Bill Allen

Bill Allen(opens in new window), who graduated with his BA in Economics in 1989, is a senior information systems technician with Butte County.  “I had no idea what I specifically wanted to pursue as far as a career, and found myself feeling unprepared for the working world at that point in my life,” Bill stated in an email (11/2/15).   He decided to go back to Chico State and he earned his BA in History in 1994.

 “After getting my history degree, I was fortunate to land a job at the beginning of 1996 with the (now defunct) Private Industry Council of Butte County(opens in new window) as their 'Labor Market Analyst'. Good fortune, and my Econ degree helped me to land this job. Holding two degrees didn't hurt either.”

For almost nine years Bill Allen’s duties were to survey employers regarding various select occupations in 9 Northern California counties. He wrote and published 3 separate Occupation Outlook Reports. Funding for this project was via a cooperative relationship between the Employment Development Department--Labor Market Information Division(opens in new window) and local recipient organizations of welfare-to-work monies. The partnership was called the California Cooperative Occupational Information System (CCOIS).

“The goal, of course, was to find jobs that were in high demand; jobs that had a good long-term outlook. This allowed job counselors of various stripes to be able to steer folks who had been misplaced from their jobs in a more favorable direction.”

“I loved that job!” Unfortunately, in early 2004 the state cut funding for the CCOIS throughout the state. As a result, He was laid-off from his job at the beginning of April 2004. Six months later he accepted a job with AT&T Wireless(opens in new window) where he worked as a business account manager for AT&T, but he grew tired of the long hours and stress. “I literally demoted myself to the current job in sales with half the pay at my choosing because I was tired of the great stress and long hours involved with being a business account manager.” 

Bill worked at AT&T until 2017 when he took a job with Butte County where he currently works with wireless and land line communication.  “We are in the slow, methodical process of converting all the county’s Centrex lines over to Skype for Business VoIP system,” Bill explained in a recent email. “Further, one of our sub-departments here is Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I’ve asked my boss if I can learn as much as possible about GIS, even receiving some proper academic training, to be able to help out more within our department.”

 “As a man now in his 50's, I learned in my early Econ days about 'value'. I've done well for myself and my family, paid off all debt, and live fairly comfortably. I've learned that what I value at this point in my life is not money or prestige. I value having more time to spend with family--especially camping and hiking.”

“My Econ degree was directly related to my early career as a labor market analyst. But the person who hired me at AT&T was mostly interested in the fact that I had persevered through the university, and was successful on my first career job. He trusted that I'd be a good hire.”  (Last Updated 3/6/19)