To ask you to find me a career?

[Anycrispsleft]

I'm 45, I've been a trailing spouse for the last 5 years, and I want to go back to my native Scotland. I would like to do the sort of job you can find in any town (my old career was London centric, I'm not moving back there!), I have a science degree, and I could support myself to do a masters. I have two school aged children as well so I'd prefer a job that doesn't have 50+ hour weeks or lots of travel. What would you do if you were me?

Please don’t be a teacher! Remember those teachers you had because they couldn’t find anything else to do versus the ones who loved it and had always wanted to teach??
Besides - holidays apart, the moneys. It great, the hours are long, the job is tough.

@GirlCalledJames do you have any bootcamps you can recommend?

Honestly, if you’re a teacher in England, please don’t comment. I have taught in both places and there is a huge difference.

Further education teaching (18+), Proof reading/copywriting, lab work, charity work (Cancer research etc). What do you actually want to do? Maybe have a look on the online career quizzes to give you a few more ideas

I’ve got a life sciences degree and I trained as a management accountant. I work for the NHS in research which has brought my degree and profession together nicely.

Another one for civil service - flexible working and not over your contracted hours.

What are your objectives and how would you rank your priorities, OP? Is it money, prestige, PT/'family-friendly' hours, prestige/endorsement, an outlet for your creativity?

Thank you everyone for your suggestions today, I didn't get to read any till now because the kids have been bouncing off the walls...

@orangejuicer has Scotland it's own branch of the civil service? What do they all do?

In terms of my priorities, I want something secure, something where I can pick which city I live in, and something where my skills are likely to be in demand. If that means earning a bit less I'm OK with that. I like jobs where I can use my analytical skills and especially I like jobs where, at the end of the day/week/month, whatever was getting done is done, and you start over again. I really hated, in research, that you could be stuck on a problem for days or weeks. It's not my thing. I also don't like working with ultra competitive types or bullies, a supportive work environment would be awesome. I don't like wearing dress suits and high heels either. Or to put it in cheery CV speak, I'm a true team player who doesn't mind getting her hands dirty

The Civil Service is a little complicated. Of the top of my head, there are some Departments and Ministries that has responsibility for all four UK nations (Ministry of Defence, Home Office), I think some cover the three and exclude NI though might be wrong and include NI (DWP/pensions and benefits) and some are devolved (Health, Education). The Scottish Government administers these areas of devolved responsibility.

If you think a profession in particular would suit you (for example, Accountancy or Law) then sometimes there is a career stream in the public sector (Local Authorities and the NHS employ accountants though I don't think there is a central profession in the same way that there is in the Civil Service) or Civil Service that might have a slightly different culture to private sector equivalents. For example, I know some lawyers who say the government legal service is a little less cut throat and bullying and more interesting if your interests lay in public law though less lucrative than city law, possibly more lucrative than some high street law roles.

I think really you've got to look at some job descriptions where you're looking to live and see what you're interested in. I've done a few data jobs ranging from delivering training and a new system of working in an insurance service centre to track their workflow, working as a call centre analyst providing stats to management on different things and now working for a local authority doing statutory returns. My main thing is reporting. None of those jobs fit neatly into a bracket so I think it's finding jobs and employers that you think sound suitable and then skilling up so you can get those jobs. Hands on/transferrable experience is really key though. Civil service and local authorities have good job boards to get an idea but in many ways the local authority is the worst place I've worked, it's one thing not wanting a competitive environment but working somewhere with a culture of apathy and underperformance is pretty stressful too and in my local authority each team is VERY suspicious of anyone from outside their department let alone from another company/sector and it can be wearing that attitude that until you've been there for 10 years you're not eligible for any training, promotion or even your opinion.

Another one for civil service - flexible working and not over your contracted hours

ROFL. Not over your contracted hours? Depends what part and what grade! Our PAs only work contracted hours but everyone HEO/SEO and over puts in long hours of unpaid overtime, especially in the last few years with Brexit then Corona virus.

Something like quality assurance or regulatory in biotech? Medical writing? I have a friend who does knowledge transfer for a big uni that sounds interesting (helping academic ideas become business ones, applying for grants etc)

Don't go into teaching whatever you do

Careers adviser? They work in schools, colleges, and universities. In university you get to do the 'teaching' bit without the academic research. Often you can be attached to a faculty and this can be related to your previous study/career.

Sustainability Consultant. Lifecycle Analysis is a combination of all the sciences, stats, common sense and computer modelling. It's a huge growth sector, really interesting to anyone even remotely geeky and able crunch numbers, very flexible, AND portable.

Please don’t be a teacher! Remember those teachers you had because they couldn’t find anything else to do versus the ones who loved it and had always wanted to teach??

This made me smile (with understanding). What made me realise that teaching as a career wouldn't work for me - fortunately before trying it - was that what I wanted was to teach English, and I think you need to want to teach children (students, pupils, delete as appropriate). That is to say, my interest was in the subject, not in communicating it to others (except by writing essays). That would be problematic enough if they all wanted to learn, but they certainly don't all want to!

I'm curious as to why you're considering a Masters when you already have a PhD. (Appreciate it might be in a different subject, but still ...)

What did you do in London that couldn’t be done in Glasgow or Edinburgh?

Beefeater?

@Anycrispsleft Re your question on the civil service , the UK department for international development have a large office in East Kilbride Scotland. It’s their main office outside London. There are also a variety of Scottish governmental linked jobs ( is civil service for the Scottish parliament).