Official Financial Management and Career Advice Thread

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Spider-Aziz

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Seek help in your occupation and your financial decisions? Hypsters can back each other up, everyone has a story to share, with a great story comes a great advice

Financial management will probably take over this discussion, but if anyone needs a career advice, there is always someone dependable to help, right?

Does 97 cents behind a price in dollars indicate a discount?
 
Thanks for creating this thread!

I'm interested in getting others' insight and advice on my plan to change careers. My background is in Human Resources (and Higher Education), and I'm looking to transition to Graphic/Web Design. I've begun a certification course at a local community college, and I'm also using free online resources like Codecademy to build my skill set.

What would you recommend to further build my skill set? Also (and most importantly), how can I parlay my new knowledge base into a job?

I'm will use LinkedIn and my current professional contacts to identify potential career opportunities. I've also signed up for a few coding/design groups on Meetup. I will consider freelance gigs and internships. What other avenues should I consider when making this transition?

Many thanks in advance my friends!
 
Roth 401K vs Traditional 401K
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/25/pf/expert/roth-401k/

Many companies are starting to offer employees Roth 401Ks. Like Roth IRAs, you pay taxes on earnings on front, but no taxings when taking out money. Given how volatile tax situation is nowadays, Roth may be be better retirement tool. You need to have good idea what income you anticipate having now versus retirement and where you think you'll be living now versus retirement.
 
blknrdcllctv said:
Thanks for creating this thread!

I'm interested in getting others' insight and advice on my plan to change careers. My background is in Human Resources (and Higher Education), and I'm looking to transition to Graphic/Web Design. I've begun a certification course at a local community college, and I'm also using free online resources like Codecademy to build my skill set.

What would you recommend to further build my skill set? Also (and most importantly), how can I parlay my new knowledge base into a job?

I'm will use LinkedIn and my current professional contacts to identify potential career opportunities. I've also signed up for a few coding/design groups on Meetup. I will consider freelance gigs and internships. What other avenues should I consider when making this transition?

Many thanks in advance my friends!
Click to expand...
I have a background in biology and also moving into graphic/web design, although I'm aiming more toward strategy and user experience design rather than coder/pixel pusher.

Tip #1: Make something. Learning code and design theory is all well and good, but you have to apply it. People won't even care if you have a degree or certificate as long as you can do the work. In fact, I tried Codeacademy and got bored because I didn't have a project I was directly applying it to. :funny: I learn best if I have a project and have bitten off more than I can chew, then I learn the skills needed to get up to the level I want. The TDK viral marketing site in my sig? That was my very first website. My very first foray into information architecture was handling a site with 450+ pages in it. My first foray into CSS was making that dropdown menu. That's very advanced stuff (and frankly kind of insane), but I learned to do it because I had to. I definitely advise making something before anything else. You will learn best by doing.

Tip #2: Let your friends know you're looking for gigs. I got two of my steady freelancing gigs from friends. Both had been doing the job originally, but became too busy to keep it up, so they passed it onto me. Referrals are by far the best way to get work, and both clients are super-happy to have ended up with me.

Tip #3: Attend Meetups that are NOT directly about design. Design can be used for anything, which is why it's so versatile and also makes looking for gigs kind of unwieldy. You do have to specialize a bit, just to be able to focus. Do you want to make ecommerce sites? Sites for small businesses? Sites for non-profits? Sites for yoga studios? I even know of a thriving business that makes websites just for nursing homes. Decide and then attend Meetups or business meetings that are about that.

Also, it helps if you are actually the only designer in the room, instead of 1 of 100 who are also looking for jobs. :oldrazz: (Now I only go to design or UX-related Meetups if there's a talk and I'd actually learn something. The happy hours, not so much...) I want to go into healthcare, so I decided to start attending health IT meetups, and in my very first one, I met someone who was a healthcare lawyer as well as programmer and have done some pretty cool portfolio-worthy projects with her since then. We even placed at a hackathon last weekend and won some money. :awesome:

Tip #4: Make friends with people in your industry. Kick butt in your classes (you never know who in your class might have a job for you later), volunteer at design meetups you go to, and be eager to learn. I'm not too great at in-person schmoozing (hence the reluctance to go to happy hours), but I'm very good online, as you may have noticed. :cwink: Twitter is a godsend. I can talk to whoever and if they like what I say, I can get a conversation going. In my graphic design classes at my community college, they were always bowled over by what sort of graphic design resources I knew of, and I get them all from Twitter. I'm learning most of my health IT and user experience design through Twitter. If it's technology-based, there WILL be some big players active on Twitter and you should start following them ASAP.

Also, I've learned a craaazy amount and met some awesome people by doing hackathons. One of them was a website-building hackathon where I was project manager for some reason, and everyone else in my group was a working web designer or developer, and I learned SO much from them, you can't imagine. And now they know me as a pretty cool person, which is never a bad thing. :yay:




My journey hasn't quite ended, because I haven't yet found a full-time job in user experience. But I'll be finishing my last class in user experience in the next two months, and I have quite a lot of things to organize in my portfolio and I'll be hitting up my Twitter friends for advice about job interviews. I have had some interviews, but they didn't pan out yet. But the fact I even got a foot in the door is definitely a step forward.

For TL;DR, make stuff, make friends, be eager to learn. :yay:
 
Last edited:
Here's a simple rule to live by: a credit card is not your money. You are merely borrowing it. It must be paid back.
 
Anita18 said:
I have a background in biology and also moving into graphic/web design, although I'm aiming more toward strategy and user experience design rather than coder/pixel pusher.

Tip #1: Make something. Learning code and design theory is all well and good, but you have to apply it. People won't even care if you have a degree or certificate as long as you can do the work. In fact, I tried Codeacademy and got bored because I didn't have a project I was directly applying it to. :funny: I learn best if I have a project and have bitten off more than I can chew, then I learn the skills needed to get up to the level I want. The TDK viral marketing site in my sig? That was my very first website. My very first foray into information architecture was handling a site with 450+ pages in it. My first foray into CSS was making that dropdown menu. That's very advanced stuff (and frankly kind of insane), but I learned to do it because I had to. I definitely advise making something before anything else. You will learn best by doing.

Tip #2: Let your friends know you're looking for gigs. I got two of my steady freelancing gigs from friends. Both had been doing the job originally, but became too busy to keep it up, so they passed it onto me. Referrals are by far the best way to get work, and both clients are super-happy to have ended up with me.

Tip #3: Attend Meetups that are NOT directly about design. Design can be used for anything, which is why it's so versatile and also makes looking for gigs kind of unwieldy. You do have to specialize a bit, just to be able to focus. Do you want to make ecommerce sites? Sites for small businesses? Sites for non-profits? Sites for yoga studios? I even know of a thriving business that makes websites just for nursing homes. Decide and then attend Meetups or business meetings that are about that.

Also, it helps if you are actually the only designer in the room, instead of 1 of 100 who are also looking for jobs. :oldrazz: (Now I only go to design or UX-related Meetups if there's a talk and I'd actually learn something. The happy hours, not so much...) I want to go into healthcare, so I decided to start attending health IT meetups, and in my very first one, I met someone who was a healthcare lawyer as well as programmer and have done some pretty cool portfolio-worthy projects with her since then. We even placed at a hackathon last weekend and won some money. :awesome:

Tip #4: Make friends with people in your industry. Kick butt in your classes (you never know who in your class might have a job for you later), volunteer at design meetups you go to, and be eager to learn. I'm not too great at in-person schmoozing (hence the reluctance to go to happy hours), but I'm very good online, as you may have noticed. :cwink: Twitter is a godsend. I can talk to whoever and if they like what I say, I can get a conversation going. In my graphic design classes at my community college, they were always bowled over by what sort of graphic design resources I knew of, and I get them all from Twitter. I'm learning most of my health IT and user experience design through Twitter. If it's technology-based, there WILL be some big players active on Twitter and you should start following them ASAP.

Also, I've learned a craaazy amount and met some awesome people by doing hackathons. One of them was a website-building hackathon where I was project manager for some reason, and everyone else in my group was a working web designer or developer, and I learned SO much from them, you can't imagine. And now they know me as a pretty cool person, which is never a bad thing. :yay:




My journey hasn't quite ended, because I haven't yet found a full-time job in user experience. But I'll be finishing my last class in user experience in the next two months, and I have quite a lot of things to organize in my portfolio and I'll be hitting up my Twitter friends for advice about job interviews. I have had some interviews, but they didn't pan out yet. But the fact I even got a foot in the door is definitely a step forward.

For TL;DR, make stuff, make friends, be eager to learn. :yay:
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the tips. First and foremost, you ARE my friend now. I'll send you a PM so we can exchange info.

You are dead on with everything you shared. I definitely need to start applying what I'm learning, and of course I need to really make some connections.

Really, I appreciate your insight. It means quite a bit.
 
blknrdcllctv said:
Thank you so much for the tips. First and foremost, you ARE my friend now. I'll send you a PM so we can exchange info.

You are dead on with everything you shared. I definitely need to start applying what I'm learning, and of course I need to really make some connections.

Really, I appreciate your insight. It means quite a bit.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear! :up: I told my husband I should be a life coach if this whole thing doesn't work out somehow. :funny: I love mentoring people, as if my perpetual stake in the relationship thread here isn't obvious. :oldrazz:


To everyone: I really have to re-emphasize doing your best in whatever you choose to do. No matter what it is, people always admire quality of work and dedication. And of course, team players are always welcome. :yay: Like, the classes I'm taking don't even show grades on the transcript, but I'm doing my very best and one instructor referred me to a friend she has at Sony (!!!) who's hiring. I'm in the middle of doing the whole job application thing so whooo knows whether I'll actually get the gig, but holy crap, you know?

And one guy who really liked the work I did at that random hackathon wants to take me on as a contractor. :word: If you can't afford school or networking groups, hackathons are a great way to show off what you got to people who might own companies who need your expertise. I know of a few folks who switched to web development careers that way. Definitely recommend them, and they're usually free too. And you get free food. :awesome:
 
Any Hypers here in IT or an IT-related field?

I have to interview a few people for my programming class. It's just a few questions (< 10) and I would be forever grateful. PM me if you're willing and able.

Thanks!
 
Any opinions on investing money? I don't have much money to play with, so a few hundred dollars max. I lean toward playing it safe with my money but I'm open to hearing different ideas.
 
invest in mutual funds for retirement. Invest little bit in gold and silver to hedge stock market crashes.
 
I'm not familiar with mutual funds, though I've heard of them. Care to school a brother?

I do have a bit of silver tucked away though.
 
A mutual fund is basically a pool or "portfolio" of various stocks, bonds, and other securities managed by a professional fund manager. Mutual funds usually are less risky/volatile than buying individual stocks because of diversification (spreading your money across an industry is generally safer than one individual stock because industry can "balance" itself out). Of course, the mutual funds has very small fees that are deducted to pay for the fund management, usually like 0.5% or less, but read fine print.

Brokerages like Fidelity, Vanguard, TD Ameritrade, T Rowe Price, Wells Fargo, other investment firms offer mutual funds. You can visit their sites for more information. Many different types based on how aggressive or conservative you want your money to grow.

Fidelity has been pretty good to me. I had them before my current employer and my current employer also uses as 401K administrator.

I would use mutual funds mostly for retirement plans, like Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). Since government wants you to retire responsibly (or so they say), there are many tax deferral benefits and advantages for IRAs. If you went out to get mutual funds outside of retirement plans, you have to worry about capital gain taxes and that crap since its investment income.

The downside of IRAs is typically need to keep your money in there to avoid tax penalties (however there's all sort of rules for early withdrawals without tax penalties which you can research if necessary).

If you have a job that offers 401K with matching, that's be a good idea to look into that..they may have own mutual funds (not as much variety as going to shop yourself)...but companies may match what you put in if you've worked there several year. Typically have similar tax benefits as 401Ks, but its usually harder to get your money out.

Retirement planning is important as lot of Americans seem to be dropping ball on this...hoping their job pension (which are disappearing) or Social Security will handle it all. Saving money for rainy day is good financial discipline. Those retirement accounts give vehicle to invest in bonds and stocks (based on risk level you're comfortable with). Of course, there's possibility stock market could crash any year...but over several decades, based on how young you are...the gains will far outweigh any momentary dips. It's better than keeping money under a mattress and watch inflation eat it away (with no investing). If you're older, investing in safe bond or mutual funds mostly containing bonds is better than stocks.

Read more about mutual funds and IRAs here:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/money101/lesson4/index5.htm
http://money.cnn.com/retirement/gui...cnn.com/retirement/guide/IRA_Basics.moneymag/
 
I come to you now, and bumping up a super-old thread, after finishing my first week at my first official full-time job in my new career. :awesome:

My advice, in addition to the stuff I posted earlier in the thread, is this:

Tip #1: Give yourself time and options. If you don't know what you want to do or there's no clear path to get there, the most important thing is to give yourself the chance to make good decisions in the future. What I mean is, to learn as much as you can, but more importantly, save up as much as you can or be militant in your time management, if you can't save. I know another person who made a similar, although less random, career change, and she managed to work full-time in her old career throughout, before making the jump. That's safest, although crazy for her schedule-wise. I had built up quite a bit of savings at my old job, so after I quit/was pushed out of the lab (Congress doesn't care about cancer research since our grant was sequestered! :argh: ) I didn't have to take the very next place that would hire me. That's extremely important.

It IS a luxury, I know, to enjoy what you do. But if you're going to choose your career, might as well make the job as enjoyable as possible. Give yourself the chance to work at a place you like, doing stuff you like, with people that you like, for enough money that will sustain you. It often won't be the first place you come across.


Tip #2: Be proud of your past. I came to design from science. I didn't have much formal design education - I cobbled together what I could, education-wise. A lot of people would advise not mentioning much of my science background, because that could show that I wasn't "committed" to design. I decided that opening with, "I used to do cancer research" would intrigue people, because it actually did. :funny: I'm also a designer who can code, and many people would advise not spreading myself too thin. Jack of all trades, master of none, right?

The place I'm at now, they actually WANTED me because I had a science background and could code. I knew early on, that going for a startup would be my best bet, because startups often look for people who can do a bit of everything, especially code. But my research background is something unusual they liked, because A) I would be handling a lot of complex programming/science concepts when designing the software, and B) half of the team had a biology background of some kind. Me being a fellow scientist was important to them, even if it wouldn't be important to anyone else, literally.

Even if you had a sh***y service job before, be proud of that! There was a super-famous design firm recently looking for a junior designer, and they specifically said they wanted someone who, in the past, had worked a crappy job waiting tables. That puts some hair on your chest, that someone coddled in high school and college (like me) doesn't have. :oldrazz:

If you're going for a job that requires you to be more than merely a butt in a seat, who you are as a person does matter to someone. It isn't that you should be something for everyone, but you'll be an important someone to one company or team. That's the sweet sauce.

But this is Tip #2 because waiting for a company who truly appreciates you, often can't happen without having done Tip #1. :cwink:


Tip #3: Know when you can do better. Don't get me wrong, I've done some crappy freelancing jobs in the past. I've done so much free work and a ridiculous amount of personal side projects. Saying no to every situation if it isn't perfect, is not the way to build up life experience, or experience in general. You will learn something from everything you do. But that doesn't mean you should relegate yourself to a crappy job and think that's all you can look forward to in the future.

Know what is important to you, and don't compromise on it. And I don't mean superficial stuff like a ping pong table in the break room. I've been told I'm idealistic, perhaps unrealistically, for wanting to work on cool projects with cool people. And yet I ended up doing just that, because I didn't waste my time considering jobs that didn't have those two things. (Same goes for dating too. :cwink: )

But again, often not possible for someone if they haven't considered Tip #1. :cwink:



Hope this advice helps someone, even y'alls can be really cynical sometimes. :oldrazz:
 
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