To wonder if anyone has accepted that they may never have an interesting well paid job.

[ArtisanPopcorn]

I've been in my admin role for 8 years. In the first few years I applied for more than 10 internal roles that either paid more or were more interesting had lots of interviews but didn't get any job offers.

Since DD was born (she's just started reception) I've worked part-time and have only applied for a couple of jobs as part-time roles are few and far between. Still no luck.

I did think once DD started school I would do an MA to boost my chances but I now realise the logistics of school are complicated and I struggle to juggle everything as it is so I can't see that happening.

Has anyone been in my position and come to terms with the fact that they may never have a well-paid interesting job? I know I should persevere but getting my hopes up time and time again is getting me down.

For info I do an admin job at a university. Lovely place to work with good family friendly policies, 50% off MA fees for staff and hundreds of really interesting roles which seem increasingly out of my grasp.

I have a well paid job but it’s the most boring job on earth, think regulation of banking type area. I mainly go to meetings about meetings and read policy documents. I can’t stress how boring it is but I get paid really well and work really good hours.

I saw through the 'fulfilment through labour' lie back in high school.

I'm just happy to have job that pays the bills. Expecting more seems unreasonable.

Yes, but I'm much happier since I did. I'm late fifties now. For a long time after university, where I lived was dictated by the demands of my then husband's plans and employment, and by the time we were able to put down any real sort of roots I was much more concerned with my biological clock. The truth is that I've never really had a clue what I wanted to do beyond my degree itself (English) and the only work that's ever really appealed to me is that concerned with my own home, children and pets - if I could have been a SAHM/housewife forever, I'd have done so. So my job pays the bills, and doesn't encroach on my own time, and that's all I want of it. That's just me though - I appreciate others may find a life like that frustrating.

Ok, scrap the interesting bit, just well paid!

I had accepted this and thought I had made peace with it. But in reality I was only trying to convince myself that I didn't care when really I did. So I'm studying so that in five years time I will have better prospects. But it's only a fortunate set of circumstances that have made that possible. If those circumstances hadn't arisen I'd still be stuck.

Golden, I'm starting to feel like I'd be happy with that but I do feel like my job encroaches on my time.

I have a decently paid job but I hate it. It's boring and unfulfilling.

I was planning on going back to uni to study Forensic Psychology the year I found out I was pregnant with DD. It does make me very sad sometimes that I studied a degree that I had no interest in and probably will never work in a field I actually enjoy.

Used to work in University sector. They do often look very favorably on people who 1) Do postgrads later on 2) Their own alumni. So it might boost your chances a lot.

I realised quite young that I would always have some issues with a job. One, if a job was all wine and roses, someone would do it for free, so it wouldn’t be something that you got paid to do, so there;s always some rough as well as some smooth. Secondly, a job is always going yo take time away from family, friends, hobbies etc.

But nonetheless, I have had some very fulfilling and reasonably well-paid jobs. Worked for an infant and maternal health agency, that also focussed on things like ending child marriage, providing anti-sexual violence education in schools. That was both the pits of hell (seeing the conditions some people were forced into, uncertain funding) and the most rewarding, amazing fulfilling thing. Or organising scholarships for poor kids at University.

I was happy with both of those.

At the moment, due to location, I’m unlikely to get an interesting or well-paid job unless I retrain and start a business.

But my family life is great and I am happy/content a lot of the time.

ArtisanPopcorn
Golden, I'm starting to feel like I'd be happy with that but I do feel like my job encroaches on my time.

Ah, that's lousy - the worst of both worlds.

I do think to some extent it's normally a trade-off between stress/overwork plus interesting/well paid work on the one hand, and low stress/free time plus boredom/lowish pay on the other. If you do give up the idea of finding something more interesting and well paid, you might want at least to find something where you can at least leave work on time!

50% off MA fees for staff though? Now that's a very appealing perk. It never occurred to me that universities might offer that.

What sort of roles have you been applying for? What has the feedback been from interviews?

Have you discussed your desire to progress with your management and what are their views?

I don’t work in a uni environment but I would say generally I would be cautious about doing an MA without a clear plan as to how that actually makes you more employable.

The roles I'm applying for are similar to what I'm doing but generally a bit more specific and a higher pay grade.

A new manager took over a few months ago a promised we would all have appraisals by the end of the year when I would bring it up but hasn't happened yet. The jobs I apply for are generally indifferent departments anyway.

The feedback has been along the (spectacularly useless lines) of I performed well but there were better candidates. I should probably have been more pushy and d asked for something more specific.

The MA I want to do would help me meet more criteria of the jobs I'm most interested in.

I have a well paid job that most people would consider satisfying and interesting. I am sick of it but can't easily move because the house of cards that is our household finances would come crashing down if I take a pay cut. And I have reached a level of experience /niche status that there are very few similar jobs out there, and moving role would incur a cut.

Can you move sideways (then upwards) into project management, finance, HR or health and safety? Your university might pay for you to do professional qualifications like APMP or NEBOSH? A lot of jobs want specialist qualifications.

I realised that admin is a dead end job. No challenge or simulation. For some people that’s fine but I wasn’t prepared to spend the rest of my life doing boring office work and being looked down on by my professional colleagues.

A lot of applicants go for admin roles so even for the better jobs you might be up against 100 other candidates. It’s also worth bearing in mind that as more jobs are outsourced/automated, there will be far fewer jobs left.

Absolutely. I’ll settle for something I don’t hate and isn’t massively stressful. When I was younger I thought I would have a really interesting job - was naive.

It can be interesting, or it can be well paid, it can't be both - stupid market forces...

For most people its boring and poorly paid, so I take solace in that too.

Doesn't stop you trying though!

I’m lucky in that I genuinely love my part time job, I find it interesting, worthwhile, stimulating, I have loads of autonomy, very close to home, can more or less choose my hours .... but the pay is low (£17.5k FTE). But at my age, 60, I am happy with it, mortgage paid off, sometimes money isn’t everything.

I was a nurse with a couple of small children many years ago. I topped up my education to degree level and got a job teaching in FE. I did it 4 years and enjoyed most of it but I did have to bring work home with me regularly and I had to travel most days to deliver courses. I had some health issues and found it very tiring. I quit to have a couple of years off to recover from my issues.

Now I work for half the money as a TA and enjoy the job. I could go back to either nursing or education, but there is definitely a value in finding a job that doesn't bore you.

Polarbear, I've applied for lots of positions that would be considered a sideways move. Applying for even an entry level HR/Finance position with absolutely no experience in those areas would be a bit optimistic

I have a fairly interesting job, or could be a dream job depending on your interests, but it's unstable and not that well paid. I try to count my blessings but can't afford the holiday I wanted next year

I always hoped I would have a satisfying career one day after being a SAHM but it's just never happened (I haven't tried) because although my job isn't fascinating/highly respected, it's very flexible hours and reasonably well paid plus I don't really answer to anyone. There's a lot to be said for that so I've stuck with it!

ArtisanPopcorn - only you can make it happen

You could do further studying in a vocational area. Such as doing a NEBOSH course. Universities are usually quite good about work related courses. You could ask for health and safety duties in your current role. H&S jobs seem to pay quite well if you have qualifications.

That’s just one example. You could do a PGCE?

Honestly, admin IS boring and often not well paid. You can stick with it and choose to be happy because it’s not stressful and is flexible...or re train to do something else.

Also - the Civil Service often has jobs where you can enter as an executive officer level. I do see some that are finance based where you need basic finance experience (do you the office budget at work?) but no finance qualifications.

The CS has quite a few weird and wonderful roles where they give you full training. They aren’t admin jobs either!

The thing is I DO find my current job stressful so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to cope with a more senior role. I'm also either at work or looking after a 4 year old so the chances of doing any studying right now are pretty low. I feel like I need to deflate my ego and accept that this is it for me but my god that's depressing.

The thing is OP you don't seem to want to do the things that could help, so how badly do you want it? I would say you are in a great position, you have a PT role in a great institute with minimal stress. I would stick with that and enjoy the time you have with your dd.