Change of career

[Scort]

For the last 8-9 months, I have been thinking over a career change – presently I ‘work in IT’, and have done since leaving college back in 2001.

Since leaving with a couple of GNVQs, I have mainly worked in application support roles, for bespoke products – so have a good 14 years of that experience, I also did a 12 month stint in a MSP, my first ever exposure to infrastructure support.

Being honest, I don’t really enjoy 'IT' work – I lost my zest and desire to learn a good 5 years ago, and have only remained in this type of work as a means to pay my bills; I’m now mid-30s and want to retrain as something else…

Being in office-based work for so long, the idea of something outside and more active is appealing, or a job out on the road/visiting people – the latter being something I have done for a past role, and enjoyed.

Salary-wise, I wouldn’t say I’m earning particularly well – I have enough to live and pay bills, but do find that I live from paycheque to paycheque; being able to pull in more would be almost dream-like, and allow me to clear off some debts. My wife works in the NHS, so also isn’t paid greatly, but again – it helps and her earning a salary has taken the pressure off of mine somewhat.

I have made roads to look into CeMap training to become a mortgage advisor, and have to set aside time to sit down with the material, to see whether it grabs me – it will be a whole new ball game to me though, as I have never worked in such an industry, and the only experience I have of this to date; is when we got our mortgage a few years back.

I need something that I can train for in my own time – be it home study/Open Uni or night school – so that sadly rules out training to become a Paramedic (something I also looked into briefly). I even looked at becoming a Sky installer – but sadly there were no openings in Wiltshire; same went for postman in my local town (Chippenham).

I guess I’m posting this for ideas really – I’m sure others have been where I am, and hit a 30s crisis over where they are going, what they are doing, and possibly earning.

Anyone had any experience in retraining for something, and if so, what did you choose, and how did you find it?

 

[Banzai_Joe]

How about looking into some kind of home automation installation?
You're already IT savvy, so that helps. It would give you an active job rather than sitting on your derriere and the learning curve would be quite steep (if you like the challenge).
I once toyed with the idea of getting into it and approaching building companies to try and partner with them on new builds, offering 'Tech homes' etc.

 

[AHarvey]

There are 2 main routes into becoming a paramedic, one involves training on the job. https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/ex...dic/entry-requirements-and-training-paramedic

My advice, don't look for a role based on money or hours, look for something that gets you excited, that you love. You are much more likely to put all your effort into this and when you do that, you can do very well for yourself.

I turn 35 on Tuesday, since turning 18 I've worked in computer games sales in GAME/EB, software development, then moved onto order picking, general warehouse stuff and moved up to running warehouses and goods out. Then I spent 7 year working for an online bingo/slots company, then 6 months developing products for the visually impaired, 2 months photographing people at a christmas/winter thing, then I started where I am now.

40% less per hour income than I was on at the gambling place, but no travelling and it's something I do enjoy doing with is web dev/SEO/Adwords etc. I also run my own photography business. the pay is £15k a year, which when you know you're bringing people in and the people selling to them are making that a month, it's not nice, but the opportunity is there for me. I have targets, with a potential income of £80k a year, happy with that for now

There is no point investing your life into something you don't really want. Trust me, it is soul destroying. There are lots of things you can do, tree surgeon, plumbing, sparky, teaching, what floats your boat?

Find what you love, then figure out how to make money in it. What's the saying "choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life!"

 

[Scort]

How about looking into some kind of home automation installation?
You're already IT savvy, so that helps. It would give you an active job rather than sitting on your derriere and the learning curve would be quite steep (if you like the challenge).
I once toyed with the idea of getting into it and approaching building companies to try and partner with them on new builds, offering 'Tech homes' etc.

I briefly looked at this, following your advice, but it looks like you would at least need some certification in electrical engineering - those courses are pretty weighty in time and cost unfortunately.

 

[Scort]

There are 2 main routes into becoming a paramedic, one involves training on the job. https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/ex...dic/entry-requirements-and-training-paramedic

My advice, don't look for a role based on money or hours, look for something that gets you excited, that you love. You are much more likely to put all your effort into this and when you do that, you can do very well for yourself.

I turn 35 on Tuesday, since turning 18 I've worked in computer games sales in GAME/EB, software development, then moved onto order picking, general warehouse stuff and moved up to running warehouses and goods out. Then I spent 7 year working for an online bingo/slots company, then 6 months developing products for the visually impaired, 2 months photographing people at a christmas/winter thing, then I started where I am now.

40% less per hour income than I was on at the gambling place, but no travelling and it's something I do enjoy doing with is web dev/SEO/Adwords etc. I also run my own photography business. the pay is £15k a year, which when you know you're bringing people in and the people selling to them are making that a month, it's not nice, but the opportunity is there for me. I have targets, with a potential income of £80k a year, happy with that for now

There is no point investing your life into something you don't really want. Trust me, it is soul destroying. There are lots of things you can do, tree surgeon, plumbing, sparky, teaching, what floats your boat?

Find what you love, then figure out how to make money in it. What's the saying "choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life!"

Thanks for hte reply - seems like you were in the same boat as me - though I've taken longer to realise I need to change

I'd love to have a job that excites me - that I actually wake up and think 'I can't wait to work on X and Y today...', as to date, the only thing I have ever really enjoyed, is the people I have worked with - the jobs have been easy and not that taxing really. Had an interview recently, and they remarked on how few jobs were on my CV - three in total, spanning 15+ years; they said they ususally see ~15 jobs

I think I may need to book some with with a career advisor or something, as I can't work out what I want to do - I love the helping people aspect of my work to date, the face to face stuff more than over the phone, but on the other hand I have a wasted talent - I used to (possibly still can?) draw at school; my wife thinks I should look to capitalise on that in some way - maybe graphic design or something?

Thanks for hte posts so far folks

 

[fastwunz]

I'm in a very similar position. 34 now, married and with a gorgeous baby boy. My job, which has been decent financially over years, requires me to work 6 days a week 08:45-7pm mon - fri and 09:30-16:00 on a Saturday.

I've done it for nearly eight years and I'm literally burning out.

My passion has been the British countryside and I would love to work in a roll that involves habitat and environmental management - I've been looking into that but, you need city and guilds qualifications which cost a fortune to get and take a lot of time to achieve. As such it's basically impossible to do whilst working. I feel screwed and totally boxed into a situation I can't get out of because I a have a wife and child relying on me.

 

[Scort]

I'm in a very similar position. 34 now, married and with a gorgeous baby boy. My job, which has been decent financially over years, requires me to work 6 days a week 08:45-7pm mon - fri and 09:30-16:00 on a Saturday.

I've done it for nearly eight years and I'm literally burning out.

My passion has been the British countryside and I would love to work in a roll that involves habitat and environmental management - I've been looking into that but, you need city and guilds qualifications which cost a fortune to get and take a lot of time to achieve. As such it's basically impossible to do whilst working. I feel screwed and totally boxed into a situation I can't get out of because I a have a wife and child relying on me.

Yikes! Those are some mammoth hours - I don't think I'd be able to stick that 8 months, let alone years. Needs must I guess.

I get the feeling boxed in though, that's exactly how I am - this morning I felt like there was a heavy black hood on my head, odd as that sounds - guess I'm struggling to see the wood through the trees.

I had an interview recently, which is another IT role, but a little more lively - I'm hoping it's going to be a 'no' though; as after this morning's gloom, I oddly now feel in a better place - I'm going to sit down with the wife tonight and get some figures together - maybe try and see what salary I can go down to, without putting us at risk.

We are hoping to start a family in a few years, so the way I see it, it's now make or break for a career change for me - I need to really think about where it is I want to be, and what I want to do; maybe get some time booked up with a career's officer or something...

If only I could go back in time and let me past self know how treading water in my main job, would affect me in the long run - maybe I would have gotten out when I had it easy, and made something else of my self and my abilities.

I'm ready for change now, I don't want to waste any more time.