what do y'all do for a living?/looking for career advice

[Damp]

i imagine a good portion of the people of this forum got their jumpstart in IT/programming/graphic design related stuff which with the degree might not be applicable here, maybe.

looking for career advice honestly towards anything, in general.

i dropped out of college and worked as a substitute teacher for about 1 year, now have been working as a inside sales rep for a small pharmaceutical business for close to 3 years. have a pretty good book of clients, learned B2B sales, merchandising, relationship management, and a whole host of other sales related skills that I should be doing a better job listing on my resume. I meet my performance and monthly goals pretty consistently, and the pay is just good enough to stick around. however, i've found at the small company I work at that vertical progression is almost non-existent, and if i'm sure of one thing, it's that I don't want to be in sales for the rest of my time. feeling pretty stuck, and worried that it's starting to look bad how long i've been with this company with no on paper progression

is there any career or even life related advice towards your own personal job development you could share? i know that business, management, and finance are in my realm of interests. not opposed to going back to school either, just would have to make some finances and regime changes

[Ad Bot]

[Rigel]

If you can do the free harvard IT course and pass the $200 test at the end, you can just lie about having an actual degree. When the AI doesn't double check whether your degree is real, you're in the door and you're going to much more tech literate than most anyone in the building. If anyone does find out later, you will hopefully be considered so useful that they won't care that you lied.

[mod-man]

idk if its applicable to you but ive been a digital designer for the past 9 years and just recently became a marketing director for one company and a lead designer for another. ive worked from small businesses in my local town to universal studios and white house staff members.

number 1 (which i assume does not apply to OP but to you reading): if you're into art or any art profession whatsoever. do not go to college. if you're in college for art drop out immediately unless there is incentive to keep you there or you're so autistic you need that kind of "keep you in line" mentality to make anything of yourself. art college is for people who need to be convinced by someone bigger than them that they're actually good at it. i never went to college cause i realized how fake and gay it was for both normal people and art people and it may not be you but i know there are plenty of artists (that went to art college. i saved one of them to be my colleague at a company once and now he has his own career) that would kill to have a career like me

number 2: networking is the most paramount skill below your talent. i think this applies to every job possible but especially in my field: learn how to talk to people, and be relatable, and be as socially acceptably invasive with your stuff as possible. be likeable and be someone people want to associate themselves with. if i stood next to all the people ive worked with, you'd say "theres no way" but there is a way as long as you aren't gay or an idiot. its not hard to associate with opportunity as long as you're willing to not let your feelings or personal thoughts get in the way.

number 3: if you are good at what you do, own it and accept it and be proud of it. when the art thread on this forum was popping, i used to see so many losers post *great art*, and by that i mean it genuinely was good. the anatomy was correct, color theory was fine, everything about it was worth showing off if it just wasn't some furry cub diaper special interest stuff. the person posting it would say some friend nonsense like "i made this piece of stuff today..." like, own your stuff. admit you're good at what you do i dont care how gay it is just admit you're good at it. you kneecap yourself so hard by not admitting it because it gives you no confidence and therefore you reach out to no one and aren't able to do anything.

yknow what maybe i should just quote myself from 2016:

have confidence in the work you do. no amazing artist starts out amazing (i mean, some do, but not enough to make it the norm). they had to endure criticism and negativity just like literally every other artist in the world.  and when you finally do become an amazing artist? its okay to admit you're amazing. part of being an amazing artist is developing an eye for the good and bad in not only the work around you, but your own work as well

also AI is only going to ruin your career if you're bad at what you do. AI is here to stay and either figure out how to use it to your advantage or die. its your fault if AI usurps you. AI is literally garbage. if that usurps you that means you're bad at what you do and you need to fix it.

[Ladios]

edit: original post was very long winded, basically, community college is a relatively cheap way to pivot careers and it's never too late to go back to school

[Sheepocalypse]

I was a contractor for NASA for a bit, not kidding. Not crazy high level work but I was able to design some small stuff that will put people on the moon in a few years.

Currently work in nuclear doing something similar. I only have a 2 year degree at a community college.

[carolcat]

semi-seconding what modman said: networking is super important in the career field. i got my current job by having a network, got a colleague a good offer at my job because he was in my network, etc. knowing people is hella important