I would strongly suggest getting up on LinkedIn. I am on no other social media and I only use LI for work purposes. I have never posted there nor do I read that cringe. I have gotten so much work coming to me via this resource. I don't see LI as social media, just part of my online professional presence along with my design portfolio.
How long have you been at your current job? I seem to remember it is less than 2 years. If so I would strongly recommend staying till you have completed at least two years. Future employers will give you way more credit if you are not a frog jumping from one job to another
Hi Holly! Don't necessarily dismiss a high deductible plan for the right job--if the firm generously contributes to the associated HSA the numbers on them can actually crunch pretty well. They tend to work best for people who a) have very few health expenses or (and ironically) b) people who have a lot of expenses and consistently hit their annual out-of-pocket amount. You get the benefits of the insurance-negotiated underlying rate (you aren't paying walk-up) and one nice thing is you don't need referrals from a primary care physician for specialists.
Don't sweat the requirements on a job description ("3 years"). Just apply; there is no downside, right? At Google where I work as a software engineer, they analyze gender disparities. Supposedly us girls only apply to jobs when we fulfill all requirements; guys apply when they have like, 60%. If you find a good manager and team they will craft a custom position to employ your talents.
I've been fully remote since 2010 and that also shouldn't be an issue (esp these days). If you are good and people like what you do, they will figure out how to make it work.
While my husband was doing startups he got private insurance. Not sure that is an option for you? It would certainly reduce your dependencies.
It sounds like you would be really good in sales: you can make a lot of $$ on commission.
About things to write about, you should write about whatever interests you! You are a true philosopher and your posts are always so insightful. But if you are looking for a topic maybe explain some complicated math and statistics concepts to the layman like how sampling error is derived? I always thought it was cool how you can use the law of large numbers to get bounds on the sampling error. But no one on the internet explains it as nicely as I think they could.
I survived during the carter years and yes I am that old. Suggestions as follows
Visit Amish, Mennonite, Mormon stores for basic groceries
Visit dollar stores for cleaning supplies and maybe soda.
Be wary of Google, once they got big they got scary. No offense to the person working for Google who posted here. If you do sign on with them, be sure you don’t sign a non compete clause
Find basic meals that you can stretch, beans and rice, meat sauce, peanut butter. Be aware of salty items.
Good medical and therapy care is priceless. Seriously.
When the area has low rates such as housing, food, electricity, check out why, depressed area, desert of some kind, no grocery stores, people only come back to retire there, lack of health care.
One thing if you can, start a garden,
Visit or go to farmers markets.
Find a craft or something for down times, to help you think a different way.
Libraries, visit often and if they have a coupon area, seed area, book club join them. Friends like to help one another.
If you used Linkin try under a pseudonym, a special name just to see who contacts you. Or who you can use to promote yourself.
Store items (food if you can)
Same for water
Learn to bake bread.
My view of the upcoming two years. It is going to be rough, really rough. I think the economy for middle class workers is going to tank. I don’t see a drop in inflation, gas, rent.I shortages in lots of basic items. I see people who never seen inflation, having a really hard time keeping up. More people are going to slip into poverty and have to rely on state, communities and fed government. I see lots of political upheaval due to lack of accountability and generally how one groups make laws that grind small businesses, down or the average person. World view, have you noticed we no longer know what is happening around the world. You really have to dig around to find there are farm protests, China ,some areas are locked down without notice, tensions are running high in all counties. everyone’s mental health, general health is being pushed to extremes. I think civil unrest a real possibility. Elections are going to be hot points, contested, and on Election Day all I can say is vote, have your favorite dinner and put on your favorite show, music. It will be a long night.
Finding communities, friends, support groups is going to be a necessity. People need people, they need interaction.
For Data Science I would look at some research hospitals like CHOP https://careers.chop.edu/job/Philadelphia-Data-Scientist-I-PA-19146/888413600/ . University research hospitals and children's hospital have massive data analytics needs. So much work is primarily remote, any opening is worth investigating. You can always thank the potential institution for their time and move on! Potential negatives for hospital are requirements for Covid vaccination in health care settings.
Money/recession-proof: if you always save money, you’ll always have money. Buy things you already use on sale and buy extras, so when you run out you’ll have provided for yourself. (Actually you can do this with anything.)
I second the person who said having a company that contributes to high-HSA makes a big difference. Also look at total out of pocket for a year; it could be really low. And big companies base your insurance contribution on your income, so everyone pays the same percentage regardless of salary. That helps keep things affordable.
Should you land somewhere that doesn’t cover hearing aids, vocational rehab is usually available and will cover them if your insurance doesn’t and you need them to work.
The other inflation-and-recession proofing is to diversify your investments and maybe move your higher-risk 401k into lower-risk/lower-yield bonds. (I am not giving you advice.) protecting your wealth from decreasing is the #1 thing you do with investing - #2 is making money.
Anyway. I enjoy your posts, so I’ll read whatever you write about. x
> The third issue is that lots of companies seem to want 3 years of experience; I have about half of that. But I can produce really excellent references from co-workers, a former boss will sing my praises, and I am fully confident in my ability to do well in a statistical theory interview, produce a coding sample, etc.
The problem is that those praises sung will go unheard since a whole lot of places basically parse incoming resumes through a big regex and if you don't match enough points, HR doesn't even bother actually *looking* at it.
It sucks. It really really sucks.
Is your current position in the timestream of your life "roughly 1.5 years graduated from college? If there's more time than that, well, I've known a lot of people who were "IT Consultants at various points to help make one's way through the sieve.
You *really* don't want to work where I'm working, then. Full remote, but health insurance is "what can you qualify for as an individual?" :-/ Alas.
My team is looking for someone with your creds! Send me your resume and I'll give it to my peeps.
Most of our crew works remote (I've been doing it for 10 years), we have (mostly) good insurance (you can opt for a low deductable plan) and the pay is not top notch, but not shabby. And, we're a
small but mighty motley crew that have bonded and don't compete with each other. Meaning: we've become friends! That doesn't always hold true in corp america. Something tells me you'd fit right in ;).
I don't think this is quite the answer you were looking for but The Fifth Column podcast talks quite a bit about current events and i would rate then as *very* reliable.
* Hold down a job. Stay on the ladder, even if you don't move much.
* Be *very* cautious about leverage. Prolly don't buy a house, definitely don't take on a car loan needlessly. Bad economy might mean a need for dynamism. Debt makes that hard.
* Be brave when others are fearful. Max out that 401k. You can take a loan out against it for a house down payment later. Bull markets make you money. Bear markets makes you rich.
If possible stick with your job for those three years and save as much as you can. Read about and learn to invest some of your income when you can. I’d love to find a good source of information that doesn’t cater to the far left or right, something that seeks the truth and exposes the hysteria. My first two suggestions come from paying attention to my always conservative dad. He stuck with his UPS job forever and he was always reading some financial magazine and teaching himself. That said the UPS stock options are what has made him financially secure in his retirement. I’m not an expert in anything but do wish I’d paid more attention and appreciated my dad’s ways. I guess they’re not suited as well for today (no one stays at the same job for long anymore) but he’s done well with them.
I would strongly suggest getting up on LinkedIn. I am on no other social media and I only use LI for work purposes. I have never posted there nor do I read that cringe. I have gotten so much work coming to me via this resource. I don't see LI as social media, just part of my online professional presence along with my design portfolio.
How long have you been at your current job? I seem to remember it is less than 2 years. If so I would strongly recommend staying till you have completed at least two years. Future employers will give you way more credit if you are not a frog jumping from one job to another
Hi Holly! Don't necessarily dismiss a high deductible plan for the right job--if the firm generously contributes to the associated HSA the numbers on them can actually crunch pretty well. They tend to work best for people who a) have very few health expenses or (and ironically) b) people who have a lot of expenses and consistently hit their annual out-of-pocket amount. You get the benefits of the insurance-negotiated underlying rate (you aren't paying walk-up) and one nice thing is you don't need referrals from a primary care physician for specialists.
Hello my fellow math nerd! :)
Some quick notes:
Don't sweat the requirements on a job description ("3 years"). Just apply; there is no downside, right? At Google where I work as a software engineer, they analyze gender disparities. Supposedly us girls only apply to jobs when we fulfill all requirements; guys apply when they have like, 60%. If you find a good manager and team they will craft a custom position to employ your talents.
I've been fully remote since 2010 and that also shouldn't be an issue (esp these days). If you are good and people like what you do, they will figure out how to make it work.
While my husband was doing startups he got private insurance. Not sure that is an option for you? It would certainly reduce your dependencies.
It sounds like you would be really good in sales: you can make a lot of $$ on commission.
About things to write about, you should write about whatever interests you! You are a true philosopher and your posts are always so insightful. But if you are looking for a topic maybe explain some complicated math and statistics concepts to the layman like how sampling error is derived? I always thought it was cool how you can use the law of large numbers to get bounds on the sampling error. But no one on the internet explains it as nicely as I think they could.
Thanks a lot and have a great day!
Okay, just lost my message. Grrr.
I survived during the carter years and yes I am that old. Suggestions as follows
Visit Amish, Mennonite, Mormon stores for basic groceries
Visit dollar stores for cleaning supplies and maybe soda.
Be wary of Google, once they got big they got scary. No offense to the person working for Google who posted here. If you do sign on with them, be sure you don’t sign a non compete clause
Find basic meals that you can stretch, beans and rice, meat sauce, peanut butter. Be aware of salty items.
Good medical and therapy care is priceless. Seriously.
When the area has low rates such as housing, food, electricity, check out why, depressed area, desert of some kind, no grocery stores, people only come back to retire there, lack of health care.
One thing if you can, start a garden,
Visit or go to farmers markets.
Find a craft or something for down times, to help you think a different way.
Libraries, visit often and if they have a coupon area, seed area, book club join them. Friends like to help one another.
If you used Linkin try under a pseudonym, a special name just to see who contacts you. Or who you can use to promote yourself.
Store items (food if you can)
Same for water
Learn to bake bread.
My view of the upcoming two years. It is going to be rough, really rough. I think the economy for middle class workers is going to tank. I don’t see a drop in inflation, gas, rent.I shortages in lots of basic items. I see people who never seen inflation, having a really hard time keeping up. More people are going to slip into poverty and have to rely on state, communities and fed government. I see lots of political upheaval due to lack of accountability and generally how one groups make laws that grind small businesses, down or the average person. World view, have you noticed we no longer know what is happening around the world. You really have to dig around to find there are farm protests, China ,some areas are locked down without notice, tensions are running high in all counties. everyone’s mental health, general health is being pushed to extremes. I think civil unrest a real possibility. Elections are going to be hot points, contested, and on Election Day all I can say is vote, have your favorite dinner and put on your favorite show, music. It will be a long night.
Finding communities, friends, support groups is going to be a necessity. People need people, they need interaction.
Take care, we are in this together.
From Texas, patty
For Data Science I would look at some research hospitals like CHOP https://careers.chop.edu/job/Philadelphia-Data-Scientist-I-PA-19146/888413600/ . University research hospitals and children's hospital have massive data analytics needs. So much work is primarily remote, any opening is worth investigating. You can always thank the potential institution for their time and move on! Potential negatives for hospital are requirements for Covid vaccination in health care settings.
Money/recession-proof: if you always save money, you’ll always have money. Buy things you already use on sale and buy extras, so when you run out you’ll have provided for yourself. (Actually you can do this with anything.)
I second the person who said having a company that contributes to high-HSA makes a big difference. Also look at total out of pocket for a year; it could be really low. And big companies base your insurance contribution on your income, so everyone pays the same percentage regardless of salary. That helps keep things affordable.
Should you land somewhere that doesn’t cover hearing aids, vocational rehab is usually available and will cover them if your insurance doesn’t and you need them to work.
The other inflation-and-recession proofing is to diversify your investments and maybe move your higher-risk 401k into lower-risk/lower-yield bonds. (I am not giving you advice.) protecting your wealth from decreasing is the #1 thing you do with investing - #2 is making money.
Anyway. I enjoy your posts, so I’ll read whatever you write about. x
> The third issue is that lots of companies seem to want 3 years of experience; I have about half of that. But I can produce really excellent references from co-workers, a former boss will sing my praises, and I am fully confident in my ability to do well in a statistical theory interview, produce a coding sample, etc.
The problem is that those praises sung will go unheard since a whole lot of places basically parse incoming resumes through a big regex and if you don't match enough points, HR doesn't even bother actually *looking* at it.
It sucks. It really really sucks.
Is your current position in the timestream of your life "roughly 1.5 years graduated from college? If there's more time than that, well, I've known a lot of people who were "IT Consultants at various points to help make one's way through the sieve.
You *really* don't want to work where I'm working, then. Full remote, but health insurance is "what can you qualify for as an individual?" :-/ Alas.
Email me...I think you have my email...I have thoughts about this because I have been in this exact spot.
My team is looking for someone with your creds! Send me your resume and I'll give it to my peeps.
Most of our crew works remote (I've been doing it for 10 years), we have (mostly) good insurance (you can opt for a low deductable plan) and the pay is not top notch, but not shabby. And, we're a
small but mighty motley crew that have bonded and don't compete with each other. Meaning: we've become friends! That doesn't always hold true in corp america. Something tells me you'd fit right in ;).
pamela.mattoon@manpowergroup.com
I don't think this is quite the answer you were looking for but The Fifth Column podcast talks quite a bit about current events and i would rate then as *very* reliable.
Bad economy recommendations:
* Hold down a job. Stay on the ladder, even if you don't move much.
* Be *very* cautious about leverage. Prolly don't buy a house, definitely don't take on a car loan needlessly. Bad economy might mean a need for dynamism. Debt makes that hard.
* Be brave when others are fearful. Max out that 401k. You can take a loan out against it for a house down payment later. Bull markets make you money. Bear markets makes you rich.
If possible stick with your job for those three years and save as much as you can. Read about and learn to invest some of your income when you can. I’d love to find a good source of information that doesn’t cater to the far left or right, something that seeks the truth and exposes the hysteria. My first two suggestions come from paying attention to my always conservative dad. He stuck with his UPS job forever and he was always reading some financial magazine and teaching himself. That said the UPS stock options are what has made him financially secure in his retirement. I’m not an expert in anything but do wish I’d paid more attention and appreciated my dad’s ways. I guess they’re not suited as well for today (no one stays at the same job for long anymore) but he’s done well with them.