I'm trying to enter full-time employment again..

[Lit]

After 6 years of freelancing from home, which able to keep me afloat financially & even help to pay some of my younger sister's student loan, I decided to try and find full-time employment again. Perhaps this decision is triggered by my sis who finally found a job at a small travel agency. ...perhaps it's also the new year effect. I want to start anew. Yesterday I just sent my resume to an IT company. This is out-of-character for me and I'm nervous about all this, but I want to move forward and do the things that I always want to do. I don't want to be afraid anymore.
______________________

The IT job has 2 weeks waiting time, so I'm keeping busy with my freelance work. Unfortunately, my sister is having a bit of hard time with her new job. Her co-workers are great but the boss is a jerk. The only advice I could give her is that it's up to her whether she wants to quit or stay.

 

[StephF]

Hi Lit,

This sounds very brave of you to try and do this. I hope this works out well for you. I hope 2018 is a good year !

 

[Lit]

Hi Lit,

This sounds very brave of you to try and do this. I hope this works out well for you. I hope 2018 is a good year !

Thank you. I'm trying to do my best to get rid of the 'what ifs' and want more of 'at least I tried', or even better - 'I did it'. Hoping 2018 would be a good year for all of us here.

 

[Bolletje]

Good idea! What really helped me when I went back to work was making lists. My psychologist gave me an assignment to do this at the time. Spoiler alert: I love lists. Stuff I listed:
- My traits that will make a positive difference at work
- My perfect working conditions, how to achieve those and how to ask for those
- Problems I ran into during my previous employment, and how I plan to deal with those problems this time around

Might not be your thing, but it worked for me

 

[Lit]

What really helped me when I went back to work was making lists. My psychologist gave me an assignment to do this at the time. Spoiler alert: I love lists. Stuff I listed:
- My traits that will make a positive difference at work
- My perfect working conditions, how to achieve those and how to ask for those
- Problems I ran into during my previous employment, and how I plan to deal with those problems this time around

Might not be your thing, but it worked for me

I LOVE lists. They make me feel everything is in order. It's hard to find medical support here in my country for adults with any type of autism, so this is very, very helpful tips. I would definitely do this Thanks!

 

[LucyPurrs]

Good luck to you Lit! Sounds like you are on a productive roll- go girl! Best wishes for 2018!

 

[Judge]

Leaving one's comfort zone regarding employment potential is always a tough proposition. Yet it can also result in success contrary to the logic of sticking with what one thinks they know.

A simple thing for me to personally reflect upon given every job I ever applied for and was hired involved no formal, prior work experience. And these all involved work in very different fields of endeavor. Go figure.

Yet still, for some of us self-employment remains a viable option:

25 hobbies you can turn into a business

 

[Lit]

The IT job that I applied would be processed in about two weeks. The number of applicants is quite big - 527. Other job opportunities are available, but the 'good communication skill' requirement scares me a bit. Anyway, I just sent an email to a tourism company about a job opening.

Right now, I wish I had known about Asperger earlier and the support that I could find online. I wonder if I would be more prepared, having an answer to why I can't grasp social etiquette like other people.

Even though my education background is Computer Science, my IT knowledge is rusty because I'm unable to fully utilize specific skills such as programming, particularly software development. This is why I want to find courses (online or otherwise) to brush up. The word 'freelance' in my part of the world is still widely considered as not working/unemployed, doesn't matter how much money you make. So much stigma...

 

[Mattymatt]

There are all kinds of free courses online that you can use to brush up. Code Academy comes to mind as a good one. I wish you the best in your IT journey. You're getting yours going while I ended mine. You're wise to pursue the software side. The infrastructure side is a dead-end, even if it pays well - cut backs happen to infrastructure people before software people.

 

[Lit]

There are all kinds of free courses online that you can use to brush up. Code Academy comes to mind as a good one. I wish you the best in your IT journey.

Thanks, will definitely check this out

 

[Beverly Kamin]

After 6 years of freelancing from home, which able to keep me afloat financially & even help to pay some of my younger sister's student loan, I decided to try and find full-time employment again. Perhaps this decision is triggered by my sis who finally found a job at a small travel agency. ...perhaps it's also the new year effect. I want to start anew. Yesterday I just sent my resume to an IT company. This is out-of-character for me and I'm nervous about all this, but I want to move forward and do the things that I always want to do. I don't want to be afraid anymore.
______________________

The IT job has 2 weeks waiting time, so I'm keeping busy with my freelance work. Unfortunately, my sister is having a bit of hard time with her new job. Her co-workers are great but the boss is a jerk. The only advice I could give her is that it's up to her whether she wants to quit or stay.

I am also in the process of finding a full time job. I hope things will improve with your sister!

 

[Mr Allen]

I'm in the process of looking for part time work, I'm on benefits (don't start, I'm not in a Daily Fail mood) which I can't come off to work more than 15-16 hours a week.

 

[Lit]

I am also in the process of finding a full time job. I hope things will improve with your sister!

I'm in the process of looking for part time work, I'm on benefits (don't start, I'm not in a Daily Fail mood) which I can't come off to work more than 15-16 hours a week.

There are all kinds of free courses online that you can use to brush up. Code Academy comes to mind as a good one.

Beverly & Rich - The best of luck for you both! Rich, I'm also considering part-time jobs if full-time isn't possible. Then again, my freelance work is keeping me busy & my financial situation is better this year. To be frank, there are more online work opportunities for me, so there's a lot to consider but I'm taking things slowly. I also want to thank Mattymatt for suggesting Code Academy. I'm taking one of their courses at the moment & I forgot how fun coding can be.

 

[Full Steam]

I spent 25+ years in IT at various levels and subjects. Hardware, software, desktop server, applications and infrastructure (not at the same time in most jobs, but it was in one or two)

IMO, if you want a good IT job you must specialise. If over 500 people apply then it's easy to enter the job, wages will be lower and often condition not as good.

I moved into freelancing and running a business. Now I'm a specialist in a certain form of digital marketing - Inbound marketing.

Still very techy, but as you get more specialised your value increases, and so do your wages.

 

[LucyPurrs]

Good luck to all those looking for employment. You might check out the new post I made this morning about seeking and keeping employment by Paul Micallef- he's going to hold live webinars at the end of this month on that topic. He has some really good tips and is an exceptionally nice and responsive guy. I put the thread under employment section.