Should I consider a career change?

Mr_Maths

Yes No Maybe

Mrsn

Money whilst needed for the day to day running of life is important but it isn’t everything. You say 45k isn’t great but that is quiet a substantial salary depending on what part of the country you live in.

It’s clear from your post that this is obviously the most important thing to you but you can’t put a timeframe on how long it will take you to earn so and so, it just doesn’t work like that. 

In my opinion you need to work out what elements of jobs in whatever sector you may or may not enjoy doing and go from
there. Don’t just follow a certain career path just because the salary sounds good.... it’s not working out how you had hoped up until now and there’s no guarantee it will in the future either.

theoretica

High salaries generally mean either scarce abilities, or jobs unattractive for other reasons.  Which are you aiming for?  What are you unusually good at?

nicechap

Mr_Maths said:

Back when I was at school there was a poster in the maths department which said "Question: What do mathematicians do?, Answer: Earn lots of money". That basically made me decide to study maths at university. I also heard that maths graduates were in demand as lot's of companies need them, but there aren't that many of them.

When I graduated I found it wasn't so easy getting a job. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but I figured it would be along the lines of accountancy/finance, boring but well paid. Then a year or so later I discovered what I thought was a more interesting career option, a Data Analyst. I heard this was the career of the future, more and more companies were hiring Data Analysts and there weren't enough people to fill the roles and you can earn just as much money as an accountancy/finance role would.

Around 18 months later I was still trying to get my foot on the ladder. I applied for a Data Analyst role a recruitment agency posted on a job site and ended up getting the job. I wasn't overly convinced by the job from the interview and the pay was poor, but at least I was finally getting my foot on the ladder. Alarm bells rang when I was sent the documents for the job and found my job title wasn't going to be "Data Analyst", it was "Technical Administrator". There was an element of data analysis to it and the other people doing the same job were graduates, but was mostly reporting and it was an easy job that anyone could do. That was more or less confirmed 5 months later when one of the other people left and an 18 year old got promoted into their position, and I decided I needed to move on.

Unfortunately I ended up staying there for 2 years after numerous attempts to get another job. This time I got a job who's title really was "Data Analyst". I was pretty content for the first 2-3 years, but after 3 years I thought it would be a good time to find something new. What became apparent from job interviews etc was what I'd been doing in my job wasn't giving me the right blend of experience other employers were looking for. I've now been there for 10 years. There was maybe a 2 year period where I'd given up looking for something else, but the rest of the time I've been actively looking for a new job but haven't managed to get one.

One thing that became apparent over time is that I have little to no interest in what I do. What appealed to me about this career in the first place was basically analysing data to help make business decisions, the fact it's a job in demand and above all the earning potential . In reality I'm doing boring things like writing python scripts or checking data for errors, it seems more of a computing job than a mathematical one to the point that a job in accountancy/finance seems more appealing. It seems a bit silly to leave an occupation that's in demand, but I'm not getting the benefits of that as nobody is giving me a job.

What I question though is whether my apathy towards my job is because I hate being a Data Analyst or because I hate working for my company?

I'm getting £45k which isn't great, but I know I'd have to take a pay cut initially if I was to change careers. The question is will I get to above £45k quick enough if I become an accountant for example and will I be able to move jobs more easily or is it possible I'd end up in a job that doesn't give me the relevant experience again?

I guess what I want from my career at the end of the day is lots of money and the ability to move jobs before I get bored.

Did you miss these lectures?  https://freakonomics.com

You could always try being a top class sports person, Beckham & Ronaldo seem to have done pretty well.

ElefantEd

£45k is well over twice the national average wage so "not great" is scarcely an accurate description. What difference would more money make to your life? It sounds to me like you actually want a more interesting job, the money is just for keeping score - but if I were you I'd focus on what I'd want to get out of a job, not just on the money side or you will get bored again. Money does not buy happiness (though it gets you more stuff to be unhappy with).

lincroft1710

Do you know why you're not getting the jobs you're applying for?

Pajaro

Mr_Maths said:

The problem with my current job is that I dread going in every day, it's making me very unhappy and it's not giving me the right experience to find a job elsewhere. What also concerns me is if my company went bust, or I was to get made redundant, which you can never rule out, how will I find another job given nobody is offering me a job now.

I'm overpaying like mad on my mortgage so I can get it paid off asap so at least I'll have a roof over my head if that happens, but at the same time I feel like I'm wasting my life away by doing that.

If we take an occupation like a Bus Driver, it's pretty clear what the purpose of a Bus Driver is i.e. drive a bus. Driving the bus is the experience a company would look for when hiring a Bus Driver, so they are getting relevant experience by doing their job. With a Data Analyst, it's apparent that a Data Analyst at company x is doing a completely different job to a Data Analyst at company y, therefore if the person at company x applies for a job at company y they don't get the job because they don't have the right blend of experience.

That's why I'm wondering if changing to something else would be better, something where the experience I gain will be relevant to other employers. As mentioned in my original post, my job is a lot more computing that I anticipated but my strength is in maths, maybe accountancy/finance jobs will utilise my maths skills more than a Data Analyst would. Or maybe it's just my company, maybe becoming a Data Analyst somewhere else will be more mathematical.

The last job I had an interview for was paying £65k. That makes me think maybe I should carry on looking for Data Analyst jobs, but the problem is I'm not getting the jobs.

Looks like you are getting nowhere in your current career and have plateaued after a decade in the field.

Still you are better off than most(45K salary is well above average) and being good at Maths gives you an advantage over I would say 95% of people.

I would look at doing something like an online MSC in Computer Science with Data Analytics - York University does one and that costs 7800 pounds and is over 2 years - you could get a student loan if you do not already have a Masters Degree. It is intense and you are looking at doing 20 hours a week over 2 years to get the MSc.  I think you can drag the course on for 4 years but you would need to find out for sure and hence reducing the weekly workload down to a more manageable 10 hours a week.
Since you have done some programming in the past, then the introductory modules in programming should not be too difficult and you will ace the modules that require a good aptitude in Maths. 

The MSc is a sustained effort over many years but this combined with your work experience will almost certainly guarantee that you can get a higher paid job doing exactly what you want to do.

ConsumerMatt

Data Analysis job titles are misleading now, partly due to the huge amount of computing focused data available. The actual data analysis and decision making tends to be performed as a small part of a more strategy based role within a particular department. This may be where your experience has lacked.
Where I work, anybody with "Data Analyst" or "Business Information/Intelligence" in their title tends to sit under the IT umbrella and have some sort of Data Warehouse development role. I guess this is what you have been shoehorned into somewhat.

In my opinion, based on your extensive experience, your best move would be to utilise what you are already doing and push more into the computing side of things. Well paid and very transferable. Your mathematical skills would be a huge benefit here. If you stuck around for 10 years the job obviously isn't THAT terrible. I think your environment is more to blame for that and moving to a new role or being involved with a good project would be a huge boost. Start by showing your interest in developing your career to your manager and peers, they are often the best people to advise on what may suit your work style.

JayRitchie

You haven't given the basic information anyone would need to know to advise. Where do you live and which area(s) of the country are you applying for work in? What qualifications (including grades) do you have?

Scorpio33

Accountant here.

Much like you, I was good at Maths and wanted to go to uni, and accountancy was the first alphabetically in the career manual, so I popped for accountancy.

22 years later, I am a qualified accountant, earning a similar wage to you.
Much like you I have got bored of what I do and have had a number of external helps to see what is out there, due to a number of redundancies.

Each and every time I come back to accountancy as it is what I know. 

What I would say to you is that if you truly want a fulfilling career, it would pay less than half of what you earn. Why? Well they pay you well as its boring and no one wants to do it.

So either accept less money, or accept the job for what it is, and maybe change companies to something similar. On top of that, look for fulfilment outside your career - your hobbies, personal life, your spare time. Quite often the more fulfilled you are outside work, the more you can accept your job for what it is - a means to an end.

Stigy

ElefantEd said:

£45k is well over twice the national average wage so "not great" is scarcely an accurate description. What difference would more money make to your life? It sounds to me like you actually want a more interesting job, the money is just for keeping score - but if I were you I'd focus on what I'd want to get out of a job, not just on the money side or you will get bored again. Money does not buy happiness (though it gets you more stuff to be unhappy with).

The irony that in a thread about a mathematician being stuck in a job all about analysing data etc, and you've said that £45k is well over twice the national average wage (the average wage in the UK was around £30k as of last year). 

Anyway, £45k is a respectable salary in most fields, but as others have said, it shouldn't all be about the money. @Mr_Maths, join the railway, we can earn loads and it's a varying career depending on which path you take. Network Rail often recruit for financial positions and their salaries are always competitive (an accountant would typically earn £60k at a rough estimate?). Of course, one doesn't have to base their search solely on what they've been doing for the past ten or so years, and there are countless jobs out there with a varying workload which would require similar skillsets.