Question and Advice about What to Do: Job or Classes?

[golby260]

Hi, everyone.

I last posted this thread back in April (http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Sad-and-unemployed-Really-would-appreciate-ad...), and it was about me and what to do about Square 2 and my charged-off credit card.

Well, I promised an update, so here it is:

I didn't get that Macy's job.  They wanted me to try to dupe people into getting Macy's credit cards, so I guess I came off as too shy in the interview and maybe they ran my credit, too, and saw that I was the last person who could have or would have wanted everyone else to get into bad credit, especially in this economy.

I applied for a USPS Casual Mail Handler job later that month.  USPS contacted me and invited me to an introductory information session of sorts, made me come for a *very* simple interview, made me get a drug test, and then, ignored me for two months.

Two months is a long time to wait on a prospective employer, so it was Mom's idea for me to sign up for CNA classes at the Continuing Education building at the local university (not the one I attend, but one that's pretty much two miles from home (very close)), and I went for them, since I was pretty much desperate at that point and no one else was going to hire me for even a mininum-wage job at Pizza Hut, based on my limited experience; plus, I'm in Atlanta, which has one of the worst job markets in the country.

A week before my CNA classes started (this was last week), USPS resumes contact with me on the phone, and offers me a job.  I told them about my upcoming classes and told them I'll think about it.  Meanwhile, my classes started this week, and USPS told me to come in (and miss a class) at their Duluth distribution center, which is an hour away from home, and had me process papers, took my fingerprints, and said they'll invite us to the orientation and training which is next week.

So I'm pretty much hired.

The problem is, these training sessions are from 7 am to 4 pm, next Monday through Wednesday, while my CNA courses are 8:30 am to 1 pm every Monday through Friday for six weeks.  The Mail Handler job is temporary, only for 90 days, and I get no benefits, but it's $10/hour and I could work up to full time, and depending on the shift I could get, (I can't work mornings), if I get overnight (which I likely couldn't handle, anyways, but let's pretend that I could...), I could also get paid 11.5% extra.  Also, if I manage to reapply after 90 days and get rehired, I could do this for two more times, not being allowed to work for more than a full year, after which I could take the test USPS offers to become a career employee.  Mom, however, argues that the CNA classes offer more of a guarantee towards the future.  Even in Atlanta, there are quite a few CNA jobs out there and many nursing homes and hospitals willing to hire.  I could do two part-time positions for longer duration than this Post Office job and many of these jobs would offer benefits.  Of course, the CNA classes would sound better to most, I suppose, but *I don't want to be a nursing assistant.*  I don't really want to work as one, if I truly had a choice.  I only picked this course because I couldn't get hired for dead-end jobs elsewhere.  Everyone else in my class actually wants to be a certified nursing assistant; I don't, I'm only training as one because I need money.  Otherwise, if I really wanted to be in the medical field, I would've trained to be a nurse nine years ago when I started college, and I'd be working as one right now instead of being unmotivated and lost in my English major and stuck at home with Mom.

So what should I do?  I would rather do both the classes and the job, but If the Orientation ends up having me require that I quit my CNA course, should I dump the Post Office job or the CNA classes?  Keep in mind that Square2 is still calling me everyday for my charged-off debt, my Nelnet loan's deferment has ended and my Direct Loan deferment will also end in November, and I still want to save up for college and for a car or even a scooter if I'm desperate enough, and I haven't had a paying job since April 2006. 

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Booner72]

Would you be taking student loans out to take the CNA classes?  And you have no desire to work as a CNA?  This seems like a no brainer to me.  You will end up in worse financial shape than you are in now due to the student loans.  A lot of people are going back to school during this recession and some of them are going to end up worse than when they started - they'll still be on the bottom of the totem pole at their new job, making little money, and having huge loans to pay off.

Sounds like in a year you'd be in better financial shape if you went to work at USPS. 

I just wouldn't go to school unless it was a career I was seriously passionate about.

Remember, this is your life, not your mom's life.

[golby260]

Well, the CNA course itself cost $800, plus I have to get a TB Skin Test wherever I could find it and $36 for Adult/Child/Infant CPR Certified via Red Cross.  My mom borrowed the tuition money from my oldest brother, and we charged it on his Discover card.  He's in great financial shape, and he doesn't like doing me any favors unless Mom is involved or there's an emergency.

I have two brothers other than just myself.  My older one (I'm the youngest daughter) just told me now that I should stay with the course, at least, because if I don't, it will be $800 down the drain. :/

It would be the conventionally wise thing to do, to stay with the CNA courses, but I'm just not one for the medical field (I'd have to change a lot of my basic personality to be good at it), but I do need stable income.  I'm just not keen on the idea of training for something, and then, ending up like my older brother, who spent money at a medical imaging/radiology tech program at Emory University, spent months looking for work, finally got hired, and then, fired for bogus reasons six months later, and now, hasn't had work in two years but has thousands of dollars in loans to pay back.

I don't want to work towards something in some vain hope that I *might* get a job in a field I'm not even all that passionate about, and that's if I'm even hired and if I'm even kept on and I don't end up running into some stupid office politics like my brother did, when I technically am being hired for a job RIGHT NOW when I certainly need the cash and I may never have this opportunity ever again...

...Not to mention I can attempt the CNA courses again in the Winter or Spring, and this may be my only chance to pay off many of the smaller long-standing debts I have that I can't pay off by borrowing from Mom for the rest of my life while waiting for the economy to get back on track.

Frankly, I'm tired of being broke all the time, and not being able to take care of myself, whilst being pressured into following Mom's own dreams that she has no time to pursue on her own, because she has a nice, comfortable government job, even though she has huge debts herself, while my brother and I are drowning in debt with no way to get out of it from going along with her hare-brained ideas.

So I'm leaning towards keeping the Post Office job and dumping the CNA course, if it comes to that, but I want to hear why I should stay with the CNA courses that are better than what Mom says.  I know the Post Office job is temporary, but I stand to make around $1500/month for 3 months, and I can do a lot with that money, instead of worrying about passing some nursing assistant exam when I'm visibly bored in the class every day and I doubt my capabilities of effectively doing the work.

[Anonymous]

I was in a similar situation a few months ago when I was starting my job while going to school.  My training was 0700-1530 M-F but luckily it didn't interfere with my school schedule.

This semester I had to decide if I wanted to keep working full-time (40 hours/week) and also how many credit hours I wanted to take in school.  Right now I'm doing 40 hours at work and 12 credit hours in school.

Is there any way that you can get into a class at a different time?  I wouldn't sacrifice my education for a short term job. 

[MsTucker09]

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@golby260 wrote:

Hi, everyone.

I last posted this thread back in April (http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/Sad-and-unemployed-Really-would-appreciate-ad...), and it was about me and what to do about Square 2 and my charged-off credit card.

Well, I promised an update, so here it is:

I didn't get that Macy's job.  They wanted me to try to dupe people into getting Macy's credit cards, so I guess I came off as too shy in the interview and maybe they ran my credit, too, and saw that I was the last person who could have or would have wanted everyone else to get into bad credit, especially in this economy.

I applied for a USPS Casual Mail Handler job later that month.  USPS contacted me and invited me to an introductory information session of sorts, made me come for a *very* simple interview, made me get a drug test, and then, ignored me for two months.

Two months is a long time to wait on a prospective employer, so it was Mom's idea for me to sign up for CNA classes at the Continuing Education building at the local university (not the one I attend, but one that's pretty much two miles from home (very close)), and I went for them, since I was pretty much desperate at that point and no one else was going to hire me for even a mininum-wage job at Pizza Hut, based on my limited experience; plus, I'm in Atlanta, which has one of the worst job markets in the country.

A week before my CNA classes started (this was last week), USPS resumes contact with me on the phone, and offers me a job.  I told them about my upcoming classes and told them I'll think about it.  Meanwhile, my classes started this week, and USPS told me to come in (and miss a class) at their Duluth distribution center, which is an hour away from home, and had me process papers, took my fingerprints, and said they'll invite us to the orientation and training which is next week.

So I'm pretty much hired.

The problem is, these training sessions are from 7 am to 4 pm, next Monday through Wednesday, while my CNA courses are 8:30 am to 1 pm every Monday through Friday for six weeks.  The Mail Handler job is temporary, only for 90 days, and I get no benefits, but it's $10/hour and I could work up to full time, and depending on the shift I could get, (I can't work mornings), if I get overnight (which I likely couldn't handle, anyways, but let's pretend that I could...), I could also get paid 11.5% extra.  Also, if I manage to reapply after 90 days and get rehired, I could do this for two more times, not being allowed to work for more than a full year, after which I could take the test USPS offers to become a career employee.  Mom, however, argues that the CNA classes offer more of a guarantee towards the future.  Even in Atlanta, there are quite a few CNA jobs out there and many nursing homes and hospitals willing to hire.  I could do two part-time positions for longer duration than this Post Office job and many of these jobs would offer benefits.  Of course, the CNA classes would sound better to most, I suppose, but *I don't want to be a nursing assistant.*  I don't really want to work as one, if I truly had a choice.  I only picked this course because I couldn't get hired for dead-end jobs elsewhere.  Everyone else in my class actually wants to be a certified nursing assistant; I don't, I'm only training as one because I need money.  Otherwise, if I really wanted to be in the medical field, I would've trained to be a nurse nine years ago when I started college, and I'd be working as one right now instead of being unmotivated and lost in my English major and stuck at home with Mom.

So what should I do?  I would rather do both the classes and the job, but If the Orientation ends up having me require that I quit my CNA course, should I dump the Post Office job or the CNA classes?  Keep in mind that Square2 is still calling me everyday for my charged-off debt, my Nelnet loan's deferment has ended and my Direct Loan deferment will also end in November, and I still want to save up for college and for a car or even a scooter if I'm desperate enough, and I haven't had a paying job since April 2006. 

Any advice would be appreciated.

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Speaking as a RN if you do not have a love for the profession then don't do it.  If you are not a people person you will end up working in a nursing home wiping behinds and being very unhappy.  You have to have a love for what you do especially as a CNA because in the wide scheme of things you dont make alot of money.  The salary is mediocre and you technically do more work than nurses and get paid less than half their salary.  If you cant say that you want to do that for at least the next 10 years then  I wouldnt do it because nursing eats its young and from reading what your saying you wouldn't last 3 months in any hospital or nursing home.  I hope this helps you but no need to take classes and become certified for no reason.  Good luck

[golby260]

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@MsTucker09 wrote:

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Speaking as a RN if you do not have a love for the profession then don't do it.  If you are not a people person you will end up working in a nursing home wiping behinds and being very unhappy.  You have to have a love for what you do especially as a CNA because in the wide scheme of things you dont make alot of money.  The salary is mediocre and you technically do more work than nurses and get paid less than half their salary.  If you cant say that you want to do that for at least the next 10 years then  I wouldnt do it because nursing eats its young and from reading what your saying you wouldn't last 3 months in any hospital or nursing home.  I hope this helps you but no need to take classes and become certified for no reason.  Good luck

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Seeing as how you're an RN, now I'm feeling a little bad for putting it the way I did.  I don't look down on the nursing or nursing aide professions, but I just don't have the passion for them.  I don't want to be in the medical field.  I don't want to be responsible for other people's lives on a regular basis.  I don't want to clean up after people or assist other medical workers or to worry about catching anything myself.  I don't want to stay registered with the state and renew anything every year other than my license/permit.  I don't want to deal with dying people or angry family members or whatever else it entails, and be the bottom of the chain of command, and pretty much have no one to back me up if I get in trouble with some irate relative of somebody's or something like that.  I would much rather work in an office or a library.  I want to work with papers, books, or computers -- no people.  That makes me sound like some misanthropic jerk, but I like kids.  I can work with kids.  I can teach them and take care of them, but I don't want to feel responsible for keeping them alive any more than any normal person is expected to.

Not to mention, I was pushed into this by my mother and I went along with it, only for the money.  It's a bit of an insult to your profession that people like me trap themselves into getting into it only for the money, and in this global economy, there will only be more of them.

Yeah, my mother's being pretty adamant that I finish the course.  She's threatening to not help me out with getting to work if I quit the course and keep the job.  I'll just wait and see how things go next week.  Hopefully, I'll be able to keep the job.  My main worry is if they'll schedule me on a shift that'll conflict with my class and if I'll have to go to the training location (an hour away from home) to work instead of at the place which held the job I had applied for (which is about 25 minutes closer).

I'll just hope for the best.  Thanks, everyone.

[MsTucker09]

oh I dont feel offended, its not for everyone and if its not for you its gonna waste your time.  Its better to go with the job than to take time to get your CNA and miss out on a job you are gonna like to do something that you dont like

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@golby260 wrote:

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@MsTucker09 wrote:

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Speaking as a RN if you do not have a love for the profession then don't do it.  If you are not a people person you will end up working in a nursing home wiping behinds and being very unhappy.  You have to have a love for what you do especially as a CNA because in the wide scheme of things you dont make alot of money.  The salary is mediocre and you technically do more work than nurses and get paid less than half their salary.  If you cant say that you want to do that for at least the next 10 years then  I wouldnt do it because nursing eats its young and from reading what your saying you wouldn't last 3 months in any hospital or nursing home.  I hope this helps you but no need to take classes and become certified for no reason.  Good luck

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Seeing as how you're an RN, now I'm feeling a little bad for putting it the way I did.  I don't look down on the nursing or nursing aide professions, but I just don't have the passion for them.  I don't want to be in the medical field.  I don't want to be responsible for other people's lives on a regular basis.  I don't want to clean up after people or assist other medical workers or to worry about catching anything myself.  I don't want to stay registered with the state and renew anything every year other than my license/permit.  I don't want to deal with dying people or angry family members or whatever else it entails, and be the bottom of the chain of command, and pretty much have no one to back me up if I get in trouble with some irate relative of somebody's or something like that.  I would much rather work in an office or a library.  I want to work with papers, books, or computers -- no people.  That makes me sound like some misanthropic jerk, but I like kids.  I can work with kids.  I can teach them and take care of them, but I don't want to feel responsible for keeping them alive any more than any normal person is expected to.

Not to mention, I was pushed into this by my mother and I went along with it, only for the money.  It's a bit of an insult to your profession that people like me trap themselves into getting into it only for the money, and in this global economy, there will only be more of them.

Yeah, my mother's being pretty adamant that I finish the course.  She's threatening to not help me out with getting to work if I quit the course and keep the job.  I'll just wait and see how things go next week.  Hopefully, I'll be able to keep the job.  My main worry is if they'll schedule me on a shift that'll conflict with my class and if I'll have to go to the training location (an hour away from home) to work instead of at the place which held the job I had applied for (which is about 25 minutes closer).

I'll just hope for the best.  Thanks, everyone.

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[Anonymous]

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[golby260]

Well, here's an update, everyone:

My family has decided on their own, not caring much for how I felt about it, that the USPS job is no good for me and that I should "focus" on my CNA course, mainly because they didn't want to drive me an hour away from home and back for three days for my training, so now I'm stuck in a course I don't want to be in, and I've lost my prospective job, a chance I haven't had for five years.

Needless to say, I'm not exactly elated right now.  So, I had no choice from the onset: they chose for me. 

The best part is, they told me, "a temporary job isn't that important!  Being a CNA will be better for you!  More permanence!  More benefits!"  And they were surprised when I cried my heart out and I almost had a nervous breakdown.  

Excuse me?

And then, they were doubly surprised when I told them that I had withdrawn my application online.  "Why did you do that?  You still had a chance!"  Well, what chance?  You guys took that away in your selfishness.  You guys told me you wouldn't drive me anywhere to any new jobs, and the Orientation was the only chance for me to get that job: they said so in the email -- no training, no job.  So you know.. Same difference.  What does it matter?

Hooray for being forced into the worst possible scenario, I guess.  So, I guess, if you hear of an abused old person in some home or a raged-out assistant who goes postal in Atlanta, you'll know where to look.  I've never been so disappointed in my family as I have been right now. 

[MsTucker09]

im sorry to hear that.  Hopefully your situation will get better

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@golby260 wrote:

Well, here's an update, everyone:

My family has decided on their own, not caring much for how I felt about it, that the USPS job is no good for me and that I should "focus" on my CNA course, mainly because they didn't want to drive me an hour away from home and back for three days for my training, so now I'm stuck in a course I don't want to be in, and I've lost my prospective job, a chance I haven't had for five years.

Needless to say, I'm not exactly elated right now.  So, I had no choice from the onset: they chose for me. 

The best part is, they told me, "a temporary job isn't that important!  Being a CNA will be better for you!  More permanence!  More benefits!"  And they were surprised when I cried my heart out and I almost had a nervous breakdown.  

Excuse me?

And then, they were doubly surprised when I told them that I had withdrawn my application online.  "Why did you do that?  You still had a chance!"  Well, what chance?  You guys took that away in your selfishness.  You guys told me you wouldn't drive me anywhere to any new jobs, and the Orientation was the only chance for me to get that job: they said so in the email -- no training, no job.  So you know.. Same difference.  What does it matter?

Hooray for being forced into the worst possible scenario, I guess.  So, I guess, if you hear of an abused old person in some home or a raged-out assistant who goes postal in Atlanta, you'll know where to look.  I've never been so disappointed in my family as I have been right now. 

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