Hey, everyone! I'm currently an employee at PNC bank at the retail banking level. I do both teller and banking transactions. I'm not really happy with where I am currently. I have my associates degree in Business Administration and Marketing and will be working towards my Bachelors this coming spring semester. I know that my passion lies within Marketing Strategy, specifically within acquisition and retention but I'm feeling stuck. How did you go about finding the current job that you have now? What would you feel is a decent salary? Right now, I'm making a little over $34k a year, and I'm just not happy.
Get after that bachelors. You have to finish your undergrad, it isn’t about learning, it’s a fundamental requirement for jobs these days. Ranking doesn’t matter, worry about that later if you do an MBA.
Thank you, this is kind of the direction that I was leaning toward. I am completely in agreement with you regarding the purpose of the undergrad, I've reached a point where I just need to get it done. I do intend on pursuing my MBA down the road, so I'll have to discuss that with my advisor to find out whether there is a accelerated option while pursuing my undergrad.
Were you working when you pursued your undergrad? If so, did you work part-time or full-time?
Getting a BA/BS IS the different between 34k and 80K+. Try to balance your work right now, get into a good 4 year, get financial aid lined up, quit the job (or work it out with your employer where they might hire you back after the degree) and run with it dude.
I'm swiftly learning that lesson in life, and refuse to remain stagnant or content with my current position. I just feel as though it's going to take forever to complete, and I'll be stuck with student loan debt after the fact lol.
I have a meeting with Cleveland State University on the 6th of November. They're going to analyze my transcripts and notify me as to how many credits I will need in order to graduate, along with a course curriculum guide. I figure that I can begin the financial aid process after the discussions with the advisor.
Quit that job. Spend all the time you'd be working on finding an internship or co-op in your desired field. Even an internship in another field (still corporate) would be better. You are qualified if you go and get it. Make this goal your obsession, because that's going to give you the biggest return on investment it's the only way to jump start a corporate career at this stage (pre graduation from a bachelors degree). In the meantime, you can pick up some quantifiable hard skills for your field. I've heard of marketers using SQL to query databases for info. Maybe learning the basics of growth hacking, a/b testing, or stats would help too. All respectable things you can throw on a resume if you know your stuff Making 36k is fine now, especially if you're in a low cost of living, but if you bust your ass you can leave college with a 75-100k year a job and quickly increase that
@GilFoyle1 - great, focused plan. Did you execute similar plan, and continuing to do so in next phases of your career? Please share some more of what you have done. Would be helpful .. thx
I did not go this route, I went the traditional route, but I have been a cheerleader (and helped plan) for many people who had championed this route. Its very cool to see the awesome outcomes!
That’s great! I have great advices too from experience! Experience is what you get when you don’t what you want!
How long will the B.S. degree take? If youre already set in your career I question if more college will teach you anything you don't already know. If it's a top 10 business school go for it just for the connections, but why not talk with your manager about getting promoted or join a larger bank like GS or JPM?
It'll be about another 1.5 - 2 years before I officially complete my B.S. degree. My primary concern stems from the fact that I'm currently 26 years old, and I feel as though I should be at a different stage in my life right now. I'm dead set on my career path, I've found that I am truly passionate about the subject matter but the problem is I don't have "corporate" work experience within the field. I've owned my own businesses, I've managed restaurants, and at one point, I ran my own event promotions business for about 3 years. Although, what I've found is that my experience doesn't nearly equate to the work/life balance, compensation, and overall, lifestyle of someone such as yourself (Amazon / Eng) Unfortunately, I wouldn't be attending a top 10 business school, I would be attending something like Cleveland State University or Ohio State University. Which is the another factor that causes me to question the necessity of obtaining/pursuing further education within the industry, I'm not sure if it'll be beneficial. I'm at a point where I'm debating between: - Quitting my job, living at my parents house and pursuing my education full time - Working Full Time / going to school Full-Time (if the course schedules allow me to with my current work schedule) - Working Full Time / Studying online at a fairly unrecognized university at my own pace. -Finding a Part Time job while studying Full Time. - Actively pursuing full time job opportunities within the industry and not focusing on school
If youre only 26 another 18 months won't hurt, finish your degree but hurry it up take extra classes if need be, study instead of go out, try to get it done in 18 months. A no-name BS degree in a non-technical field really won't get you much except checking a box, these days you still have to check that box, but try to be a leader while you're checking that box, be the go-to person at that skill so you have plenty of leadership principle stories to share for when you interview at amazon. Live at your parents place to save money and finish the degree as soon as you can.