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

lush_walrus

My advice would be stop thinking of it as finding where the money is in a career and start thinking of what role you will enjoy and aim for that.
Chasing money may or may not produce what you are hoping for and even if it does you are the one who has to get up each day and drag yourself to work for the next 30 or so years. Can you imagine trying to do that.

Go for the role you would enjoy, you will become happier, are more likely to become good at the role, will appear in control, capable and positive in that role and when opportunity comes it's likely to be you the employer chooses to promote.

I am an employer and our business is quite commission based and so does attract those after a quick buck. I can honestly say I can spot a mile off and can not recall ever promoting one of them and have found those who do flourish and earn the highest commission are those who do enjoy the job.

polgara

I'm going to be honest with you - you need to knuckle down to a job and stick with it if you want to progress. Learn new skills whilst you are at it - managing your manager is a useful skill no matter what.

Admittedly I do have a degree (Accounting) but I graduated in 1991 in the midst of a recession and was unemployed for 2 years, the last of which I retrained to be a secretary. I'd applied for loads of graduate schemes but in the end I got an entry level role in the NHS (18 month contract) working for the princely fortune of £8000, a LOT less than I'd envisaged. I hated the job with a passion for the first year but stuck with it as it was a route into other roles. As it happened I stayed in that job for about 6 years before i took a sideways move into another area. I accessed any training that was going and worked above my band frequently. 15 years after starting in the NHS I had been supported to do my MSc in a subject that I enjoyed (unlike my 1st degree), and had got close to the earnings that you are aspiring to reach.

I recruit a lot and for me what I am looking for is potential, drive, passion and a willingness to go the extra mile. That may sound like management talk but applicants are more than just their qualifications. I work in the NHS so I look for transferable skills - do they volunteer, are they involved in their community, what excites them about the job they want. If its just a salary that they are after then I don't want them as I know that once they get used to that salary then they will start to be dissatisfied and be looking for the next salary increase.

Have a hard look at yourself - you say you don't like to be managed? Well then self employment should be what you are looking for as everyone is managed by someone unless you are the owner.

bugslet

polgara wrote: »

Have a hard look at yourself - you say you don't like to be managed? Well then self employment should be what you are looking for as everyone is managed by someone unless you are the owner.

I'm the owner and in many respects, I'm managed by my customers. We all have to answer to someone.

jp2016

polgara wrote: »

I'm going to be honest with you - you need to knuckle down to a job and stick with it if you want to progress. Learn new skills whilst you are at it - managing your manager is a useful skill no matter what.

Admittedly I do have a degree (Accounting) but I graduated in 1991 in the midst of a recession and was unemployed for 2 years, the last of which I retrained to be a secretary. I'd applied for loads of graduate schemes but in the end I got an entry level role in the NHS (18 month contract) working for the princely fortune of £8000, a LOT less than I'd envisaged. I hated the job with a passion for the first year but stuck with it as it was a route into other roles. As it happened I stayed in that job for about 6 years before i took a sideways move into another area. I accessed any training that was going and worked above my band frequently. 15 years after starting in the NHS I had been supported to do my MSc in a subject that I enjoyed (unlike my 1st degree), and had got close to the earnings that you are aspiring to reach.

I recruit a lot and for me what I am looking for is potential, drive, passion and a willingness to go the extra mile. That may sound like management talk but applicants are more than just their qualifications. I work in the NHS so I look for transferable skills - do they volunteer, are they involved in their community, what excites them about the job they want. If its just a salary that they are after then I don't want them as I know that once they get used to that salary then they will start to be dissatisfied and be looking for the next salary increase.

Have a hard look at yourself - you say you don't like to be managed? Well then self employment should be what you are looking for as everyone is managed by someone unless you are the owner.

Good post. I guess perseverance pays off no matter what situation you find yourself in as long as you have a good work ethic and make sensible choices.

jp2016

lush_walrus wrote: »

My advice would be stop thinking of it as finding where the money is in a career and start thinking of what role you will enjoy and aim for that.
Chasing money may or may not produce what you are hoping for and even if it does you are the one who has to get up each day and drag yourself to work for the next 30 or so years. Can you imagine trying to do that.

Go for the role you would enjoy, you will become happier, are more likely to become good at the role, will appear in control, capable and positive in that role and when opportunity comes it's likely to be you the employer chooses to promote.

I am an employer and our business is quite commission based and so does attract those after a quick buck. I can honestly say I can spot a mile off and can not recall ever promoting one of them and have found those who do flourish and earn the highest commission are those who do enjoy the job.

I'm starting to come round to this way of thinking - I've realised that the only reason I'm "chasing the dream/money" is that I haven't ever enjoyed a job I've done. I've realised retail isn't for me and that perhaps focusing on an industry or job that does interest me in some way will start to diminish this obsession I have with owning a home and earning a good salary.

If I can find something I can enjoy then progression and building upon it should come naturally, rather doing a job I detest and only looking forward to my next pay day.

pinpin

duchy wrote: »

If I was going to retrain in a trade I'd look at plastering - always seems to be in high demand and it's not too messy (compared with say plumbing)

I've often thought about doing this, but I guess having no driving licence would put a big spanner in the works, so kind of dismissed it.

You're in a similar situation to me, OP.
I'll watch this thread with interest.

[Deleted User]

jp2016 wrote: »

I'm starting to come round to this way of thinking - I've realised that the only reason I'm "chasing the dream/money" is that I haven't ever enjoyed a job I've done. I've realised retail isn't for me and that perhaps focusing on an industry or job that does interest me in some way will start to diminish this obsession I have with owning a home and earning a good salary.

If I can find something I can enjoy then progression and building upon it should come naturally, rather doing a job I detest and only looking forward to my next pay day.

I think you do need to have goal. I always had the 'own a home, have a family ect by the time I was 30' - turns out that since I worked hard, went to uni, chose a career, moved jobs a few times, I was happily in a house with two kids before my 30th birthday. I never, however, focused on a salary I 'wanted' until I was on a career track - and now I'm focusing on the '£65k' bracket to push my family into a better financial situation.

You do come across negative. You need to change that, and focus on what you need to do to make yourself happy. You are going to have to make a change, be it learning a skill, getting some training. Focusing will help; as you aren't going to drift into your 'ideal' career easily, since it turns out you don't actually know what you want to do.

What are you good at? What motivates you? What are your skills?

It took me a about 5 years after graduating to hit the £30k bracket; and I was working for a massive IT firm. The pay rises did move quicker after that but only because I had experience then. My boss had no degree, earned £63k but had a bunch of experience.

Think positively. Also remember that no one owes you anything, you've got no *right* to earn a good living without working hard for it.

sangie595

jp2016 wrote: »

I also have a very insubordinate personality - I won't take any crap from managers or get talked down to for no reason and have clashed on that before so that was the reason I moved on from two other jobs. I get on fine with people at work, just not power hungry management.
.

Unless you work for yourself you will always have management. And you won't get anywhere in any employment if this is your attitude to work and management. A "work ethic" is pointless if you cannot learn to work with management. It doesn't matter whether you think they are right or wrong - you aren't management (yet) and you need to pay more attention to the decision making structure of where you work. Leaving many jobs before the age of 30 because you refuse to work with management you don't like isn't really much of a recommendation. There is a difference between brown nosing and insubordinate - the latter word was your own description of yourself. Assuming you are accurate in your use of the term (and I assume you are - you appear very literate) then you may struggle to find an employment that will put up with you! Expressing an opinion does not mean that you have to be insubordinate, and in the end, if your opinion isn't what the manager wants to hear (for whatever reason - but can actually mean that they DO know more than you!) then you buck up and get on with the job. They take the rap for their decisions, not you.


If that isn't for you, then you need to look at training for some form of self-employment.

Cubanista

Hey,




What are your interests, OP?


Cubanista

lincroft1710

duchy wrote: »

If I was going to retrain in a trade I'd look at plastering

It's a very physically demanding job. I employed a plasterer who was about the same age as OP and he was waiting to go into hospital for an op on his shoulder. Can't remember exact details but the problem was caused by his job.