January 4th, 2018

One of the advantages of any university are the ancillary departments to help the budding student progress. AIU offers a ‘career coach’ — someone who can help get your resume, your employment connected to your degree and generally your whole career outlook straight. No, they can’t guarantee a job, but with me wanting to stop working ‘any-old-job’ and get something closer to the new degree program (information technology), I thought this was the best path to take. 

After watching the career archive videos they offered and finding out who my specific career coach was (I had one un-utilized until now), I wrote the following letter:

###

Happy
New Year. I am a current student in AIU’s Bachelor’s
degree program in Criminal Justice. However, I recently switched to
Information Technology (specializing in Digital Investigations) and that
process is happening within the next few weeks. 

I understand you will be out
of the office until the January 5th. I thought I would submit my resume
and give you a little background about myself to get the process
rolling. I’ll be as brief as possible. 

First, the reason for the
degree program switch was an economical strategy. I am interested in
going to law school at the end of this academic journey, and I
originally signed up for Criminal Justice to get my feet
wet in a pre-law scenario (AIU doesn’t have pre-law classes). However,
after digging deep through the Advanced Career program I’m in here
(Prof001/002), it helped me come to the conclusion I can still get into a
good law school as long as my grades are solid.

But let’s say I don’t go. A
criminal justice degree will not serve me well as I have no interest in
being a cop, correctional employee or security guard. Information
Technology/Digital Investigations has a higher income
median and I can do/enjoy the work. Call it a safety measure. 

All that being my future plans, let me explain the miserable current reality:

Up until I started this degree program, I had no defined career, nor
employment related to a career that I wanted. Mostly odd jobs, retail
and a few opportunities at management (in retail). When I started the
degree program, I was working at Walmart as a department
manager for only a few short months. I was let go recently (December
27th 2017). As of this writing, I am unemployed.

The thing is, I do not want
just ‘any’ job that will hire me anymore. I want to start working in a
field in harmony with my degree program. Even if it means working my way
up. The problem I foresee is I don’t have
enough recent experience in IT to get anything. I had some experience
way in the past but I barely remember the companies and the details.
Right now, I feel I am at the best place in my life to start from square
one to get my career right with your help.

Attached is my resume. The jobs are real but the dates are wrong. In
order to fill in gaps of work history, I extended them to seem
consistent. I can’t remember the actual dates. Most were quite short.
I’m also tired of ‘fudging’ my resume on each job and want
to start over with a transparent, real quality resume.

My work history is a mess. I
know it. A true resume would be 10 pages long. I’m hoping to start over
with the work I’m putting into my academic pursuits.

Thank you and I look forward to speaking to you soon

###

I gave her the best possible full details so we can start of swinging. I’ll report details when she gets back in the office.

Meanwhile, even though I’m home, I have been productive. I started working on my wife’s website for her soap making business. I think she’s going to do very well provided she makes it a priority. I find she makes it a ‘sometimes’ second priority. I shouldn’t talk. I have a history of making anything else second priority against the ‘project of the month’. That’s what makes this unemployment kind of odd to me: I made the job my priority. I did what I believed was right for the company.

Not to harp on that again, I’m just saying the next time around will be the same quality attention to work detail but to a job that fits the career and that’s what I’m hoping the coach will help me lock down. The wait a few days doesn’t bother me.

What bothers me is my son’s birthday is coming up and I have no money to get him anything. He’s graduating high school this year and I haven’t a clue, at this moment, how to get him anything he might want. Like his first car. I would love to get them for him.

It’s a slippery slope — these thoughts of what I ‘can’t’ do — that leads to depression. Especially when I’m not working. I hate to say “I have to stop thinking about what I can’t do for my children’ in order to stay grounded, but I have to kind of ‘ignore’ them, if that makes any sense. Not necessarily ‘them’…not necessarily their ‘needs’ because he doesn’t particularly ‘need’ anything for his birthday. Or ‘need’ a car. Well, they do. Albany GA is a rural butthole and his mother still doesn’t drive. After almost 15 years or so.

Look, the perspective is set: Keep moving forward with great grades. Shift to the new degree program. Cycle into whatever you can to help prepare for the LSAT. Still pursue work closer to the degree program. Even if it means interning. Volunteer for the Southern Poverty Law Center to keep close and connected. The end will justify, and adjust, everything else.