Big career change - please advise!

amother

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 12:22 pm

Hi Y'all. I am a full time graphic designer with many years of experience. I work full time and make under 30k. While appreciative that I have a job, this low income doesn't work for me anymore. My husband works and we have a growing family and simply need more money to pay the bills. I'm not sure this line of work even really offers me that much more income down the line, even if I switch to a different employer.

I've been debating switching to an entirely different career, but I'm not trained for anything else. Therefore, I was thinking of Medical Secretary. They can earn in the 40k's and don't require much training.

Thoughts? Is anyone out there a medical secretary and can tell me about it? Or have any other career ideas that I can investigate?

Thanks

amother

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 5:13 pm

OP, I am confused as to why a full-time graphic designer with years of experience is making less than $30k? I work full time as a designer and I make just under $50k, and I have 5-6 years of experience. Are you freelancing? I know that full-time jobs are harder to come by in this field, but they are not non-existent. Perhaps you should get some more training in a field you're already familiar with - say, web or app design - and look for a better paying job.

amother

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 5:37 pm

OP Here. nope, I'm not freelancing, I work full time for a company, and I have 8 years of experience.

Anonymous 50k-er - you make a good point. I am considering that as well. Do you mind answering any of these questions... Do you work for a Jewish or nonJewish company? What state or county even? do you have a specialty? What are your responsibilities?

TIA

amother

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 8:35 pm

amother wrote:

I work for a non-Jewish company OOT. I would prefer not to give my location. I used to work in NY when I was a student/fresh out of college and I know the pitiful salaries they give designers at Jewish places, but below $30k seems incredibly low. Even at my lowest paying job while I was an intern I was making $15/hour. So at my lowest point, I was still making around $31k. How are they getting away with paying you so poorly? Besides experience, do you have any sort of professional schooling or credentials?

Either way, when I moved OOT after I got married I purposefully looked for a job at a "real" company, not a Jewish place. I b'H get a good salary and benefits. I worked for a large company as their in-house graphic designer. But when I was interviewing for jobs, the salaries offered at all sorts of design firms/ad agencies/etc were around $45k to start.

I am responsible, in conjunction with my marketing director, for all the emails, advertising, websites, online advertising, promotional items, and company event materials. I pretty much do everything. What do you do at your job?

B'H for this job, it's really my dream job. But I did go to college and get a degree and spent two years as an intern to gain experience. One of my pet peeves is designers who "learn on the fly" or go to a place like Machon L'Parnossa and expect to have the same design capabilities - and therefore, compensation - as someone who was educated in a professional setting. I've posted extensively on this topic on this site.

amother

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 11:15 pm

OP here - Thanks for all that info about your job situation. It really sounds great, and gives me a clue about other graphic design jobs.

As for me, I majored (college) in graphic design and graduated with honors. My current job responsibilities include communicating with clients, designing emails, marketing materials of all sorts, packaging, logos, pretty much anything graphic design that is required for a large range of clientele needs, and also training new staff. We have a separate web department that I overlap a little into.

amother

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 11:22 pm

amother wrote:

OP! This is criminal!! How are they getting away with paying you so little!? ("50k" amother here btw). You do so much!!! Do you work for some shady heimishe place?!? Seriously you should be making way more than you are. What's the deal?

amother

Tue, Oct 08 2013, 11:09 am

I work for a well known Jewish organization. I have been there for a long time. I see now that there is no sign of climbing up the ladder there, so to speak. All this time I have been thankful to have a job, but recently I've had a wake up call and am now trying to change my situation. Again, thanks for your input and outrage at my job! It's nice to know I'm not crazy! I wish I could somehow make my bosses see this thread Twisted Evil

amother

Tue, Oct 08 2013, 10:08 pm

sunlight wrote:

Sorry, don't get it. What's a medical secretary? Transcriber? A secretary in a medical facility?

A Day in a Medical Secretary's Life:

On a typical day a medical secretary's tasks might include:

answering telephones
scheduling appointments
routing phone calls to appropriate staff
taking messages
typing correspondence
preparing financial reports
transcribing written information
greeting patients
helping patients complete intake forms
completing insurance forms
receiving laboratory results and routing them to appropriate staff
maintaining medical files
communicating with insurance companies
communicating with the offices of other healthcare providers
maintaining inventory of forms and supplies
preparing bills
coordinating staff members' schedules
receiving payment from patients

sunlight

Tue, Oct 08 2013, 10:23 pm

amother wrote:

sunlight wrote:

Sorry, don't get it. What's a medical secretary? Transcriber? A secretary in a medical facility?

Wow, is there one person that does ALL that? In the facility that I work, I do some of those and other women do the other work. Like, one women is head of staffing, one does admissions, one is a receptionist etc...