Background: My husband recently, finally, left his awful job in middle restaurant management and is looking at switching careers. The only good thing about his job was the pay (I used to work in restaurants too so I understand the pain).
I have an Associate Degree in IT & networking with 2.5 years of both in-person helpdesk and call center level 1 IT support (varied experience is split 50/50 between the two positions on my resume). We have 3 kids – a preteen, and twin 2 year olds. Originally, the highest wage I could find was $15-16/hour pre-pandemic.
Meanwhile, my spouse made 56-64k, depending on where he worked, and if he got his bonuses. So of course when I found out I was pregnant with twins, the numbers came out to it being a net benefit for me to stay home.
Well he couldn’t take it anymore and finally left the industry. He went in one morning, had one last terrible text interaction with yet another terrible employer, and walked out an hour later. Pulled in the driveway, crying, because he was the provider and he was scared of what I was going to say, scared of the now-uncertain future. I wrapped him up in my arms and held him and told him we would be OKAY.
Applied for food stamps two days later, which we qualified for. He talked his parents, who offered their full support in helping cover costs for new education if he decides to get some certification (like CDLs, etc). We both started applying for jobs in the meantime.
Today, I am waiting on a call back from an contracting agency that vaguely offered $21-$24 an hour for a remote position supporting health-related technologies like digital health charts (think myChart), and then said they were convinced I was worth “max pay” after I addressed that I wanted the max pay rate, after the interview with their client seemed to go very well. I heavily advocated to receive the $24/hour. The interview was Weds and I was told they are making phone calls for job offers by today. So 🤞
Meanwhile, I’m not waiting another second. I sent this email, copy and pasted below, to a recruiter I have an ongoing repertoire with.
Is this too much to ask? Too little? We don’t need to make as much as my husband was making to get us through this transition, and if I can get back into my career at a decent hourly rate, my spouse is happy to just step aside as the primary provider and be the primary caregiver for our kids/work around my hours.
With that, if I can get a promotion within a couple years, my spouse can just be a stay at home dad like he’s always wanted, and I can be the provider, and actually use my degree, like I always wanted.
Thoughts?
Hello!
My spouse is now a stay at home parent and childcare is no longer an issue.
Here are my job requirements (and please see attached resume):
- Full time contract opportunities that pay a minimum of $20 an hour ($24/hr preferred)
- Remote (full remote, no hybrid, company-provided workstation)
- Must have some kind of training/documentation for technical reference for the systems I’ll be supporting
If you know of any opportunities that fit this description, I would love to hear about them.
Thank you!