If you have changed career or retrained....

[Galaxygirl93]

So, my position, my little one is 16 months and I returned to work around 7/8 months ago. I work in a Solicitors Office as an assistant 3 days a week. I enjoy the job however I do not see it as a career for my life. I am mid 20s so have many working years left!! I fully know that once my little one goes to nursery more/school I will have more spare time, and I am thinking of furthering my career, but I do that will not be in my current role as I do not want to work in Law, I've just stuck with it since I got the job when I was 19.

The problem is, still at mid 20s I do not know what I want to do, and I would have no idea on even where to start with changing career.

I have a few questions on anyones current or past experiences please?
What were you doing before
What are you doing now
What further education/course did you have to do, and was it easy to get into - ie was it easily accessible?
Are you glad you changed career?

I'm nearly 40 and I've still no idea! Please don't hung up on your age! You have 40 or 50 years still to work!

Where do your skills lie? I'm good with people and advice and interested in healthcare and maternal/child health so my dream job would be a HV.

Was doing retail management (joined as graduate trainee and worked way up)
Now HR
Did post grad in HR to make the switch. But lots of options to study part time if you are admin entry level.

I was a trained beauty therapist but knew I was never going to make the kind of money I wanted to without setting up my own business (which I didn’t want to). Plus the physical aspect of the job was difficult. So I applied for and went to Uni at 24 and finished at 27, still working as a BT part time.
I’d volunteered abroad prior to applying which is what helped me decide the subject area, so took a joint degree in Education and Development studies. After graduation, I got a job creating training for an amazing charity which works internationally. I definitely landed on my feet but partly I think I was so driven to get a new job because I hated the job I was coming from 😂 I think having a solid previous work experience also gives you a huge leg up as a new graduate, even if it’s unrelated.

So I’d say perhaps look for some voluntary work, see if that sparks something off that makes you want to study/pursue a different career path. There are also free courses you can do with websites like FutureLearn which could give you a taste for different subjects and career paths ☺️

I’d also just add that at 24 I was worried I was too old (ridiculous now, I know!) but there was a woman on my course who was training to be a teacher and she had kids who were my age! So don’t even consider age as a factor - go for it!!

My skills probably lie in organisation so maybe an events planner would be a good idea... but I also love animals but would not even know where to begin in becoming a vet or vet nurse....

Im happy to hear of your inspiring stories!!

It surely is easy to Google how to become a vet or vet nurse but would you have the qualifications to be a vet and the work experience required

I was a surveyor and retrained as an accountant late 20s. Best thing I ever did, I love it!

Great thing about accounting is that you can combine it with so many other interests. So for me, with my surveying background I work in Property accounting. One of the best jobs I've heard of is working in the finance team of Yorkshire Wildlife Park, accounting for the acquisition of animals etc., just fascinating!

I think Accounting sounds interesting and I did Business Studies at A Level, however I am really bad at Maths - so I don't think I'd be very good at Accounting.

Also add on question to everybody- how did you afford to change career?! Was the additional training expensive - obviously aside from student loans at Uni I wonder how I would afford to pay thousands for a college course....

@Galaxygirl93 accounting is actually very little 'math'. You obviously have to be comfortable with numbers but my mental arithmetic is shocking!

I got quite lucky in that a firm that already knew me were willing to take me on and they paid for all my training.

Is there a salary level you want to earn?

Vet nursing for example (as opposed to being a vet) is a great job but not high salary. I think average is around £18-19k

Not too sure on salary. I feel inspired when I read on here about people earning more than 50k but I don't think that would ever be me unfortunately.

Im also aware a Vet nurse has a low salary :-(