What does O16 do?

[nshepz]

Before I got pregnant with our first, I was starting the process to become a police officer. That ended quickly, and now I stay at home and run an Etsy shop. I will continue to be a WAHM until both kids are in full-time school and then will decide if I pursue the police (my husband is currently doing so) or if I go back to school to become a midwife. Lots of cool careers here - fun thread!

[sanibel21]

Feb 17, 2016 8:24:33 GMT -5 nshepz said:

Before I got pregnant with our first, I was starting the process to become a police officer. That ended quickly, and now I stay at home and run an Etsy shop. I will continue to be a WAHM until both kids are in full-time school and then will decide if I pursue the police (my husband is currently doing so) or if I go back to school to become a midwife. Lots of cool careers here - fun thread!

How was it starting an etsy store? I've been building inventory and thinking of namig and branding things, but too scared to take the plunge until I have absolutely everything perfect. Which will be never lol.

[iwantbacon]

Feb 17, 2016 8:10:56 GMT -5 brusselssprout said:

This is a great thread - we have so many interesting careers here!

I work in new product development for a big corporate company in logistics. It's project-based work, pretty interesting, but the big corporate life is sort of weighing on me. I think my next company will be a nice small / medium sized one. I did my MBA 5 years ago, a good choice I think, I learned a lot and it opened a lot of doors. If anyone is thinking about doing one, I'd be glad to share the pros/cons. As to plans after October - I'm planning on taking 6 months maternity leave this time around. DH is an academic and we hope to relocate back to the US the school year after the baby comes, if he can find a good position. That would be a nice opportunity for a fresh start and then I'd look for a new job.

I am considering applying to MBA programs in the next few years (or whenever the newborn stage is over and I can sleep again). My only concern is finding a program that works with work/family schedule since I don't think we could financially do a full-time program. Plus my current employer has a partial tuition reimbursement which is pretty awesome.

[k2tog]

Before DD was born, I was a technical and marketing writer/human resource development manager at a small software company. They loved me but I hated the place. It had a company culture of mediocrity and slacking, which I appreciated some of the time and hated at other times. Seriously, during my last pregnancy, I did NOTHING for 9 months except chat with other pregnant women on TB. I was so sick of my job, but applying for new jobs went nowhere, so we decided I would get pregnant and then apply for my Masters of Information in library science (shoutout macaronmama!) and take advantage of the maternity leave system here (Canada) and essentially get the government to pay for my first year of school.

Long story short, I'm in my second year and last semester of my Masters of Information. I'll be done classes in April and convocate in June assuming all goes well. So, I'm job hunting and, because I'm feeling pessimistic today, will probably never find anything. Technically, we can afford for me to SAH, which would maybe be ok, but based on how last summer went, I'm not SAHM material.

[nshepz]

Feb 17, 2016 9:15:31 GMT -5 sanibel21 said:

How was it starting an etsy store? I've been building inventory and thinking of namig and branding things, but too scared to take the plunge until I have absolutely everything perfect. Which will be never lol.

It wasn't too bad. The process is very user friendly. I am also a perfectionist and I felt the same way you mentioned. I'm still not completely satisfied tbh but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Once I had my branding and a page worth of items, I opened up shop. The beauty of Etsy is that you can constantly improve your store and items. You can always take better photos, add more items, try different things, and see what works best.
The hardest point for me is the marketing and trying to get my brand out there when there's so many other well-established shops doing similar things. I've had about 50 sales in five months and though it's not huge amounts of money, it's a week of groceries or a tank of gas here and there.

If you have your branding and inventory, you should go for it. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions along the way. There is also an etsy forum which I've found very helpful.

[sanibel21]

Feb 17, 2016 9:38:12 GMT -5 nshepz said:

Feb 17, 2016 9:15:31 GMT -5 sanibel21 said:

How was it starting an etsy store? I've been building inventory and thinking of namig and branding things, but too scared to take the plunge until I have absolutely everything perfect. Which will be never lol.

It wasn't too bad. The process is very user friendly. I am also a perfectionist and I felt the same way you mentioned. I'm still not completely satisfied tbh but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Once I had my branding and a page worth of items, I opened up shop. The beauty of Etsy is that you can constantly improve your store and items. You can always take better photos, add more items, try different things, and see what works best.
The hardest point for me is the marketing and trying to get my brand out there when there's so many other well-established shops doing similar things. I've had about 50 sales in five months and though it's not huge amounts of money, it's a week of groceries or a tank of gas here and there.

If you have your branding and inventory, you should go for it. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions along the way. There is also an etsy forum which I've found very helpful.

Thanks so much for all that info. It's motivating me to keep on. 50 sales in 5 months is amazing! That's 10 per month. I would be psyched! I didn't know about the etsy forum either. I'll have to look into that. One other question, did you design the logo/branding stuff yourself or pay someone to do it? 

[nshepz]

Feb 17, 2016 12:59:44 GMT -5 sanibel21 said:

Thanks so much for all that info. It's motivating me to keep on. 50 sales in 5 months is amazing! That's 10 per month. I would be psyched! I didn't know about the etsy forum either. I'll have to look into that. One other question, did you design the logo/branding stuff yourself or pay someone to do it? 

No problem at all! Definitely check out the forums. There are answers to every question you can imagine. I did do it myself but only because I worked with a graphic designer at my last job and learned a lot. Otherwise, I would have had someone do it for me. There are several shops on etsy that specialize in that sort of thing and, from what I've seen, prices are reasonable. Let me know if there's anything else! :-)

[dke2010]

I'm a SAHM to my 3 yr old DD. My days are filled with taking care of her, cooking, cleaning, etc. It's a full-time job! I did substitute teach for a few years before getting pregnant with DD, then decided to SAH with her instead of taking a teaching position. DH and I agreed that it was the best decision for our family and I've been happy with it. I have no plans to go back to work at this point.

[murrt]

lamedianaranja, how did you go about getting the freelance work? I've been thinking of going that route since I was laid off in November and it's unlikely I'll find a full-time role where they'll be OK with me taking maternity leave. I haven't started networking for it though because I want to make sure I have sticky one in there first.

[lamedianaranja]

murrt I put out the word to former coworkers, friends, parents' friends that I was taking clients pro bono to build my resume. I got a lot of people asking for press releases or help with marketing new businesses. Also, I reached out to several small charities and offered to do their pr, and I'm now actually on the board of one doing their communications. After I got a enough for a resume I started charging. It's pretty small right now, maybe one business or so a month?

[raechay]

med/surg RN.

[penguin129]

SAHM to my very lively 2 year 7 mo old DD. I am a teacher, but the last year I taught was 2012-2013. I do write lesson plans for a local Stay at Home Preschool Group.

[aggiefrau08]

I'm a SAHM and my husband and I have a small business. I love being with my kids every day, and I especially love not having to go to work during a pregnancy. I hate the housework. SO wish I could afford to hire someone even twice a month!

[orangepickle]

I'm in marketing for a global private company. Love it - I work from home and they're awesome about work/life balance.

ETA: I used to be very career-oriented which changed a lot with DS - now I'm just looking forward to winning the lottery, being a SAHM and living a life of leisure

[league2b3]

I teach 2nd grade, and have done so for the last 6 years now. I like it. I don't get paid nearly what I'm worth as I work at a charter school so it gets really frustrating. I will be returning to the classroom once my leave is up. As much as I think I'd love to stay home, I'm too social and introverted at the same time. I'd go crazy. And, we just plain can't afford it. Luckily, teaching lends itself to family life and we have a pretty good network around us.

[britta]

I'm an RN, almost 10 years now. I split my time between ICU and open heart recovery. I dabbled in management after DS was born hoping for some kind of balance and sense of normalcy, but after 18 months gave up the ghost and now work per Diem. I work night shift, primarily, 1-2 nights per week.

H is a Physician Assistant. His speciality is cardiothoracic surgery as well and works insane hours. It's impossible to count on him to be available to pick up/drop off DS at DC or be available when he's sick. So all the adulting and parenting fell to/falls to me, which is why I now work PT. (Ex: yesterday was a "light" OR day and he was "early out" and got home a little after 2. Today he was "late" with a "normal" OR day and he's just now on his way home at 8pm)

[meow84]

I'm a school social worker. I LOVE my job and plan to return after taking 12 weeks of maternity leave. It was difficult for me to go back to work after my first, but I've realized that working is good for me. I get breaks and summers off to spend with my kids, so that's a nice balance.

[ivedonethisb4]

I work in a call center. I'm on the phones some but I'm also head of scheduling and agent reporting... It's a job. I don't love it but it pays the bills and I've been there going on 5 years in August.

I obviously didn't go to school for it. I've been looking into the insurance field..maybe when I'm on maternity leave I can take the course for getting my license online (it's like a 40 hr course) and then take my exam...then I can look for a job in that field before/after I go back.

ETA: ellabee our call center actually does some clinical trial pre screening too...I wouldn't be surprised if it was for the company you work for.

[eponine1007]

I got my degree in music education and am a high school chorus teacher and I LOVE it! After my O16 baby, I won't change careers, but I will scale it back a bit with the afterschool activities. Right now, I am crazy busy, so understandably, some of that will have to change.