Career advice welcomed

lostat40

Hi everyone, im looking for some advice on my current career situation if you can help (fingers crossed). Im 40years old but still unsure what i want to do as a career. Did electronic engineering when I left school but struggled to get a job and tbh didn't really like it and to this day have no clue how i ended up doing it. Decided in late thirties to go and do radiography but left uni with a year to go as I just didn't like the job and felt it wasn't very skilled ie button pushing just taking pictures all day/mind numbingly boring. Currently in the NHS repairing small medical devices ie biomedical technician but the prospects of progressing seem slim. Just have no clue what I should do. People will ask me what I like and tbh the only thing i like is animals but earning potential in this type of sector from what I know isnt really good ( Have a young child to support). Would love to chat with anyone to discuss any ideas or give me much needed advice/direction...Thanks

Marcon

What qualifications do you have? To say the only thing you like is animals isn't exactly helpful. Lots of people like animals, but that's not usually a basis for a career in the way that, say, being a vet or veterinary nurse, RPSA inspector or similar might be. No idea how much you need to earn, but do you have any scope for starting something like a dog walking business (albeit part time) and doing some sort of regular salaried job, possibly part time, to ensure the bills get paid?

Nothanks

It sounds like you don’t need career advice, you need to know what you want. 

You need to balance all elements of your life, satisfaction vs income. 
Try books like What Colour is My Parachute or doing some therapy or Career driver exercises. 

lostat40

Marcon said:

What qualifications do you have? To say the only thing you like is animals isn't exactly helpful. Lots of people like animals, but that's not usually a basis for a career in the way that, say, being a vet or veterinary nurse, RPSA inspector or similar might be. No idea how much you need to earn, but do you have any scope for starting something like a dog walking business (albeit part time) and doing some sort of regular salaried job, possibly part time, to ensure the bills get paid?

I have an honours degree in electronic engineering and and health and social care degree (non honours). I could go back and finish the honours and become HCPC registered but i just dont know where radiography can really take me as I didn't like the job and thought there would have been more involved in it. As for salary i want to earn as much as I can, i see money as a security (not one to gloat). 

lostat40

Nothanks said:

It sounds like you don’t need career advice, you need to know what you want. 

You need to balance all elements of your life, satisfaction vs income. 
Try books like What Colour is My Parachute or doing some therapy or Career driver exercises. 

Yeah you are correct its finding the satisfaction and balance. I have found it very hard to find my niche as it were and feel i have made the wrong choice in courses. I suffer from anxiety which makes my choices seem so much harder.
Its hard to know if you will like a job until you are in it and see it for what it is. I looked at accounting as an option due to the financial reward but again have no clue if this career would be fitting. I will have a look at that book thank you for that. 

Manxman_in_exile

If it's any comfort I'm 62, and I'm retired.  I never knew what I wanted to do either and only "fell" into a job I quite liked in my mid-30s.  Stayed with it for 25+ years.  I also have two degrees (undergraduate and Master's in same subject) but never did a job related to them. 

(As far as I'm concerned, I never knew what I wanted to do.  Interestingly, I met similar people at work).

MEM62

I'm 58 and still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  Wisdom says that you take something you love doing, find a way to get paid for doing it and that way it will never feel like work. In my case that wouldn't work as there is only a limited call for beer testers  :-)    

Dox

As for salary i want to earn as much as I can, i see money as a security (not one to gloat). 

So do most people, but that doesn't answer the question about what you need to earn. If you can reduce your living costs you can afford to take a lower paid job and still have security and possibly more job satisfaction. Otherwise you may have to let earnings be the main driver...

lostat40

Dox said:

As for salary i want to earn as much as I can, i see money as a security (not one to gloat). 

So do most people, but that doesn't answer the question about what you need to earn. If you can reduce your living costs you can afford to take a lower paid job and still have security and possibly more job satisfaction. Otherwise you may have to let earnings be the main driver...

My ideal target one day would be to get to 40-50K in salary. Im just unsure what career can get me there and i respect that i have to earn my stripes first. I have spoken to career advisors but all they do is direct you to their website. I think if I could chat to someone who knows what would fit me I would be in a better position to make a correct choice. Living cost has been reduced as much as I can just cant get the bills any lower. I regret my choice on the course/careers I have taken so much.

lostat40

Manxman_in_exile said:

If it's any comfort I'm 62, and I'm retired.  I never knew what I wanted to do either and only "fell" into a job I quite liked in my mid-30s.  Stayed with it for 25+ years.  I also have two degrees (undergraduate and Master's in same subject) but never did a job related to them. 

(As far as I'm concerned, I never knew what I wanted to do.  Interestingly, I met similar people at work).

Manxman_in_exile said:

If it's any comfort I'm 62, and I'm retired.  I never knew what I wanted to do either and only "fell" into a job I quite liked in my mid-30s.  Stayed with it for 25+ years.  I also have two degrees (undergraduate and Master's in same subject) but never did a job related to them. 

(As far as I'm concerned, I never knew what I wanted to do.  Interestingly, I met similar people at work).

Can I ask what you qualification was in and what you ended up doing? 

Manxman_in_exile

I did two degrees in law.

I started a course to qualify as a solicitor - hated it.  I got a job as a trainee accountant - hated it.  I got a job as a trainee Trading Standards inspector - hated it.  (In fact the circumstances of that job were so ridiculous that I could write a screenplay about it.  I don't suppose you've heard of a BBC TV from 30 years ago called "A Peculiar Practice"?  It was like that but worse and funnier).

I got a six-month fixed term job as a superannuation clerk at my local Health Authority.   After four months they suggested I apply for a substantive job as a management accountant at one of the local directly managed units (forerunner of NHS trusts).  I went from there into various management/finance/information analysis roles in the NHS.  Loved it and the people I worked with.  Could not have deliberately chosen a more enjoyable career.

The only downside is I never earned as much money as I probably could have done in either the public or private sector if I'd persisted in trying to qualify as a lawyer or a chartered accountant.  But money isn't everything (I know a lot of unhappy high-earning solicitors and accountants) and I really enjoyed my job.

I also moonlighted as a beer-tester.

[EDIT:  After graduating (1979) I wasted about ten years before starting with the NHS in that temporary job.  Whether you could still do now what I did then I don't know.  I do know that when I retired from the NHS it was a much worse place to work in than it had been.

Also, money has never really meant anything to me and I've never measured my status by reference to my salary.  Just as well actually!!!].