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.

I also think you should try a different employer before you completely jack in your career for something else.
I work in marketing and am an introvert in what is generally quite an extroverted profession. I have found that this can bring some advantages though. For instance, when I do actually speak up then people are more inclined to listen. Try to see it as a positive that you bring something different to the workplace and see if you can find somewhere that's a better fit.

Tutoring?

I think you would be great working in a SEN environment or as a carer but the pay is lousy and the hours are not great.

@VHSyeah glad to be of help!! :) From what I remember I don’t think they had much in terms of retraining to get in, eg a Cert or Diploma in Building/Construction mgmt. A good place for ideas is to stalk ideal jobs on LinkedIn then check out what experience/qualifications people with a similar background have got

I don’t understand why copywriters have to make public speeches and presenting. I thought it was a job for shy and quiet people.

Another vote for looking at AHP careers, I'm nearly finished retraining as a diagnostic radiographer and I'm a quiet, shy, hard working and compassionate person. Never thought I would be able to chat with patients/do half of what I have done, best decision I ever made. Such a valuable variety of personalities in healthcare.

Freelance book indexing? Very little face to face contact with clients. All communication by phone or email. Working from home you choose your hours and the amount of work you take on. Pay is pretty decent too. Wish I'd started earlier, previously worked as a Chartered Librarian.

No help at all but your job is my dream job OP. I am an extrovert whose job mainly involves WFH alone and speaking to no one for days on end. I'd love international travel and public speaking. Fancy a job swap?

This in bucket loads!

Someone mentioned university librarian. I guess if teaching lecture rooms full of students about the latest statistical programmes and bibliographic tools, or steering academic staff through the complexities of open access publishing is your idea of quiet and cosy, then fill yer boots (although you'll need to invest time and money in a qualification first).

For those that have mentioned medical writing/med comms, I am a medical copywriter already! We have international events and meetings to attend with clients, followed by dinners with networking. I've been to Germany, Italy and France in the last few months alone and I'm only a junior copywriter. It isn't at all what I expected before joining the field.

I like the idea of SLT, I think that sounds like an area of healthcare that would suit me as it's still helping patients. I'll have a good look into that and how to get into it. I've also thought about the Physician's Associate course but I would have to self-fund that with a loan.

I have worked in a lab before and enjoyed it, but as my degree isn't Biomedical Science it limits what I can do in the NHS. There's a few lab assistant jobs in the NHS but they are £21-22k which would be a big jump down (I'm on £30k at the moment).

I have spoken to my manager and he made a few temporary changes to my role, but he wants to support/mentor me in carrying out the aspects of the role I struggle with/don't like rather than adapting the role itself if that makes sense (which I completely understand and am grateful for, but it's not enough to keep me there if that makes sense).

So did I, that's why I chose to go into it lol! But we often have to present our work and ideas to clients, or present things on our client's behalf

This is quite disrespectful to project managers (on a par with the 'just be a librarian' comments). I've never met a successful project manager who's reserved (and I've been in the industry for 30 years). Shy and patient would be a disaster for a project manager. There's also dinners, travel and a LOT of presentations (quite often to 'challenging' audiences). You need to be willing to upset people to do the job effectively much of the time (as there's always someone who has a conflicting agenda) and be very social as networking and influencing is key to success.

NHS Clinical Scientist Training might be worth a look, though you may to too late for the September intake, but starting salary is band 6 which won't be such a drop from now (SLT I suspect would be a band 5 job).

Not being disrespectful at all - I would say reserved and hard working is a compliment. Why do people seem to assume being loud and extroverted is better? Not to confuse reserved with shy - they could deal just fine talking to other people when they needed to, but mostly it was one on one over the phone or in their small work teams. Weren’t required to do much in the way of presenting, dinners or socialising. By the way this is just MY personal experience of working with PMs who have a certain degree in a specific industry. All industries and service types within each are very different, so your experience is different.