# Fat Friendly Jobs



## Lamia (May 8, 2010)

I am at a point in my life where I have decided I need to do something about my lack of career. I work at a call center and have done this sort of work for years. I hate it. It's stupid that I am doing this when I have two associate degrees and a B.A.

My main concern now is finding a job that I can do physically. I have no problem walking, but I can't stand more than an hour without needing to sit down. 

I am wanting to go back to school, but can't figure out what to do. So my question is what kind of jobs do you all do and do how taxing are they physically?

Have you ever had to leave a field of work due to your size?

Some of the things I've been looking at:

Medical/Billing coding...sounds too good to be true working from home
X-Ray tech...I need one class and 40 hours of internship at a hospital
Graphic Art and Animation my BA is in art I just wonder if I can handle it sense my math is lousy. 

Any suggestions. Any help or shared experiences will be greatly appreciated I am desperate.


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## spiritangel (May 8, 2010)

I hear you re the call centre thing been there done that, 

I am actually studying freelance journalism cause it is something I can do in my own time ect

take out the qualifications, the expense and other such factors

and ask yourself what is you dream job?

if you dont have an answer to that take it back a few notches and ask yourself what are you passionate about in life, what makes life worth living for you and then go from there

lots of hugs and good luck I think the biggest battle is figuring it all out once we have done that we can find steps to get where we want to go


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## Lamia (May 8, 2010)

spiritangel said:


> I hear you re the call centre thing been there done that,
> 
> I am actually studying freelance journalism cause it is something I can do in my own time ect
> 
> ...



My dream job would be something in video games, but I fear my poor math skills would hinder my ability to succeed. I would also love to do voice acting and making my own animated cartoons. 

The problem is I don't know how to go about getting into that field or doing this. I really need some sort of mentor.


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## spiritangel (May 8, 2010)

you can always go and do a math course or get tutoring to get your skills up

as for the rest why not try googling what your interested in you may find some amazing help or at least some people/places to contact


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## Lamia (May 8, 2010)

spiritangel said:


> you can always go and do a math course or get tutoring to get your skills up
> 
> as for the rest why not try googling what your interested in you may find some amazing help or at least some people/places to contact



Well, the reason I am here is I've been googling all night and it would be great if half the resources out there weren't some sort of buggy crap or scam. I sent off for info on a number of online tech college courses etc. Took a "what should I be doing with my life quiz" that yielded no answer apparently. 

I like database cleanup. I did that at State Farm and in their telecommunications department. I really like that, but it was a temp assignment (that lasted two years). 

I just feel like there are all kinds of cool jobs out there that I don't even know exist. 

I like to fix problems. I like quality control. I like creating things. I hate customer service and dealing with the public. I DO NOT want to do anything related to that field. I prefer a job where I am sitting on my fat ass the majority of the time, which to be fair call center work is perfect for. :doh:


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## spiritangel (May 8, 2010)

hmmmm what about web design? or some such

yeah there are a ton of choices for work out there

the best advice I have ever heard and I pass it on to any teenagers young adults I meet comes from a woman called SARK 

her grandfather told her to try everything she was interested in until she found her passion and her path 

I think that the process of elimination can be an important part of the journey


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## Tau (May 8, 2010)

Awesome advice Spritangel. Also with a BA you could try your hand at journalism, pr, copywriting, advertising. I've worked in all these fields and they are very, very fat friendly. You could become a webdesigner - or one of those people who takes care of the new media side of things in organisations. One of my friends does that and she makes a killing.


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## Fat Brian (May 8, 2010)

Your sense of timing is obviously impeccable, waiting until nearly 10% unemployment to decide on a career change .

Seriously though, website design sounds like a good route, especially due to the economy. Its a job where you can kind of make your own way without being beholden to a company stay working. Freelance writing may be good also, your writing is well developed and coherent, maybe contact some local papers in your area and see what they are looking for. Maybe even a small local weekly might be interested.

Realistically, call centering is a pretty good job for someone of our sizes, even though you aren't using your education to its fullest. Maybe you could try to move to a different company that would pay better, Call Center operators where I work make about $20 an hour, over $50,000 a year with full benefits. I have found income to be a huge factor in whether a job is satisfying or not.


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## Dr. Feelgood (May 8, 2010)

Lamia said:


> I like database cleanup. I did that at State Farm and in their telecommunications department. I really like that, but it was a temp assignment (that lasted two years).
> 
> I just feel like there are all kinds of cool jobs out there that I don't even know exist.





spiritangel said:


> her grandfather told her to try everything she was interested in until she found her passion and her path
> 
> I think that the process of elimination can be an important part of the journey




I see a pattern here. First of all, you need/want to find out more about what jobs are available. Second, you've discovered that you can't really trust the internet to help you decide; maybe you need hands-on experience to make the right decision. Third, the best job you had you got as a temp. Sooo... why not try temping again? True, you may have to kiss a lot of frogs, but you don't have to stick with a bad job for long. And when you find a good job -- even if you don't get to keep it -- you'll make contacts in the field whom you can call on for information about other firms or even recommendations. And if you really do a bang-up job, they may pull strings to hire you: that's what happened to my wife. She was temping fifteen years ago, and when the job ran out, they wanted to keep her... and now she's working in the same office, but she's the second in command!


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## Lamia (May 8, 2010)

Fat Brian said:


> Realistically, call centering is a pretty good job for someone of our sizes, even though you aren't using your education to its fullest. Maybe you could try to move to a different company that would pay better, Call Center operators where I work make about $20 an hour, over $50,000 a year with full benefits. I have found income to be a huge factor in whether a job is satisfying or not.



I loathe call centers working for one is like having pieces of your soul chewed away by rabid ferrets, no matter how much they pay. 

I live in a rural area and the call center I work at is THE ONLY call center within 50 miles. I make $8.10 an hour. I need to move to the city. I need a good job so I can afford to move, but need to move to find a good job. :doh: I am not interested in journalism. Which I could do here....for free since those jobs don't pay in a rural community. 

As for the economy being the wrong time for a career change. The company that I worked for went under 2 years ago. I loved that job, but there aren't any of those jobs around here. It was an imaging company and I did Quality Control. At the time I decided to move back to where my family was for support and help until I could find another job. 

There are no temp agencies for 50 miles. It's why I've decided that I need to find a career and not a JOB. 

I was hoping to hear more about what other people do for a living to get some ideas.


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## Fat Brian (May 8, 2010)

That is one problem with a small(ish) town, limited job opportunities. My job is not fat friendly at all so nothing here. I work for my local natural gas utility and while outside jobs like mine suck there are some nice inside jobs with computers or doing data entry. Check with your gas or power company, either by going to their website or calling the call center (irony) and see what office positions they may have. Also, the little town office where I pay my water bill or grip about trash service is always staffed by fat women, I think its a state law.


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## TallFatSue (May 9, 2010)

Lamia said:


> I am wanting to go back to school, but can't figure out what to do. So my question is what kind of jobs do you all do and do how taxing are they physically?
> 
> Have you ever had to leave a field of work due to your size?


Some fields may or may not be more fat-friendly than others, but there may be some steps we can take toward a more fat-friendly environment. Sometimes the hardest part is to be totally honest about our needs.

I've worked myself up the ladder and am now an office manager. I haven't had to leave a job due to my size, but sometimes I've had to make some major changes to make the workplace fat friendly. One of the biggest changes was to come right out and admit that I need a nice big heavy duty desk chair, and not just settle for any old chair without arms. My desk chair has arms, but it's also nice and wide with a 500lb capacity, so provided I don't eat a 50lb lunch it's just right.  That chair has made a world of difference to my comfort and well-being. I even wheel it down the hall for meetings in our conference room. Sometimes when I step out and return to find someone else perched in my chair, I say, "I'm sorry, but you're not nearly fat enough to sit in my chair." 

I also try to minimize my time on my feet, but I don't stay chained to my desk either. Some people where I work rarely leave their desks and just use the phone or e-mail to talk to people at another desk, and their size and weight aren't an issue. I'd much rather get up and walk over to whomever I need to talk too. It gives me that face-to-face time, and also it feels just plain good to stretch my legs.


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## Vespertine (May 9, 2010)

Lamia said:


> I loathe call centers working for one is like having pieces of your soul chewed away by rabid ferrets, no matter how much they pay.



I lol'd 



> As for the economy being the wrong time for a career change. The company that I worked for went under 2 years ago. I loved that job, but there aren't any of those jobs around here. It was an imaging company and I did Quality Control. At the time I decided to move back to where my family was for support and help until I could find another job.



I am really tired of hearing stories exactly like this T.T



> There are no temp agencies for 50 miles. It's why I've decided that I need to find a career and not a JOB.
> 
> I was hoping to hear more about what other people do for a living to get some ideas.



I've had the same problems, generally end up in offices cos I can't stand all day. Seems office jobs are getting scarce though, no one needs my biz admin skillz while the job market is flooded. I've also worked with kids, which I liked the best cos it involved sitting and standing (and running ). I don't like just sitting, just standing, and I hate most jobs fall into one or the other. It seems like you already have skills for the position you want but there are no jobs to use them. Sorry no good answers, just sympathy


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## Sweet Tooth (May 9, 2010)

Does your local area have a workforce development center? Often, those places will give you career and personality assessments for free. I think so many people don't know the range of jobs out there that are a good fit. Sometimes it's not so much the job category as it is the place and its unique environment.

I'd have never imagined my job would be right up my alley, but it's a non-traditional take on a very traditional job category, meaning I get to do a lot of different things that keep it interesting to me. Having a small program means I get to tackle jobs that would normally be farmed out to a staff in a bigger place. I wouldn't have picked it for me in a million years, but I was newly separated and needed to find employment. Who knew?

Sometimes, too, if you have a wide range of interests, you might see what you can do for employment and then do as a volunteer if there's not a lot of overlap in your interests. That way, you don't have to dismiss one part of your personality to meet your material needs.


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## tjw1971 (May 10, 2010)

I've worked in computers and I.T. for almost 20 years, and I'm kind of at a loss to see why math skills would come into play, if you were working for a software developer as an artist?

For example, bigger firms like Blizzard in CA have many artists on staff. (So many, they have an art museum on site with full-time employees hired to manage it -- all filled with paintings and artwork done by their own people!)

Not being artistic myself, I really couldn't give you advice on how to "break into" the field... but I'm sure some people just applied, sending samples of their artwork in?




Lamia said:


> My dream job would be something in video games, but I fear my poor math skills would hinder my ability to succeed. I would also love to do voice acting and making my own animated cartoons.
> 
> The problem is I don't know how to go about getting into that field or doing this. I really need some sort of mentor.


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## curveyme (Jul 2, 2010)

IMHO, combining graphic arts and web-design might work. I started a biz for web design, but, since I come from a "content" and photography background, I always need to sub out artwork (like logo design and such). You might be able to support several, small, independent web design businesses as an "independent subcontractor" but the income would NOT steady for while. Benefits might also be an issue as you'd be "self-employed". If you found a large web designer, with lots of projects, the work would be steady but you'd have less control. Just a few thoughts . . . 
Good luck! (I still have days when I don't know what I want to be 'when I grow up'!! Lol!!)


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## Mayla (Jul 2, 2010)

You could also try working in the college environment. Mind you, some colleges are phat-phobic but other jobs are extremely sedentary and you won't have to do much getting up and going around. See if there are any student advising jobs or career services jobs, or office jobs - campuses are the mini-malls of job opportunities.


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