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The Why Don't You Get a Job Thread


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2 minutes ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

Cheers, dude. I shall. I've still got all your advice about living in Spain saved as a document. Things obviously changed with meeting my partner and us buying a place in London, but we both still intend to move out of the UK when we've finished our studies and are then able to sell our flat and everything else. I'm still pushing for Spain, but she's quite keen on Canada - which I'm not even sure I can get into with my previous misdeeds!

It really depends on what you're looking to do. I was in Canada for nine months a good few years back, and they are mega-strict on immigration, so one of you will need a trade to get in (or a job offer, which is quite rare due to the hoops companies have to go through to get permission to do that).

Spain worked for me, primarily because I found it incredibly cheap to live there compared to the UK. I got a fantastic apartment with two bedrooms, a communal pool and a terrace from which you could see the outline of Morocco on a clear day. It cost me £440 per month, which didn't include electricity. 

If you can beat the language barrier, then you're on to a winner. Oh, and if either of you are so inclined you could take a course in how to teach English as a foreign language. The cash isn't that great for that kind of work, but if you get a Trinity Tesol or Cambridge Celta you can easily make around 1,000 EURO per month from teaching. One word of advice though, don't waste money on any online courses. The schools don't accept them really, and the qualification is worthless.

Anyway, I'm rambling now. Again, any advice or suchlike just hit me up and I'll do my best to help. 

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Received my contract extension today as a teaching assistant. Lasting for another year, meaning I'll now have time to apply for university this time in 12 months with 3 years of experience under my belt, and two separate Level 3 qualifications alongside that. Plus it's the first time I'm being assigned a class to myself, fairly chuffed!

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10 hours ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

I just cannot take sales anymore. I hate waking up at 06:30 in the morning, I hate making sales calls, I hate gatekeepers and snarky decision makers, I hate targets, I hate it all. I'm giving my notice and this time he can't offer me nothing that'll convince me to stay. Fuck this.

I reckon you could easily get away with double pay and half a days work a week. 

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8 hours ago, SpursRiot2012 said:

I gave my month's notice today. All very amicable. He told me that, if I ever need a bit of cash, I should drop him a line and maybe come in and do a few days here or there, which is useful.

You know what, good on you mate, and all the best with your studies.v

I've been threatening (myself) to do the same for the past year (leave).. I must say I enjoy my line of work, and without sounding bell'ish, I know I'm good at it and my efforts have been recognised via national awards... but my team has been slowly grating on me for the past year. I'm picking up far more than I should be in my role, it's been noted by seniors that I'm doing the majority of my line managers job as she is basically useless, I've been strung along for a long time about 'watch this space/has your name on it', and my pay is shit.

I've stayed on due to having my ego stroked quite a bit in terms of my effort and positive results for the youngsters I support, it's massively helped with my previous confidence issues, but now I'm a so familiar and comfortable, I'm nervous, lazy and scared of something different.

Saying that, I'm about to take 3 months paternity with an agreement to return to part time (3 days). It's got me thinking, returning to employment part time should  open up some new avenues that won't have been of interest previously.

Part of me wants to hand my notice in and get away from this line of work altogether. 12 years of my life has been spent on helping and supporting others, and I will always have that instinct and more importantly, time to do so on different levels. But maybe I need to be more selfish on the work front. I've got a couple of months before I need to make my mind up, but whilst appreciating my lot in life and realising how lucky I am to be in a pretty safe full time career, I'm not happy anymore. I just can't work out if I'm being an idiot or not.

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That seems a bit recent to have graduated from preschool Ralphy......

 

So - Career changes and career advice! Need some help and tips.

My situation - I'm happy to keep doing what I'm doing for the time being; there's no burning urgency. I've got a kid on the way and I'm sure that is going to take up a fair bit of my headspace for the forseeable future so I don't want to worry too much about what I'm doing workwise.

HOWEVER! The past couple years I've been pretty contented and haven't had any real goals work wise. I don't hate my job, I'm alright at it and there are parts of it that are quite satisfying. I don't like the idea of doing what I'm doing now forever until I retire and I really want something else to work towards in my head, even if there's not much that I'm actively doing about it now.

I've been working long enough that I have a good idea of what I do and don't like in a job, and I can't help feeling like there might be something out there that could be a really good fit for me and I just don't know about it.

How would I go about exploring my options? Any help and tips would be welcome.

 

 

Edited by Chest Rockwell
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What are you doing at the moment Chest, are there parts of that industry that particularly interest you? Or are you looking to possibly change fields entirely?

I think everyone goes through that feeling of thinking there's something better suited out there, and of course there is. The tricky part is knowing what it is and even trickier is being able to get there. I'm at a point where I don't think it's financially viable to change careers- I've invested so many years into my career that I'd take a pay cut too big to start all over at something totally different. I have often thought about starting a business, in the same industry I work within, but I think I need a few more years of building my knowledge and networking (plus working out exactly what my business could actually provide) before I can even think about it.

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I am currently a Business Analyst (non-technical, very much business change focused). I work as a contractor, and like to get as varied as possible with the sector that I work in as it keeps it interesting - so I've done stuff in banking, insurance and regulatory change. I guess it's mostly financial services oriented though.

It's not that I'm necessarily looking to change career trajectories entirely - there's not anything I'm mad passionate enough to go through that kind of ballache of starting for scratch for.

But wondering if there's a job that's not a million miles off what I'm doing that will be better suited. I have made a bit of a pivot before, when I found myself going down a project management route and I purposely steered myself towards business analysis. - total disclosure as well as that general feeling that I haven't had any career goals of late, my current and last contracts in particular I just haven't enjoyed. There's aspects of them that I have but overall it's really accelerated my desire to give myself some renewed focus and direction. (also the fact that we're having one or more children means I ain't gonna be retiring super early and opening a market food stall or a dog crèche, as was my previous longterm goal.)

I think the first stages are probably to write out some lists of what I do and don't like.. and maybe another list of the other jobs that I can think of that are not that far off and start thinking about if any of them might be better suited.

Right. I think I've actually got a first step to work towards now actually. Research phase, commence! But still open to some help and tips. It helps just to talk about this a bit tbh. Your questions have made me interrogate my motives and line of thinking a bit.

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@Chest Rockwell as you are Londony have you considered checking out some Meetups through meetup.com? There's dozens for every interest and vertical you could imagine that will expose you to different people. I used to go to a local business breakfast that was really useful for meeting lots of people from various companies. I met printers, accountants, software devs, florists, alcohol distributors, all sorts! 

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