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I don’t have any degree and in another life I worked in restaurants and at CVS. Customers would grill me about my career aspirations and straight up beg me to go to college. I got sick of it pretty quickly and sat down and asked myself what I would want in a workplace and what skills I had that I could use to do something else.
I had some freelance experience and used that to enter my current field and continued pursuing organic opportunities for growth and learning. About a year ago I started working at a company that prioritizes employee development and internal promotion and I’m in the process of gaining enough experience and connections to be able to do something new again! I definitely think it’s possible for people who don’t have a bachelor’s degree to find these opportunities; you just have to be strategic about it and get your foot in the door at the right places.
There are so many transferable skills you gain in retail and food service that are beneficial in other professional fields like communication, multi-tasking, attention to detail, etc. So you can take those and add them to whatever skills you may have gained at your current job.
Ask yourself what it is that you’re better at than anybody else, the things you would want and definitely not want in a workplace, the kind of tasks you like doing, and kind of guide your search from there. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you’re lesser than others just because you have less formalized education than they do and remember that people hire likable people they want to be around—even that will take you far! best of luck! 🍀
Sep 5, 2024
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I don’t think you need to do anything immediately, your situation sounds v stressful and disregulating though and I’m sorry you’re going through it
It might be good to slow down and remember all the things you bring to the table. I really believe that self taught knowledge/work experience isn’t lesser than knowledge gained in a classroom. I work in a field completely unrelated to my degree because people saw that I was eager to learn and they took a chance on me. You aren’t lesser because you have an associate’s degree - your path was just different! Don’t let your self critic diminish your dopeness 🫶🏻
There are also so many jobs outside of food/retail !! Trust 🙂‍↕️
Sep 5, 2024
đź’Ľ
Tbh I feel like finding a job you like is mostly self awareness and knowing that it’s still going to feel like a job
A few questions that Might help:
1. think about past work experience - who has your favorite supervisor been? Why? Same for least favorite - what did they do that you absolutely could not stand?
2. Think about morals - do you want to find ~meaning~ at work or is it more important to have stability and freetime?
3. Think about past coworkers - do you like working alone? On a team? Is it important to be around people during the work day?
4. Think about what you get satisfaction out of in your personal life - is your grocery list organized by aisle? are you the mediator in your friend group? While hobbies might play into this, try and think beyond them
try and translate some of your answers into something you’d find on a job description. Maybe this exercise won’t be helpful but thinking about work like this has helped me land in a job I like
Myself as example: I like organization, having autonomy, having my voice heard, and ~believing~ in the work I do. I also get bored at work quickly. This originally led me to social work where I quickly got burnt out With 24/7 work. I’m in continuing Ed administration where I work a 9-5 ~10 months of the year and have 1-2 very hectic months and that works really well for me.
Feb 16, 2024
đź“š
long story short, capitalism is failing (which is for the best actually!) so a lot of the systems we were told to rely on are revealing the ways in which they are ultimately unsustainable. the erosion of the high school -> undergrad degree -> lifetime career and single-income stability pipeline is a very visible example of this. our system wants you to believe that GDP is the only measure of a thriving society, so you need to become the best tool for production that you possibly can be in order to keep this number going up in perpetuity. it's totally natural for you to feel some dissonance between what's expected of you in this kind of culture and what you actually want to do. this system was not designed with the needs of the individual in mind.
our current world does a great job of convincing us that we're worthless if we aren't economically productive, if we aren't "successful," and if we aren't head-over-heels about being a cog in a machine whose only purpose is generating shareholder value. luckily, you matter as an individual inherently, and you get to define for yourself what success is and what you want to accomplish with your life. a job is only a small part of all the things you will do if you keep curious and open to the world.
with college comes the freedom to act upon the agency which you have as a human with free will. adulthood is all about reclaiming this compass for yourself and shedding the inherited narratives and expectations that your upbringing gave you if they don't actually serve to bring about your own flourishing. use college as an opportunity to get to know yourself and work your way up mazlow's pyramid of needs (or more accurately, maslow’s sailboat); find community, find hobbies, find what brings you joy now that you have the freedoms afforded you by adulthood. figure out what it is that you most enjoy doing in life and find ways to pursue that, and it doesn't have to be tied to a career/your major (that's great if it is though, count yourself lucky if that is the case).
humans are too complex and capable to be restricted to performing one type of task in one single field for their entire life. sure that's what expertise necessitates, but you don't need to be an expert in everything. the economy is weird right now because corporations are convinced by the hallucination that people come out of college being complete experts in whichever field they studied, so it can be very discouraging to feel unwanted by the job market because you don't have enough "experience." this pressure is an unrealistic expectation, and it is natural to feel as if you do not meet this expectation. the system needs to change, not you! what corporate culture fails to realize is that learning about something is not the same as doing it, and experience comes from doing. college under capitalism is a business. it's not designed to provide you experience, it's designed to maintain a tuition-paying student body. you have to seek out experience yourself.
so try new things, fail on occasion, that's how you learn. don't limit yourself to doing only things which you perceive as being productive, productivity isn't what life is about. life is about experiencing. if something interests you, do it for the sake of your own edification. you'll be a fuller and more fulfilled person for doing so, even if it doesn't leave a blip on your resume. the best things in life aren't going to show up on your transcript or your linkedin page. your dreams do not have to be defined by your career, find a dream to pursue that is true to you and then achieve it. don't fall for the lie that your dreams must relate to your profession, and that your profession defines your worth. reject any narrative that seeks to belittle you for the sake of making you compliant within a system which was not designed to benefit you.
Sep 26, 2024
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“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.”
— Anaïs Nin
This is uncharacteristically raw and personal, even for me, and pretty heavy! I know many of you have seen me posting through it and I feel safe to talk about it openly now that I’ve safely landed at the start of my new life. It’s honestly even a little bit embarrassing but I think it’s important to share.
I’ve never publicly mentioned it on here, but I have a husband; as of Friday, we’d have been together for 11 years, and we’ve been married for 3 years as of 2/22. I realize now that I wanted to explore what I looked like outside of my relationship with him because I had lost that. This is why PI.FYI has been so meaningful to me as a space to express myself and connect with people—to rediscover my voice.
I had been living a lie this entire time, to others but worst of all to myself. He’s been verbally and emotionally abusive, physically but without touching me, to the point that every day I spent with him I was in danger. I’ve been shrinking myself and walking on eggshells to avoid making him insecure and provoking his casual put-downs and fits of rage, while hanging on for dear life to the threads of good I could see.
I’ve wanted so badly to leave, more than anything, but I felt like there was no way out and that this was just something I would need to endure indefinitely—but someone who is so very dear to me helped me see that I have wings to fly, not by acting as my savior but by reminding me of my own power. The emotional safety they built and the gentle care they showed me made me feel like I could open up to them. With their encouragement I was brave enough to tell the truth to my friends, my family, my boss, and they have received me with warm, loving and open arms and rallied to support and protect me. The financial and logistical aspects were the most intimidating to me and it’s going to be tough for a while but I’m going to be better than okay!
Now I’m opening up to you. This isn’t the only abuse I’ve suffered in my life, and my old therapist told me she believed it was my mission to share my strength and light with others to inspire them and show them that change is possible.
I hope that by sharing this, I can reach even just one person who is going through something similar and show that they are not alone, and they are not weak. People with certain backgrounds may be more vulnerable to abuse, but it can happen to anyone. It thrives in darkness, shame, and isolation—and breaking that silence is the first step toward freedom.
Leaving is the scariest thing I have ever done but I have so many angels around me, and I am endlessly grateful. Thank you for being here with me đź’Ś
Mar 16, 2025
My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebody—be it a relative or one of my best friends—was to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too 💌
Feb 23, 2025
Schedule sent my resignation email for the morning, effective immediately âś…đź’…
Feb 27, 2025