To not understand how low income people become high earners?

[KissesAX]

Okay so hear me out, I'm not bashing anyone who earns a lot of money. Nor am I saying you didn't get there through hard work. But here's my story:

Was severely depressed in sixth form causing me to drop out and do an apprenticeship instead of A levels. Years on, I'm 21 and I'm unemployed. The only jobs I can apply for are entry level jobs but even these such as retail jobs all prefer people with retail experience, same with waiting and cleaning jobs. Plus they're all £7.50 ph minimum wage.

I can't go to uni as I wouldn't be able to afford it. My parents don't fund me and I have too many bills to pay that are behind from being unemployed as it is.

So here's my question. How on earth do people who are poor like myself ever get to a high paying job because I can't even seem to get an entry level job. I feel so defeated at so young but I can not find work.

OP, I was a refugee child, left home at 16 and went into a refuge, had no GCSEs, and was stuck unemployed. I improved my circumstances by learning social cues of the middle class, treating looking for work as my full time job and doing voluntary work in a night shelter, which exposed me to more middle class people and improved my social network. My voluntary work paid off after 3 months and I got a (very middle class job) as a hostel support worker. It was poorly paid but that experience gave me enough experience to get into university to study nursing after studying 1 OU module which cost £800 (I saved up for it). I worked my arse off for 3 years for my degree and in paid work and left with £3000 in the bank and a First. Since then I’ve got a well paid job, I’ve gone into private practice, and I’ve really utilised LinkedIn.

Anyway, to increase your employability you either need to volunteer somewhere or do a degree with a foundation year. You can get almost £10k a year in maintenance loans now which will be a lot more generous than your current benefits!

DJBaggy -

A lot of people dont acknowledge how much luck and contacts help you get off the ground floor. Its not all about studying and graft.

Have you heard the saying, "Luck Is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"? or else should OP just roll over and accept since she hasn't any contacts nor much luck so far, then there's no point studying and doing the hard graft?

I worked in a cinema just after I finished uni - within two weeks I was offered a promotion. I ended up getting a graduate job shortly afterwards but could have worked up to management very quickly. I had worked in cinemas during my university holidays but that's not why it was offered - I worked much harder than my colleagues, who all saw the job as a bit of a doss. It's perfectly possible to work up. If lack of experience is an issue and you're not currently working, do some voluntary work somewhere or some work experience.

Worth remembering that no one starts life in a well paid job.

Our Chief Operating Officer made a speech at our apprentice of the year awards and talked about starting work as a trainee welder.

I started on a YTS on £27.50 a week in an office. I always took on extra work, showed initiative and put myself forward for new tasks. I then went to college at night and did my CIPD qualifications and became a trainer. Constantly kept looking for new tasks and skills and I am now Head of Learning and Development for a large Engineering company.

If you start in retail, there are loads of opportunities. Team leader, then Assistant Manager, then Manager etc.

I would target big businesses for entry level jobs, much more likely to be opportunities for promotion training and transferable skills. Try the National Careers service too.

What about a non-combat role in the forces? Medic (they'll train you up). HR? Law? All available in the forces and with on the job paid training.
Find any low paid job then do OU course in your own time. There might be funding available for you to pay for these courses
Spend loads of time in the library, learning.
Care work? Again you'll get on-the-job training and sadly, this area is going to be a growth industry
You have bills but it doesn't sound like you have a spouse or children - which means you actually have loads of options.

I'm 31 if it's relevant to my previous post.

I agree it's harder now but that doesn't mean it's impossible and harder is relevant anyways.

Hardly anyone goes from nothing to a high paid job, yes there is exceptions but the vast majority it's years of work.

Essentially you take any job you can find, it's hard work job searching but get something, even something You hate because experience is the gold dust, then look to the next thing, or how you can climb the ladder.

Perhaps look at Open university, look what education Gants and loans are avalible too. Perhaps add some volunteering.

Sit down with someone experienced, either a friend or professional and get them to help with your cv you probably have skills you haven't thought about.

Don't worry about the long term yet. Set small achievable goals.

1. Enchace cv
2. Get a job
3. Look at how to get skills and experience
4. Go to uni, school, volunteer etc
5. Apply for more jobs.

That sort of thing.

Do you know where you would like to be working eventually?

Are you sure you cannot afford to go to uni? Student finance got me through uni and I'm 25. Done a free access to higher education cousrse at 19 21 I went to uni and I will graduate this month. I also volunteer once a week with CAB. It is possible. You just need to speak to the right people. Good luck!!

If no employer is taking you on take up volunteering in an area you want to work in. I did this did admin voluntary for a small charity and got a good job after. It looks amazing on your cv gives you a reference and experience.

When I was unemployed as a 21 yr old I joined temping agencies - this led to being offered a permanent job in a factory doing admin work.

Then I decided to try care work as a gateway to nursing - got a job at the first home I applied to, without relevant experience but with a cv that showed I did have experience working (in my temp jobs) and that I had good GCSEs.

A temping agency (eg for factory work , cleaning, retail) or a care work agency will often take people on who have no experience providing you are clean smart tidy & personable.

My friends who WERE unskilled immigrants with poor spoken English got jobs like that. Now they have skills, good spoken & written English & good jobs.
Even a homeless guy got a temp job at the factory.

So I am sure you can try agency work as it often does lead to permanent work.

In the real world, people need other people to help them with jobs and tasks they cannot do themselves and they are willing to pay for that help.

I believe very strongly that our education system and culture leads people to think that employment by a third party is the path to making a living. It's not. There are other paths.

@PickingOakum I am thinking of going freelance and might stick this on my fridge! thank you.

@Namechanger22 I think Local Government departments have a lot less money now than they had ten years ago and it's probably not as easy to get them to fund degrees, Masters and professional qualifications although ds's department still does for now at least and dd works in pensions in Local Government and is following ds's path. Ds worked like a trojan those first few weeks and then laid his cards on the table and said either they find him a contract or he'd ask to be moved elsewhere as he wasn't interested in staying on the agency longterm. Fortunately they gave him the contract but not the finding fee to the agency though

Worth remembering that no one starts life in a well paid job.

OP
The longest journey starts wit the first step

If you are bright and willing to work hard, no matter what paper you have next to your name, there are jobs out there.
At the moment a lot are done by EU expats
think of that as an opportunity

eg
night shelf stacker at Sainsburys
to day shelf stacker at Sainsburys
to checkout operator at Sainsburys
to shift leader of checkouts
to duty manager
to "enhanced training programme" at head office
and she's just returned to the original shop as assistant manager

If you can get a basic admin job then that will enable you to work in many different industries later on and gain promotions etc. It isn't easy, but it really is a numbers game when it comes to applying for jobs.

Spent time using fast typing/data-entry skills in temporary jobs for years and trying to break into difficult, competitive career (journalism) where most people had a degree but still made low wages.

Miserable, low wages at my jobs, no certainty, came close to eviction twice.

Eventually was able to figure out student loans to go to uni. With my degree, got a terrible entry-level job in a writing field that worked me to the absolute bone -- I wrote 1.5 million words for them per year, no joke, and they didn't give any holidays whatsoever or sick time, all that was unpaid (I'm in the US, that's all perfectly legal here).

Applied tons of places once I'd worked there for 18 months, filling my cover letter with discussion of what a fast, hard worker I'd become because of my millions-of-words job. Got a better, living wage writing job that let me live in a big city. Parlayed that into a job in a much better industry to write for, and then ended up finding another job that paid much more in that same industry.

The jobs I'm looking at applying to next year, after my mat leave is over, pay anything from $125-200k. It's a little hard for me to believe, as I was once grateful to make $24k and get (terrible) health insurance.

My younger sister has done a similar thing. She worked waitress jobs and then got a very low-wage, unskilled job in a hospital (pushing around wheelchairs, that sort of thing) while she worked her way through uni. She worked her fingers to the bone, two jobs and full-time classes. After a couple of years, she took a couple of courses that let her get a little bit better jobs in the hospital and got enough people to believe in her and give her recommendations that she got into a professional credential program in medicine that is much in-demand, highly-paid, and lets her get a job anywhere she likes.

My parents are a little flabbergasted that both of their children have entered the realm of the $100k+ earner. Both of them were working-class and didn't get much in the way of education. I think they thought that even if we got our degrees, we'd end up in low-paid teaching or social work type positions, not being a high-paid Silicon Valley creative or treating patients at a top medical center!

I must say, I hate when people say if you want it you’ll do it. Or if you want it hard enough, and work hard enough, it’ll happen. There are loads of low earners who are working their asses off, and they cannot move past their minimum wage jobs

True. Hard work alone doesn't guarantee anything. It improves your prospects but it doesn't guarantee success, and nor should it. I could start a new venture tomorrow making ornamental sculptures but if nobody wants to buy them it doesn't really matter how hard I work. I could graft every day making thousands of sculptures, then respond to my lack of success by working even harder and making thousands more. If nobody wants them it's a futile endeavour.

It's really quite simple though as irritating as that sounds. You need a skill or a product which people are willing to pay for whether you're employed, self-employed or running your own business. Low paid jobs are typically low paid because there are lots of other people who can take your place if you don't like the wage on offer. If you are in a skilled profession, there are far less people capable of replacing you and you command a higher reward for your labour. I'm not telling anybody anything they don't already know here, or at least I shouldn't be. You have to engage with the market and either innovate and do something new, or improve on an existing idea and do it better than those already operating in that particular field. Not everybody can do it and again, there are no guarantees but if you are smart, conscientious and hard-working it is likely that you'll succeed if you really want to regardless of your starting position.

OP
Become a plumber or an electrician
not a joke
most of the British ones are old
most of the EU expat ones will leave unless Brexit is cuddly soft

the qualification route is City and Guilds - no student loans

the pay rate once qualified is around £30 an hour outside the M25 and £60 inside it

I left education with 3 a-levels. And just had waitressing type jobs for a while. A year after having dd i needed a job as dh didnt earn enough. At 24 i went to work in a call centre. Just wanted a job with regular hours and a regular wage. I had no experience or relevant qualifications.

I enjoyed it, to my surprise. I stuck at it 2 years and then went to work for another, bigger, company in their call centre.

I took ever opportunity that came along there. Extra responsibility, overtime, trial teams etc.

I was made a team leader in 16 months and my wage was 28k. From there i was made operation manager (another step up).

I have made several moves to the side (so no pay increase) to get extra skills and experience. And just worked my way up. I am now responsible for 2 different call centres.

It is possible to work your way up. But sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone, take risks and take on extra responsbility.

My DH left school with 6 not very good GCSE's and 1 not very good A level. He got a good degree in a pretty lame subject from a fairly rubbish ex poly. He had no idea what he wanted to do after uni so started driving as an and working in a warehouse and doing data input. He quite liked that and taught himself some programming languages. When I met him 20 years ago he was earning about £21k. He dreamed of earning £30k. 7 years later he was earning 6 figures. He did it by being very god at what he does and following any opportunity which came his way.

Try local government /public sector. We’ve had people join as temporary admin/apprentices and be promoted /offered training opportunities.
They have all shown these key qualities: hard working, polite, show initiative, seize any opportunity given to them

In 1988 I earned £4000 pa working five and a half days a week and had two A levels.

I now have a BSc degree, MEd, MA and earn £60k despite working in the public sector.

It's possible but it takes a lot if determination, in my experience.

If you've got TA qualifications but don't have the certificates to prove it try getting in touch with the college and asking for a stamped transcript of the courses/modules you took. You could ask an old tutor for a reference, explain the situation and see what they say. Then if you do get to the stage of getting a job you do have proof, though I do recognise sometimes people are inflexible.

Good luck, I hope with the Christmas jobs that are available now that you find something to start you off. Just packing boxes in a factory or something, need not be forever but once you've got a job it's much easier to get another.

It depends on personality type. Confidence levels. Also, being free (ie, no kids) helps a lot.

It is not easy but possible as the thread shows. You have no A levels but people on here who have done well have managed without A levels.

As you are young without ties I would start by thinking about where you live. Is it a rich area with a lot of jobs or a place where it is very hard to make money?
Also can you do a unviersity course without A levels or could you in fact do A levels now part time and then apply to university (you would get a student loan for university presumably so the talk of that not being possbile in your first post is perhaps an example of how your mental attitude is your block to progress more than anything else)_.