I need to change my life :( DESPERATELY

[soulfulsarah]

I'm wondering if someone could maybe give me a little guidance as I'm feeling quite lost.

I'm 34 years old and I have forever been in and out of basic temporary admin roles with no real career progression and I am so sick of it now. I feel so so stuck. I tried the self employed route for 4 years but my business didnt take off as I had hoped and with this year being mostly locked-down the business is pretty much dead. I really don't know what to do with my life now and i'm desperate for an actual career I enjoy instead of repetitive admin. Money is tight and I really need to makr a change but I don't really know where to go for careers advice. I tried the Gov.uk website for their tickbox style career finder and I had basic standard job roles come up similar to what I'm already doing.

I'm a creative person, I love writing, my business was and still is as a wedding photographer but as you can imagine with this year on lockdown, pretty much all weddings cancelled or postponed and to be honest I need a career now in a company as an employee as my other half and I are house hunting. My current job is keeping me ticking with my stable but low paid income but its dreadful, repetitive, boring, and theres no real room for progression.

Please anybody able to help with careers advice or changing careers or anything? I really need the guidance.

Thanks in advance,
Sarah x

[PerditaProvokesEnmity]

What level of education / qualifications do you have?

These generally provide the foundation of a career, as opposed to a job - so when you say I need a career now you have to start with what you can offer an employer.

It may be that you need to concentrate on study and or training in the first instance.

[LilyMarshall]

Yes inwas about to ask the same about Qualifications. That would be the easiest thing to do, go to your locL college and ask their advice on courses.

And look at creative job options with a careers advisor and aim for the one you want.

[soulfulsarah]

@PerditaProvokesEnmity @LilyMarshall

I have an Honours Degree in Media and Communications at and I tried so hard to get into marketing roles after i graduated in 2008 but that's never really flourished for me. I did however land a role as a PA straight after and since then, I have been between PA roles and repetitive admin roles based around databases or or data input. It's soul destroying.

I launched my business as a wedding photographer in 2010 and its been a slow burn too. I absolutely adored it but this year has proven so so difficult with pretty much the entire wedding season written off due to lockdown and social distance restrictions should we ease in the near future. I had to go back into full time work back in 2018 in order to habe a steady and stable income. Again i was employed as a temporary PA, which then lead to a full time role in a different department as a database assistant (this is what I am doing now). It helps with saving and getting those consistent payslips and income for the purpose of buying a house but i really cannot be doing this role for the next 15-20 years like some of the other staff in the department. I want to progress in something i enjoy and earn more money than this as I'm being left eoth barely anything for myself by mid-month.

My business has enabled me to engage in some marketing at least, copywriting for my website, blogging tips and weddings, promoting and marketing my brand and my care for preserving peoples special moments, handling all communications, bookings, projects, finances, editing, photography, styled photoshoots by myself as a 1 woman band. I have this all down on my CV but I just don't know why I'm not able to change my career path and move on from this rut im in within a standard deskjob that has no career progression and isnt fulfilling. x

[LilyMarshall]

Can you be doing specific marketing, and digital marketing courses atm? Google analytics? Seo? Tag manager? Apply it to your own website and then use as as part of a portfolio to get a step in a company? Then do the level 6 CIM.

[soulfulsarah]

@LilyMarshall I'm not really sure on where to do those specific courses. This is where I am struggling really. I've been dreading today over the bank holiday weekend, logging back into the computer to fix databases that i dont understand and have no interest in. x

[LilyMarshall]

Search for Google Academy. Lots of course options on there.

[RippleEffects]

It sounds like you have a decent photography set up and can work from home?

What about doorstep phototography? I'm sure I read that someone in the SouthWest was offering family portrature on peoples doorsteps/ front gardens and had massive demand.

Whilst we all like our digital snaps a decent family photo to send particularly to the older generation goes down well. You could offer a dispatch service to send the photos to family members as part of a package offering.

Online retail in certain categories is booming at present. If you could pivot for a bit and offer product photography packages and digital uploads of your work to your customers you'd meet all social distancing rules.

Customers could possibly post product to you, or you could work with local shops as they open to help them establish a parallel online site by helping them sort their imagery so they're covered if we lock down again?

These could be additional pages on your already established social pages and website so really low cost to trial.

[soulfulsarah]

Thank you @LilyMarshall

@RippleEffects these are all really helpful suggestions. Thank you. Jist feeling really low at the moment and struggling to see a way out of the rutt. I'm going to right notes in my journal in regards to the doorstep photography you mentioned. I think i'll give it a whirl.

[LilyMarshall]

My usual photographer is doing doorstep photography atm. Sadly, my front door is not photograph worthy.