If you started in a mediocre low paid job, tell me your success stories and how you got to your current job

[ihavenoclue11]

Really keen to hear some positive encouraging stories about how you 'bettered' yourself and how long it took you. What does your life look like now compared to how it did?

I'm trying to get out of my retail job. Have an interview in 2weeks for a banking job that I'd love to get so that I can maybe go down a different pathway in life.

Tell me your stories 😘

Started as a part time sales advisor in my teens, worked my way up through management roles, then wanted to leave retail (10 Christmases was enough for me) looked at my transferable skills and what I enjoyed most / was really good at. For me this was building customer relationships and people management.

Moved into tech as a relationship manager (see also; customer success, client experience etc) and have carried on moving up this path since.

It's now about 6 years since I left retail and my salary has tripled.

Also, I'd like to add that there is nothing wrong with working in retail, I have many friends who have worked / continue to work in retail. I am no better than them and they are no better than me because of this.

I was retail, moved to banking as an advisor. Trained to be a team manager, swapped companies to be a team manager in a non related field and then have moved across business industries working upwards as an operations manager.

My next promotion would be as a head off circa £80 to £100k.

I've worked hard, said yes to any opportunity, travelled and schmoozed. No degree, just always ensured I hit / exceeded my KPIs and never aligned myself too closely to any of the top dogs as they churn quickly and you need to be seen as impartial.

Call centre telesales/customer service > team leader > team manger > quality & training manager > call centre manager > IT Service delivery and governance manager > Snr Governance, Risk & compliance Mgr > Director Info security

Biggest promotions were over the last 7 yrs from call centre mgr to Director role. No qualifications just applied for jobs as they became available and made sure I made as many connections as possible with people across the company so they knew the quality of my work and what I could do.

We'll done to you all!! I agree there's nothing wrong in retail infact I throughly enjoy my job but as time moves on and my children get older I want to spend my weekends, bank holidays and evenings with them. I have worked every Christmas Eve/ Boxing Day for the last 10+ years and I am ready to move on.

I know I'm really good at customer service, I move this and really enjoy interacting with a diverse range of people. Still trying to navigate a direction in which I could grow and develop. Hopefully I'll find a way

i worked in hotels until I had dd at 22. Then moved to call centres. Worked my way up and kept doing short courses, like Excel courses customer journey courses etc. Then within the same company moved sideways and started working up again.

I always kept my CV up to date and on line on places like CV library, indeed etc. Eventually a recruiter found my CV online, introduced me to a company she thought I would be a good fit for. I interviewed several times and turned down 3 jobs with them. Eventually after about a year, we finally agreed on a role and package that suited. It paid far better and has shares as part of the package. I am a director and been in my role 3 years. I earn loads more than I would have ever expected when I took a job in a call centre simply based on it suiting child care.

I realised my specialism was people mgt so have made a career in that, and every business needs people who make sure the shit gets done.

What do you think your specialism is?

Career 1: trading floor secretary. Turned up early, kept smiling, took a keen interest, noticed an occasional error on the book and diplomatically dealt with it. Promoted to syndicate desk, ran the syndicate desk, moved onto the floor. Managed up. 16 years

Career 2: HR went back part-time when the children were both at school after a break. Started at the very bottom - £8.5k. Turned up early, kept smiling, took a keen interest, caught a few plates. Promoted two grades, went full-time (no impact on earnings due to tax and childcare). Kept catching plates and delivering a good service. They sponsored my CIPD qual, Promoted to Adviser then Snr Adviser. Couldn't go further so moved sideways to a similar sector. Managed up. 9 years

Used the same formula, caught the plates, worked hard, Managed up. Promoted to Deputy Director and Head of Service. Now Director of two services. 11 years

The common themes: be early, be reliable, be pleasant, work hard, catch the balls without dropping people in it, keep your own counsel, show an interest, be prepared to deliver at the grade above consistently, be quietly confident.

Temp reception duties/filing/secretarial work > team PA jobs > senior EA role in private finance in the west end earning £60k-£70. Took 15-17 years from early 20s. Fell into it by accident.

I often see these threads and think secretarial work is such a universally transferable job with no real 'skill' other than experience and being organised. Fairly recession proof, too. Tends to be working parent friendly as nearly often a woman-only role.

Not me but DH, working in retail until we had DD.
He moved to banking just in branch behind the counter, did lots of helping out and went above and beyond, was noticed by management and asked to help at other branches troubleshooting, worked his way up through the bank getting noticed along the way, was internally headhunted and is now a senior manager in wealth management.
No degree but he’s done loads of internal training courses and also any short courses he thought might be relevant on line.

Not me but my DH, he started work as a YTS roofer, did an access course, went to uni as a mature penniless student, got a job in a bank and retired at 55 from a 200k per year job and a million and a half pension pot,

I started out as an temp admin assistant on £6.59 an hour at a high street recruitment company. I worked hard, went above and beyond and was made a permanent member of the team on £19k. About 6 months later I applied for and got a £21k fixed-term contract entry-level role at a different company. Again worked hard, and was made permanent on £25k. I worked my way up over 10 years to a senior specialist role (£29k) then manager (£55k). I was head-hunted a few years ago by a recruiter on behalf of the company I'm at now. Came in as a director on £80k, aced the role I was in and was given another area to run after about 6 months. I'm now on £95k with a 10-20% bonus.

It took 14 years of work and 6 years of doing a degree part time at the OU to get here. I could have shifted up the seniority and salary scale a lot faster if I'd changed companies every few years, but I loved the company I worked for and it worked well when the kids were little. I shifted it up a gear and moved to a different company when they were junior school age.

Admin skills are always transferable. I always look twice at admin CVs when I'm recruiting and have given several people the break I was given. I got extremely lucky in getting the entry level technical job, then in being in a niche field when the regulations changed and companies were paying top whack for people with my experience.

I did retail, delivery and cleaning jobs before I started out in admin. I physically worked a lot harder in those jobs and my entry-level roles than I do now, with a heavier workload. I now work on extremely complex projects that require a specialised skill set. It's mentally tough but is (usually) interesting.

Good luck!

Turned up early, kept smiling, took a keen interest, caught a few plates

This sums it up neatly for me too. I've always subtly focused on trying to learn the tasks that each of my managers are responsible for and then naturally start getting asked to do them when they're busy or absent meaning when a role becomes vacant in that organisation or another I can give genuine experience of aspects of the higher role.

I started as a carer, then began helping in that office the odd hour to do dogsbody work like stuffing envelopes, putting away deliveries to answering the phone until I could handle basic queries. Got given some paid hours in the office from that whilst still being a carer, promoted to a senior carer, then a general manager to now where I'm a registered manager overseeing a county.

Work are currently sponsoring my 2nd degree and then when I have the qualification but don't owe them money back I'm aiming to pivot to being an inspector for the regulator. I am currently trying to naturally cultivate genuine relationships with the present inspectors so by the time it's relevant I'll be ahead of the game in knowing that posts are coming up and knowing people in the organisation personally. As we're talking about 18 - 24 months hopefully some of them will be more senior by then too.

Don't be afraid to move sideways to different orgs and competitors. You need to be hot at your current role to step up, but then that employer has no incentive to promote you if you're so good they're getting 2 people's work from you for the price of 1.

Left school at 16 (early 80s) without a single CSE/GCE pass, and got an office junior job in a tiny accountancy practice on £1 per hour doing filing, taking post, making tea, etc. Re took my O levels and then A levels by evening classes at the local college of FE over 4 years. Over that time, I worked hard at work, and was given more types of work, such as book-keeping, payrolls, preparing accounts & tax returns, etc. Once I got my A levels, I became a trainee accountant, doing the accountancy exams by evening classes. About half way through, I moved jobs to a bigger firm as a "semi senior", then quickly promoted to "senior" and once I passed all my accountancy exams, promoted to an audit manager. I was about 25 years old by then, and getting a manager job so young was pretty good (I got it mainly because of all the years of working experience which graduates didn't have as they had 5 years less work experience than me). Then moved jobs again to be a practice manager, and then got promoted to partner. Now have my own accountancy practice. Not bad for a school leaver with no qualifications (due to a crap comp where I was bullied daily!).

I'm loving these stories you are all incredible ! You have no idea on the impact you are having on me tonight! I'm really gonna try. The goal would be to earn 30k in a job I loved with no weekend work!!!

I dropped out of uni and got a job answering the phone in a claims call centre. I moved into technical underwriting and started doing my insurance exams. I then moved to commercial insurance and qualified in my exams.
I then moved up to an account executive and am now working towards an account director. I started on £13,500 when I started and I now earn £60k plus bonus.

I started out as a trainee vet nurse straight from school (£52 a week for 40 hours!)z then promoted to student nurse.

Then got pregnant very young as a single parent and was made redundant and all student nurse positions after that required night shifts and weekend emergency cover which I couldn't do as I didn't have overnight childcare so I knew I needed to choose a new career path.

Went to a supermarket on the checkouts and studied a home learning course in bookkeeping and payroll in my spare time (all funded by me).

Ended up working for a large manufacturing company who put me through the degree in payroll management. From there I got lots of promotions and moved around a few different companies for increased responsibilities and pay each time.

18 years on from the redundancy and I am in charge of the payroll for a huge organisation on a £50k salary.

@OnTheRunWithMannyMontana well done you! You must feel so proud of yourself! Just know that your post inspires me greatly. I really want to try my best to make myself proud. Xx

18 - dropped out of uni, waitress, min. Wage
20 - supervisor, planned to work my way up (still poor hourly pay)
21 - office job (call centre) - first salaried job (but low pay)
22 - started career in my current field, kept changing jobs once a year, income went from 20k to 50k a year (I'm 25 now)

No uni, but paid to do some qualifications part time. Kept self developing & applying for jobs that had better pay and were more challenging.

@Miajk gosh that fab!!!!! What mine of work are you in? You are amazing!!!

@Miajk did you enjoy call centre work (as a stepping stone ) this is where I am trying to go in the hope that it leads to different opportunities

Thank you. That's lovely of you to say 🥰 when I did the degree I worked full time and had two children under 7 and it was exhausting but so worth it for my potential opportunities now. Plus I was the first person in my direct family to get a cap and gown!! Massively helped that my DH is so supportive.

Just know that you can do whatever you set your mind to. Nothing is unreachable when you are determined!!

Do you have any ideas of what you might like to do?

I had a similar progression but I am now a operations manager for a large client (outsourced CS)

This is all in 4 years may I add

@OnTheRunWithMannyMontana honestly take all the praise and credit because you so deserve it!!!!

As for me, I have no I clue. I'm great with people, very chatty etc and people generally like me so I'm wondering should I try to focus on that or just see how things go. If you have any career advise, I'm all
Ears lol

Thank you, but I definitely got lucky to an extent. I'm in digital marketing, specifically SEO - salaries started really trending upwards in the field and demand was high which made moving jobs & asking for more money easy. Hours as a junior are pretty bad (50-60hr agency side) but worth it to get the experience.

Spent around 3.5k on well regarded qualifications in digital which helped me put something related on CV too, so it was definitely worth it but back then working minimum wage it felt like a big burden!