I’m coming up on almost a full year of unemployment, which is discouraging as well as boring beyond belief. For those of you who haven’t been in this situation, be very grateful. I know I didn’t appreciate how demoralizing it can be to apply for jobs for which I’m fully suited only to have my applications apparently fall into a black hole of oblivion. I’d almost rather have a negative response than no response at all.
To be honest, I haven’t seen lots of job openings. Generally when companies have to cut their budgets, training and development groups are the first to go so not only are new jobs not created, even the existing jobs tend to get cut. I’ve gone weeks with no suitable jobs coming up in my searches.
So I am looking into getting another graduate degree. When I earned my MS, I had originally planned to get an MA in counseling but learned about the degree I did get, which is in industrial/organizational psychology. I thought it would be a good degree to have because I could build on my 10 years of corporate experience, and also satisfy my strong desire to help people deal with stresses, just in a work environment.
The few projects I’ve been able to do in my field have been very satisfying, but alas the work has petered out—which is why I am rethinking the decision to not pursue counseling as a profession. I know the money won’t be great but as Kent has told me, job satisfaction counts for a lot.
In my heart of hearts, I’d prefer to get the PscychD which is a PhD in counseling (not clinical psych). I found one program but holy cow, I don’t know if I can swing the cost of three years of full time school (16 credit hours a semester) at $900 a credit hour. That’s about $30,000 a YEAR or almost $100,000 for that PhD. So I am also looking at the MAs in counseling.
If you are the praying kind, I’d take your prayers as I try to make a wise decision about how to best prepare for what I probably should have done three years ago. If you aren’t the praying kind but have advice for me, feel free to share your advice.
1 comment:
Some thoughts -if you don't get out of the house to do something positive for yourself, you'll need counseling (Ha) and spend a lot on that - so, go for it if you and Kent can work it all out. Julie
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