Advice on work/jobs

[NearOn]

Well it's Sunday night and I have the same feeling had since joined my current job, that feeling of really don't want to go in again tomorrow.

I've only been there 3 months, it's in the NHS working on improving services, cost savings etc which sounds rewarding but it's quite boring and have to work with some very power hungry people. I've learnt since being in it that's not the way I want to go career wise. I want a job I can switch off from and leave on time most days.

I know I am lucky to have a job but I want to have a job I actually enjoy, I enjoyed my previous job in another healthcare setting more than this.

Wondering whether to have a complete career change? Anyone know of anything where don't have to start on apprentice wage, can't afford to do that with a family, also at 32 I'm probs too old anyway for an apprentice!

Edited October 10, 2016 by NearOn

[Joe85]

Open University or Night College i suppose. Hard graft though, from what i hear. Any particular new direction you are thinking of?

I'd love to have the drive and conviction to see out a career change but to be quite honest the only reward i want from any job is the wage. I'd happily sculpt dogshit with my bare hands if the money was right.

[MarkW]

I'd happily sculpt dogshit with my bare hands if the money was right.

If you used a trowel instead you'd probably get a bursary from the Arts Council.

[NeilM]

It is difficult.

I have a job which I can't turn off from at all.

I think it's about learning to deal with it and finding ways where you can minimise the disruption it causes to your home life.

As for re training I suppose at the end of the day that all depends on how much you earn and how much you can afford to lose.

But money is not everything and if it's starting to effect your health get out.

[Mr Fro]

I know how you feel matey, I had the Sunday dreads for a while before I was made redundant earlier in the year.

I got a new job doing very similar stuff to before but I do 4 days a week during term time (4.5 days/week average) so I can study engineering at my local uni. I lose a bit of cash from the 0.5 day and I'm self funding the course but the feeling that I'm getting out of something I'm hideously bored with and in to something that interests me is priceless.

I looked at the OU but it worked out more expensive and took longer than doing residential.

Oh, I'm 33 btw.

[Guest]

Work for yourself!

I spent too many years being used, manipulated, and shit on in big companies.......and then eventually being made redundant.

15 years ago I took the plunge to do my own thing and could kick myself that I didn't have the initiative to do it before.

[Gin]

I know how this one feels, I'm going through a similar experience at the moment too.

I do think that Fro has a point, it is possible to re-train while keeping a job going; it's just going to be difficult.

The amount of people I know who keep saying things like "Oh I wish I had gone into X career when I was younger" and "Well I'm just too old to do it now"

Don't let yourself be one of those people who regrets not taking the chance to change.

My partner waited to go to uni until he was sure of what he wanted to do in life, he's now gone back to Uni to do a masters and I've said I'm happy to keep the house finances going while he's studying. Next year I'm looking into masters to change my path too You can make it work, just need to accept that life is difficult sometimes, but that's only so you can appreciate the good parts

[Guest]

The amount of people I know who keep saying things like "Oh I wish I had gone into X career when I was younger" and "Well I'm just too old to do it now"

Don't let yourself be one of those people who regrets not taking the chance to change.

 

Exactly! Case in point, I didn't come to Spain till I was 51........and I didn't know one word of Spanish at that time.

Didn't hold me back! This "I'm too old to learn another language" bullshit that you get from 99% of Brits here never even entered my head.

You're NEVER too old to change things in your life!

[NeilM]

Nothing worse than pig ignorant brits who can't speak tge local lingo.

These are usually the same ones who whinge about immigration in this country.

[Guest]

Nothing worse than pig ignorant brits who can't speak tge local lingo.

These are usually the same ones who whinge about immigration in this country.

 

You got it Neil!

That's why we went to a place inland and hundreds of miles from the Costas.

Totally Spanish.......no English spoken!

[NeilM]

Was a little aggressive for me that. ..lol

Some may be aware it's our by election in a couple of weeks.

All the main opposing parties are not standing out of respect. The only others who are standing are the far right.

It's all kicking off a little.

Had a fxxxxxx NF sticker pushed through the door.

Not good

[Gin]

Was a little aggressive for me that. ..lol

Some may be aware it's our by election in a couple of weeks.

All the main opposing parties are not standing out of respect. The only others who are standing are the far right.

It's all kicking off a little.

Had a fxxxxxx NF sticker pushed through the door.

Not good

Not standing out of respect? What do you mean?

I'm really interested in international politics but haven't heard about this at all..

[NeilM]

The Jo Cox murder.

It's a very very safe labour seat.

The tories etc said they wouldn't stand due to the circumstances. Fair play to them.

The facist parties are standing for the publicity and to basically kick it off.

[Gin]

The Jo Cox murder.

It's a very very safe labour seat.

The tories etc said they wouldn't stand due to the circumstances. Fair play to them.

The facist parties are standing for the publicity and to basically kick it off.

For some daft reason I thought you meant a Spanish by-election!

Ohhhh I hadn't heard about that at all

That's awful...

[NeilM]

Aye it is.

By next week the camera crews will be back and tge nazis will be in town.

Fantastic eh.

There is a bit of a campaign going on to try n get the far right to lose their deposits.

[Joeman]

Does going back to uni later in life really make that much difference to job prospects?

[Gin]

Does going back to uni later in life really make that much difference to job prospects?

Depends on your sector I guess..

My partner cannot get the higher jobs in Ecological consultancy without a Masters or maybe even PhD.

I'm currently trying to shift from Automotive Engineering to Business Systems (ERP, SQL etc) and looking around, most places want you to have a degree or masters in the field before they'll even interview you. I've considered going back to graduate / apprentice wages just to make the shift.. Which is a shame because I know I could be good at if, it given the chance.. *Shrugs*

[Arwen]

Does going back to uni later in life really make that much difference to job prospects?

 

It is starting too in the IT world too. I'm lucky that where I work values experience as much as a degree, but those companies are few and far between. The job I have just been promoted to was advertises as requiring a degree or "extensive work experience and knowledge". Many job adverts for 2nd line IT support and above, or any sort of specialism , have a degree under the requirements list and don't even mention taking experience into consideration. Which for me as stupid, as there were not many IT related degrees 10-15 years ago!

Once my new role and work load settles down a bit, I'm probably going to start on an open uni degree. It will take 5-7 years, but I can see me "needing" those letters after my name if I ever leave this place.

[Gin]

Pretty much I know a lot of older boys in Engineering who get really irritated about it..

Some people I've met that have done degrees or in work training towards similar certificates are as useful as a chocolate fire-grate and there are some operators who have had no more training than GCSE or A-Level that could be brilliant given the chance..

[Skimblet]

Wondering whether to have a complete career change? Anyone know of anything where don't have to start on apprentice wage, can't afford to do that with a family, also at 32 I'm probs too old anyway for an apprentice!

 

I used to feel like that, so I changed industry, similar role just different things in the boxes.

The two industries are a world apart even though I'm doing pretty much the same thing, the outlook and attitude of my seniors in my current role is just 'different' and it really makes a difference.

[Guest]

If i want a different job i normally just go and help on a day off, they either apprieciate the help and offer some work or tell you straight.

[Joeman]

Does going back to uni later in life really make that much difference to job prospects?

 

It is starting too in the IT world too. I'm lucky that where I work values experience as much as a degree, but those companies are few and far between. The job I have just been promoted to was advertises as requiring a degree or "extensive work experience and knowledge". Many job adverts for 2nd line IT support and above, or any sort of specialism , have a degree under the requirements list and don't even mention taking experience into consideration. Which for me as stupid, as there were not many IT related degrees 10-15 years ago!

Once my new role and work load settles down a bit, I'm probably going to start on an open uni degree. It will take 5-7 years, but I can see me "needing" those letters after my name if I ever leave this place.

 

IMO it's a very old fashioned company that requires IT staff to have degrees - the world of IT move so quickly that degrees are completely out of date before you even start them, and having worked with many Interns on their university work placement years, it's clear that universities are not teaching the skills required to do a job in the real world.

I've seen it loads of times. Undergrads turn up on day one of their work placement, and we ask them what they know. They claim to be proficient at everything - SQL, HTML, Java, C#, networking etc etc - basically all the modules they've done by the end of year two that they scored top marks for (as they all seem to score top marks?) Then we slowly shatter their illusions (in a gentle way) by giving them real world problems to tackle that require those skills.... By the end of week one, they realise what they've been taught in their two, very expensive years at uni barely scratches the surface of what's needed to actually do the job and they've learnt more useful stuff from w3schools and google in a week than their entire uni course.

After a year working alongside us as a team they leave with an excellent skillset that then gets lost and forgotten in their final year of uni...

[Arwen]

I complety agree Joe. In my experience of job hunting there appears to be a split in the industry. Those companies that value people who can do the job well, regardless of who they are or what bits of paper they have.

And those companies that want to look great, have as many graduates as possible, regardless of what quality of work they get from their people.

Even though I don't have a degree, I apply for any job I feel I am capable of doing. Always succeed in getting and interview (!) but on a number of them, I could tell from the moment I walked into the building I did not want to work for them. These turned out to be ones that (thankfully) turned me down after an interview because I didn't have a degree. Complete waste of everyone's time to invite me to an interview if they are that hung up on it imo.

I work alongside many people with multiple degrees each, most of them freely admit that degrees should not be a measurement of someones knowledge and abilities. We have a running joke in IT that we should test interviewees on their ability to Google

[Westbeef]

In Engineering I know a lot of what you learn at college/uni is pretty redundant and to be honest it's only worth doing it for that bit of paper, that's your ticket to more money in the future. As others have said, people wont even entertain you without a degree for certain job roles. I've been lucky to do my education as part of an apprenticeship and the things I have learned by doing the job far out-weigh what I have learned in a classroom. We had a couple of lads in for the 3rd year placement of their degree, they were intelligent lads but their idea of what engineering was and what it actually is was so far apart.

I'm not sure if Gin agrees as she took a different route into Engineering than me, but for what I do that's how I find things .

[Tango]

In my industry a lot of the engineers are time-served apprentices......Therefore it's a fairly aging workforce with a good number heading very quickly towards retirement........and barely a degree between them! But the majority of them are extremely good, practical engineers.......With a wealth of knowledge that will sadly disappear in the not-to-distant future. ......

Anyway.....back to NearOn's dilemma......what sort of things float your boat mate?.......The most rewarding jobs are the ones you enjoy doing.....so turning that around, what sort of things do you enjoy that could offer work? And what sort of training would be required......and are there companies that would offer this training as part of your personal development? Some companies actually prefer people with little previous experience of the job, so they can be trained more easily on the company's specific products. Make a list of possible jobs that you'd like to do and then have a look on Jobsite, or any of the other job sites and see if there's anything of interest......