I heard you on NPR about a week ago and I think you could help my son.

He needs to talk to someone with the common sense you have about career planning. He graduated Brown and has worked in [entertainment companies]. He had great ideas but by the time the upper echelons could decide on his ideas– some other faster minds in smaller, less corporate settings got there first.

Can you suggest a coach in the Los Angeles who has the same ideas as you who can talk some sense to him before he decides to go back to school for a masters in business? I think that he really just needs to find his niche. He is creative and very personable. He is now 30. His last job was six figures but that corporate world is not for him.

Thank you for your help.

I have never had the compunction you have for creating businesses and being an entrepreneur and all of that…but maybe I need to do that anyway to be more financially successful. I grew up just wanting to be a part of the entertainment industry – which I have been for 10 years. That’s my bliss. But I listen to you and other successful entrepreneurs and business oriented people who are making big money and I think “Why can’t I have been born with their innate sense of business sense and wealth accumulation?” I admire you for your success and sense of how to earn money. I want to earn 45K/year and have health insurance – something which is becoming increasingly more difficult to do in the US
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Should I just go to business school and get the MBA even though that is not my passion but will ultimately provide (theoretically the means to an end)?

My husband and I married young and, while he worked and graduated college, I chose to stay home with our kids. We both agreed being home was best for our family, but I wanted more challenge (and money) than that offered, so I opened a home-based child care. I have been doing this for the past 8 years, quite successfully. While I have enjoyed the job and feel like I’m good at it, I am, once again, ready to move onto something more challenging (not to mention, I would really like my house back).

My question is this:
I am about to quit and go back to school. I have been looking forward to going back to school for many years but, honestly, I don’t have any idea what I want to do.  I don’t feel like I have the luxury of time because my goal is to get a degree and get me back into the job market as quickly as possible, but I want a job that will be stimulating and useful. My husband keeps saying just having ANY degree is the goal… is that true?

 

I know I probably don’t have to go back to school, however it’s always been an issue for me (and my parents) that I never finished. And my husband and I currently have the means to send me back.

We married young and we decided that I’d stay home with the kids. But it wasn’t enough for me so I started a small child care business on the side. Now I want to do something more, but the problem is that I don’t want to spend two years finishing school just to realize I can’t find a job anyway. Do you really think finding a job is that easy without at least a bachelors degree?

I’m not below waiting tables (I’ve worked a lot of service jobs).  I just don’t have any desire to be a 50-year-old waitress. I guess I always assumed bachelors degree=better access to jobs=better pay. Is this not the case anymore?

Have I been out-of-the-loop that long? Won’t I be competing, at every level, with kids that have way more college than I do? Even our local barista has an MFA (I’m not really sure who’s point I’m proving now).