What should I do with my life?
I'm a 29 year old female. I'm a felon , I went to prison when I was 19 for drug trafficking and possession. It's been a long enough time now I could get my record sealed. I'm a AGM at Wendy's right now I make $21 an hour. I'm great with people I work hard and have an unbelievable work ethic, positive attitude and great minds set. I know I'll be great at whatever I put my mind to. I would prefer a 2 year program and much more money than I'm making now 🤣❤️
Springfield Ohio
Jobadvisor
What a solid foundation you've built for yourself already — AGM at 29 with a felony record from 10 years ago is a real accomplishment, not something to downplay. Let's talk real options.
First, the record sealing — do this now, it's the highest-leverage move you can make. Ohio's law got a lot more generous in 2023 (Senate Bill 288). For felonies, the wait is one year after final discharge for 4th/5th-degree felonies, or three years for 3rd-degree felonies — final discharge meaning you finished prison, parole/probation, and paid your fines. At 10 years out, you're almost certainly well past the wait regardless of the degree. Ohio now allows up to 2 felony convictions and 4 misdemeanor convictions to be sealed, and sealing keeps it off the background checks employers and landlords run. It costs about $50 in filing fees. Get this moving in parallel with whatever you choose below — it widens your options either way.
Now, for the actual career move. Given what you told me — people skills, hard worker, wants a 2-year program, real money, not stuck in fast food — here are the three that fit best:
1. Chemical Dependency Counselor path (my top pick for you specifically) This one's worth a hard look because your background is an asset here, not a liability — the field explicitly says so. The Ohio board reviews felony history on a case-by-case basis, and there's acknowledgment in the field that many of the best chemical dependency counselors have moved past their own personal history with the system. The path:
- CDCA Preliminary certification: just 40 hours of training, no exam, and you can start working under supervision in a treatment setting within a semester — some Ohio community colleges (including one class at Clark State-type schools) fulfill this in one course.
- Pair that with a 2-year Associate's degree in Human Services/Behavioral Science (exactly the 2-year program you want), and you qualify for LCDC II licensure — a real, respected clinical credential.
- Pay grows a lot as you move from CDCA (entry, supervised) → LCDC II/III → LICDC. Addiction counseling is in high demand in Ohio right now, and management/people experience like yours translates directly into running a caseload or eventually a program.
2. Nursing (RN) — strong money, but I want to be straight with you about the risk Clark State College, right there in Springfield, has a well-regarded 2-year Registered Nursing (ADN) program with a median graduate salary around $63,620/year — that would roughly triple your current pay. Here's the honest catch: drug trafficking isn't on Ohio's short list of automatic disqualifiers for a nursing license (that list is limited to things like aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, aggravated arson, rape, felonious assault, and murder), so you're not permanently barred. But it does mean case-by-case Board review, where they weigh your age at the time, whether the conviction involved drugs, and how much time has passed — and as of 2024, nurses must disclose any drug law violation to the Board regardless of sealing. It's a real possibility, not a guarantee, and it's worth a free consult with a nursing license attorney before you commit two years and tuition money to it.
3. Electrician apprenticeship (IBEW) — if you want zero tuition risk and don't mind hands-on work IBEW Local 82 in Dayton (close to Springfield, part of the Miami Valley) runs a tuition-free apprenticeship where you earn union-scale wages with full benefits while you train — you get paid from day one instead of paying for school. It's a 4-5 year apprenticeship rather than 2, but you're earning real money the whole time, and background checks are handled case-by-case — non-violent felons without repeat offenses have been hired. It's less "people-facing" than counseling, so factor in whether you'd miss that.
My honest read: the CDCA/human services route is the best match for your stated preferences (2 years, real money, uses your people skills) and it's the one place where your record actually works in your favor instead of against you. Nursing pays more but carries real licensure risk you should verify before investing two years. Electrician is the safest bet financially if you're open to trade work.
Want me to help you map out community college programs near Springfield that offer that Human Services + CDCA combo, or draft what to say when you call the Ohio Chemical Dependency Professionals Board to ask about your specific record?
What would you do in my situation?
Im 19 and I’m having trouble choosing a career. I’ve been working at the Kwik trip I live next to for the past 2.6 years making 16.80 an hour. During that time I’ve applied to very entry level jobs in several places like Mayo and manufacturing plants to no avail, even after interviews and using a temp agency. I don’t want to advance through Kwik trip as I’m not the leadership type and I have plans to start a 4 month welding program next month which is free from a big scholarship and fafsa. I concluded this to be a safe bet as there are many fabrication shops in the Midwest where I’m from and the technical college is not too far. Though I’m second guessing myself as I’ve never welded before and struggle with shop culture. I’m considering dropping the program to purse something more fitting and accessible like a mail carrier, custodian, or logistics. I might even go for a CDL. I’m not in a hurry, have 50k in assets, and a 10 year grace period. I’d like your questions and feedback or advice on how to approach this to have more odds odds of career success. Do you think I should go for the program or is there something better that aligns with my quiet and slow learning personality. I have no passions or skills besides painting which can’t pay bills.
Jobadvisor
Okay, this actually clarifies things a lot. Here's what I'd do in your shoes, straight up:
Don't drop the welding program. Here's my reasoning:
Your anxiety isn't based on anything that's actually happened to you yet — you said it yourself, you've never tried it. That's really important information. Anticipatory anxiety about an unfamiliar environment is one of the most common and least reliable signals there is. Almost everyone feels some version of "will I fit in there" before starting something new — a quiet, introverted person walking into any new workplace for the first time feels that. It doesn't mean the fit is actually bad; it means it's unfamiliar.
And the actual downside math here is lopsided in your favor:
- It's free (scholarship + FAFSA)
- It's 4 months, not 4 years
- You have $50k in savings and no urgency, so even if it's a wash, you haven't lost anything real
- Welding itself, day-to-day, is often solitary and methodical — you're focused on your bead, your angle, your work, not making small talk. A lot of quiet people do fine in shops once they're actually working, even if the break room banter isn't their scene. The "culture" you're picturing might not match the actual job.
Compare that to your fallback options — mail carrier, custodian, CDL — none of them are wrong choices, but none of them are skills either. They're jobs. Welding is a credential you keep for life, and you already did the research: you're near a technical college and there are a lot of fab shops in your area that hire welders. That's not a small thing to walk away from over an untested feeling.
Here's what I'd actually do, concretely, before the program starts:
- Call the program and ask directly: if I start and it's not for me, can I withdraw cleanly, and could I re-enroll or use remaining scholarship funds later? Get a real answer instead of guessing.
- If they'll let you, ask to shadow or sit in on a shop floor for even an hour before day one. That single data point will tell you more than any amount of worrying.
- Give it a genuine two-to-three-week trial once it starts. Nearly every hands-on skill feels alien and clumsy at first — that's not the same as it being wrong for you.
On logistics — I wouldn't see this as either/or. Logistics is a real strength to keep in your back pocket, and it actually pairs well with welding rather than competing with it: a lot of fabrication and manufacturing shops need people who understand the shop floor and can move into materials handling, scheduling, or inventory/production planning roles later — those are usually calmer, more solitary, and higher-paid than entry floor work. So finishing welding doesn't close that door; it can actually open it with more credibility than walking in cold.
If you still hate welding after an honest trial, you have $50k, no debt, and 10 years of runway — pivoting to logistics or a CDL later costs you almost nothing. But right now, walking away from a free, short, credentialed program because of a feeling you haven't tested yet is the one move I'd talk you out of.
I have a Master’s degree and no work experience outside of academia. How do I account for the gap on my resume when applying to retail jobs?
I got a Master's degree, but am struggling to find work in my field. I have decided that I will get a job wherever I can find one in the meantime. My main worry is, my only work history is with internships I did in college. I have only worked on my education (and internships, plus grad school) since I was 18.
I will probably leave my Master's off my resume when I apply, but what do I put for the four years I was working on my Bachelor's? I really don't want to lie, but I'm worried they won't hire me out of a fear that I will leave soon.
Has anyone else in this position had problems because of this?
Jobadvisor
You're overthinking one part of this and underthinking another — let me untangle it.
The "four years working on your Bachelor's" isn't a gap you need to explain. A resume doesn't need every year accounted for outside of work history. You just list your education normally:
[University Name] — B.A./B.S. in [Field], [Graduation Year]
That's it. Nobody reading a resume expects an explanation for the years you spent getting a degree — that's assumed, standard, and self-evident. The confusion here is understandable because you're used to CVs (academic ones list everything exhaustively), but a resume works differently: it's not a full life history, it's relevant experience + education, full stop.
Your actual work history for the resume:
- Your internships count as real work experience — list them like jobs (title, organization, dates, 2-3 bullet points on what you did).
- Any part-time work, TA-ing, research assistantships, campus jobs — all fair game, all real experience.
On leaving the Master's off: This is a legitimate, common strategy — not dishonest. You're not lying by omission here; a resume is a marketing document, not a legal disclosure, and you get to choose which of your true qualifications to highlight for a given job. Retail employers generally don't do the kind of verification that would surface it, and "overqualification bias" (the fear you'll leave the second something better comes along) is real and well-documented in hiring — so tailoring your resume to the job you're actually applying for is smart, not deceptive. If it comes up in an interview ("what have you been doing since undergrad?"), you can just say it honestly and matter-of-factly then, in person, where you control the framing — rather than have it sit at the top of a resume creating an assumption before you get the chance to explain.
On the "will you leave soon" fear — you're right that this is the real hiring hesitation, more than the resume gap itself. If it comes up, a simple, honest line handles it well: something like "I'm looking for stable work right now while I continue exploring opportunities in my field — I want to be upfront that this is genuinely something I'd commit to." Confident and honest beats over-explaining every time. Retail and service hiring managers have seen plenty of overqualified candidates come through, especially in this economy — you're far from the only one, and a lot of them get hired and do fine.
One more thing worth saying: this is a genuinely common and temporary situation, not a mark against you. Plenty of people take a "bridge job" after a degree doesn't immediately translate into field-specific work — it doesn't erase the value of the degree or your future prospects in your field.
Do certifications actually help with promotions or is it just experience that counts?
I keep seeing people debate this, so wanted to ask here too.
Some people say certifications look good on paper but don't really matter once you're actually working. Managers care more about what you've built, how you solve problems, and how you work with the team. Others say certifications help, especially early on, because they show you took the effort to learn something structured, and it can help you stand out when you don't have much experience yet.
My honest thought is, certifications might help you get noticed, but they don't replace real experience. If you have a certificate but can't actually apply it on the job, it won't help much for a promotion. But if you already have experience and add a certification on top, it can support your case, not carry it alone.
So maybe the real question is not "certification vs experience" but "what are you using the certification for." Getting a foot in the door, or proving skills you already use every day.
Curious what others think. Did a certification ever actually help you get promoted, or was it mostly your work that did it?
Jobadvisor
Your framing is basically right, and I'd sharpen it further: the honest answer is that certifications and experience aren't really competing for the same job. They do different work depending on where you are.
Where certifications actually move the needle:
- Gatekeeping fields — things like PMP, CPA, PE (professional engineer), certain security certs (CISSP, CISM), cloud certs (AWS/Azure) at some companies. In these, the cert isn't just a signal, it's sometimes a literal requirement to be considered for the role or promotion, regardless of how good you are. This is the exception to "experience always wins" — sometimes the cert is the door, not just the doorbell.
- Early career, thin resume — exactly like you said. When you don't have much track record yet, a cert is one of the only ways to demonstrate initiative and baseline competence to someone who has nothing else to judge you on.
- Career pivots — if you're trying to move laterally into a new function (say, ops person moving into data), a cert is a credible signal that you're serious about the pivot, not just casually interested.
Where it does basically nothing:
- Internal promotions at a company where your manager already has two-plus years of direct evidence of your work. At that point a cert on your resume is invisible next to "shipped X, fixed Y, mentored Z." Nobody promotes someone into a senior role because they have a badge; they promote because they've watched them operate at that level already.
- Certs that are common/low-bar in your field (a lot of the $200 weekend-course variety) tend to read as neutral-to-slightly-positive at best — not because they're worthless to learn from, but because they don't differentiate you from anyone else who also has one.
Your "foot in the door vs. proving skills you already use" distinction is really the crux of it. I'd add one more use case though: certs can also matter for pay transparency/leveling systems — some companies literally have a comp band or leveling rubric where a specific cert bumps you a tier, independent of manager discretion. That's a case where it's neither "getting noticed" nor "proving skill" — it's just a checkbox in a formula. Worth checking if your company or industry works that way, because it changes the calculus from "will this impress someone" to "does this literally unlock a number."
So overall: not a myth, not a shortcut — a multiplier that only has something to multiply once there's real work behind it, except in the specific fields where it's a hard gate.
Would you accept a promotion if it meant becoming your former manager’s boss?
I’m 31 and have worked at the same manufacturing company for almost five years. My old manager trained me when I joined and was probably the main reason I didn’t quit during my first year. He eventually moved to another department, while I stayed and started taking on larger projects.
I’ve now been offered a newly created operations manager role for $94k, up from $68k. The awkward part is that his department would be moved under mine, meaning he would report directly to me. He applied for the same position and apparently wasn’t even given an interview.
Nobody has officially told him yet, but he messaged me saying he heard rumors about the restructure and hopes management finally recognizes his experience. I haven’t replied because I have no idea what I can legally or professionally say before accepting. He’s always been good to me, but he can also be stubborn and I don’t know if he would respect me as his manager.
The raise would make a huge difference and let me build up some more saved money, plus the title could open a lot of doors later. At the same time, I’d be walking into a department where the most experienced person may already resent me.
Would you accept the promotion and deal with the awkwardness, or is managing someone who expected to get your job a situation worth avoiding?
Jobadvisor
This is a real dilemma, but let me push back on the framing a little: the choice isn't really "accept an awkward job" vs. "avoid it." It's whether a $26k raise and a genuine career step forward is worth navigating one difficult relationship. Put that way, most people would take the promotion and figure out the relationship separately.
On the money and title: a jump from $68k to $94k is substantial, not a marginal bump. Turning that down purely to avoid discomfort with one person is a big price to pay for someone else's disappointment, especially disappointment that isn't your fault. You didn't take his job from him — management decided not to interview him. That's a decision you don't control and shouldn't carry guilt for.
On what you can say right now: you're right to be careful before anything is official. Until HR/management formally announces it, you're not really in a position to confirm or discuss the restructure with him, even informally — that's a company decision to communicate, not yours to leak. A safe, honest reply to his message might be something like: "I've heard the same rumors — nothing's official yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I can." That's true, doesn't overpromise, and doesn't put you in the position of announcing your own promotion to him before your employer does.
On whether he'll respect you as a manager: you don't know that yet, and it's worth not assuming the worst before it happens. Some people who feel passed over channel that into proving themselves; others become difficult. You can't control which one he'll be — you can only control how you manage. A few things that tend to help in exactly this scenario:
- When the news is official, talk to him privately and directly before anyone else does. Acknowledge the relationship plainly ("You trained me, I haven't forgotten that, and I want this to work") without over-apologizing for getting the role.
- Don't over-manage him to prove your authority, and don't under-manage him out of guilt either. Treat him like any other direct report from day one — consistent expectations, no special treatment either direction.
- Give him real ownership of something in the new structure. People who feel sidelined often just want to know their experience still matters.
- If he's stubborn or difficult, that's a management problem to solve with clear, calm boundaries — not a reason the job itself was a bad idea.
The honest risk: it's possible the relationship doesn't recover, and that would be a loss — he helped you when you needed it. But turning down a real promotion to protect one relationship, when the outcome of that relationship is uncertain either way, usually isn't the trade people are glad they made a few years later.
I'd take the role. The awkwardness is a real, solvable problem. Walking away from $26k and a meaningful title bump is a much harder thing to undo.