Hi Sherri,

Sounds like you are doing one great job of keeping things together and embracing change in your life. You are a very good example for your son. He will thank you for years. I take it you are a single parent. I know what that is like, I have three daughters that I raised by myself.

Thank you so much for sharing all of this with my readers. You are an inspiration. May you always be blessed with love and happiness.

Debbie

Hi Debbie,

After I was downsized from the career job I’d spent a ton of time and money training for, I was lost for awhile. When I couldn’t get a similar job, I got depressed and very scared. I have a 15 year old son (now) and it took time to trim down our budget to make my severance pay last as long as it could. The chemical economy was in the toilet in Louisiana in 2004, and there were no jobs to be had unless I wanted to work 12 hour rotating shifts plus overtime for half my previous pay. My son was 7 then and I didn’t have anyone to stay with him at night while I would be on night shift or weekend shift. Those are the jobs still available today.

I was a research chemist and being a technician sounded like it would get boring because I would have little to no opportunity to develop methods, tests, or research new technologies. That’s what I spent most of my time on before, and I loved it. I analyzed samples, a lot of them, but it was for the purpose of developing and verifying new methods and technologies to solve problems. It would also require working for a temp company and having to pay full price for our benefits, if any were offered.

I applied for tons of jobs and went to a lot of interviews. Most of the jobs would require me to train on their new instruments, and they could higher a master’s or Ph.D. level chemist directly out of grad school fully trained and for half what they would have to pay me. Then the agencies started calling me about my old job. They wouldn’t interview me, though I was perfect for the job, but it was a permanent track position and part of the severance agreement was I couldn’t work for Albemarle again as an employee. I could work for them as a contractor, but I couldn’t have any permanent-track positions. After the 5th call like that, I withdrew my resume from all the agencies and sent them out myself.

When I started running out of money, I decided I had to find something else to do with my degree. I started tutoring high school math and science. I really enjoy it and it pays pretty well. I had forgotten how much I love pouring over complex advanced math and physics problems. I didn’t have to work 50+ hours a week to earn enough for us to live on. I work more like 20-30 hours a week. Mon-Thurs 3:30-7:30. sometimes until 8:30, and Sundays 2-5 or later as needed. The main library branch is open until 10 p.m. on Sundays. It’s great because I’m not a morning person. I had originally planned for tutoring to be a part-time job until I found another full-time job, but that didn’t happen.

So, I plan to continue tutoring, and if I need extra money, I’ll mow yards or deliver pizzas until I catch up on money. I will likely be delivering pizzas or cutting grass every June and July until I’ve been in business for myself long enough to raise my prices sufficiently to live and save for summers off. I under-priced myself this year because it was the first year I was in business for myself.

I worked for a tutoring company for 4 years, but we were informed May 21, 2009, that the company was closing as of June 1, 2009. We were all let go, but our previous employer talks to prospective clients about our performance working for her and she sends us clients when people call her for tutors. I plan to raise my prices $5/hr next school year, and raise them again the following years until I’m making the going rate and if the economy improves. If it doesn’t, I will leave my prices alone that year and let everyone’s income catch up.

Since I have 10-20 hours of spare time, I can write on my blog and work on my niche websites. I also have time to homeschool my son. It isn’t what I really wanted to do, but his problems with school were intolerable. They gave up on him, but I refuse to. I teach him what he has to know to pass the GED, and let him focus the rest of the time on what really interests him. That comes down to reading, English composition, and math. I don’t give him tests formally. I make him work tests as if they were homework sheets. If he gets something wrong I make him do it until he gets it right. Giving out grades lower than a high B allows students to cop out and get by. I want him to really learn the material. When he complains, I tell him if he would take the time to learn it the first time, he wouldn’t have to repeat the work.

When he asks if he should pick a major or a career, I tell him to think about it and try some out if the opportunity exists. But I also tell him he has awhile before college, and that you don’t really have to pick a major until your sophomore year. In some cases you can wait until your junior year. I learned the hard way that what I wanted to do at 18 wasn’t working out at 21, so I was in college until I was 24. I encourage him to explore a lot of different areas before he picks something. I also told him he needs to pick something that can be used in a lot of different ways, or may only require a course or 2 to qualify for a different career later. His generation will not be loyal to any company. They will change jobs or careers 5 or more times during their working lives. I advised him not to get too attached to one company, and to always be looking or working on plans B, C, and D just in case.

I’ve told him the only thing holding you back in any area of your life is him. Sometimes you have to reinvent yourself when your current situation isn’t working.

Great advice!
Sherri
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