I’m in need of some career advice, on how to increase my income.
My situation:
I am a buyer at a retail store (basically a desk job, I do ordering, quality control, that kind of thing. Phone calls and paperwork, mostly). Last year I grossed $39,495, and take-home pay, after takes, insurance premiums, 401k, FSA, etc, was $27,735. Some of that was quarterly “bonuses,” the amount of which being something I have no control over. It’s related to profits earned by items sold, and I don’t do selling. Anyway, my average paycheck is $937, bi-weekly. So a little over $23,000 take home that I can absolutely count on.
I also have a part time job, where I earned over 8k last year. I don’t enjoy it, but I’m saving for a house.
I kind of want to know what are my options for finding a better-paying day job. I want to be earning at least $50k, but I am afraid it may be out of my reach. I don’t particularly enjoy my work (meaning some days I rather hate it), but sadly, I do think I am paid reasonably well for the kind of work I am qualified to do. Most entry-level clerical type jobs advertised right now are paying $25 – $30k (gross), which is where I’d be starting at if I were to go to another company, and what I did start at, 7 years ago, at my current company.
I don’t think I have many particularly specialized skills. Like most everyone in Gen-Y, my computer skills are quite good, but I’m not what you would call a “people person.” I’d never make it in sales or customer service. At my age (almost 30), I hate to contemplate the idea of going back to school, my student loans are paid off, and my near-future goals are to buy a house and start a family.
Can anyone tell me where to even start looking for a job with that kind of earning potential, that doesn’t require specialized degrees? I have a B.A. in Spanish, but promptly moved to an area with NO Spanish speaking people to be with my (now ex-)husband when I graduated college at age 20, and over the subsequent decade, basically lost my grasp of the language. I no longer even have an interest in it. Massive waste of my college years, I know.
Is there a field of study that I can take that will increase my earning potential to that level, without requiring several years’ income to pay for it?