Careers advice

bugslet

Sent you a PM, Quick blood

Stigy

Quickblood wrote: »

Great suggestion but guess who failed the test 3 times ��
If everything had gone my way I'd be a night tube driver right now earning pretty much what I earn now but only working weekends.

If you were a Night Tube driver now and that salary is what you currently, you're on a bit more than the national average (about 27k pa these days?)! Unless you're talking about a training salary, tube drivers get about 50k a year!....without overtime.

I'd consider other jobs on the railway though, because as a whole they're really well paid. You'd be hard pushed to find a job that less than 20k a year on the railway. Free travel and a decent pension too. I've worked on the railway for 10 years now and have never looked back.

Savvy_Sue

Find the book 'What colour is your parachute?' and see if it helps.

divadee

Your local FE college should have an adult careers advice service (here it is run by Ansbury). They don't charge for their services and you are allowed 3 appointments with them. It would be worth phoning up your local college and asking if you can have an appt with them (you don't have to attend the college as a student).

robatwork

You'll get good advice here if you give us as much info as possible.

Your degree
Interests
Would you be prepared to travel as part of the job?
Would you be prepared to spend extended periods away from home as part of the job?
Full clean driving licence and own car?

Quickblood

Stigy wrote: »

If you were a Night Tube driver now and that salary is what you currently, you're on a bit more than the national average (about 27k pa these days?)! Unless you're talking about a training salary, tube drivers get about 50k a year!....without overtime.

I'd consider other jobs on the railway though, because as a whole they're really well paid. You'd be hard pushed to find a job that less than 20k a year on the railway. Free travel and a decent pension too. I've worked on the railway for 10 years now and have never looked back.

Night Tube driver is weekend only and just over £20k for 16 hours work. For that money and being lazy I'd have done that job for years and not even considered going full time :rotfl:

I've considered railway jobs when I was unemployed but right now it's just a step sideways and I'm sick of doing those.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Find the book 'What colour is your parachute?' and see if it helps.

Cheers I'll see if I can find it

divadee wrote: »

Your local FE college should have an adult careers advice service (here it is run by Ansbury). They don't charge for their services and you are allowed 3 appointments with them. It would be worth phoning up your local college and asking if you can have an appt with them (you don't have to attend the college as a student).

Thanks I'll have a look.

robatwork wrote: »

You'll get good advice here if you give us as much info as possible.

Your degree
Interests
Would you be prepared to travel as part of the job?
Would you be prepared to spend extended periods away from home as part of the job?
Full clean driving licence and own car?

Business studies back in 2004 and I've pretty much forgotten it all.:rotfl:

I don't have many interests and as I mentioned before the jobs that they lead to don't tend to seem all that appealing. I like cooking, baking, computers & gaming, I have a weird love of property and I kinda like planning DIY projects but hate doing them lol.

Yes to the last 3 questions plus I have a motorcycle & I'm now prepared to leave London, finally.:eek:

batg

Stigy wrote: »

If you were a Night Tube driver now and that salary is what you currently, you're on a bit more than the national average (about 27k pa these days?)! Unless you're talking about a training salary, tube drivers get about 50k a year!....without overtime.

I'd consider other jobs on the railway though, because as a whole they're really well paid. You'd be hard pushed to find a job that less than 20k a year on the railway. Free travel and a decent pension too. I've worked on the railway for 10 years now and have never looked back.

I am looking for a change in direction (from retail). What other jobs are done on the railways other than drivers? ( I am female)

Quickblood

batg wrote: »

I am looking for a change in direction (from retail). What other jobs are done on the railways other than drivers? ( I am female)

Easiest thing to do is to find out what Train operating company is local, if you're in London there are loads and then visit their career site. I did find that many have strict distance limits on employees, so you have to live within 30 mins of your station, which I always found kinda funny.

MTR Crossrail have been hiring a lot that's anywhere near you.

Savvy_Sue

Quickblood wrote: »

I like cooking, baking, computers & gaming,

DS1 is making a living as an independent itinerant game developer. But he has very low living expenses: no rent, no mortgage. Not sure I'd recommend it ...

Quickblood wrote: »

I have a weird love of property and I kinda like planning DIY projects but hate doing them lol.

If you could cope with being self-employed and you had good contacts with the different trades, I can see it might be possible to make a living from that, helping people doing major works set out a grand plan, costed and timed, do this before that etc. Worth considering IMO.

Quickblood

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

DS1 is making a living as an independent itinerant game developer. But he has very low living expenses: no rent, no mortgage. Not sure I'd recommend it ...

This is the problem with my interests is they just seem to lead to terrible jobs. I did basic programming first year at uni (html, java) and absolutely hated it. Had I enjoyed it I'm sure I'd have been in IT by now.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

If you could cope with being self-employed and you had good contacts with the different trades, I can see it might be possible to make a living from that, helping people doing major works set out a grand plan, costed and timed, do this before that etc. Worth considering IMO.

I haven't completely ruled out going self employed but I'm the kind of person that has a tendency to mess things up so didn't want to invest too much.
Last summer I had the idea of trying a food market stall as the first step into a new business but every single market within reasonable travelling distance told me they had a long waiting list so I never bothered investing in the courses necessary (food hygiene, catering etc.)