Career Advice

Gamefreak501

Gamefreak501

Gamefreak501

Soldato
Joined
7 Aug 2003
Posts
8,030
Location
Bedfordshire
Hey everyone,

I have reached the point in my life - at 25 where I feel I need to do something about my job prospects.

As it stands, I have always been in Customer Service/Helpdesk roles and last year started a job as a Technical Support Engineer on a salary of £15k.

It has been troubling me more and more how little that salary really is and how unemployable I really am - I feel like I need to something about my potential career development.

I self-funded myself through University, while I was working part time in a Supermarket, but my heart wasnt in the course I chose - Computer Science in this case -as I just wasn't getting on with all the programming and I ended up dropping out after trying the 2nd year again and failing.

So I don't have any real qualifications - I have A-Levels with grades CDD and GCSEs up to grade B-D, but nothing else on my CV apart from my experience in the roles above.

So I'm wondering where I can go from here. I would love to be on a salary of £25k before I hit 30-35 and on £35k before I hit 45, but don't know how to go about doing this and putting myself out for this.

My partner is only able to do part time or voluntary work because of her condition so the onus is on me to make the real money which I'm okay about, but it's getting there that I have the problem with.

I would really appreciate any help and advice to kick me into the right direction.

Kind Regards,

David
 
Gamefreak501 said:
but my heart wasnt in the course I chose - Computer Science in this case -as I just wasn't getting on with all the programming and I ended up dropping out after trying the 2nd year again and failing.
Click to expand...

I did the same thing with the same course. I'm now working for a business selling cables and earning less than 15k :(

I want to go back to uni and do a different course, doubt I could fund it though.
 
nothing anyone here can do mate, its all on you to better yourself. Get some qualifications, may i ask what is your partners condition?
 
Hi Gamefreak,

Your Uni experience is a near carbon copy of what happened to me too.

Your still young so you can try part time uni again, I'm sure there are comp courses with a much lower emphasis on programming these days. Or you could go for the IT certifications such as MCSE, CCNA. A lot of people say these are devalued etc, but without a degree I think its even more useful to have this, especially when you are competing against many others for a better role.
 
Theres a couple of chaps on here who dropped out of uni and climbed there way up the IT support chain, one of them is some kind of project manager and another i think is some kind of travelling it support person, both earn above 30K iirc and are under 30.
 
I entered IT without any IT qualifications. I was on an easy £32K when I was about 29, so it can be done. Sounds to me like it's the lack of money that isn't helping.

Think about changing industry. Corporate real estate is always crying out for good people and it pays really well. It's a small tight knit community and specialising will make you kind of indispensible.

It'll be SQL databases from the front and back end, maintenance, setting up and customising. You have to learn it all from scratch but it's not hard. Look up MRI Software and their clients; Henderson, Grosvenor, JP Morgan Asset Management and DTZ are a few. Raindrop is near you too.
 
What else are you good at? If you are looking at a change of careers there are many that allow you to take the qualifications as you work.

An example would be accountancy - and you could be earning £45k + within 4 years. However, you would need to be motivated and dedicated, the exams are tough so it wouldn't be for everyone.

It does show though that if you are prepared to put in the effort you will no doubt be able to teach your target. I'm sure there are similar opportunities even if you remain in IT. Sometimes you need it make a little bit of a leap of faith outside of your comfort zone.
 
Sounds like your stuck in a rut mate. I did the same and dropped out of my CS degree at uni after 1st year, started on £5/hr and just worked up really.

My advise would be to try and get a bit more responsibility and see if you can expand your role. Are there any guys in your company who deal with servers/networking/storage/etc? Make your manager or HR aware that you want to move in that direction and see if you can get apprenticed to a more senior guy to get experience.

Personally I prefer working for very small companies, where you can get a wide set of experience and a lot of influence and responsibility. Or work for a very large company because they are good at training, career development and succession planning - although often pretty slow to act.

Jonny69 gave good advice too. Try to get some industry specific skills, for example I've got a lot of experience with the oil industry and it can be a much smaller community. You can get a real advantage over more qualified people just by having some contacts and knowing the specific market.
 
In a similar situation. Finished Uni with a poor class, though worked as VP Finance for my union for my final year, and finding it really hard to get any type of work. I was hoping my final year as a Sabbatical officer would bolster my CV but only managed to get two weeks temp work since last July :(. The only work my local agency managed to find was three days packing envelopes. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.
 
Hey everyone,

Thank you for your help so far, I have tried to reply to you all personally (sorry for the long post!)

Jumblejug - thank you for your reply - I have been through all kinds of jobs on different salaries; at one point I was once on 19k, but the hours were unsociable and I got very grumpy in that role, so I had to go. I'm sure you can definitely get a higher salary with some looking though - I do hope you do find something though, even if you only spend 6 months in your role, it still counts as experience - all the best :)

scorchisio - thank you for your reply - my partner has Crohn's disease, which gets progressively worse and never goes away. It's an auto-immune disorder, which means the immune system attacks otherwise normal, healthy tissue; causing inflammation and eventually blockages, which means a bowel resection operation. Her condition means she gets tired easily, has to go to the toilet a lot, has a limited diet and means she can only really do voluntary or part time paid work; only if they can accept her condition.

HamZilla - thank you for your reply - I did look at IT Certifications but after finding out what the courses wanted financially, I did get put off. Perhaps I should approach my local college, maybe they could help; or look at my local University Web site to see if they have something that I might be interested in.

firefilesuk - thank you for your reply - that is encouraging - I would really like to be able to work my way up - that's why I went from a 'Customer Support' titled job, to 'Technical Support' - hopefully it does mean I have that option.

Jonny69 - thank you for your reply - that's very helpful - I probably won't mind the database side of stuff - and they are here to stay so it may be worth looking into courses or just buying the books and then sitting the exams.

marc mercer - thank you for your reply - I like to think I'm good at photography and do the odd web-design for people but I only ever did the web-design on a freelance basis when I was out of work. Accountancy sounds good - although I did only achieve a 'D' grade GCSE in Maths - which one of my friends keeps saying I should improve and go to A-level. My Mum also made a fair point, saying I lack confidence in myself and I could be doing so much more with my life if I just had more faith in myself.

Vtec9k - thank you for your reply - I know a colleague on my team has been ear-marked for Management - so it's probably not something I can do, although it won't do any harm for me to ask for more responsibility - I'm hoping I can put myself out - once I formulate a plan to sell myself. There is a separate IT dept. at work, so it might be worth me speaking with them about Server/Network/storage support.

dbappa - thank you for your reply - it becomes catch-22 when you try to go to University, finish a degree and then try to get work. I wish I did put in a lot more effort so I could come out with a degree - I ended up scraping a pass on my first year, then being 10-20 marks off a pass in my second year and then half way through my second year I just couldn't hack it anymore. I do hope you get a deserving job though - you have a degree which should count for a lot - and it's more than I have. All the best :)

I think what I can draw from this post and everyones helpful replies so far is that I need to find out what I really want to do; put myself out at work for more lucrative roles and have more faith in myself.

I am in the position where I can give up work and go back to full time study - after July this year but it means putting a hold on getting my first studio flat, otherwise a part time course will mean I can still work in my job and I believe the firm I work for will also help fund courses as well.

I bet after re-reading this thread a few more times, I'll kick myself for missing out a few things in this reply, but I'll have to do a lot of thinking and come back with my findings as well.

Thanks again for all your help so far.

David
 
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neodude said:
Have you considered ATC?

http://atcocareers.co.uk/
Click to expand...

Id love to do that but my gcse's + maths + english are not my strong points at all :(
was looking at CCNA at college but i cant afford £1800 for a 2 year course

i'm in the same situation as the OP but stuck in a rutt in Retail atm i'm not in work due to knee injury but when at work 39hours by the end of the day i have no motivation to do much (learning etc)
 
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