What job would suit someone who is quiet, shy, patient, hard working?

[quietquiet]

I'm currently in a role that is at complete odds with my personality. It's a 'cool' job as a copywriter in London. It involves international travel, expensive meals out with clients, lots of perks, etc. I hate it. I've only been in the field for 15 months since graduating university and my mental health has plummeted from it. It just isn't the right fit.

I'm quiet and shy. Previous colleagues have expressed how patient and kind I am. I've also been told by colleagues how hard working I am, I'll always be the first to volunteer to take on extra work or stay late if needed. On the other hand I'm terrible at public speaking/presenting, and find it hard to open up to others. There must be something out there that would suit me better than my current job, I just don't know what.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

I'm in my 20s, have a degree and master's in Biology.

Thank you for this thread OP, I'm getting some ideas from it myself! Please do change careers though, once you find something that suits you it will make such a difference to so many areas of your life. You've clearly got lots to offer. The company that ends up with you once you've found your thing will be very lucky indeed.

Do you have any interest in SEO? Could be a good career choice.

Tax advisor. Would require retraining but I've got a friend who is pretty senior and doesn't have to do anywhere near the level of meetings/presentations/negotiations that I do (chartered accountant but in a strategy role). She has to do occasional client lunches but they're pretty rare. Her work is way better for an introvert that mine. I'm a bit of a crossover of an introvert and extrovert, sometimes love my job and other times really don't feel it...

Paraplanning - research, analysis and writing technical reports for financial advisers. It's a back office role but can be a stepping stone to client facing as your confidence grows.

I'm assuming you wanted the job when you applied for it and that your employers wanted you to work for them. I wonder if it would be worth speaking with HR or with your managers about any changes that could be made to make your job more suitable for you. If you haven't let them know that you are unhappy they may be grateful for the opportunity to encourage you to stay.

I'm sure you already given this a lot of thought but how sure are you that it's the job that is making you feeling stressed rather than you being generally stressed is making the job difficult. Iyswim

The transition from Uni student to being an actual proper adult is an exiting time of life but it's often a stage of life where you can feel uncertain and stressed about things.

Look into medical writing, this might suit.

It's the organisation, not the job.

are you all right with the writing part?

Others have suggested social media for a medical organisation and medical writing and another aspect of that is creating (usually written) content for a medical research charity's audience, i.e. science communication (scicomm) for a public / patient audience Basically it's translating scientific content into plain English, with your flair for writing and biology background I think you might enjoy that.

It might include writing website content, comparing different treatment options and signposting to further info, writing lay summaries of funded research, answering scientific enquiries from the public, providing a 'horizon scanning' report for colleagues who need to know what's happening in research etc, providing backup stats and context for the people who are giving quotes about new research to the papers.

Or you might do something similar for universities' press departments or an individual department - blog posts about research being undertaken, or working with newspaper journalists to respond to stories etc.

Charities don't always advertise their scicomm jobs as scicomm jobs (most of them aren't really that hooked into the scicomm networks, but some are) so it can be worth actively trawling through a few vacancies pages to see what's out there https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gZpmUTVeM46F6iu7DTpH7ZCOrYRSp-aaHDI7BJi0vj0/edit#heading=h.1w3m33b4is14, or have a look at the Association of Medical Research Charities' (AMRC) members, who pretty much all do science communication and / or public engagement.

I run a big mailing list for science communicators / public engagement w science professionals (psci-com, it's free to read or sign up to https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=psci-com) and lots of jobs that might suit are advertised there, but there are plenty of other similar mailing lists too, here https://scicommjobs.wordpress.com/2021/01/30/scicomm-communities-of-practice/

The NHS has more recently started moving into the science communication / public engagement with research sphere (they've always done those things of course but now they've started talking about it using those terms) and if you happen to be in Leicester the University Hospital is after a Science Communications Manager https://beta.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate/jobadvert/C9358-22-3276 ("...looking for a storyteller that brings heart and emotion to our scientific discoveries that will resonate with our local, regional, national and international communities").

Good luck :)
Jo

Scientific/medical publishing would probably suit you well. If you're in copywriting then you can clearly write well, and science people with those skills are often hard to come by.

WindsChange
"Or if you are happier with a quieter, simpler job maybe a librarian? Lots of my ex teacher colleagues have become librarians and it seems a pretty low stress, cosy kind of jobs."
This is a very large misapprehension of what librarianship involves. Please don't go into this if you don't like constant interaction with very demanding clients.
OP maybe try a sideways path from copywriting to copy editing/proof reading.
I had a long career in libraries it was never low stress or cosy.

Well we are lucky to have lots of small town libraries in the NW and the ex colleagues I know (who are all qualified professionals with degrees and PGCE as a minimum) are really happy working in libraries despite the pay cut(1 in a school library and 2 in public).
When I’ve spoken to them they seem to find the job enjoyable, organising events for the community, booking interesting speakers and so on and a lot less stressful than being a school teacher that’s for sure!
Everything is relative and I imagine lots of jobs seem cosy and fairly stress free when you have been a teacher!!
I made plenty of other suggestions to OP so no need to be so rude, I was clear I wasn’t going off personal experience nor that of close friends or family but by that or ex colleagues who seem happy with their choice.

I remember a thread on here months ago about what is and isn't a "profession" - and many people agreed that librarian is a dead end low paid role. So that's worth thinking about. 🤔

The other debated "non professional" job was careers advisor!

(I didn't post on the thread but I found it very interesting nonetheless!)

FGS don't get into SEO 🤣 I'm trying to escape the industry. It's full of noisy people!

Also not going to be a good fit. Going to different offices constantly, meeting new clients and having to challenge them robustly and get information from them when they really do not want you there, present findings to them that they do not want to hear...

As some others have already said, have a look into intellectual property roles.

Not my experience at all. Teams are small and close knit and decent clients aren't difficult to deal with.

Publishing? Look for job in non-fiction/education books which would love someone with a science brain and copy writing skills

Plus you’re forever fighting to justify your job. Library work is poorly paid with very few openings.

Regulatory affairs in pharma, medical devices or IVDs (pharma pays the most but can be insanely stressful). Biology is an excellent degree to get into it and it's perfect job for a bright, detail oriented introvert.

Healthcare sounds ideal for you. I agree with others who have said nursing but also look at allied health professionals ie speech and language therapists, , dieticians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists etc. Pharmacy could be another option for you?

Library. Archives. Research. Editing.

This is what I came on to say. Quiet and cosy!

Biomedical Scientist?

Completely lab based, not customer/patient facing. You’d only need to chat with your colleagues in the lab. All results are recorded on software.

Your undergrad & masters are well suited. The NHS would have a training route for you.

The pharma industry may be good for you. Perhaps something like pharmacovigilance may be an option. There are plenty of roles that do not require much, if any external interactions e.g. pharmacovigilance, data management, medical writing, lab work, manufacturing activities etc. However you will need to interact with internal project/matrix teams but I think this is definitely less challenging than an external facing role and you do get used to it as you are working with a team of people on a common goal. I work with lots of quiet types.

I'd recommend accountancy too. I have virtually no phone calls, great colleagues and only occasional meetings. It's perfect if you are a bit anxious. I'm public sector.

Oh my God yes.
Customer service with the public all day long.
It's not quiet!