Wanting to make a Career Change......but doing what?

geronimo1

Hi all,

I would be most grateful if anyone reading this may be able to supply some different advice to what I have already discovered. I am 36 years of age and have been working in the same job for over 15 years managing an office producing marketing literature.

Although I am not a designer I am competent enough to use Adobe Photoshop, In Design and Quark Express to produce designs for print. I am also conversant with PC and Apple Mac as my job also involves data formatting so I have competent with Excel.

I would like to embark on a new career, however as I have found throughout all my life, I have no major interests and have never known what I have wanted to do. I have enquired about becoming a Teacher both at Secondary level and Primary, however my Business Degree does not lend itself to any of the main curriculum subjects and I do not have GCSE Science for Primary. Subsequently this profession is becoming saturated with people like myself looking for a career change, therefore there is an abundance of talent to compete with let alone fresh graduates from University.

I have received career advice and have completed many online career tests in a desperate attempt to find something I may like, but to no avail. Unfortunately what does not help is that many of my close relatives all seem to be enjoying their jobs and earning a very comfortable living, ranging from dentists, teachers and engineers. The difference is these relatives have always had an idea of what they want to do and most importantly what jobs bring prosperous incomes to provide the lifestyle a majority of us would crave for. Not only this, but they seem to naturally have opportunities to progress, learn new skills and subsequently earn even more money!

I would like to incorporate more practical elements within a new job as I am a little tired of sitting behind a desk all day. As a result I investigated the possibilities of learning a trade (electrical/plumbing) however I have found there is no easy way to do this at the age of 36 due to the extensive apprenticeship period of 4 years and the likelihood of being taken seriously by an employer when they are inclined to train younger candidates.

There is not an hour that goes by each day when I rack my brains for ideas. As a majority of our lives is consumed by work, to me it is so important to try and get some enjoyment from it. I know that I have chosen the worse time to look for a career change based on the economic climate, however I feel even if I was able to get some idea or what to do this would be a step in the right direction. I have no problem retraining however ideally I need to do this on a part time basis so I can earn a wage to pay the mortgage and bills etc. I have scanned many job websites but unless you select an industry sector to search in, an abundance of jobs are retrieved which takes a long time to work through, and then it appears that I am not qualified for most jobs other than administration, it seems that I am a jack of all trades, master of none.

tuftyclub

How about trying to get some work teaching photoshop etc in fe colleges. I don't think you need a teaching qualification.

Oldernotwiser

You could do some additional study with the OU in a secondary subject that is in short supply like Maths or Science. You wouldn't need to do a full degree although you would have to fund it yourself.

You could even do a PGCE with them part time in these subjects.

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/education/pgce/index.htm

Marine_life

There seems to be a bit of grass is greener in your thinking i.e. don't be so sure that all your friends are enjoying their jobs as much as you think. With most jobs comes a trade off - more money often means more stress. Are you prepared to accept that?

You say you have been doing the same thing for 15 years - are there no opportunities for promotion of personal development? Would you perhaps be happier doing the same job for a different company where their is more variety and more opportunities for sideways movement?

How about moving overseas - a change in scenery is often as good as a new job.

Unfortunately at 36 in order to make a big change you will likely have to take a step backwards or sideways and risk working for people who are younger than you - are you prepared to do that?

What about taking a year (or 6 months) off to travel (if you can afford it) to really think about what you want out of life, you are at that age where the next decision needs to be the right one (no pressure!) and you can't afford to drift from something you don't enjoy now to something where you are not sure if its the right thing.

DizzleUK

Since leaving school, I have spent most of my working life working in retail and customer service. After 15 or so years I just hated it and was desperate for a change of direction.

So I spent a few months looking for something new and eventually turned to the NHS and found an entry level job as an Assistant Healthcare Scientist working in the Pathology laboratory at my local hospital.

It ended up being the best move I ever made, and I love my job. Almost a year in I applied for and got a promotion (at the expense of 12 others who also applied) and as of next month I will be a Senior Assistant Healthcare Scientist within the Blood Transfusion department. I have the option (which I'm taking with both hands) to do NVQs leading all the way up to a BSc (maybe even an MSc) in Biomedical Science over the next 7 or so years.

Until last year I'd never even considered working for the NHS or anything similar. I'm not saying you should too, my point is it is never too late to take a total change of direction when it comes to your career. Even though I'm 33, I still have around 40 years to go before I see a pension, and the thought of spending that making money for someone else, giving in to customer's often rediculous expectations made me quite depressed, so I did something about it. I'm so glad I did.

Good luck, I hope you find something equally as rewarding.