To ask you how I can get out of admin jobs

[MadrasMad]

I've always done basic admin jobs The pay has always been crap but the closeness to home and flexibility meant it worked great around my family

My experience is pretty extensive from finance to bits of hr to anything and everything. I'm good at what I do however I'm getting to a point in my life where I can start to think about myself a bit more and want to branch out of admin and do something more meaningful. I want to earn more for a start and don't know what/ how to get out of the admin career as that's all I've always ever done!

Has anyone else gone from admin roles to something a bit different. I'm not looking to change complete careers like go into engineering or something but just a bit different if that makes sense!

Any help would be appreciated!

"My experience is pretty extensive from finance to bits of hr to anything and everything. I'm good at what I do..."

This above had me thinking because you're saying you do a bit of everything, and yet you're good at what you do.

So, which specialism from the two above would you prefer to go down - finance, or HR, or another one you haven't yet named?

Specialisation, honing your skillset so you can progress upwards, could be the best way forward.

Unless you want a complete change I would look to expand on your pre-existing admin skills, such as looking into hr qualifications or perhaps becoming a legal-pa

Thanks. I really dont find finance part of things that interesting. It's ok I guess. I like working with data though- so organising, creating spreadsheets etc to best organise the data I enjoy that aspect of it but not the actual finance side to it if that makes sense. Is there a a job that deals with just data in that way?!

As for HR that's definitely not what I found interesting.

Also, although I live in large town, job opportunities here are pretty grim. Low paid and labour type jobs are plentiful. I really don't know what I can do

What about an apprenticeship? There's no upper age limit and allows you to earn more later on. I was low admin then did this, got a degree part time and now earning well in marketing. There's also degree apprenticeships now if yohde up for more challenge. No cost to you and very low cost to employer (under 1k a year) and subjects include digital marketing, it and charted management

What about looking into quality/compliance roles? You could start as an admin but soon get enough experience for officer or manager level roles. Depending on the size of the company, these roles may have a performance aspect where you could use your data skills.

Any thoughts about moving into IT support?
Quite a lot of admin crossover in first line IT and easy to grow your skill-set in that.

I’ve no idea how you get into such a thing, but a member of my team is a “data scientist”. The large corporate retailer I work for often has adverts for “assistant analysts” but I’ve no idea what that involves!

I know some people who work for property management companies - that involves a lot of maintaining databases and automated stuff, but is potentially better paid?

@MadrasMad

I like working with data though- so organising, creating spreadsheets etc to best organise the data I enjoy that aspect of it but not the actual finance side to it if that makes sense. Is there a a job that deals with just data in that way?!

Yes, it’s called data administration assistant ....it’s admin.

If you do an advanced excel course companies hire you to create spreadsheets. But then you will need advanced skills and be able to create spreadsheets.

If you wanted to get more into statistics and algorithms and organising and mining data then that job is called a data analyst which usually requires a commerce degree or mathematics degree.

It can also be very highly paid.

You won’t just be expected to organise (mine) data, you will need to explain what they mean. Which is why the statistics component is so important.

For a while I worked in an office with a guy whose only job was to mine data. He looked like Edward Norton and wore whatever he wanted to the office.

I swear that once you set up a system to pull data and organise it, it does all the work automatically. I don’t understand why he even rocked up to the office every day.

I suspect people higher up the chain didn’t understand his job and he would have been crawling out of bed every day going to the office in whatever he slept in and pulling in at least $100k.

I’ve found I can get by with basic stats knowledge. Most people I worked with don’t even have that.

In every job I’ve been to there’s always someone good at excel. But they do that job alongside their other job. They just don’t go in to work and create spreadsheets all day and construct pretty tables unless their job is specifically administration.

If you are attracted to that sort of work (data organisation), you would be ideally suited as a code writer - and you would construct data bases and websites from scratch. It’s very highly paid. If you’re interested look into how to write or code in python.

I would start with an advanced excel course, do administration for someone who writes code and see if you can get extra training in that field.

Your competition for those sorts of jobs will be astrophysicists and people with higher maths degrees.

However, you can teach yourself to code & the clients don’t give a shit where you went to uni or if you even did at all. They just want someone who can do und work.

I meant to say But then you will need advanced skills and be able to create macros

If you're good at organising and so on you could look at becoming a producer or PM. I know three people who started as receptionists or office managers in creative agencies and then moved up.

Being an executive PA can also be quite lucrative. I know one in London who is on over £50K a year.

Hi! Data Analyst/ Data Insight specialist here! It sounds like a role such as a junior data analyst would suit you? Within that you would get training etc to bump you up into the data analyst position. A degree is not always necessary as long as you can prove yourself within excel and know something such as SQL is a good start.