[SpecialK]

Being unemployed has a benefit - free time.

Looking for jobs is an exercise in frustration with the online "assessments" (read my rant elsewhere), or finally getting an interview for a job that pays near minimum wage ($10 per hour) and may be less than 40 hours a week. That does not cover my $1200 mortgage.

In 22 years at my previous job I never learned any transferable hard skills. So, to increase my potential to get a higher-paying job, I am going back to school for a Business Information Worker certificate which takes 6-9 months.

Today I start (online only) Business English, and starting tomorrow, in the classroom, Keyboarding 1 which is a fancy way to say "typing". The core classes are Microsoft Office and Excel - just about any office job requires it, more "keyboarding", and "Office Procedures".

I was an English whiz and grammar nazi growing up so I don't foresee a major problem other than following the normal practices for "; , :" etc. With years of informal internet communication, those details may be interesting - luckily I've never descended to tweets. SMH.

I've hunt-and-pecked for 40+ years, so starting over with typing is truly going to be teaching an old dog new tricks. Not optimistic on it.

Spent almost $500 between enrollment, books and parking. I hope it pays off eventually.

Woof!

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Last edited by SpecialK; 04-06-2017 at 01:23 AM.

[savoche]

It's definitely never too late to learn. It does take some extra work, though, especially in the beginning as you have to freshen up the "learning muscle". You need some determination and perseverance to get over that first hurdle or two, then it will start getting easier. And I believe building skills is the way to go - if nothing else it demonstrates the ability and willingness to learn new stuff. In today's world the ability to learn is becoming a skill in itself.

I'm with you on the looking for jobs experience. It's darned hard work, and really demotivating with the negative replies (or no reply at all). If you get to interviews that is mentally exhausting, too. It can be really difficult not to lose hope and to keep the process going. For me it has helped a lot with good old stubbornness, something I have always had a good supply of...

Just keep at it, and the best of luck!

[SpecialK]

Just keep at it, and the best of luck!

Thank you for your support :-)

[pakinjapan]

in the classroom, Keyboarding 1 which is a fancy way to say "typing". The core classes are Microsoft Office and Excel - just about any office job requires it, more "keyboarding", and "Office Procedures".

Last year, my wife took a similar class after loose a job that she had been working for nearly 15 years too. She knew almost nothing about MS Office and can hardly type. After just 4 month into the class, she can help me solve some MS Excel problem and her typing speed improved a lot. The key is practice whenever you have time. Hang in there and I hope you get a new job offer soon.

[Unregistered User 8]

Never too late to learn - or is it?

I don't believe age is a barrier to learning SpecialK. 2 types of people spring to mind for me - people that want to learn, and the ones who already know it all !! Very glad to hear that you have not taken your retrenchment lying down. Best of luck to you with the course.

[SpecialK]

I don't believe age is a barrier to learning SpecialK.

Thanks. It's the breaking bad habits that is worrisome.

[Digitalis]

It's the breaking bad habits that is worrisome.

Being aware of them helps. trying to change all of them at once is setting yourself up for failure, it is better to focus on one habit over a month or two.

[SpecialK]

This is week 5 of 8 in both my classes.

So far in Business English I have earned 189 out of 195 points. At least 2 of the dings were just stupid mistakes while taking the online test at 2 AM. Frankly, much of what is being taught ("participles" and "objective case", for instance) was never taught to me in high school. In fact, my high school French teacher asked us if she had to teach us English before she taught us French. (She did). I also learned I have been doing a couple things wrong essentially forever - I would not use a comma in "The big, red ball rolled down the hill." (Sorry to those people I have "corrected" over the years), and I use a hyphen after "pre" before a vowel, such as "pre-existing". Should be "preexisting".

Keyboarding (or typing) is going OK, though I usually fade after about 1 hour of the 2-1/2 hour class. It is sort of painful, and we are reminded to stretch and flex once in a awhile. The numerals on the top row have been the focus the past couple days. They really slow things down and are frustrating. It's all about practice, though.

[Kerrowdown]

Never too late to learn - or is it?

Firstly I wish you a speedy resolution to securing a suitably paid job.

For me it's not the learning that's the problem... it's the remembering of what I learnt that's tricky.

[micromacro]

This is ridiculous : the native speaker grammar nazi, the photographer has some doubts about learning business English and MC Office with Excel!
Seriously, it's not a big deal for you. Photography is more complicated than that!
As for typing, I learned "blind typing" online, from two fingers to ten. First days I wanted to crash the monitor, keyboard and kill someone. It's not easy to start, but with practice it goes better and better.
And yes, I was around 40+ when I learned blind typing.
You can do all you want, trust me.

[p38arover]

I use a hyphen after "pre" before a vowel, such as "pre-existing". Should be "preexisting".

Not necessarily. See Hyphens | Punctuation Rules Hyphens with Prefixes and Suffixes

Rule 3. For clarity, many writers hyphenate prefixes ending in a vowel when the root word begins with the same letter.

Example:
ultra-ambitious
semi-invalid
re-elect

[jpzk]

Quote: Rule 3. For clarity, many writers hyphenate prefixes ending in a vowel when the root word begins with the same letter.
Example:
ultra-ambitious
semi-invalid
re-elect

No wonder I had trouble when I first spotted this: "noone" instead of "no one" ! No hyphen but still ... !

@SpecialK: I wish you all the best in finding new employment.

From a guy who just HAD TO go online and take a now obligatory (and tough) "continuing education" course even if I am only a couple of years from retirement.
That was quite painful !

[SpecialK]

Not necessarily. See Hyphens | Punctuation Rules Hyphens with Prefixes and Suffixes

Not for "pre" according to the book I am using to get a grade :-)

[p38arover]

In 2002, after 37 years with a telco (ending as a Principal Technical Officer), I took redundancy but, as I knew the redundancy was coming, I spent a bit of time looking for another job. I wanted a change so didn't even look at telecoms. My son was working as a signaller on the railways (might be called a dispatcher in the USA) so I applied for job as a trainee signaller - and got it.

So I finished with my long-time employer on Friday and started with the railway on Monday at their training college. After finishing training, I stayed with them for 8 years working in signal boxes before retiring.

[gaweidert]

I was 48 when the Great Yellow Box Company laid me off in 1998 after 24 years service. Took me nine months (worked part time at Autozone in the interim) but I landed a job doing field service for a company called Creo (By far the best company I ever worked for) in Burnaby, BC. Didn't have to relocated but I did a lot of driving over most of new York State. After 5 years, the Great Yellow Box Company purchased Creo. so I spent the remaining 12 years of my career doing field service for them. Retired in May 12016. Kind of liking it. No real pension, but my 401(k) and IRA are picking up the slack.