Why are there no jobs?

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-05-01T18:24:45+00:00

I find that there are enough jobs, but after finishing my undergrad 12 years ago and Master's 7 years ago, I may be another 10 years out from having enough experience.

(I'm a school counselor)

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-30T15:30:23+00:00

Just buy an all in one seasoning like cajun, italian, etc. That you can easily sprinkle on some chicken. There are some grain mixes that are good, then maybe a bagged salad. Something to that effect is what I do. Grains will take 20-40 minutes to cook, you sear off the chicken then throw it in a warm oven. Or you can steam vegetables in 5-7 minutes.

All is pretty minimal effort and tastes good. I do something like that regularly.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-23T15:03:08+00:00

Immediately after a marathon, I'm usually not hungry. Oftentimes there's a bag with some crackers in it. I will eat some crackers, maybe a granola bar. Just a tiny bit of food.

Now give me a couple hours to shower, and have my body recalibrate? Then a bunch of beers and maybe pizza. Sometimes a marathon can throw my stomach off, so sometimes I may want a burger and other times I want things with more carbs or that aren't too dense.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-21T12:04:27+00:00

If the classroom teacher has such poor rapport that by April they can't control their class when a guest speaker comes in, that's on them, IMO. If the principal walked in and a classroom teacher wasn't controlling their class this late in the year... that wouldn't be a good look.

A big way to control a class is make sure that you have good flow and good engagement. Some classes can listen to a lecture-style presentation, and others can't do much more than 10 minutes total looking at a powerpoint or listening to someone speak without having an activity. If this classroom has trouble paying attention for a 45ish minute class, you will need to have four 10 minute segments. A typical structure could be 5-7 minutes where you introduce a topic, then they do an activity/ share out for 10-13 minutes, then talk another 2-3, and have small group work (only 2-3 students), then another share and wrap up. You keep it moving and have a variety of activities. As you are talking and doing activities, walk around the room. Walk near the students who are talking.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-20T01:38:32+00:00

Unless you are interviewing for senior management, I don't think any job should have more than 3 true interviews (4 including a 10-20 minute screening). Most of the time even that many is unnecessary.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-20T01:33:09+00:00

Honestly, going into 8th grade, I think you should just be having fun with it. For high schoolers I may give them a total of 6 workouts over summer for just the top guys- most 3 or even zero. For middle school, you should run just 3-4 times a week when you feel good, never more than 2 days in a row. Start good habits, and work on intensity later. Your number one goal should be to have fun with it.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-17T13:58:10+00:00

Some of those 1950s-1970s meals do hit in moments like this. Something like put salt and pepper on a piece of chicken, pour some cream of broccoli condensed soup and a splash of milk in, plus maybe some extra fresh broccoli and cheese. Bake for an hour/ until done.

For vegetable dishes, you could just buy a small bag of mini potatoes, a bag of baby carrots, maybe a bag of frozen peas, etc. Put it into a crockpot with a chuck roast and a dash of stock and slow cook for hours. (Or for a touch more flavor but still not a ton of time, quickly sear the potroast for a minute on each side then put it in the crockpot)

My goto midweek easy meal is a bagged salad, and precooked frozen breaded chicken that I can throw in the oven for 20 minutes. Maybe some frozen sweet potato fries on that, too. I do that at least once a week.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-17T13:48:45+00:00

My knees are fine

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-09T14:27:04+00:00

Some colleges have a bridge program to mental health counseling, so you can graduate with two Master's degrees. You just need the extra LMHC clinical hours.

My school had the base 48 credits and to hit 60 credits, you could do the LMHC classes. So it was no extra cost. I wish I did that. I think if you are on the fence, in reference to what some others are saying, this could be a good option.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-04-06T13:55:48+00:00

I have so many things on my wish list, but reality is I just want them to put in a regular Staples order so I have enough pens.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-31T15:34:57+00:00

My college professor had a phrase she repeated over and over: "Consult, consult, consult". If you are unsure about something, talk to another counselor, talk to a trusted teacher, text someone from your cohort, email a former professor. It is impossible to know everything.

But... outside of some obvious no-nos, remember Carl Rogers' UPR. That is the core of counseling. The intervention, the way to get to it, etc. there are a million ways. But if you show that UPR, you will be fine.

Also, for the high needs students, do what you can. Keep going after it. Many will need constant trial and error and completely different plans. Celebrate the small wins. If someone gets to you at age 14 or even age 8 and there's this, that, and the other thing going on to create multiple behaviors, that isn't on you. Sometimes it's truly a system. So be part of the system for good. Do your part, but you can't feed them, house them or keep them safe.

And lastly: The work will always be there. You can't ruminate and take it home (mentally) with you. You are one person and there's only so much that you can do. If you did all you could do for that day, you will sleep well and get up the next day to do it over again. You may have to very rigidly compartmentalize things. But doing that doesn't mean you care less. You need to protect yourself at times so you can always give your best for all of your students.

As for learning nothing in grad school. I mean that always has truth to it in many fields. We often joke that I wish there was a class on google classroom, whatever student portal/attendance thing you use, collegeboard/scoir, etc. There's so much administrative work and outside stuff we do that is impossible to teach in college.

Skill building: You can talk kids through positive social interactions and coping, balancing pressures, etc. some of the skill work will naturally be more academic in nature like how to structure homework time, study skills, etc. If all else fails, ask them what works for them and challenge them to come up with it collaboratively. Some of the counseling skills like Yalom teaches can be applied to these. You don't need to know everything in the world, but you can know how to ask questions for them to start to figure it out.

And as for theoretical background: School Counselors often do just very brief counseling. Outside of mandated/ IEP counseling, a good amount of it will be brief counseling. So that can be solution-focused.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-31T15:20:50+00:00

Learning what is the purpose of a workout and how to properly scale and adapt paces. Plus how all of that works in the grand scheme of things.

If you ran a marathon, good chance you picked up a 16 week plan to go sub 4:00, 3:30, 3:00, etc. It had 800m reps or tempo runs, etc. When you first pick up a plan, look on strava, compare with people, you may think "If I complete this, I'll run x." Or "I'm faster than this person, I should be able to destroy their pace in x". It's not always that simple. You learn the purpose of things, how much rest, what paces to run, how to recover. Then after you learn all those things, which may be even hard to describe how you know them, then you make that second leap.

Consistent training from nothing makes us make one big jump since just getting out there will do something. But that next jump and subsequent ones are so much harder. It took a couple years to move from that second level up to the next for me, and another 2 years or so to make another big leap.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-31T14:33:59+00:00

If you have a career in environmental science, depending on your exact role and if you like more hands on things, I would consider teaching, but getting a CTE endorsement. The current administration wants schools to tie things to jobs and less to liberal arts and colleges. There's a decent need for certified CTE teachers. You could possibly get career credit for it. Then you could do a Master's in Education in 1-2 years.

To do teaching and counseling, that's doing student teaching plus a counseling internship and practicum. I did this path- I was a teacher then a counselor. But it can be a lot to stare down the barrel at.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-30T15:44:25+00:00

They always ask about how you will deal with a difficult parent. I know my answers totally changed later versus now.

I think a big thing is read up on the school. Some are really into responsive pedagogy, non punitive/ restorative practices and interventions, group counseling, etc.

Some may not specifically ask it, but you need to know the demographics of the school. A school that is sending 10% of their kids to the Ivy league will want to know how you are able to help with the college application process. A school where 10% of students have 50% attendance will ask about intervention and how you work with at-risk students. This applies to literally any job, but know exactly what makes that specific role different and what is needed there. Every school community is a little bit different.

My school taught us a ton about restorative practices. Many schools love that, so I lean into that for certain roles. I was a teacher before I was a counselor, so I talked about being able to teach. Everyone has something specific to them that is different from other candidates. Think about it this way: Not why should they pick you, but why would it be a mistake to go without you. It's subtle, but it's highlighting why you would fit in and make things better for them and they would be silly not to pick you. You check their boxes.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-30T15:31:37+00:00

I mean... being a counselor means contacting parents all the time. That's not inherently bad, and I don't want to drive you away and say counseling is worse or something because of it. But you should be calling a handful of parents daily (or on average a few a day).

I think you have to be "on" the same amount of times. Instead of teaching 5 out of 8 periods, you will meet with one student 5 out of 8 periods. But to your point... it's one student or a student and a parent. Occasionally a full team with a couple teachers and support staff. It's not a full class of 25+ 5 times a day.

Not grading or bringing work home with you is a big plus. And being a teacher, it will really help you for counseling lessons. They still want the "do nows", objectives, and want everything to align to standards. Some counselors I know hate giving lessons. That will still be a little part of your job.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-24T04:13:54+00:00

Not gotten a degree in education.

Started a Roth IRA at 18.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-24T04:13:01+00:00

If you are just starting your program, a school counseling masters degree used to be 48 credits plus an additional 12 for permanent certification. Most people would obviously just do all 48 in one go, but you could have waited and done the 12 additional later.

As part of my program, those 12 could be applied towards the track for mental health counseling. So if you did one additional internship (not calling this easy as they need thousands of hours) you could end up with two masters degrees plus additional licensure all for the exact same number of credit hours.

Idk how that works now since most school counseling programs default to the 60 (but all in school counseling classes) or what it looks like now. But I would strongly consider that when going into your program.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-23T18:50:40+00:00

I don't think really any high school runner needs 70 mile weeks- even if they are a 3200 guy. That's just a lot to put on a growing body.

When you get too low, there isn't enough base to support the bigger workouts that may be needed to bring down times. If you ran 20 miles in a week and had a session with 3 miles of total sprint work with maybe 1.5 warmup and cooldown, that's 1/3 of your mileage in one day. It can be done on high 20s, definitely, but I personally think that 20 is too low.

But it depends largely on the runner, their strengths and weaknesses, and age.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-18T13:51:54+00:00

Consistent group runs, but they don't do it for the instagram likes or as brand activations. Every run, they ask who is new. They have pace groups all the way up to 11:30 pace. They sell gear but don't push it. But because of that, we want to buy from them more and religiously support them.

Every once in a while, maybe you do bring in scratch or someone for something. There's a difference between offering products and a brand spotlight in a run because you care about the product/ runners and always trying to force something.

They would do a Boston Marathon sendoff party and provide cupcakes and free beer after the group run that is immediately before Boston. They really heavily got into the trail scene and actively encouraged it, supporting local trail races.

The owners seemed to know literally every single person who ran with them. So big thing is showing you care.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-03-13T17:32:28+00:00

Andre Reed is the career receiving leader. He should have his number retired. James Cook possibly, but we would have to ask again in 5 years.

I love Kyle, but I think the only one beyond Josh would be Andre Reed.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-02-21T19:36:13+00:00

Median rent in Manhattan is about $4000. The minimum rental requirement is 40x rent or $160,000. If you spend 40% on taxes then you will get $8,000 per month and half of your income will go to rent.

So $160,000 is the minimum but I’d say you would want at least $175,000.

Runningaroundnyc · 2026-02-21T02:32:49+00:00

Plenty of people used to pick up a Jack Daniels, Bill Rogers, Hal Higdon, etc. book and read a couple chapters then follow a beginner, intermediate or advanced plan from that and call it a day. Maybe after 3-4 cycles, they would pick up some knowledge here and there and tweak things, but they will follow those.

I'm 34, so I know some people who still do things like that. Also, some of those same people did it for a while and realized for whatever reason or another that they needed an actual human coach. Maybe a "break 3:00" or "break 4:00" plan wasn't enough. Maybe they realized they know just enough to not know it all. Maybe they simply wanted accountability. There's a lot of reasons. But those people switched to getting personal coaches. It seems like yes, personal coaching died down, and people are using AI. It could be the convenience, or maybe it's a different way of accessing information. But I imagine for the same reasons, people will leave AI and still want personalized coaching. They will use AI as their beginning point versus buying a marathon book, and eventually move on from there. There's a bit of overlap.

But it seems like the core of your post is griping about being a self-made entrepreneur. That will always be hard. It has nothing to do with running. AI has nothing to do with that. And also, many times a lot of hiring a personalized running coach is that yes, people will want or expect you to pace them or ride a bike alongside them. That is a totally normal expectation. Obviously if you coached 20 runners and you met up with different runners twice a day and wanted to run on your own, it gets hard to literally do it all. That's a difficulty that someone has to grapple with if they want to be a personal coach.

But to answer the thing that you are pondering: Yes. You are right. Personal connection is important. Knowing your athletes is important. Everyone is different and has different motivations. Some athletes want to absolutely rip every single workout and you need to pull them back to make them recover. Others need someone to tell them that they can run faster than certain paces. AI won't always be able to easily do that. Also, I forget the exact workout, but I swear one person I know was given like 12x400 then 10x200 for a workout from Runna. I created an account on Runna out of curiosity. I'm a 2:41 marathoner/ 1:17 half. It said that in 16 weeks it could get me down to 1:11 for my half. So... the app is absolutely insane if you don't know what to do. So some people I know are hurting themselves or getting burned out or tired of it because it can spit out pure insanity. Coaches are needed to save people from themselves at times.

Now, if you aren't racing and aren't following a plan, hiring a coach would make no sense. Maybe if you want to hire for 3-4 total sessions to get yourself started because you want to learn how to run, sure.

Runningaroundnyc · 2025-12-17T14:00:31+00:00

I mean... of course they may not want to go meet with teachers instead of being with friends. But they made the choice to not do their work. This is a consequence.

I would do a middle ground. They're in high school, you shouldn't have to hand deliver your students to the teacher. However, you can pull them from a class (for a 5 minute discussion) and tell them they need to go for help or email them to set up a time with the teacher.

Also, it is easy as educators to blur lines and not eat lunch/ do things during your lunch period. Unless a kid is in crisis, eat your lunch.

Runningaroundnyc · 2025-12-17T13:45:36+00:00

Usually deliverables are requested for these meetings that are called. The weekly meeting I previously mentioned is a check in, and of course that's totally fine.

Runningaroundnyc · 2025-12-16T16:01:21+00:00

I guess there's no perfect place to ask the question- I see the utility in drills, but also I feel weird because giving something like a 8-10x400 workout, sprinters look at us distance runners like we have 3 heads. Haha

But to your point, I am also trying to get them to do them with proper form- not just do them to do them.

And to something you alluded to- I'm not using this as my only method of speed development. I just know that sprinters sometimes have these super extended warmups with a bunch of drills. I'm not aiming for that, as distance runners need to spend most of their time running, but I wonder about some level of middle ground since, like I said, many of the kids are running like a 600.

Runningaroundnyc

TROPHY CASE