Career Counselor - anyone gone to one?

[GY]

So, how'd you like the SY Valley?

[UstadKhanAli]

I LOOOOOOVED it!!!!! So beautiful and peaceful. Yeah, absolutely loved it!!! You live in a gorgeous area. You saw my photos then? Do you live in the town of Santa Ynez?

[GY]

Hi Ken. I'm on the West end of the valley near the river. It's an okay place for now... getting too populated. Small towns have their problems and sometimes worse than the big ones. If you find yourselves up here again, shoot me an email. We may have spoken about this before... I escaped LA 17 years ago. I occasionally have to make a trip down there, but I'd rather do that than live there. Good luck with your quest.

 

GY

[nice keetee]

I'm considering going to a career counselor. I've never been to one before. Anyone have any experiences with one? Or know a good career counselor in the L.A. area? I'm growing increasingly dissatisfied with my main job, which is a Sp. Ed. Teacher for the severely developmentally delayed. And there's several reasons for this. The field is growing increasingly litigous, which results in tons of paperwork and documentation, something I don't find appealing. This seems to increase exponentially as I continue working. What I once felt was fun is growing increasingly tense, litigious, conservative, and laden with paperwork. I'm happy teaching, not doing all the other BS that comes with it. I'm interested in interacting with more creative people, and doing something that is more creative and hopefully more fulfilling. I'm not sure exactly what. Obviously, I love recording music, but it doesn't have to be that necessarily. I make some doing this, enough to get some new equipment and finance my exotic summer trips, so not bad, but hardly a career right now. Does Glyn Johns want to adopt me? I love photography, but usually only make a few hundred dollars a year doing this. Working a different sort of Sp. Ed. job? Working in a different country? Different area? Do I just simply need to get out of Los Angeles? I don't know. I've worked in education before I even graduated college, so I don't really know any other field very well. I just thought it might help to talk to someone, if only to get a few ideas that I may otherwise overlook.

I wish I had the easy answer for you. Worked 19 years in special needs people 5-19 years old whilst music calmed the pain for awhile. Am adrift now...

[nat whilk II]

Just a heads-up about a physical therapy career. Nothing wrong with the career, I'm sure it's a great way to help people, but the way a lot of people go about trying to get established in the field gets them nowhere.

 

In specific terms, there are zillions of people who get the training and certificate(s) and after working for someone for a little while, try to set up on their own and run their own small physical therapy business. It sounds very attractive - be your own boss, set your own hours, all that. While I'm sure there is a small percentage of people who pull this off successfully, I can't tell you how many people I've seen fail at trying to run their own PT business.

 

So this is just a friendly word of advice - don't rush into PT self-employment - take your time, work for someone else, preferably a larger, well-established organization, build a network and a bunch of regular clientele BEFORE launching off on your own. And then, if you do launch out on your own, you need to be head and shoulders better at business and your own work discipline/ethic than the crowd in order to make a go of it.

 

I'm sure it can be done and done well - it just seems to be that the average person who attempts it is not able to pull it off.

 

nat whilk ii