In desperate need of career/life advice.

Toby30

I'll try and keep my life story to a minimum so as not to bore you to death but i'm basically stuck in a bit of a hole and need some help getting out.

I was diagnosed with ME when i was 12 (i'm now 30) and have struggled to catch up in terms of education and whatnot. I completed a degree in American Studies in 2007 but have since found it impossible to find work.

My main problem is that with my ME i can only work about 20-25 hours a week and not more than 4-5 hours in one day. It also cant be anything particularly physical (and by that i mean just lots of standing and/or walking) so the job pool is very limited to me.

I completed a CELTA (TEFL) course in 2008 after being told there was plenty of part-time work in the Kent area. In reality the only work i could find was with schools offering summer camps but this was only ever as cover for staff absence, i never actually had my own class. Since i didn't enjoy being sent from one place to another at the last minute i decided not to do the same thing the next summer and the idea of being an English teacher soon faded

I've been trying to think of other ways to find employment or work from and have often thought of IT. I've been interested in computers since i was a kid and have always provided IT support to my friends and family as well as building my own computers but my knowledge is not sufficient (IMO) to ever try and start a business doing it.

Being 30, unemployed for a long period and with limited experience i've all but given up hope of applying for job in admin and the like and actually getting an interview much less a job.

Essentially what i'm asking is for any kind of advice in how to make use of my time to try and either get an actual job or work from home. It doesn't have to be anything magical, even just data entry or any type of generic boring work.

If anyone can offer any advice i'd be really grateful.

Thanks

saintjammyswine

Can i suggest contacting Next Step (google them), they offer great, free advice on careers and training.

Toby30

I actually spoke to Next Step a few years back and found them to be quite useless. I suppose i could contact them again, hope to speak to someone more able to help.