Career change - Qualified for nothing

kaffe

kaffe

kaffe

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13 Jun 2011
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Kettering
Soooo I want a new job, but dropped out of college blah blah blah and have zero qualifications. I understand I'll have to start at the bottom and work my way up but it's something I'm willing to do; just want out of retail.

Have any of you managed to nab yourself a decent job with nothing but an interest in the field? If so, where did you start?
 
I got a job in an interactive design studio when I was 16 based purely on portfolio.

If you have something to offer, they'll want you, just have to approach it slightly differently :)
 
Do you have any idea what you might want to do? That would be a big first step if you could narrow it down a bit from "anything" to say half a dozen things that really interest you. In many careers you don't need any particular qualifications or at least there are other ways to start even if you will subsequently have to get some qualifications to progress further.
 
Yeah, I want to work with animals, but since a lot of people do any jobs that come available get yoinked by people with degrees n stuff. I've done a bit of volunteer work to try and make up for my "lack of education" but apparently that's not good enough :(
 
If you live in Cambridge, there are a lot of places where you can work with animals (depending on what sort of animals you want to work with of course). Most jobs I have seen do not require any thing more than a few GCSEs.
 
kaffe said:
Yeah, I want to work with animals, but since a lot of people do any jobs that come available get yoinked by people with degrees n stuff. I've done a bit of volunteer work to try and make up for my "lack of education" but apparently that's not good enough :(
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When you say work with animals do you mean in an animal shelter type of thing? Do you want to be a lion tamer - you can always run away and join the circus? Do you want to provide a dog walking service or puppy training?

It's good to have as a starting point but can you refine it slightly more as working with animals is still coving a lot of options. When you say volunteering - if you've already been working in animal shelters then that's probably your best chance to get further employment if that's what you want to do, aim to utilise the contacts you've made there and assuming you got on well with the people then that should stand you in better stead should any jobs become available.
 
If you are interested in good earnings, then think about a job in sales, selling anything. You do need to be suited to the job, i.e. reasonable self confidence, good with people, prepared to travel etc, but you don't necessarily need strict qualifications. If you can make sales, you will have a career. Tailor what you sell to your interest in animals, e.g. you could be a pet insurance rep, setting up affiliation agreements with vet practices.

Rgds
 
Preferably some kind of carer/keeper type thing. The volunteer work I've done was very informal, kind of a favour, if you will. And I can't afford to volunteer any more, nor do I have the time outside of work.
 
Have you ever considered going back to college, to resit your A levels? It would open many more doors up for you.
 
Tingle said:
Have you ever considered going back to college, to resit your A levels? It would open many more doors up for you.
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Yeah I have, but I can't afford it. I'm over 19 so would have to pay for it and just don't have the money for it.

Kinda wish I hadn't wasted my free education time.
 
My suggestions, would be to either:
See a careers adviser
Or go on a website such as, fast tomato and do a short little test so they know what you're interested in, and then state that your highest level of education is GCSE standard. They'll then recommend you jobs that you could do, and tell you what path you could take to get them.
 
I became a writer at the age of 28 with no qualifications (other than the standard English GCSEs and an A-Level), no experience in the field at all, no great love of reading, no contacts to help and no idea where to start.*

At about 26 I contracted Rheumatoid Arthritis and I couldn't work, so I needed a job that I could do even if I was wheelchair-bound. Despite the disadvantages listed above, writing seemed ideal. I spent about a year learning to write to a fair degree, then another year building up my body of published work. Since then I've chosen to do things that have interested me or been fun. I now have about 100 published articles and have a book out.

Writing sounds 'posh' but anyone can do it, they just need to put time into it. It can also be fun, and perhaps more importantly, you can write about anything at all - from animal conservation to erotica.

Anyway forget writing; the point is that you don't necessarily need qualifications to do something if you have the drive.


*Some might say all that is rather evident in my current publications!
 
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Volunteer for the RSPCA?

Hang about a zoo everyday till you convince someone you want a job? (and are not their to look at the children :eek:)
 
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