Looking for serious career advice, feeling stuck - any advice for a recent college grad?
I want to start off by preferencing I don’t believe in hand outs and that everything gained should be through hard work. I’m very ambitious and can’t stand complacency, one way or another I'll get out of the situation I'm in for better. I’m just the type of person that likes to weigh all of their options. In hopes I put the best foot forward.
So I am a new college grad as of last May. Since graduating I've had two corporate jobs both of which made me realise I need a niche to focus on and that I can’t do broad corporate america any more. In my opinion there's no substance to it, it's just meaningless repetitive busy work I have little to no interest in. I’m now realizing I should’ve majored in construction management but this is the reason I need advice - since graduating and moving back home to my countryish town I'm engulfed with everyone I left four years ago, most of which are large construction, crane, paving company owners/affiliates. I have come to realize I have a passion for construction/blue collar industries, specifically project engineering and management. I network with these people and others constantly and have very beneficial conversations with them but everytime they adamantly tell me they’ll put a word in for me or send my resume to there higher, it always dead ends. Most of the advice I’ve been receiving is that I might need to go back to school but I’m still paying off my student loans and I've been told I can get into the field with out having to its just preferred, I did hear that if you work 20 hours or more at Starbucks you get full tuition reimbursement to ASU online which i’d go for a CM degree so it has been on my mind I just don’t know if it would be worth it. On the other hand I’ve been told that field experience trumps all but many people mention if I become a laborer there's a good chance I'll get stuck and if I get a project engineer job at a large/medium GC me and my work won’t matter as much and i’ll in other words get swallowed. I’m most interested in this field because I like having a lot on my plate. I'm great under pressure and quick on my feet. But at the same time I'm young. I know for the right company it involves a lot of travel which is huge for me.
The job I currently work for I get paid 18/hr which is hardly enough to get ahead when trying to save and pay off loans. Even though I live with my parents. It puts me in limbo because it's a stable income but I can’t stand sitting around all day with little to no work to do all day and when I do I get it done fast. They also have me running the front desk because we are short staffed and sorting mail for the whole company. I know that I’m meant for more but I’m humble about it, I'm grateful I'm given any opportunity at all. I just can’t stand it. I feel like I’m wasting my days away.
Outside of work I've been working for my certificates. I just recently obtained my OSHA-30 hour, I’m half way through my CAPM cert and next up would be to learn Bluebeam and Procore for a competitive advantage. I also have a bunch of blue prints I got from my friends that own companies that I've been navigating periodically to hopefully have it will translate in the future.
I’ve attached my resume If any of you have any advice or recommendations at all it’d be greatly appreciated!