What career if you're good at exams but shit at networking?

[AllotmentTime]

I keep pondering a career change but I don't know what I'd move to. Classic school overachiever who couldn't translate that into the real world- I got As at A level including both Maths and English, had no idea about career so did an English degree because I loved reading. Looking back at the STEM opportunities I missed makes me 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I feel as though being good at studying is really my only/major skill. I get on well with people, but I don't have the confidence or outgoing personality to be a go-getter. I like numbers, I like words, I currently work for a university in a dead end admin job. My IT skills are okay but untrained - I can teach myself something in Excel when I need to but I've never done any coding etc.

Anyone have suggestions please?

In house accountancy. As long as you can mumble and say your name you will be fine.

accountants are sought after. I’m a lawyer. Don’t do law

I knew admin people in academia, with very varied backgrounds ( no degree, arts degree, relevant degree etc) who were in departmental roles with a finance element, and who were then funded to get relevant qualifications (ACCA, I think). After that, you could move into a central finance role - there were frequent - or out into the private sector (better pay). Maybe an option for you?

How old are you? What's your current salary and what are you aiming for?
As usual loads of people recommend 'IT/software engineering/blah2' but it's not that simple.
The industry is very cyclical. Two years ago companies were hiring like mad , people who had done a 6 month bootcamp were getting offers. Now even people with several years of experience are finding it hard.
Also, unless you're extremely good at your job, advancement will require networking etc I'm afraid.
Said 'extremely' for technical roles requires hours of self-learning. Are you up for that?

Accounting is a much better option also once you're qualified you'll be able to apply for roles that needs the skill. The problem with technical roles is that there's constantly new stuff to learn... It's not just about passing exams but hands on experience.

I'm 43. Current salary is 45k. I don't have a specific salary in mind, more that I'd like something with opportunities to progress and earn more. My current job doesn't really offer that - my boss's role is not particularly similar to mine and there's no obvious next rung to aim for. 70k? That's a bit plucked out of the air, but may help clarify that I'm not looking for millions!

But they would need to have confidence in the quality of their work no matter how misanthropic they may be. You don’t have to network in STEM but you often have to present your work and answer probing questions etc.
Having said that, 45k for a deadend admin job seems great. Why not enjoy it and seek fulfillment outside work?

Exactly
@AllotmentTime Do you live in London/SE? If not that's a pretty good salary for a 'dead-end admin job'.
Unfortunately as a career changer into a 'highly paid' technical field you'll be competing with a lot of others, your people skills are usually the clincher. You're unlikely to magically develop the technical skills required to earn more than that, within the next few years, unless you put in a lot of graft.
Or maybe get a place on one of those codefirst girls sponsored place things.

What about something like logistics and operations? Obviously you'll occasionally have to meet new people suppliers etc but you're usually managing the same day-to-day.

An admin woman in our work is learning coding, and I have to say I see her differently now, as someone with ambition. why can’t you learn coding?

if statistics heavy then learn R, otherwise python is generally useful

The OP never said she couldn't learn 'coding'. The question is why should she.
Also R isn't useful outside of very specific circles... Certainly not for someone like the OP...

It's far better, for a role to get some sort of functional skillset, like maybe being a business intelligence analyst, something like Tableau. There's even big enterprise vendors for software like Salesforce which will train people to be Salesforce consultants.

The trouble with code is, piss easy to learn hard to master. And everyone and their dog has the same idea. I think If OP is 45 and wanting to change career asap she needs to be a bit smarter about it.

The world really needs less code tbh but more people having technical intuition, understanding what to build etc. and maybe some formal qualifications but don't get me started on that.

I would say definitely not law. I’m a lawyer in a mid level commercial law firm and networking and business development is a massive part of the job (which I hate!) but it’s unfortunately the case

Very much agree that law is a no if networking isn’t your thing. Also requires training and hard to get into

That’s a good salary, you probably won’t earn much more than that in STEM or IT if you don’t like networking.

For example I’m a mid level software engineer on 56k, to get more than that I will have to start leading projects and meetings. DP has almost finished a STEM PhD and he’s looking at salaries of 40-50k, at that level he still has to present at conferences and network with people to get on the projects he wants.

IT is dead for junior roles anyway so with the rise of AI I would not recommend anyone try to get into it.

Why on earth are people saying law. If you’re a lawyer and you can’t network you’ll go nowhere in your career. Lawyers need personality to succeed.

Civil service could be a good bet

Come and work for me - I am specifically looking for nerds. Nuclear industry. We're all physics/engineering. I do all the talking to others; I want technical skills in my team. Salaries are very decent.

I'm a bit like you, currently a data analyst in a local authority which suits me, no networking required. Theres lots of demand for skills in data presentation, especially Power BI, tableau etc and GIS. This could maybe suit you. Although unlikely to give you a high salary as there's no money in the public sector.

What do you mean by technical skills? And decent salaries?

@user876477 Sorry OP not really related to you but a mini-rant on 'career advice' from MN.
There are hundreds of these threads on here, the advice is always the same law, accountancy, tech.

Most of it is from people who aren't in these jobs themselves they just have a vague idea or 'know someone else who did it and is now earning loads'.

The truth is, very few jobs will pay over the odds for an 'individual contributor' unless they have niche skills. Said niche skills take time to build. If everyone could just do a course and earn megabucks within a few years they wouldn't be niche anymore.

Managerial/co-ordinatory positions earn more because their individual value , in enabling others is far more than any individual contributor. Also, a lot of people become contractors - but of course chasing work will require networking.

So far we have no idea of OP's skills beyond 'liking words and numbers' and 'passing exams'. What were these previous jobs where she was a manager.. why didn't they work out.etc.

She needs to articulate not just what 'she' wants to do, but why an employer should hire her for a new 'career'.

It would be far easier to build on skills she already has and enter at a more managerial level since she isn't a raging misanthrope (unlike many of these other posts). Than do a total ' career change/start from the bottom' like everyone else

I hadn't seen the part about the 45k. It's actually a huge trap to be well paid for a dead-end job, a golden cage. She can't go anywhere without seriously damaging her way of life, but staying can end up damaging her mental health. Yes, lots of people do mundane jobs, but it can cause depression in the end.

Oh God, if the average admin person could just learn coding and get a great IT job, there'd be nobody left doing admin. Good IT jobs are hard to get into, it's not just a matter of doing a coding course.
If it were so easy, why would there be techies doing system admin jobs? Why wouldn't they all be highly paid software engineers, etc?

I thought 'dead-end' referred to the lack of promotion opportunities. Not the mundanity (or otherwise) of the actual job. Most universities don't have the money to overpay people - quite the opposite.

Most dead-end jobs are also boring and mundane though. Many admin jobs are basic and soul-crushing if you stay in the exact same job for a long time. OP can correct me if it's actually interesting and fulfilling.

My dead end job would probably be described as boring by 99.9% of people but I'm happy enough. I am the person who makes sure that academics teaching masters degrees are documenting their module's learning outcomes, as an example. Snoozefest. @Gwenhwyfar shares my opinion- yes it's very well paid for a dead end job, and tbh day to day I enjoy it, partly because I work with nice people and I am happy quietly tinkering with spreadsheets and writing reports. But to see no way forwards for the rest of my career, and no possibility of development / significant pay rise, is what I would call "dead end".

Not to sound big headed, but I've got more of a brain than I've ever used at work, and I don't want to look back in another 20 years of working life and feel like I completely wasted it!

@SpryBee you asked about my previous skills/roles- I've done a lot of exams management for professional organisations and exam boards. I really struggle to articulate any marketable skills. I've enjoyed managing a team but am now thinking, managing them to do what?? Management isn't a skill that can stand in isolation.

All my previous roles I would describe as "successful" in that I was doing well but left for a reason like babies/covid/moving.

Managerial/co-ordinatory positions earn more because their individual value , in enabling others is far more than any individual contributor.
This is exactly what I enjoyed about managing. It was very satisfying being able to clear a path for a team and feel that sense of productivity on a whole group's behalf rather than just on my own.

Again thank you to all those who are giving thought to this!

And if anyone is reading thinking "crikey she doesn't know when shes got it good..." well yes I see your point and appreciate I'm lucky to have a job I like & which pays well. It's just the feeling of having hit my limit already which I am finding worrying!! If anyone older has had similar circs which did / didn't work out well for them, then that perspective would also be welcome 🙂

Accenture do apprenticeships for people who have degrees that aren't in computing, lots of women do them, especially from modern languages and English. They do it to move women into digital. Have a look on their websites think it is location dependent though.

If you work in a university it isn’t true that there is nowhere to go. Why can’t you look at roles in the VCO?