I work in retail so the only thing that changed for me during the pandemic was my level of anxiety.
I worked in retail too! In March of 2020, I got laid off, took a couple weeks to have my first vacation in years, then after some introspection about how id been working for a decade and was still making minimum wage I realized ten years had been worthless. It was rough but I went back to college and now have a cushy cybersecurity job in government.
I don’t miss retail one bit. Hope you’re doing better and building an exit plan
As someone in classes now ( at 44, hope it isnt a mistake after so many years of customer service) hoping for a cushy cybersecurity job in the future… can you give some advice on other key terms that might be used on the job searches, or closely related fields? I’m still pretty early on in my learning but trying to look around at what my best niche may be in the future.
It’s not. Simple reality is your going to end up in help desk (you might end up in a SNOC or related but ultimately I’d advise help desk just so you learn some real world ops). Security, like it’s engineering counterparts is not something you can do with zero experience in the industry. The two hardest job interviews you will ever have in the general it industry are getting into help desk, and getting out of help desk.
It’s never too late! I started at 24, I’m 28 now. Your not much older than one of my peer-turned-dear-friends. Truth is that as long as you nail the learning the rest will just be a matter of time. It took me almost a year of job hunting to get this gig, but it’s municipal government work in a union in Canada.
I’ll warn you however that cybersecurity isn’t entry level stuff. I’d been working as a whatever-they-want-me-to-do solo IT guy for two years for a college before I made the transition. For what it’s worth I was also customer service and you can definitely leverage that when looking at the (very crowded) entry level IT market of helpdesk roles. Helpdesk sucks, but unlike retail the suck doesn’t last forever. Do a year, study certs while you do, then get out. Never. Stop. Applying.
I recommend looking into the compTIA certifications like A+, Networking+, and naturally Security+. Those are good fundamentals to have down, and combined with classes you shouldn’t have too hard a time.
Hope this helps a bit.
Yes! Thank you for all that advice! Where I am at now shows internal jobs available, maybe I should look more at the help desk listings when they come up to start sidleing over. At least then it will be colleague c.s. instead of cold customers.
Special thank you for certs info! Don’t think my classes would be getting to that kind of info for quite a while yet (just coming out of all the 101 classes).
Much appreciated!!
Of course, please feel free to reach out further if you want more insights relevant to your position. I can’t promise anything but I’m happy to help and be a sounding board.
(Genuine question) Why recommend A+? I’ve heard its more or less “i can identify physical ports, put together a computer, and install an OS”; useful if you’ve never done anything with computers, but otherwise redundant and unimpressive in the IT field (Edit: and exam vouchers ain’t cheap if you’re just getting into IT!)
I jumped straight into Sec+ myself, and I really ought to do Net+ just for core knowledge.
No hate, that’s a fair question.
In this specific case, it’s advice geared to what I know about the person soliciting my advice. Because I don’t know what they know, it’s a case where it’s just good to start at the ground floor. Some of my classmates were international students from India with only the slightest idea what the difference between a tower and a montior were so having this knowledge never hurts. Also at 44 there may be some stigma that they encounter if they use older terminology or don’t know the cutting edge in an interview.
If a cert is useless to you then by all means skip it after doing a practice exam. Talking about your cert goals in an interview is a good way to bring up what you know/are learning on your own.
Certs are there to serve you, not the other way around, so ideally study them until you land a job, then get the job to pay for them if you can.
After years of being told teleworking was an impossbility, I was sent home to work and didn’t even miss an hour on my timesheet.
My whole office went to WFH as soon as the pandemic started, the plan was to move back to the physical office as soon as possible, but there was so much resistance in the company that eventually the owners sold off the building and we never went back.
As for productivity, I was in charge of transitioning my team and ensuring they weren’t slacking. I had the exact opposite problem with 9/10 out of them, mostly everyone was working too late and putting in time off the clock just because they were bored. We ran out of work to do every week and started taking on new tasks for other teams.
Except Terry, he got a second job and tried to work both at the same time. He never appeared on camera in our meetings because he was at his other employer. It took me a bit to figure out something was off, when I confronted him he abruptly quit. He was a sour and deeply repressed dude and after he left everyone celebrated.
I realized im Trans :3
<3
A shutdown very well spent!
Samesies, fren!
Fren :3
The full remote time during the pandemic allowed me to slowly update my profile pic for work until people started asking me what my pronouns were.
I was getting ready to come out to my sister in like late 2021, she had a really bad motorcycle accident and we were catching up and it seemed like the right time to tell her.
then she started talking about how a near death experience made her start re-evaluating some things, and then she came out to me and it was the fucking spiderman pointing meme. Both of us moved to WFH after covid hit so the timing makes sense, but it was such a wonderful coincidence.
I knew someone at university with a twin sibling. One was afab and the other was amab. Both came out as trans. We used to joke that instead of getting top / bottom surgery, they should just get head transplants :-)
I started transitioning 2 years before the pandemic, but it was still nice to be at home and not having to deal with people in person. Lots of people were and still are not very accepting of my transition.
I got bottom surgery about a year into the pandemic, that was, well a really brutal time because I also had bedbugs, moved, and returned to work in the same 6 week timeframe
Oh my gosh, I had 2 kids, went back to college, rocketed my fledgling IT career forward and gained a mortgage during the pandemic. Granted I probably would’ve done all those things without the pandemic, but many of the pandemic era policies helped make each of those steps much easier than they normally would have been
I spent a lot of time with my now wife and met my best friends
Can someone ELI5 me the whole furry thing? Is this a community, is this a sexual thing? Is it an American thing?
One possible reason from many is that it’s fun to not be human because humans aren’t so great to each other. Look into the link between autism and identifying as non-human (there are multiple ways of doing so).
Signed, an autistic being who does not feel emotionally attached to being a human, but is not a furry.
ELI5
Furries are people who enjoy dressing up as or creating characters based on anthropomorphic animals, which are animals that have human-like traits such as walking on two legs, talking, or wearing clothes. These characters might be foxes, wolves, cats, or any other animal but with a personality or appearance that feels human-like.
Some furries create artwork, write stories, or role-play as these characters online, while others might dress up in costumes called “fursuits” to bring their characters to life in the real world. It’s a hobby and a community that’s mostly about creativity, imagination, and expressing yourself through these animal characters.
Is this a community, is this a sexual thing?
It can be either or both. I think for the most part it is community though. For some it starts as one and then expands into the other. For me it really is a lot about self discovery & self expression, SFW & NSFW, and makes me feel more connected to the world.
Or to put it in mature comic form: https://www.ohjoysextoy.com/furry/
Is it an American thing?
No, European here with quite some insight. I think the map in the other post is slightly misleading, as bigger countries like the US have more conventions than smaller countries is kind of obvious.
If you have more questions, feel free to ask 😊 I will do my best to offer my perspective on this.
Am not a furry, and would also love an explanation. I mean, I ain’t knocking whatever it is that gets someone through this world. It can be a very hard, very cruel place, and it dressing up as a electric blue armadillo makes someone happy, and allows them to find people they vibe with, I’m super happy for them. But dagnabbit, I’d really love to understand it. Haha
Also, I know 2 Australian furries and 1 swiss furry, so I’m guessing not an American thing.
I approve of an electric blue armadillo fursona. Would probably look pretty cool actually
That was my thought process. “what’s the coolest animal/color combo?” Obviously electric blue armadillo. It’s like a little knight in armor, but electric blue, and looks deceptively cuddly
Believe it or not this is exactly how most furries make their fursona
Also, I’ve just realized, armadillos aren’t furry. Can a non furry animal be someone’s fursona? (That’s the term, right?) Or is there another term? A… Skinny? Shelly?
Yeah, definitely. Furry encompasses basically anything that’s a non-human anthropomorphic creature. I’ve seen fursonas based on birds, sharks, dolphins, turtles, rhinos, dinos, frogs, hippos, orcas, dragons, reptiles, plant creatures… hell, there are alien species like sergals and avalis, anthro/machine hybrids like protogens, and even entirely robotic characters.
It’s just called furry because furred species are the most common, and the original community that splintered off from sci-fi conventions in the 70s and 80s and grew through fanzines pre-Internet largely used furred species for their characters. (“Fun” fact, the early community had a lot of skunk characters, which is why one of the first derogatory terms for furries was “skunkfucker.”)
That’s interesting! That’s for the info!
Well, shit, am I having a literal “this better not awaken anything in me” moment? Lol
Honestly, don’t stress yourself out over it, and keep an open mind. It might not be your cup of tea, and that’s perfectly fine–there undoubtedly is a large sexual aspect to furry, and lots of folks (especially folks who are cisgender, heterosexual, have a less relaxed view about sexuality, etc.–not to say that you can’t be a straight male furry, but there are a LOT of gay/bi furries) may find it to be a dealbreaker. Ultimately, furry has its roots in the nerd and geek communities, back when being nerdy or geeky was something to be bullied over, and it still shows it today.
Furry is a community that has a disproportionate number of LGBT+ folks, neurodivergent folks (especially people on the ADHD/autism spectrum), and other marginalized groups. Among many things, this means it revels in being proudly and unabashedly weird, both as a celebration of itself and as a defense mechanism against becoming overwhelmed by the kinds of business interests that would love nothing more than to push out all the sexuality and weirdness to provide a safe space for advertisers to shovel their slop down our throats.
If that sounds like something you’d enjoy being a part of, then I’d suggest checking out some places like the furry_irl subreddit, looking up streamers under the furry tag on Twitch (Skaifox, WhiskeyDing0, etc.), maybe make an account on FurAffinity, and look up furmeets or conventions in your area you can attend. You might not like it, or you might find yourself joining the best community I’ve ever been part of.
I was more joking than anything. I’m probably not going to get deep into it, if for no other reason that I am deeply uncomfortable with being… Like… Visible, or seen, or existing when people know I’m existing, and I don’t want to have to explain a large purchase for an Armadillo head to my mom. Lol
But also, I am very much so not straight, and only nominally cisgendered most of the time. Lol. And my shrink thinks I’m probably somewhere on the spectrum, so there’s that, too. Lol. I’m not opposed to kink or sexual aspects of a group. I’ve been known to be a bit freaky when I manage to crawl out of my Hermitage for the day. Lol. But conventions and groups and, like, people just aren’t my thing most of the time, y’know?
There are explanations now btw
Thank you!
💜 np
ofc. Furries are crestive people who enjoy art/litterature/etc. about anthromorphic animals(like werewolves!). A lot of us have our own characters/personas that we create as a avatar of ourselves or to express our creativity and aspects of our identity on a character. This is called a fursona. Now since the only criteria is to enjoy anthromorphic animals(aka furries) there is a lot of range. A lot of us enjoy dressing up as our characters on furcons like people who dress up as their favorite character at comicon. And this interest in furries/anthromorphic amimals/werewolfesque characters can be sexual too for a lot of people. (of course this doesn’t have to be) It is just a very big welcoming community of creatives and fans of anthromorphic characters. Hope this helps
re “is it an american thing,” someone else will have to field the rest of your question
counterpoint, America is big, has atrocious public transport, and though furries that can afford suits can probably also afford flights, there’s plenty who cannot afford either, or just pick one
It’s for the safety of IT departments everywhere that furries’ need for travel is limited
There could also maybe be $50,000 worth of fursuits there too
🤘 Lol, double or triple it. 😅
Compare with a GDP per capita map. I’m not an economist, but it appears furries are wealth 📈
We need some data on the poor furries who can’t afford cons. Back in high school it was just a matter of sticking a fluffy tail to the back of your pants
from the stories I hear about commissions for art and suits, I’d agree. but then again, it’s probably also like mountaineering, either you live like a bum out of your van, or you organize expesive ass trips to far away mountains
Is this a community
Yes. Though you can do it yourself, a lot of furries go to conventions, frequent social media forums and bulletin boards. Just like you would with any other hobby or lifestyle.
is this a sexual thing
Sometimes but not always. The sexual part is a subculture that is part of the larger furry culture.
I don’t know if there’s any statistics on how large that subculture is either in raw numbers or percentage of all furries, but as an outsider who’s picked up info here and there, my guesstimate would be that it’s probably a small minority 🤷
Is it an American thing?
Already answered by someone else, but may as well include it here: nope. It’s a worldwide thing.
Being openly a furry is probably much more prevalent in culturally liberal (in the original sense of the word rather than the political one) countries than ones that strictly enforce specific cultural norms. And Japan, probably 🤷
I got drunk a lot and called it “getting into making cocktails”
And now people say I have a problem. I don’t have a problem. You have a problem.
Furry guy needs more confidence.
@unexposedhazard
Agreed, he definitely needs more confidence.
Where’s the “I started half a dozen hobbies and projects and didnt really stick to any of them” character?
Probably at [email protected] 🤷
Though tbf, we also tend to do that when there’s no shutdown 😁
hm. i should book that appointment some time eh
Can you book one for me, too? I’ve been telling myself to do that for over a year now.
i uh. yeah. a year. a year or two ago i went to an initial eval to get a recommendation for therapy. Doc told me it makes sense to find a spot since i have so much trouble getting tasks started that it impacts my day to day function.
Guess what I didn’t do with that recommendation?
It really sucks that ADHD treatment is NOT ADHD friendly. The usually very cheerful How To ADHD even made a very frustrated video about it
Benn Jordan did a deep dive into the shortage of ADHD drugs in the US. It stinks of bribery and corruption
I remember this, it’s rough. These sort of situations are just something nobody teaches us it seems. Eventually you’re an adult and supposed to have it all figured out until you run into a wall like that
Aww shucks. But I believe in you <3
Likewise bud
I joined the furry fandom quite a bit after the pandemic lockdown was lifted.
I worked a ton of overtime and bought two luxury watches.
I got diagnosed with ADHD, BPD, and autism. Then promptly lost my health insurance so I can’t actually, you know, do anything about the above.
Nothing changed for me except the prevalence of masks. Everyone I worked with got stuffed into an off-site office instead of working from home, and I’m still bitter about it. Nothing we did required anything other than a computer and maybe a phone. Fully remote helpdesk.
I grew bitter and resentful towards people who complained about how hard it was to work from home and all the downtime they had while I had to trudge into “critical” work everyday for low pay.
These comics always confuse me because I forget anyone other than children had to stay home (and even that didn’t last too long)
People stayed home for like a year where I was.
That must have been miserable for opposite reasons than my experience. :( Not fair that some people had to do that, but not enough to actually keep the numbers down.
That does suck, I also grew bitter and resentful to all the people with families being like “oh I got fit and healthy and spent time with my loved ones” while I went over 3 months without a single face to face conversation with anyone…
My cousin’s wife divorced him after 6 months to move to her home country. Her stated reason was that during lockdown, she was isolated from her friends and family, and she couldn’t handle being alone again.
It was hard on all of us but…uh…what does she think the rest of us single people did?
I always struggle with the “shutdown” timeframe. Partly because I have a shit sense of time, but mostly because nothing really changed for me.
I am also still in a “shutdown”.
Only thing that changed for me was the workload got higher due to coworkers getting sick and a nice reminder of my own catching the virus with what seems like chronic asthma
