This is my first post on the forums, but I am a longtime reader of the blog. I'm coming here because I have a real issue that requires situation-specific advice: I need a better job. I've come to a dead end in my search and I am looking for any and every piece of advice to help me moving forward.
Here is some background on me:
I am a 27 year old college graduate (B.A. in psychology). My GPA wasn't terrific, something in the 2.8-2.9 range. (I regret this daily.) As a student I worked in food service as a delivery driver, which was a terrible job for all of the reasons you can imagine - gas, vehicle maintenance, etc. After graduating I sold new Toyotas for a short period of time - about 5 months. That yielded much better income, but I hated the hours and I couldn't live with knowing that I was selling useless depreciating debt yachts to otherwise innocent people. So I quit, with the savings that I had accrued no backup plan.
A few terrifying and stressful months passed before I found employment again. This time I got a job as an entry-level web content writer. I worked for a company under contract by Web.com. I liked the work, but it was an overly corporate, negative environment, and I was working for $10 an hour with no overtime possibilities, no benefits, and no chance for promotion.
But I had learned some new and useful skills. I found eLance.com, a freelance website, where I made a profile and applied for one single web content creation job. I was still working with the Web.com company, and didn't expect much, but to my surprise I received an email in response to my application. A few phone conversations later and I started doing freelance work at $14.48/hour with a 20-hour cap on the work week. After a few weeks of putting in 5-10 hours and consistent positive feedback from my new freelance contractor, I felt comfortable quitting my job. My contractor assured me that there was plenty of content for me to write to get to the 20 hour a week mark. I saw this as an opportunity and quit my job to freelance full time.
Fast forward four months to the present. I'm still working with this same contractor but have been unable to secure any new jobs on Elance. I have hit my 20 hour weekly mark exactly once in that period of time - typically I average somewhere between 8 and 12 hours. The work just isn't there. Recently I have been moved from web content to writing articles about business management tactics, which I know nothing about.
It's been a frustrating transition for me. I was very good at writing website content - mostly product descriptions. I had training in that field and was confident that I knew what I was doing. Now, I'm writing this business blog and I have no idea what I'm talking about. I find myself staring at a blank LibreOffice page on my monitor, with nothing to write, and wondering how I got myself into this.
My work situation has always been a source of tension with my live-in girlfriend. When I was selling cars I was working 55 hour weeks, she was a bartender, and we never saw each other. Now she works 9-5 and I sit at home all day piddling around. She would really like to see me get a consistent job where I leave the house and interact with other people on a daily basis, and I'm starting to think that's a good idea.
The big problem is that I don't know what I can do with my skill set. I am a pretty good writer, but I have no experience or education in journalism. Apparently my one freelance contract is a fluke, as I have applied for dozens of other opportunities on Elance with no response. There are seemingly no companies in my city (Columbia, South Carolina) looking to hire entry-level web content writers. The only job opening advertised for a writer around here is the $10 an hour Web.com job that I used to have. They have made it clear to me that I could return at any time, but I am loathe to do so.
I have thought about going to school but am not sure what I would major in. Besides, the reality is that I need a job with more hours sooner than later. The situation hasn't reached critical mass just yet, as I am not ready to go back to my last job. Going backwards is the enemy here.
I want to find a new opportunity that is the next logical step on some sort of actual career path, not just another job. Unfortunately I have no idea what that opportunity might be, or if it even exists.
I don't know that I actually managed to ask a question here or even say anything that would help someone point me in the right direction, but it felt good to type this out and I'm going to post it anyway, just to see what happens. Thanks for reading.