Career advice for 23 year old

[Rafting2022]

My son is 23 and has worked in the same job with the same company for 5 years since college where he completed a BTEC. He’s now looking for a career change but has no idea where to start looking or how to go about it.

He currently works for an airline - passenger check in and boarding - it’s shift work and he definitely doesn’t want this in future or to stay in the aviation industry.

Has anyone got any advice on where to start please? Has anyone ever used a career coach and was it worth the money?

Career coaches are rarely worth the money unless you have a personal recommendation.

Has he any idea about what area he wants to be in? What does he like/ dislike about the current job?

Does he want to go to uni/back into education?

Does he want to stay where he is location wise?

With his good customer service experience he could start in a local big office (reception or contact centre bit) and work his way up? We have lots of youngish people at work that have done that - worked a year in the call centre bit and then gone for international promotions.

Thanks for the message.

He doesn’t want to do shift work or remain in aviation, he wants something with career progression, not 100% office based but where there’s an element of spending time at different sites/customer premises.

Happy to put in overtime and weekend work as needed but not the 24/7 shift pattern he currently has.

Most of his friends are in a similar type of role as him so he doesn’t really have any reference points on other careers - where on earth do you start?

What are his strengths? Does he like helping people or solving problems? I don’t know enough about airport check in to know what other area are involved in his current role.

He doesn’t want to go to uni but would be happy to study alongside/as part of work. So perhaps an apprenticeship would suit once he knows what he wants to do.

Location isn’t an issue and we will leave in one of the biggest cities in the UK so staying here to start with would be a good starting point.

You’re right that his biggest skill set to cash in on would be customer service (besides long service and reliability when working difficult hours) but that doesn’t solve his problem of not knowing what he wants.

So there is always a Venn diagram of:

• what you like doing (so for eg indoors or outdoors, dealing with customers or not, shift work or not, making things, writing, physical or sedentary, selling, teaching other people - some of these he already knows, clearly)
• what interests you (cars, art, education, sport, etc etc)
• what motivates you (work to live, enjoy being with other people, save up to travel or do some activity, material success, feeling that you’re making a contribution to the world)
• what you are good at (not always what you like, this, or what you’d like to be so important to be clear about the distinction)
• what you’re prepared to do to work (would you move somewhere else, take a pay cut to train, go back to study)
• and, crucially, what someone else will pay you to do. So for eg I am quite good at crochet and I like doing it but is it going to pay my mortgage? No it is not.But that’s because I choose to prioritise this particular mortgage in this particular place over a cheaper one elsewhere which might let me build up a crochet business of some kind.

There are loads of online career sites which will basically ask versions of these questions and give lots of ideas of things to do. I’d start with a few of those before paying for a career coach. Good luck - he’s at a great age to choose

You could pay for one of those psychometric tests where you fill in a questionnaire and are interviewed. They then tell you what would be most suitable for you. We paid for one for my son when he was 16 and when he was 40 he finally took up the recommendation and became a teacher.
I think your son definitely needs to consider what his transferable skills are and what area he would work in if he could choose.

Thanks, a questionnaire sounds good to give him some general ideas. He also thought about looking at apprenticeship courses to get suggestions and narrow it down.

I think it just seems over-facing at the moment when there’s so much choice.

I think an apprenticeship sounds like a good option. There are lots of options out there though so definitely worth narrowing down. What is the BTEC in?

Was going to suggest an Apprenticeship as well. Lots of companies do them now, in a variety of areas.

BT apprentices

Network rail

apprenticeship fair

Sorry, meant to say I’ve posted a couple of links to give you an idea of what’s available.

Thanks everyone. The BTEC is in aviation.

Once he’s found an area of interest how easy it will it be to get on an apprenticeship with no previous experience? Applying for an apprenticeship is like applying for any other job isn’t it in that they’ll be looking for candidates with relevant GCSEs/A levels or work experience?

If he decides on a career path, and hasn’t’t got the experience. Then could he possibly get some experience before applying? Also, skills in his present job - customer service, people skills etc are transferable.

How does he feel about sales? It’s not for everyone but if you’re good you can earn serious money and progress very quickly. I work for a tech start up and we hire lots of entry level sales positions. Customer service skills and personality are what we hire on rather than qualifications

For a laugh I had a go at the Careers Service assessment & it came up with interesting things. Maybe have a look?

nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/

Engineering or surveying apprenticeship?

There might be options here

www.multiverse.io/en-GB/young-adults