I'm 40 and have never had a job longer than 18 months.
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.
Why do you think you have never had a job longer than 18 months?
If you have a background in customer service, but don't actually want to work in customer service, then that skillset transfers well into a number of other areas, as you're likely to be attentive, responsive, helpful, a problem solver and so on.
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.
Where did marketing come from? Are you looking for a job in marketing, or are you talking about marketing yourself?
What are your reasons for not having a career? If it's personal (whatever that may entail) then it's going to be important because it will change the nature of advice you are given.
To give an extreme example, people won't advise you to retrain in building maintenance if they know you aren't able bodied.
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.
Why are you screwed? Those is what I'm not quite understanding - you seem to be implying that leaving jobs 18 months is completely outside your control, so I'm trying to piece that together and find out what those external factors are, so that I can potentially help you avoid or work around them.
If you've been in work, in multiple roles and companies for around 20 years and NEVER seen a good attitude and hard work lead to professional advancement, then that really does suggest that this is a specific problem that you have that will need to be addressed or worked on before you're successful.
After you weigh up the pros and cons, my situation doesn't favour sticking anywhere long-term. It's either one dead end job or the next. That's been the only way to increase wages and experience. They don't offer advancement, there's no opportunity for skills development, and the alternative is the dole. Even ex-offenders get a chance at vocational-based training.
So try not to be judgemental. You don't know what I've tried to get out of this. It's very easy for me to also be judgemental on other marginalised parts of society who have more help out there for them, and that's something you have to resist, because it gets you nowhere. I am talking about marketing, not a crash course from complete strangers on basic principles.
Contracting? You mean starting a business from nothing. ..OK better off leaving it there then.
Again, why? Explain to us so that we understand. What are the pros and cons, what is your situation?
We don't understand your position so there's no way anyone can give you something tangible to work with.
