What job do you do?

[AtSea1979]

And do you like it?

Posting here for traffic.
Recently made redundant and looking at a career change but haven't the foggiest what to do.

How do you juggle childcare in the holidays?

Chef/Kitchen Manager at a large pub. Not as 'high-brow' as some but I adore it. Lots of pressure and crazy shifts but I work with some hilarious people. Been there 9 years and have worked my way up.

DC ages 5 & 7, shift-working DP is a proson officer. No extra childcare required as I work round school and DPs shifts.

*prison officer (WTF is 'proson', autocorrect??)

Civil servant. As a job it's definitely varied as I've been shifted around a lot with promotion and having to go where I'm needed. Pay isn't great but the holidays are good and flexible working hours will be a godsend when my maternity ends. Unfortunately I've no say on where I work so I used to have a long commute, it's a bit shorter now but not by much. Childcare is predominantly childminder, grandparents and annual leave.

I'm a nurse in a charity run hospice, and I love it. Do a little bit of district nursing on the side too as I couldn't give that up cus I loved that too, I have the best of both nursing worlds.
Even though it's very sad sometimes, we do a lot of good too.

Senior manager for a housing association, specialising with vulnerable people

We are lucky when it comes to childcare, MIL gave up her FT career to look after her grandchildren while her children work. WE still pay for childcare tho for breakfast and after school clubs

ITU nurse on a 23hr contract. We care for patients who need two, three or more body systems supported while they receive treatment in the hope of a return to reasonable function. We closely monitor vital signs, titrate sedation, adjust ventilation to optimise lung function, give treatments, replace depleted electrolytes, set up blood filtration systems, etc. I love it.

Childcare is tricky. We work 13.5 HR shifts and with travel time that means 15 hours out of the house. DH works split shifts so he takes the girls to my parents on his way to work and picks them up after he finishes.

Constituency Caseworker for an MP. Basically when people are outraged and "take it to my MP", Im the person who actually deals with it. I do a lot of flooded pavements, litter and blocked drains. But I also take up cases for people who've lost their benefits, destitute asylum seekers, homeless people, some really serious stuff.
My favorite sort of people are the ones with a bit of public spirit. They want their problem solved but they also want it brought to their MPs attention so she can stop it happening to soneone else.
If someones problem raises wider political issues, I brief my MP on it and she raises it in parliament if she can.
Its a great job- but emotionally draining at times.
My background is in welfare rights advice and I just applied from there but the more usual route is through persistent, unpaid, part activism

I'm a media relations manager for a London based organisation.

I work full.time with half the week working from home and my company pay for my commute, which saves me approx £3k a year.

With my experience i could be a director by now but I chose to step back last year after a particularly hideous time doing the same job in the NHS. My job at the moment is nowhere near as stressful and I feel I can breathe again. Tbh, I can't see a time when I'll want to go back to 'the top' so to speak.

DD goes to school in September and I'm looking forward to not paying over £1k a month for childcare! DH is planning to go freelance so childcare during the holidays will be a mix of him and an after school nanny hopefully.

I do love what I do, especially the event planning side of my job.

I work in the public sector (deliberately vague), in the area of literary interventions - schools with groups of kids struggling with reading and/or writing can access these to help raise achievement.

I find the very risk adverse culture that I work in quite frustrating, but other than that I love it, and work with a really lovely group of people.

*averse

🙄 literacy interventions. I can actually proof read believe it or not!

Lecturer.
Fits round the children in the sense that I can be at home when I need to but I have to work long hours at home.
I have juggled work and children (never used any child care) for years and I'm exhausted. I'm hoping I will be glad I clung on when I emerge from the fog.

Nurse.

Not really relevant to your quandry as you need a degree to even start at the bottom!

The worst thing about it is that you're out of the house 7am - 9pm minimum. Best thing about it is its a career where you can do agency. I choose to only work one day a week, cos of childcare reasons. I will increase that when school age, but I can't see myself ever going up to full hours & all the nights/weekends that would entail.

It's a tough job, both physically and emotionally. Not for everyone!

Exams officer at a large secondary school.

Love the work and the fact it fits in around my children's school holidays.

Careers Adviser working for the a Virtual School - and with care leavers

I work pt 3 days a week - I used a child minder and holiday clubs for the kids

I'm a compliance officer at a poultry factory. I mostly deal with customer complaints, document control, specifications and audit the factory to BRC and customer standards.

I enjoy the office/administrations side to it. the dealing with complaints about things I cannot explain away, not so much.

Husband at home 2 days a week helps keep the childcare costs down.

Architect / Building Surveyor.

Love my job, though as a previous poster mentioned many companies within the construction industry still haven't fully accepted woman within the industry. I was hassled about when I would be returning from maternity leave - I hadn't yet finished up to have baby! Reducing my working week by 6 hours to accommodate childcare and also to allow me some additional time at home with little one was such a hassle. First annual review on returning to work I went from being scored on average 4 for the previous 5 years (a 5 is the highest and means you are ready for a big promotion/payrise) to being scored on average 3's! On querying this I was told that the grading system had changed whilst I was off and we were now scored on how much extra we were doing for the company (overtime! We were salaried so any overtime billed to clients went straight to the company). I pointed out that to miss the rush hour traffic I was coming in 1/2hr / 3/4hr early each day and working through my lunch so that I could leave at 5pm as per my contract. They said they had noted that and that's why I was given a 3. If I had been taking my lunch I would have been two and if I was not coming in early I would have been a , as I would just be meeting my contract requirement and nothing extra.

I changed company 18months ago and could not be happier, work the additional 6hrs again though do flexible working to accommodate childcare etc.

My sister is looking to change career and has applied to go back and do midwifery as the hours/sector seem to be quite accepting of work/life balance to an extent. We have friends with children doing this job an they work 2 13 1/2 hr shifts as their contract and have the option of doing bank work as and when. They tend to do bank work on the lead up to holidays etc - and the bank work is paid weekly which is good for them.

I'm at home with my child but before that I was a research officer for a charity. I coordinated research projects and wrote reports about things like health inequality, and promoted them to NHS, DoH and the public.

I loved the work, but the pay was rubbish, deadlines were ridiculous and everyone was scared of the hard-ass boss. At one point, they could only pay me part time but it was impossible to do the work to a good standard so I worked five days anyway...

Teacher (Performing Arts and English) for 7-13 year olds.

Yes, I absolutely love it. It ticks all my boxes - active, creative, always different, never boring, fulfilling, rewarding, fun etc. And I also get a really good salary, really long holidays and can fit it in around my family. Brilliant age range too, not too young and dependent but not too old and stroppy!

Childcare in the holidays isn't an issue because I get the holidays too (an even when I have to go in and work the children can play in the grounds, go swimming, use the computer room/art room/dance studio etc so there's more for them to do than there is at home; they beg me to go to work sometimes! After school care isn't a problem either because I'm in a boarding school so there is extended care available right up until I can go home, even when I'm on a late night duty.

I am a specialist midwife & university lecturer.

It is a nice job but I do find it very frustrating that I have almost no autonomy over when I work. It really is a case of going cap in hand to get some weekends/days off which is irritating - but part of working in the public sector.

The training is intense, 40 contact hrs per week in uni or in hospital, with 100% attendance required. Breaks my heart a bit to type this, but based on the current state of the NHS and the upheaval in maternity service post Kirkup & Mat Review, I would not recommend it as a career.

Funeral arranger. Quite a controversial one! But I absolutely love it and find it very rewarding. You don't need any qualifications either you just need to have the right personality and be hard working!

Project manager for a Market Research company
I love it. I am super organised (at work, not at home) and love ticking things off my list

It's also a really interesting industry and every project is different.

Writing a textbook for undergrad level students.

Challenging but enjoyable.

Until I had my daughter, I used to work in education but really didn't want to give up these few years I have with her at home to go back yet, so until she starts school, I deliver pizza a couple of evenings a week. Very little stress and I still have a bit of my own money.