How to market yourself as a drifter?

Manray · 4 May 2022 at 07:27

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.

Manray · 4 May 2022 at 10:21

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?

Manray · 4 May 2022 at 10:25

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

Indeed! Otherwise I wouldn't even consider going to university

Manray · 4 May 2022 at 10:49

randomshenans said:
people to want to know the backstory in order to help.

lol backstory! Yeah I'm not actually a person, just a sentient screenplay.

Dup said:
Do you have hobby related skills?

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.

Manray · 4 May 2022 at 10:53

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).

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 · 4 May 2022 at 13:04

OspreyO said:
Work out why you keep quitting things. No point committing to something long term like a degree till you work that out.

Quit long term plans in order to focus on not quitting long term plans. I am honestly baffled

dowie said:
Just going to tag @Diddums as I believe he does that sort of thing, some sort of building/facilities management role for a freeholder or something IIRC.

Thanks, that is very much appreciated. Not super interested in building management exactly. It's ok but tends to be quite insular. Not that that's a bad thing, just tough to market to. There's always takeovers/layoffs/companies moving around etc. can get hard to keep up with if you're not "in it"

Diddums said:
As flattered as I am that you'd think of me, this guy's attitude on here is very vividly demonstrating why he's not had a job for longer than 18 months, and suggesting him to anyone would be too much of a risk to my reputation.

That's funny because I got around that industry a while through good references. But you do you mate pphhh