Archive for the 'Uni/Work' Category
March 30 2010: QOTW: How Much Are You Worth?
Filed under Money & Uni/Work with 6 Comments
Question of the Week: How much do you think you’re worth?
I’ve been pondering this question lately, and basically, I don’t think I’m getting paid enough for what I do. I:
- am two years out of my undergraduate degree
- am in my second year of a postgraduate degree, a Master of Human Services Management
- have proven myself to be academically gifted
- have been in the workforce for eight years – e.g. have eight years of work experience to call upon
- have proven myself in my role – showing that I have the capability of fulfilling two roles in one
- am more than dedicated and hard-working, with ten to twelve hour working days a normal thing for me
With all that in mind, I think I deserve more than my current rate of pay. Averaging my two part-time salaries, I earn $45k a year gross (with tax concessions as I work for not for profit organisations). I should be earning no less than $52k as a 23 year old, at this point in my career. It’s not an unreasonable salary – I keep a constant eye on the jobs market, and positions like my own are advertised in that salary range.
So what then? I’m asking for a significant pay rise at my annual review in June. If I don’t get it (whether it be due to budget issues or reluctance on the part of the board), I’m going to start looking for alternative jobs that will pay me what I deserve. I’ve already indicated that I will be doing so to the organisation, so they already know that if they want to keep me, they should start negotiating the budget.
I’m slightly greedy, but honestly, I didn’t pay for tertiary education (and I’m not continuing to pay for it!) just so I can continue to earn the type of money I would earn if I worked full-time in retail. It’s about time I started to earn an adult salary.
March 25 2010: Some Things…
Filed under House & Life & Money & Relationships/Men & Uni/Work with 3 Comments
Things Amanda has done recently:
- Bought an apartment
- Went to Canberra
- Started a new job (two days a week, event management)
- Celebrated a one year anniversary.
Things Amanda is doing at the moment:
- Working two jobs – new job and old job.
- Applying for a third job – weekend only positions.
- Studying for her Masters in the mornings before work, and in the evenings after work.
- Freaking out about the amount of debt she’s in.
Things Amanda will do soon:
- Explain how the fuck she managed to get into the property market.
- Write her first essay of the year.
- Find some time for herself. Maybe.
I have become exceedingly middle-aged and boring.
January 29 2010: How Does One Do This Career Thing?
Filed under Uni/Work with 32 Comments
I’d like to know how some people manage to just magically know what they want to do as a career – and then manage to pursue it and stick with it for the rest of their life.
Four years of a bachelor’s degree, one year of a Masters degree (plus two to go), and seven years of work experience in a million different fields later, I still have no fucking idea. This indecision really fucking pisses me off, considering that I’ve prided myself on my ‘adultness’ in all other aspects of my life, yet I can’t figure out what I want to spend forty hours doing each week.
Give me your insight. How do you know what’s right for you? Because right now, I’m just going off a hunch that maybe this potential upcoming career change will be right for me, but I just don’t know. How do people get that certainty about jobs and careers? Why the fuck don’t I have that one consuming passion that I can turn into a job the way others do?