your occupation?

I work for a Real Estate Development firm... its not as exciting as it sounds.
I''m actually quitting to get my Master''s in History... but Cloke and Swampyankee aren''t helping.

There''s nothing wrong with VB.

VD on the other hand.

"el_dino" wrote:

By the way, a question for Canadians out there:

I have 8 years of experience as IT Helpdesk (direct support, hardware repairs, telephony) and should get my Associate degree (2 years school is Associate degree, right?) in Management of Information Systems by february next year. Since I have decided to try to resettle in Canada, do you guys reckon I will have problem with finding a job? I wouldn''t mind doing Help Desk, or repairing comps and such. Will I need more school when I get there to do even that? Rough sallary estimates?

Head west young man. Relatively speaking, the most robust economy in Canada is Alberta. I can tell you TELUS hires Internet Help Desk staff routinely (because of churn and growth). Starts around $13-$14 CDN/hr, then you''re able to apply on internal postings. TELUS is about 25,000 team members in size, so its a fairly large company with operations throughout Canada. If you head east, Bell (boo!) is another good choice. If you head to Montreal, we (again, TELUS) just opened a large Internet Help Desk there as well.

"Cloke" wrote:
"SwampYankee" wrote:

Stay away from personal injury and criminal defense and I''ll still play with ya!

I''d love to teach history.

But I''ve decided to bail from Grad school after this semester.

I promised myself that if the quality of life index tanked I would, and I just can''t stand the silly-assedness of my classes and my fellow students constantly trying to impress the rest of the class.

I feel you on the Grad school thing, brother. I''m supposed to be finishing my PhD in archaeology right now, but I was just so miserable spending all my time studying and writing papers that I just couldn''t take it any more. I could spend maybe 2 hours a week gaming, and that''s it.

I ended up getting a full-time position as a Web Developer at the university, and now my evenings and weekends are actually enjoyable. I haven''t quit the program officially, but I really can''t see myself going back to being a student.

I feel more than a little guilty. I want to all that I can to be there for my kids as they move into adulthood in an increasingly fooked up world. I mean, I make pretty good money now, and I can stay here as long as I can stand it. I am elibible to retire at 50% pay in 3 years 6 months, and at 42 could have a whole second career. There is the conundrum, what do I want to do when I grow up? The MS would open more choices up to me, teaching or administration in this or another agency, but If I could get a good job with just the BA and my life experience I''d do that. I''d like to get out of law enforcement. I see what happens to the guys who do it too long and I don''t like what I see and don''t want to become that.

But then, I REALLY don''t want to spend time preparing to debate Bilingual education, gay marriage, and whether or not the US causes more harm or good in the Arab world on Monday night!!!

"Sanjuro" wrote:

We attract lawyers to this site like bugs to flypaper. I''m going to law school in a couple of years, any recommendations? Anybody heard anything good about any law schools in the Southern California area in particular?

Before you lock yourself into a location, give a lot of thought to they type of student that goes to the school you want. If the school attracts lots of locals, then you''re probably going to be practicing in that area, and you''ll be well connected with the bar of that place.

If the school you go to has lots of students from a big region or around the country, you''ll have connections in lots of different places. It''s nice to hear how things are going in CA or NY or FL or DC.

And with the way the current legal market is (legal markets tend to trail the rest of the markets by a few years), it may benefit you to know people in other locations - most attorneys lateral from their first job in three to five years.

Give it some time, too. Completely anecdotal, but I heard that there''s something like 350,000 practicing lawyers in this country, but nearly 100,000 current law students. A lot of folks graduating from undergrad couldn''t find jobs so they went to law schools or other grad programs.

There''s a big flood coming, and some of the big firms are thinking about cutting their summer associate programs and not hiring first year attorneys anymore, because it''s not cost effective to raise them.

That said, I really like the practice - you got to use yer brain some.

And I finally beat Ninja Gaiden.

Considering not too long ago and I don''t meant the internet bubble, a MCSE fresh outta beta (school) started at 42K, $9.75 is an insult.

I don''t have a MCSE and I''m making almost twice that.

"spot778" wrote:

Considering not too long ago and I don''t meant the internet bubble, a MCSE fresh outta beta (school) started at 42K, $9.75 is an insult.

I don''t have a MCSE and I''m making almost twice that.

Beggars don''t get to choose much my friend. Any start is a good start, as long as it''s able to pay the rent until something better comes up.

But you and Dramatic Marlin have lifted my hopes considerably. I even saw Tech Team Leader position that isn''t at all beyond my current qualifications. Considering that by the time I actualy manage to get in Canada I will have probably full 10 years of experience (and 32 years of age, *sniff*), it shouldn''t be to rough...

Thank you gentlemen, I will do all in my power to make it possible to organize a nice barbeque or 6 for all of us as soon as possible. We Bosnians are famous for our 133t barbequing skillz...

To add some weight to Dramatic''s side of Canada, the West doesn''t place such a heavy emphasis on French 8)

"spot778" wrote:

To add some weight to Dramatic''s side of Canada, the West doesn''t place such a heavy emphasis on French 8)

I don''t intend to run away screaming from French, I''m gonna learn it no matter how long it takes. Whether I want it or not, my woman will make me anyway...

After aforementioned BBQs, no one will need to add any weight to my side of Canada. I''ll have that covered all on my own, thank you very much.

MMmm. Ribs.

"spot778" wrote:

Considering not too long ago and I don''t meant the internet bubble, a MCSE fresh outta beta (school) started at 42K, $9.75 is an insult.

I don''t have a MCSE and I''m making almost twice that.

To me and a lot of the professionals I work with MSCE and other forms of certification mean jack.

We had a guy here who decided he wanted to see how fast he could get his MSCE so he studied for 3 days, took the test, and passed. He works in freaking marketing and can barely turn his PC on.

Get a B.S., a few years of exp, and then call me. If all you have on your resume is MSCE and you expect 42k/year your going to get laughed off the planet.

Whoah, I thinks we''re talking apples and oranges here this isn''t a one test thing it''s like 6-8 or something, I may be using the wrong acronym or something.

It was for each test. Obviously there is more then one (though I don''t know how many he did..)

My mistake there Dr.Ghastly, it appears I was mis-informed.

I''m currently an editor for a major press release distribution service. Before that, I was a reporter at a small Texas daily.

"spot778" wrote:

My mistake there Dr.Ghastly, it appears I was mis-informed.

Misinformed about what?

You have to take like 3-4 tests I believe for any MS Cert. At first anyway. Once you get one or two certs you usually have the pre-req tests for the others done.

45K a year

An aerospace and defense analyst by day, violent thespian by night.