Non-Academic Jobs: resume and general advice?

[Gelpfrat the Bold]

Apologies in advance for long-windedness.

Hello all, I was wondering if anyone might have any advice about looking for more "menial" jobs, for lack of a better term. I have a MA and have gotten great grades, won awards, and given talks in my obscure arts field, but I ended up turning down a PhD offer this year because my mind's pretty exhausted and I want to take a break for a couple years. I thought about applying for things like Teach for America and whatnot, but I really think it would be best for me to find a job that does not require any off-the-clock work. As a student, I've gotten pretty bad about never taking time off for myself, and always thinking I should be reading more whenever I get a moment free. I'm sure a lot of you can relate! Due to the fact that I fully intend to reapply to PhD programs after next year, I don't feel any pressure to seek a specifically career-oriented job at this point. In fact, that's the last thing I want. It's not that I am work-shy or can't handle working in a stressful environment, I just need a job that pays by the hour and is a little different from what I've been doing these past few years. I'll be living in a busy neighborhood in a large city.

The problem is that I have little work experience. I worked as a cashier in high school, and then at a deli counter for some time in college, but that's pretty much it. I am a terribly selfish person, it seems, and don't have any volunteer experience past high school. I would love to tutor, either in writing, languages, or even in standardized test prep, but I have no teaching experience whatsoever. I'm guessing I can put ads up on craigslist and see if I find a few hours of tutoring work, but I'm not counting on being able to live off of that. I would really love to work even the lowest position at a museum, but all the museums in my area seem to rely entirely on unpaid interns and volunteers, and I need to eat! I imagine I should be looking into waitressing or working in retail. I have general customer service experience, as well as experience in food service, but I have never worked in a restaurant or in retail. Any advice for finding such work without the right experience?

This brings me to my specific question, which is, should I include my academic qualifications in the resume I submit to such places? At the moment I just have an academic CV, with my degrees, thesis titles, languages, awards and publications listed. How much of this should I keep on my resume? Should I keep everything except for the thesis titles and publications? Should I acknowledge my MA? I am looking for ongoing full-time work, but I'm concerned that potential employers will consider me likely to flounce on them after a short while in search of better prospects. And yet, I don't want to sell myself short by censoring my assets.

Specific answers or general advice would be much appreciated!

Edited June 22, 2011 by Gelpfrat the Bold

[emmm]

I was able to get a part-time position teaching at a local community college after tutoring there first. The pay for both jobs was pretty terrible, but the hours were great, and I was happy to get the teaching experience. To get a teaching job, you would need to admit to having the MA . No actual teaching experience was needed to get the tutoring job -- in fact, they provided paid training for that.

[Just me]

I have minimal work experience myself - mostly freelance work, and one "real" job which I will not list on any resume. Why? My last employer was a scammy call center that I refuse to let anyone know I was associated with. And I think if you're applying to something not in your field of study, consider leaving off the master's degree. If I finish the shit I'm doing and need to work retail or fast food, I will not include my degrees on my resume because I don't want to be told I'm overqualified and that some schmuck with a seventh-grade education needs the job more than I do.

I don't think it's so much employers will worry that you'll jump ship on them as much as they will see you as being too expensive due to your degrees. One of many reasons I was fired from the aforesaid scammy job was because I needed time off to go to class and finish the huge assignment I was given with a short deadline. They weren't interested in someone whose butt would not be in their seat eight hours a day making them money for minimum wage. So if you're going to apply somewhere that looks favorably upon an educated person, then sure, list your degrees and publications and all similar goodies. But if you're looking to stock shelves at Wal-Mart? Yeah, leave off anything beyond a bachelor's degree.

This is just in my own experience.

[zarc]

Depending on the job, I would even leave off the bachelor's degree... I tried circulating resume's with and without my bachelor's degree listed, and honestly, I got more call backs and interviews from the ones where I didn't mention it at all. Just my 2 cents.

[Sigaba]

I think tutoring may be the way to go for you. I recommend that you figure out what subjects you can tutor, a competitive rate, post an ad on craigslist, and try to develop a solid client base.

If you do go this route, I suggest that you only tutor those students you want to work with, and conduct your sessions in a very public place. (Like the library.)

If you want to go through the process of applying for jobs, I recommend that you find a way to communicate the work skills that you do have. You know how to work hard, you know how to think critically, you know how to learn, and you know how to write.

Which ever route you pick, please note that you may be playing with fire. A year off to make some money and to recharge the batteries can quickly lead to another, and another, and another. . . . (In this regard, you may actually benefit from the fact that the job market is so competitive right now.)

[fibonacci]

Yeah, run for cover. These days you are lucky if you can get a $50k a year job with a PhD. The US economy is absolutely hemorrhaging high tech jobs and other well paying work like a slit wrist. Once we get out of this depression most of the jobs that will have been created will be in retail sales, janitor and cleaning services, food prep, RNs, nursing aides, and other low paying service jobs that can't be outsourced. Many new jobs won't need even a college degree. It's highly likely you are probably better off with your masters than a PhD.

[ktel]

Yeah, run for cover. These days you are lucky if you can get a $50k a year job with a PhD. The US economy is absolutely hemorrhaging high tech jobs and other well paying work like a slit wrist. Once we get out of this depression most of the jobs that will have been created will be in retail sales, janitor and cleaning services, food prep, RNs, nursing aides, and other low paying service jobs that can't be outsourced. Many new jobs won't need even a college degree. It's highly likely you are probably better off with your masters than a PhD.

I don't understand why you got downvoted...Somebody is mad that their PhD might not be as useful as they think?

[fibonacci]

I don't understand why you got downvoted...Somebody is mad that their PhD might not be as useful as they think?

It's because the majority on here don't want to believe that the mantra they've been fed their whole life--that more education is always better no matter what the cost--is really not that true at all. Next year when the department of education starts tracking default rates on student loans out to 5 years the default rate on student loans is projected to almost double from 7% up to 14%. Only 40% of student loans are currently in repayment, the rest are either in deferment or are in default. The US has a massive ticking time bomb with regards to education and debt. The numbers don't lie, education costs keep soaring while jobs that pay livable wages continue to be off shored or are disappearing all together as the manufacturing base in this country declines. I bet the vast majority of kids on these boards have never even had a job or even looked for one. They have no idea what's waiting out here for them once they get out. Right now we live in a time when we are sending the most kids ever in the history of this country on towards higher education while the US economy is suffering from severe systemic and structural problems that will take decades to fix (a lot of problems may not be able to fixed at all). Suggesting that people should go to college or grad school no matter at what cost, because more education is always better, is completely stupid, especially when the economy is increasingly unable to absorb the huge swaths of new grads and pay them livable wages. College these days for many kids leads to nothing more than underemployment or temp jobs with no benefits with tons of student loan debt. Grad school just prolongs the underemployment while the interest builds on the principal and then you're caught in 20+ years worth of student loans. The whole f^cking system is one giant scam.

Edited August 16, 2011 by fibonacci