I'm 30 and want a real career with good earning potential. Is it too late?

polgara

How proficient in excel? Can you do vlookups, more complicated formulas like 'if' formulas and concatenation, other things like pivot tables etc.

if so then analyst work may be useful but you will need to get some experience. Temping work could be useful as a foot in door if you could demonstrate your proficiency.

Oops sorry just seen that you're not interested in a job that revolves around this type of work

jp2016

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If you go to uni you'll be lucky if you own your own home within the next 5 years! Why? because you won't graduate until mid 2020 at the earliest and then you've got to find a job and earn enough to save for a deposit. And when looking for a job, you'll be a 34 year old graduate with an indifferent employment history competing with fresh faced 22 year olds.

An apprenticeship for someone of your age is virtually impossible and I'd doubt you would be earning £35K until a few years after, if at all.

But let's be honest rather than negative - in reality few people have a good career. You have worked in retail, is it not possible to continue in retail, preferably with a company which offers opportunities to advance to management level.

From my experience, even with plenty of entry level experience, you need to be a graduate now to even be considered for a management scheme/position, unless you have previous management experience (which I don't). I've worked for companies like Next, Tesco, Marks & Spencer etc and right now the only way to become a management trainee is as a graduate, usually with a 2:1 or better.

Even if I bit the bullet and completed a 4 year degree (I don't have A-Levels..), I've heard that even with experience and a 2:1 or a better it's very difficult to get a good graduate placement. Would they even consider a (then) 34/35 year old with a patchy CV over a "fresh out of uni" 21/22 year old with a spotless academic record?

At this rate I just can't see myself being able to earn enough to afford my own home which is my dream. I really don't mind renting but there's no security in it. I don't want to be moving every 2/3 years because the landlord wants to sell or whatever other reason.

*~Zephyr~*

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Where did he do his training?

Local technical college.

jp2016

*~Zephyr~* wrote: »

A friend of mine was made redundant in 2008. He was 35, had a wife and 3 kids to support and a massive mortgage to pay. There were no jobs around here in 2008, and he was in danger of losing the house.

So he retrained as a plumber and a Gas Safe Engineer. 2.5 years later, he asked me to do his accounts for him, which I do. He was earning roughly twice what he earned in employment. He's now approaching an annual turnover of £75k. In the past couple of years he's trained as an electrician too. He's had to take on staff. If his wife let him, he would work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week - and he did do for a time. But now he turns down a lot of work and works more reasonable hours. There simply aren't enough plumbers/sparks/gas engineers out there. You could do far worse than be a plumber.

This is encouraging. I assume he paid for his training himself as (like me) getting an apprenticeship would be near impossible. I've heard that it can take between 3-5 years to be "fully" qualified to train in those types of trades to the point that you can take on work if you have no prior experience. I'm aware I can get a career development loan from the government but unsure of the total cost of retraining as a plumber/electrician would be.

Rolandtheroadie

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/careers/schemes/students-and-graduates/advanced-apprenticeship-scheme/

After 3 years, you will be looking at around 26k a year for a 35 hour week with overtime avaliable on top.

Good opportunities to progress, you could even go on to do a foundation degree in railway engineering to enhance prospects even further (block release, all costs covered)

Think the application process opens tomorrow.

jp2016

controversy wrote: »

As a disabled person I've had a patchy work history too.

If your still quite able bodied and have no mental health problems I would consider taking some vocational training for a semi-skilled job role.

A couple of these include:

1. Cooking & Hotel work.
2. Health Care.
3. Driving jobs.

If you want to get into construction work you need to get a apprenticeship with someone who will be willing to teach you a trade. Go to college 1 day a week.

Your best off volunteering and working on toward an apprenticeship. You can take a loan out for this which is similar to the university loan system.

When you are fully trained you need to become mobile as a lot of builders these days travel all over Europe doing jobs. If you can get mobile while your on your apprenticeship then thats a huge plus.

When I say Mobile I mean living in a Caravan or Motorhome on a Caravan site and then going to the work site.

I am still able bodied and have no mental health problems. Those jobs seem like they would be generally low paid for the majority of a career? Most health care jobs that don't involve a degree are health care assistant/carer type jobs that pay just above minimum wage, I don't see how there would be room to progress much? Same applies to hotel and driving jobs (aside from the truck/lorry driving someone else mentioned on here).

I'm 30, it's going to be near impossible to get an apprenticeship due to funding.

jp2016

Rolandtheroadie wrote: »

After 3 years, you will be looking at around 26k a year for a 35 hour week with overtime avaliable on top.

Good opportunities to progress, you could even go on to do a foundation degree in railway engineering to enhance prospects even further (block release, all costs covered)

Think the application process opens tomorrow.

Thanks for that, I'll take a look.

jp2016

bugslet wrote: »

My truck drivers earnt between 35 - 40k last year. Can wrap that course up in a month if you pass the test - outlay should be around the 3k mark.

Now there are a lot of variations in pay around the country, with jobs starting as low as £7.50 an hour in some areas and it's not always easy to get into a good job when you are starting out, though I've started brand new drivers. Even if you have to work for the lower rates for a year, it then gives you the stepping stone to working for a better firm. The work covers everything from ttrunkers doing the same run every day/night, pallet networks, european and frankly everything moves at some point in a truck.

It may not suit, but personally I love my industry and most drivers are hard-working decent men and occasionally women. Probably not what you think of in career terms, but you did say anything!

Never considered it before (it sounds quite lonely!) but the earning potential looks good, I'll research it a bit and see how much it suits.

lincroft1710

jp2016 wrote: »

I've worked for companies like Next, Tesco, Marks & Spencer etc

So your retail experience isn't so crappy then!

At this rate I just can't see myself being able to earn enough to afford my own home which is my dream.

Another reality check - with ridiculous house prices, home ownership can only be a dream for many people.

May I make a left field suggestion? Rather than have a specific salary in mind, look to do something which you will enjoy doing with a view of progressing up to an acceptable level.

A final point, do not regard your past life as wasted - look on it as experience. We all have different life experiences.

jp2016

Let's say I take the plunge and go down the uni route - what degrees are most sought after/useful? I don't want to be in a position where I commit 3/4 years of my life to end up with a near enough worthless degree.

Also - considering I'll be 34(ish) when/if I graduate, what are my chances with graduate schemes with established/big companies considering my age and work history?

I have all the ambition in the world, ideally I want something with good prospects and good earning potential in the long run.

Maybe I should rephrase it - what type of job/career should I look at realistically that will allow me to save a deposit to buy my own home in 5 years time? I don't know what kind of deposit I would need these days (£30k? £40k?) for a £150k flat so I'm just trying to figure out what I need to be earning to afford that.

I'm living with parents at the moment, I really don't want to be one of those people that live with their parents for any length of time and become a liability.