Career Change Advice - From Finance to ?? (possibly IT)?

richdeniro

Hi All,

Not really asking anything in particular but just after any general advice about looking for a new career and possibly moving into IT. I am currently 33 years old and live in London. Apologies if I ramble on a bit too.

Just to give a brief career history; I left uni with a BA in Business Studies in 2003 but never really knew what I wanted to do so spent a year temping in various admin office jobs, I then got a permanent role at a foreign countries embassy processing visas where I spent 3 years before applying internally and getting a job in the finance department where I spent 5 years. I really enjoyed the job - it was very varied, I worked in a small office, knew my job inside out and had good friends, colleagues and felt quite respected at what I did receiving a few promotions whilst in the role reaching a salary of 42k pa = even got to do a bit of travelling around the world visiting other offices.

I was made redundant around 18 months ago from that role due to budget cuts and due to the nature of the role figured that finance would be the best route to follow. I ended up spending 12 months unemployed (apart from a couple of 1 week temp roles) and it was without doubt the worst period of my life. The problem is that the role in the Embassy was quite a specialised role as I guess most public sector jobs are - all the systems used were bespoke and much of the work was tailored for the public sector, i.e. we didn't use ledgers as such, reporting was different to the commercial sector - there were no balance sheets/P&L accounting, no accounts receivable, etc, etc. I also don't have any formal accountancy qualification as there was never any need in the role.

When I was made redundant I never expected to be unemployed for so long, it was a complete nightmare - when I left I set my sights on anything paying over 25k. Set up job searches on all the main sites, signed up with about 30 different agencies and applied for well over 2,000 jobs spending around 4-6 hours a day doing cover/speculative letters, application forms and tailoring my cv to each application. Eventually I got a job by effectively lying way into a role and dumbing down my CV - I did things like turn the bespoke software I used into Sage, used the obscure name of the sub-agency I worked for rather than full name of the overall organisation and turned the two 2 week temping jobs I did into three month roles.

However, the place I have managed to find work in is awful - I'm only on a rolling contract so can be gotten rid of with a days notice, am on an hourly rate paying the equivalent of 25k a year, don't get paid for holiday/sick leave (or even if I'm half an hour late for work) and I've never had so much work to do - am easily doing the work of 2 people and the environment itself is awful, it is a media company and feels very cut-throat to what I'm used to, most of the people I work with are snobs, rarely give me the time of day and I'm pretty much the only introvert in the office so go home feeling pretty low and dread going in each morning, I've never experience anxiety levels like it. No one ever goes home on time and I feel I get looked down upon when I leave at 5.30 rather than slog away til 8 or 9pm.

If it wasn't for the 12 months I spent unemployed I would have left ages ago but that fear of unemployment is holding me there despite what it's doing to my mental health. Even if I did get taken on permanently there would be no hope of any sort of progression as it's a bog standard finance assistant role - I don't think the salary for the role has moved since 2007 either. I just don't know what my future holds now as these appear to be the only type jobs I can get now, I can't seem to get any similar position to what I was on before because I lack finance/accountancy qualifications and the competition is just so great. I did try to take up an accountancy qualification in the ACCA but just don't have it in me if I'm completely honest with myself - I guess I'm just not that interested in Finance to be perfectly honest and the reason I enjoyed it in the Embassy was more to do with finding the sector interesting. Just feel like I'm stuck in a rut.

I guess what I'm asking for is some advice as to possible career paths. As I said earlier I am more introverted than extroverted and feel I would thrive in a smaller office environment. I have always found computers and IT interesting - whenever there was an IT problem in my Embassy job my colleagues would ask me first rather than call the helpdesk and in most cases I could easily solve simple things where I didn't need administrator access. I am usually the first port of call with my friends for any of their computer problems too. The thing is I wouldn't know what part of IT to start in and don't think I could afford at my age and circumstance to drop below 25k pa.

Any advice would be most welcome.

gettingready

Kind of reminds me of myself about 3 years ago.

Was on 43k then and took voluntary redundancy as absolutely hated the set up change in the job I loved till then, to the point that I ended up on stress sick leave for a.. year (!!!)

I too thought I will find another, well paid job soon but as my the area of specialty was very localized to healthcare (clinical systems trainer) I realised I was very much stuck and could not find a SUITABLE job (location/money) for a year. That was tough. REALLY tough.

BUT rather than have a crap job on my CV and reducing my chances of decent job/money for the future, I did actually stay out of work for just over a year knowing that I will find it easier to explain a gap in working history than "assistant of a supervisor in a fast food place for minimum wage".

I currently work as contractor on financial bespoke systems with double of what was my rate in my last job and do not regret anything.

Have you thought about training? If people ask you to help with things - perhaps this would be an option?

Are you good at any particular software?

Just a thought.... all the best

scheming_gypsy

richdeniro wrote: »

I am usually the first port of call with my friends for any of their computer problems too. The thing is I wouldn't know what part of IT to start in and don't think I could afford at my age and circumstance to drop below 25k pa.

Any advice would be most welcome.

If you don't know what part of IT to start in but can fix your friends computer problems, then you're looking at support roles... but 'I fix my friends computers' isn't good enough for a CV so you'd be starting on a lot less than 25k
Personally I'd stay well away from IT because there's no money in it, especially for somebody your age on the bottom of the ladder. People do not want to pay for decent IT staff! I'm contracting at the minute because it's impossible to find a permanent role with the right salary - not just for me but for the role. When it comes to IT support, they want everything for nothing.
If you do really want to get into it your best route could be contracting, starting with first line to try and get some commercial experience. Where I am (up North) they pay £13 an hour for first line and £16 for second line, but I've seen jobs advertised for about £12 an hour for second line.

richdeniro

Thanks for the responses guys.

gettingready wrote: »

Have you thought about training? If people ask you to help with things - perhaps this would be an option?

Are you good at any particular software?

This sounds interesting - how did you manage to get into this kind of role? Learning new systems is one of my strengths if I'm honest - When I worked at the Embassy they always chose me to take the training courses for any new software so that I could train my colleagues.

I doubt I will be able to teach the bespoke system I used at the Embassy as it is made specifically for the countries government that I worked for and for this kind of role you have to be a citizen of their country and work for their foreign service.

richdeniro

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

If you don't know what part of IT to start in but can fix your friends computer problems, then you're looking at support roles... but 'I fix my friends computers' isn't good enough for a CV so you'd be starting on a lot less than 25k
Personally I'd stay well away from IT because there's no money in it, especially for somebody your age on the bottom of the ladder. People do not want to pay for decent IT staff! I'm contracting at the minute because it's impossible to find a permanent role with the right salary - not just for me but for the role. When it comes to IT support, they want everything for nothing.
If you do really want to get into it your best route could be contracting, starting with first line to try and get some commercial experience. Where I am (up North) they pay £13 an hour for first line and £16 for second line, but I've seen jobs advertised for about £12 an hour for second line.

My friend has recommended 'Train Signal' courses such as Windows 7, 70-680.. Windows Server 2008 R2... TCP/IP networking.

Would these help do you think or would the lack of experience still be an issue?

Another possible route could be programming perhaps? Javascript maybe? Although I've always found programming fairly difficult.

Aryndeneth

http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/students/options/sectors/it/

http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/workin/computing.htm - computing without a computing qualification

Lots of useful info/links in these types of guides. Aimed at recent grads so won't cover the work/life experience you've already developed but might help with targeting your thinking a little bit, if you're not sure how to get started?

scheming_gypsy

richdeniro wrote: »

My friend has recommended 'Train Signal' courses such as Windows 7, 70-680.. Windows Server 2008 R2... TCP/IP networking.

Would these help do you think or would the lack of experience still be an issue?

Another possible route could be programming perhaps? Javascript maybe? Although I've always found programming fairly difficult.

The lack of experience will play a big part in the last two.
If you go for job interviews for a server / networking engineer but have nothing to back up the certifications, managers will be a bit wary. I'll try and compare it to the finance industry (as best I can but probably badly)
First line support - Payroll administrator.
Server / networking engineer - account manager
If you went for an account manager job with certificates saying you'd passed some courses, would you get very far or would they need some sort of evidence that you've either worked your way up and have the qualifications, or have experience to match the paperwork?
For me, I've always found that doing the courses without any hands on knowledge before, have left me stranded and feeling lost. Sometimes I've sailed through them and it all makes sense but when you're out of the classroom environment and doing it live, it's not the same. You come across things you didn't see in the course or you have to trouble shoot but can't rely on experience.

gettingready

I got into training by first of all volunteering as as trainer - for a homeless charity, training their service users.

I was very comfortable then with just MS Office, IE, Windows.

Then done ECDL, ECDL Advanced (few years ago that was a good starter) and then TAP from IITT (Institute of IT Training), then some CIPDs in Blended Learning, E-Learning etc etc

Then MOS, MOS Master Instructor.

One thing in training - you have to be soooooooooooooooooooooo flexible that it is like doing yoga all day long

richdeniro

I've had advice about possibly doing some SQL courses and looking to become a 'MI Analyst'.

With my work history it would be something that I could dress up on my CV too. I also did basic SQL at university although can't remember much.

Does anyone know anything about this?

Loanranger

Tell us whereabouts you're living, the general travel-to-work area will be sufficient, eg say greater Manchester, Banbury or Bristol area or wherever you are, then we can all keep a look out for work opportunities for you.
Your old university careers service may well have a policy of offering careers guidance to alumni. Obviously, their job vacancies will be aimed at fresh graduates and the concomitant entry level salaries.
Are you also looking directly at employers' websites, the careers pages? Many do not use agencies and prefer to handle all their own recruitment.

makeyourdaddyproud

You lied your way into a job and you want advice in doing the same to another job your not even qualified to do?

Jeez.