I honestly don't know what to do. People tell you to go to school, get your degree, and you'll get a job right off the bat and you're young and naive so you believe them. Then when you get out into the real world, you realize how wrong you were. I'm paying for that now.

I'm not the type of person to give up which is why I don't want to quit my current job. I fight and I fight but I think I just have to change course at this point. I still live with my family and my mom said I can quit and she'll help me out because she doesn't like how I have to deal with so many things at this job, especially the perverted callers. I'm also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and some of the calls can be triggering. I want to help people but not at the expense of my mental health and that's why I'm rethinking going into the mental health field. I don't think it's for me. However, I'm sticking with this job because I need the money and I have bills to pay and this job actually pays really well. =( My mom will legit help me out with anything I ask but I want to be independent because I don't want to be a burden. She already has stress as it is. I can't add on more to that.

My ideal job would be to work in an LGBTQIA+ organization because I would like a place where I can be myself and I'm really passionate about helping the community but there aren't any job openings that I qualify for in any of the LGBTQIA+ organizations in my area.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to find a job...or just any advice in general? I've tried employment agencies, job fairs, applying online. I'm still quite young but I just want to get my two feet on the ground.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate it.

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Default Nov 22, 2019 at 12:32 PM
  #2
Quote:
My ideal job would be to work in an LGBTQIA+ organization because I would like a place where I can be myself and I'm really passionate about helping the community but there aren't any job openings that I qualify for in any of the LGBTQIA+ organizations in my area.
So, take the steps to make this ideal job happen. Don't be like me -- I pigeonholed myself in my late 40s by taking the wrong jobs for the wrong (never right) reasons; getting laid off or fired and then being forced to register with temporary agencies (who are notoriously unreliable as an income resource because recruiters are divisive and always lie).

If I could turn back time, if I could find a way, (Oh, Cher!) I would go back to my 20s, and be like Seinfeld's character George Costanza and have an "Opposite Day" so that I could pursue jobs that were in my wheelhouse, versus jobs that I had no interest in. I would literally do everything 100% differently with my life if I could rewind the past 26 years. But I can't. So, take heed with my advice: do NOT pigeonhole yourself with mental health counseling as a career. So far, you can't find mental health companies who will allow you to work part-time so you can fill your 3,000 hours needed to get your license.

If you want to work in an LGBTQIA organization, then do it. Start as a volunteer or do an internship, or take a support role like front desk just to get your name and face associated with those organizations. Join a local chapter in your city and network yourself and your interest doing that sort of work. The more you talk with others about your interest, the more clear you'll become, and the faster you'll see opportunities appear for yourself, job-wise.
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Default Nov 22, 2019 at 09:12 PM
  #3
I did 7 years of brutal residency and fellowship after medical school to get my supposedly dream job. Guess what? I didn't really enjoy it. I do think I was pretty good at patient care. But what I really was passionate about was building companies. I realized I should have gone to business school. But it was too late.

Fortunately, I got to build a couple of nice little companies before I got sick, but that was just dumb luck.

You need to find what your passion is and then go do that. If that means you have to move to a big city, then move. If that means you re-train in animal care or astronomy or the grocery business--go do that.

Life is short. Don't waste it doing something you'r not into, even if at one time, you thought you were. You gotta do what you enjoy.

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Default Nov 26, 2019 at 11:05 AM
  #4
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Originally Posted by StreetcarBlanche View Post
So, take the steps to make this ideal job happen. Don't be like me -- I pigeonholed myself in my late 40s by taking the wrong jobs for the wrong (never right) reasons; getting laid off or fired and then being forced to register with temporary agencies (who are notoriously unreliable as an income resource because recruiters are divisive and always lie).

If I could turn back time, if I could find a way, (Oh, Cher!) I would go back to my 20s, and be like Seinfeld's character George Costanza and have an "Opposite Day" so that I could pursue jobs that were in my wheelhouse, versus jobs that I had no interest in. I would literally do everything 100% differently with my life if I could rewind the past 26 years. But I can't. So, take heed with my advice: do NOT pigeonhole yourself with mental health counseling as a career. So far, you can't find mental health companies who will allow you to work part-time so you can fill your 3,000 hours needed to get your license.

If you want to work in an LGBTQIA organization, then do it. Start as a volunteer or do an internship, or take a support role like front desk just to get your name and face associated with those organizations. Join a local chapter in your city and network yourself and your interest doing that sort of work. The more you talk with others about your interest, the more clear you'll become, and the faster you'll see opportunities appear for yourself, job-wise.

Thanks a lot for your advice! Yea, I've been looking into LGBT organizations and I sent a few emails but I never heard back. I've tried volunteering and I sent out more emails but I still didn't hear back. The only thing I can do is keep trying. I even applied to jobs in LGBT organizations that either pertained to my degree or didn't and, because of my lack of experience, I didn't get the jobs. So I feel stuck. The only thing I can keep doing is keep trying. I've been telling people what I would like to do and what organizations I'm looking for but, for some reason, they keep sending me jobs that I don't want and that are in completely different fields. I'm not sure what's going on with that.

It's so interesting because you need experience for everything, like being a receptionist. I applied for retail when I was just getting into the job field and I didn't get the job due to lack of retail experience. I will keep trying because that's the only thing we can do, right? Thanks a lot!

Quote:
Originally Posted by bpcyclist View Post
I did 7 years of brutal residency and fellowship after medical school to get my supposedly dream job. Guess what? I didn't really enjoy it. I do think I was pretty good at patient care. But what I really was passionate about was building companies. I realized I should have gone to business school. But it was too late.

Fortunately, I got to build a couple of nice little companies before I got sick, but that was just dumb luck.

You need to find what your passion is and then go do that. If that means you have to move to a big city, then move. If that means you re-train in animal care or astronomy or the grocery business--go do that.

Life is short. Don't waste it doing something you'r not into, even if at one time, you thought you were. You gotta do what you enjoy.


Thanks a lot! =) Like I said in my post, I already know what my passion is and I'm moving towards it. I have a mentor and she's taken me under her wing so I have a good start with that. However, it's a mentorship, not a paying job (yet). I'm still loving it, though. It solidified that this is what I should have done from day one and that I should have followed this dream from the start. So I'm trying to find another job that will tide me over until I can start making money from the job in my passion field. I can move out of the city or go back to school but I don't have the money. I'm already in debt from grad school and I don't have money to pick up and move out of the city. I already started moving towards my passion in this city, so I plan on staying here because at least I started moving towards my dream here and I've build up a really good relationship with my mentor.

Thanks a lot for your response! It was very helpful!

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