fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2478 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2478 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[rune factory 4]

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[Law & Order]

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[Wander Over Yonder]

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[Breaking Bad]

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[Transformers: IDW Generation One]

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(Panic! at the Disco)

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[Luke Evans as Bard the Bowman in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug"]

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[league of legends pro teams - team curse]

Notes:

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Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'd really appreciate if anyone has links to happy things about people overcoming adversity (poverty, family drama, mental health, they all work) to find success in a "professional" field. Or anyone really nice and interesting writing frankly about class prejudice tbh. I've been crying off and on all day and I can't shake it.

This morning I read a blog post where someone casually implied that anyone working nights in retail was "lacking ambition" and "going nowhere". Now I know that's stupid and elitist. I worked a job like that for years while getting my degree and I know all kinds work there. But lately I can't convince myself anyone would hire me for a "real job". I know I'm as capable, more capable than my classmates, but every time I start writing a cover letter I'm frozen by certainty that I'd be useless and a failure at anything that wasn't minimum wage. And then someone who's opinion I respected just came out and said it, and I fell apart :(

(reply from suspended user)

Thank you. Really. It's hard to find an outside perspective on these things, it was hard for me even to figure out why I was upset.
In my experience my field is full of people who think a technical education gives them perfect objectivity regardless of background. And I think those few people who sneered at my job made it hard for me to appreciate the professors who seemed impressed... you've definitely given me a different perspective on putting retail experience in my cover letter.

This is the dissertation written by one of my profs. I found it optimistic.

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4625&context=etd

Hope this helps some.

This looks really interesting, both as an amazing story and an informative read. Thank you!

I have been there myself. Exactly there. Worked 3rd shift at a gas station for years, selling cigarettes to drunks and making coffee and cleaning bathrooms. Now I have a job in IT with a local college, only part-time as of yet, but it pays more than twice as much as that gas station job even despite not being allowed to work as many hours, and has a totally flexible schedule. And my bosses are constantly having the people I work with email and go "Can you hire this person full-time/give them a raise, because they are AWESOME!" I'm pretty sure they'd be down with that if the college created another permanent full-time position.

So yeah. Me, I completely lucked out to get this job, and I still can't believe I really got hired for it straight out of retail. I actually had to give my 2-weeks notice that I couldn't clean gas station bathrooms any more because I got this job that actually utilizes my skills and talents and interests and pays twice as much with more flexibility and respect, almost three years ago now. But it happened for me.

And you have a degree, so you're better positioned for making the jump than I was, and won't need as much luck. You can TOTALLY do it, anon.

And in the meantime, there is no shame in having a retail job. I ran into one of my old regular customers at the grocery store the other day - a guy who came in every morning for coffee, and I knew just how he liked it and would make it for him without him even saying a word if the doors hadn't opened yet - just a smile and a wave and off to the coffeepots. He remembered me and smiled real big and asked how I was. Even "crappy jobs" allow you to make an impact on the world, even if it's just being a reliable friendly face to start someone's day off right.

(Also, if you still have coworkers at the retail place that you're on good terms with? They may be willing to do you favors even years later, like free drinks or tips on hot items coming in-stock. XD So anyone who looks down on retail employees is shooting themselves in the foot, really.)

Thanks :)
I'm actually thinking of calling my old workplace and asking if they need me for the next few months, just so I can scrape by, and this made me feel a lot better about it. It's just a job, it doesn't define me.
Congrats on your IT gig! Everyone deserves respect for their work.

No kidding it doesn't define you! :D I found out after I got the new job, when people asked my mom what I was doing (because she could be justifiably proud of my brother's job), she was always like "Oh, she takes in rescue animals, and designs and makes costumes and travels around the country and models them." The last in reference to my HOBBY of cosplaying, and both those things are far more representative of "what I do" than asking the drunk at the window who's slurring his words if he had asked for Marlboros or Parliaments, which is what was paying the bills. :P Most frequently, jobs are not about what you're doing with your life except inasmuch as they help FUND what you're ACTUALLY doing with your life.

And darn straight everyone deserves respect for their work. I seriously believe everyone should have to work a "crappy" retail job for awhile when they're young, just so they'll know throughout their adult life how very hard those employees are working and how much utter crap they have to put up with without the customer being a jerk on top of it.

[ SECRET POST #2478 ]

Overcoming insecurity.

Re: Overcoming insecurity.

Re: Overcoming insecurity.

Re: Overcoming insecurity.

Re: Overcoming insecurity.

Re: Overcoming insecurity.

Re: Overcoming insecurity.