One of my friends and roommate from college graduated with a Psychology degree but after she graduated, she didn't do anything with her degree either. Strangely enough, she became a paralegal. It was initially her father's job, but right before he passed away, he convinced his boss to hire her, to replace him. So yeah, I think after a few months to a year later, she and another friend of mine went to get their paralegal certificates. Anyways, after graduating college, I started getting job assignments through temp agencies. At first I didn't know they were temp agencies - I just thought I was applying for jobs, but after they brought me in for an interview, then that's when I found out they were temp agencies. I was fine with that at first since I didn't have any job experience before that. I figure that it would help me get my foot in the door and to start working. It was a great start. Currently, I am still at a "temp" job.
It has been almost 2 years and I have already been told that I will be getting laid off in the beginning of September. Am I sad? Not really. The job sucks as it is. All I do is fax documents all day, look up files and take crap from the service reps. When something wrong happens, most of the blame gets pointed towards me. It can be long hours since one of my co-workers is constantly out sick, vacation, or unexpected leave so I have to do overtime. My boss kind of doesn't have a clue what our entire department does all day since he newly acquired our department from a previous manager. Also, some people in the department like to cause drama and gossip and that's just annoying on another level. It can be very frustrating.. actually all the time and I actually can't wait to leave in September. The only thing I'm worried about is that my paychecks are gonna stop coming. I'm worried about how I'm gonna save money. It's already hard saving money as it is. I'm always worried about money.
So for a while, I've been job hunting.. even before I knew I was getting laid off. I've been applying to other "office" jobs but I feel like it's no luck since I haven't gotten any calls back or anything. If I can't find anything on my own, I'm just gonna go back to my temp agency and have them help me find jobs again. This time I'll ask them to help me find a direct hire job (they can do that, right?), or a temp to hire job. I really don't want to be stuck with a job where I stuff envelopes all day... and yes they have put me in those jobs before. They are so boring and useless. I really feel like I'm wasting my time there. It just sucks that I have a bachelor's degree and I still can't find a decent permanent job. I am already 26 and I feel like I can't get my life started. Anyway, from all my job searching, I am always seeing medical billing and coding jobs so I decided to research what that was. Then I had this idea that maybe in order for me to better my chances at finding a job, I should get certified in something.
A while ago, I dabbled in the idea of becoming a certified real estate appraiser since I worked in a real estate company for 4 months (before I got laid off...) but I'm not sure what happened to that idea. I guess I just stopped thinking of it all together, or that it doesn't sound much appealing to me anymore.. but yeah, I'm thinking to go back to school to get certified in something. I know it would make my parents (especially my father) happy that I went back to school. So yeah, my plan right now is to go back to school and learn to become a medical biller and coder, then to study hard and take the CPC exam, and later on the CCS exam. Through all my research, they say its best to start with the CPC exam especially if you have little to no experience which pretty much sounds like me.
So here's my plan:
- Enroll and take the course
- While I'm taking the course, try to find a job that's in the medical field. Doesn't matter what it is, just get a job that's in a doctors office or hospital. Probably a front desk receptionist, assistant or something. Anything. And work there for at least 2 years to gain experience.
- After I finish the course, take the exam (CPC or CCS but most likely CPC).
- After passing the CPC, continue working in the medical field whatever I'm doing, while trying to look into medical coding and billing jobs.
- Study some more and then take the CCS exam
- And then hopefully by then I will become a certified medical biller and coder and can get the job I want.
I've researched it a lot and I know it's going to be tough. I really have to have my mind focused on it and then I know I can do it. I'm thinking that since I've been researching a few schools, websites, ICD-9 codes, looking at forums, blogs, and websites about this that I think I'm really familiarizing myself with it because I really want to know what I'm getting myself into. It's just hard for me to finally take the plunge because this course ranges anywhere from 600-2700 dollars from my own research. It's a lot of money to spend on...and what's making me decide even faster is that 2 schools I'm looking at has a July discount. That if I enroll by the end of the month, I will either get a free laptop, free iPad 2 or 300-325 dollars off tuition. It's a good deal! I'd probably get that free laptop but I have no idea what kind of laptop it is. I'm whatever about the iPad 2 since I already have one lol. But yeah... if I take this course, my father said he would pay it for me. I love that guy so much.
I pretty much never have to worry about money when it comes to my education. But yeah... even though I wouldn't have to worry about money, I don't want to waste his money either. I am 90% positive I want to go this route. I also dabbled in the idea of becoming a certified pharmacy technician as well but I read that a medical coder/biller can advance up more than a pharmacy tech can. So yeah. I want a career where I can grow. I don't want to be doing the same old thing everyday and I read that being a medical coder and biller there's room for growth which is exactly what I want. It looks challenging and stressful but for me it would be a different kind of challenge and stress which is what I want to go through. I also want to make myself better for my boyfriend. I want to go back to school, get a better job, make more money for the both of us so we can finally get married, and move out of our current living situation. It's just a whole other story that I may get into later, or never since this blog is about my career journey.
But yeah, I'm thinking this course can be a good distraction for a while too. But anyways... The first school I'm thinking of getting into Career Step. It's an online school but apparently it's widely known and one of the better schools. I've many good things about it. It's also the most expensive school I've looked into so far which is why I'm still kind of iffy... I found another blog last night about a woman documenting her experience with Career Step which is what gave me this idea to start this blog.. but that woman only posted like 3-4 entries and haven't heard from her since, and this was all last year... so hopefully I can last longer than hers. But yeah, Career Step is one of the schools that has the July promotion. Free laptop, free iPad, or 300 dollars off tuition. It's enticing, I have to admit and it's making try to make my decision fast because I want my goodies lol. Another school I'm thinking of is the UCR Extensions's program. It's also an online course and it also has the July promotion.
Free laptop or 325 dollars off tuition.. but this course is a little cheaper than Career Step. It's still expensive though.. still in the thousands. The school third in line is not an online school - I'd have to take real classes in a real classroom. CSULA's extension center. This course is the 3rd most expensive but it also seems like it would teach me a lot. But one thing I don't think I'd like about taking a class in a real classroom is that the professor would make the students participate and talk in class. I don't like learning like that. Just leave me alone and let me do my work lol. I hate raising my hand and talking. Maybe that's just the problem with me. At least if I do online courses, then I don't have to deal with competition and people all the time and be randomly stressed out over that kind of stuff. I used to hate going into discussion courses while I was in undergrad because I really didn't like participating, especially when I wasn't comfortable with the material yet.
But when I decide to take this course, I promise myself to try not to be like that. I promise myself that I will try to learn all the material and to be prepared before moving forward. I will take the best, most organized notes ever because I want to graduate with high honors. If I was younger and can do undergrad all over again, I would, and go a different route - maybe business or something, but it's too late for that. Anyway... the 2 other classes that peaked my interest a while ago was Pasadena City College and CSULB. PCC's course was only like 677 dollars...but I'd have to take 3 classes... so I don't know if it's worth it or if it would even prepare me for the exams I needed to take. Although I never actually called any schools to confirm (I should), their website class description never told me the information I needed to know either. Maybe tomorrow I will call each school with my questions.
My questions would be:
- Is your school accredited?
- Is your school AHIMA approved?
- How does your course prepare students for the CPC/CCS exam?
and probably more...
I heard the main person for UCR's extension didn't really know anything so now I'm leaning more towards Career Step than UCR...even though I completed my undergrad at UCR and at first it was more appealing to me. UCR's course website didn't even seem to explain that much about the course either :/ Ugh. I just don't really know yet. I kind of hope July is a slow month lol. One thing that seems time consuming is after I get certified, I would have to be re-certified after a while. It's not like once I get my certificate, I can hold it forever. I guess I would have to be re-certified often or else I would lose it. And I'm not sure how it works yet but if I have to pay every time I need to be re-certified, it would be a lot of money, right? That's just something I need to look into too. I looked into it a while ago but I also don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Right now I just need to focus on what school to go with...
Until next time.
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