Education and Employment

I have a technical degree in cosmetology. I am not without education. However, where I live, I actually make more money working in retail or food than I would make in a salon. With the economy the way it is, and the amount of time it takes to establish a clientele, it's rather difficult for me to make a name for myself as a stylist while being able to support my son and pay my bills. My education is, essentially, worthless.

Unfortunately, that "worthless" education came with a hefty price tag. I'm currently about $13,000 in debt, and I have no way to pay any of it off. Finding the right employment is the first step to solving all my problems.

I currently work 20 hours a week at Taco Bell. I just started there on June 15, 2013 (my 23rd birthday), and I'm hoping that by sticking it out, I'll eventually get more hours. However, at 7.50/hour, even full-time just won't cut it. I need a second job or a higher-paying replacement job. This is where it gets tricky though.

See, I live in the country. I also don't currently have my own vehicle or access to public transportation, and both of my parents work normal business hours. They get home at 5. It then takes me about 20 minutes to take their car and get back to a town or city where any job would be. This means I'm not able to work any shift starting before 5:30pm, and since my parents leave for work at 7:30, and my son wakes up at 9am, I need to be home by 5am to get some sleep.

My availability is 5:30pm - 5:00am. Not a lot of jobs have shifts within this time frame, let alone jobs that pay highly.

My parents are going out of town soon, for about 4 days. I'll be left with one of their vehicles. My son is going to be going to his father's house during the day for at least 2 of the days. I will be baby-free with a vehicle during normal business hours. If you've EVER been in a situation even remotely like mine, you know what this means.

Full scale job hunt.

I have a few leads on jobs, including a place that would pay me at least twice as much per-hour, with more hours and the possibility of full-time employment. There are a number of job openings for which I am qualified, and most of those jobs are also tipped positions. Let me break this down for you:

I currently make $7.50/hour and work 20/hours a week. That means I make $150 per week, BEFORE taxes are taken out. My actual paychecks are about $132/week.

This job I'm applying for, I'm not certain of the exact pay rate, but I know it's over $14/hour. We'll just use $14 for this illustration.

$14/hour, 8 hours/day, 5 days/week. That's $560/week before taxes. Take home would be between $400 and $450. Plus tips, which would be a few hundred a week at least. Let's say $150/week in tips.

If I get this new job, I'd go from making $7800/ year gross income to approximately $36920/year gross income.

I'm going to fight like hell for this job, and I'm also going to be looking for entry-level positions within a same pay grade. But this job, I want this job.

I've set up an example budget for if I were making this kind of money. It shows how I'd pay my bills, pay off my debt quickly, save, and still be able to do fun things for my son and myself. I'll post it in a separate post.