How to market yourself as a drifter?

Manray

Manray

Manray

Associate
Joined
4 May 2022
Posts
6
Location
UK
I'm 40 and have never had a job longer than 18 months. My ambition is to start a degree later in the year and land another contract office job, however want a semi-decent job this time. Usually I call myself a "multi-skilled administrator", "business admin/officer", list the various fields in my background and soft skills, however there are many jobs in my background, often bad ones.

Most of my background is customer service. My aim is a clerical position with no customer service involved. I haven't had the chance to work in anything skilled, jobwise anything goes, as long as it's not customer service. If anyone can give any pointers it would be appreciated.
 
Jack of all trades, master of none.

Find something you like and become the best you can at it and stop with all the drifting about. You are 40 and very soon it will be too late to actually specialise in something.

Have a good think about it and go for that role. You can sell it by saying that it took you a few goes at other things to realise what it was you actually wanted to specialise in.
 
azazl187 said:
Jack of all trades, master of none.

Find something you like and become the best you can at it and stop with all the drifting about. You are 40 and very soon it will be too late to actually specialise in something.

Have a good think about it and go for that role. You can sell it by saying that it took you a few goes at other things to realise what it was you actually wanted to specialise in.
Click to expand...

I’m sorry but this is a load of horse.


40 is definitely not too late to specialise in something, nowhere near.

Furthermore, being skilled across different areas is no bad thing. Arguably, it’s better. I’ve spent a lot of time with individuals who have worked at a single company, specialising in a single area for 5+ years, and when it comes to thinking outside the box, they can’t. They’ve spent one way of doing one thing for years.

That’s not to say there aren’t people who can’t do both, but you have to work harder at being more diverse and agile in your approach.


Id argue you never have to specialise in anything if you don’t want to. Your career is exactly that - yours. OP is better off finding the right company that’ll support him in transitioning between different roles every 2 years or so. There are plenty of them.

In fact, every company I’ve worked for would prefer you to move internally, and some even offer rotation programmes to encourage it.
 
What do any of these responses have to do with marketing?

The reasons for not having a career or skillset are personal, it's not by choice. Unless you're considering me for your company why do you feel the need to pry?
 
SixTwoSix said:
...but often times better than a master of one - to complete the phrase.

While I understand the negative connotation and common use of this phrase as a put down, it's not used in it's original spirit.
Click to expand...
Fair enough but you can't command a decent wage that way in my experience
 
Manray said:
What do any of these responses have to do with marketing?

The reasons for not having a career or skillset are personal, it's not by choice. Unless you're considering me for your company why do you feel the need to pry?
Click to expand...
Oh you are in marketing. For that reason I'm out, not even god can help you here :D
 
azazl187 said:
Fair enough but you can't command a decent wage that way in my experience
Click to expand...

Agreed and commitment to a position is important rather than being seen as someone who is going to leave after 18 months. No employer wants to recruit with the view they have to repeat the same in 1 or 2 years.
 
Manray said:
The reasons for not having a career or skillset are personal, it's not by choice. Unless you're considering me for your company why do you feel the need to pry?
Click to expand...
You joined OCUK to post this, this is our place we talk about this sort of stuff. No need to get defensive. People in here are really helpful, for the most part, but you can't just come in and demand advice and not expect people to want to know the backstory in order to help.
 
Do you have hobby related skills?

You'll be surprised how you can word your CV around skills you've picked up in a job no matter the relative skill base for the role. Something as simple as fdinding a quicker or less frustrating way of doing something could be worked as implementeding a time-saving process to make working more efficient. It might be a menial and lame thing you did at the time but you can spin it any which way.

You also don't need to go into detail about every job from the last 20 years. Just the more recent and relevant jobs to the role you're looking for although don't leave gaps.

The right employers will care more about you and your attitude to people and learning if you're willing to go into a junior role and work your way into a better position. You may find a role with attached learning courses such as HR and internal recruitment so you can gain qualifications and job experfience at the same time. They will be the lowest paid but progression doesn't have to be slow if you're positive and want to make something of it.
 
Manray said:
Usually I call myself a "multi-skilled administrator", "business admin/officer", list the various fields in my background and soft skills, however there are many jobs in my background, often bad ones.

Most of my background is customer service. My aim is a clerical position with no customer service involved. I haven't had the chance to work in anything skilled, jobwise anything goes, as long as it's not customer service. If anyone can give any pointers it would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Well there are generic admin type roles in some companies (aside from HR & Finance), say an admin team that partly manned the reception desk and partly deals with other basic admin/clerical things like booking conference rooms, acting as a PA for the execs etc.. they’d all report to an “office manager”.

Do you have any management experience in customer service that could maybe be leveraged to manage a team of admin types?

The other role that sat near the office manager was the facilities manager - they’d liaise with building maintenance guys, contractors etc.. and were responsible for stuff other than computers/phones (which obvs in house IT covered).
 
randomshenans said:
people to want to know the backstory in order to help.
Click to expand...
lol backstory! Yeah I'm not actually a person, just a sentient screenplay.

Dup said:
Do you have hobby related skills?
Click to expand...
Lots, and lots of certificates and courses too, but they have never pulled work to my frustration. Couldn't even get an IT helpdesk job. Coronavirus and bad luck (especially rent prices) have helped caused a lot of career gaps by forcing me to move around. The problem with a cycle of drifting is employers know you are screwed and will only employ you in disposable roles or through an agency. Some of the names on my CV (think Serco, Balfour Beatty, Kier) are relatively enticing, that's about it. I have never observed this thing where attitude and work hard leads to promotion or training, honestly. And I've stuck in this current gig for a year, and it's horrible but I have really tried, and they're only going to outsource the place. It's just crap.
 
dowie said:
Do you have any management experience in customer service that could maybe be leveraged to manage a team of admin types?

The other role that sat near the office manager was the facilities manager - they’d liaise with building maintenance guys, contractors etc.. and were responsible for stuff other than computers/phones (which obvs in house IT covered).
Click to expand...
Hmm! Good point. I've trained new starters before and set up their Windows profiles, wrote some training manuals. Worked a fair bit in FM too, but the helpdesk side is so rough. And Maximo gets worse with every build
 
Manray said:
I'm 40 and have never had a job longer than 18 months. My ambition is to start a degree later in the year and land another contract office job, however want a semi-decent job this time. Usually I call myself a "multi-skilled administrator", "business admin/officer", list the various fields in my background and soft skills, however there are many jobs in my background, often bad ones.

Most of my background is customer service. My aim is a clerical position with no customer service involved. I haven't had the chance to work in anything skilled, jobwise anything goes, as long as it's not customer service. If anyone can give any pointers it would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Work out why you keep quitting things. No point committing to something long term like a degree till you work that out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom