to ask for help deciding what to be when I grow up?

[Iwantafuckingbreak]

Ok so I have ZERO idea what I'm doing with my life and it is stressing me out! I really need help deciding what to do and I need ideas to look into.

I'm 26, my youngest is 2 (I'm not having any more) so I have another 2 years till hes in school. I work full time as a self employed cleaner and whilst it's ok, I dont want to do it forever. I want to start maybe training or studying towards a career now but I have NO idea what to do and I think I'm just getting overwhelmed and stressed because I feel like I'm running out of time.

I seem to be one of those indecisive people. I'm a trained beauty therapist (not for me), I dropped out of hairdressing (again, not for me). I've worked in a call centre and various retail positions... again not for me.

I would like to do something meaningful and less physical than cleaning. Obviously something that pays decently in the long run but it doesnt have to be high, just something I could live on. I've always wanted to do something animal related but the lack of job opportunities worries me a bit. Then I've thought about counselling, social care or I DONT KNOW 😰 I feel like I'm going to be cleaning forever...

Maybe talk to someone at your career's advice centre. I feel sure that most council's have them.
You would be asked a lot of questions but they would be able to signpost you in the right direction.
Your local uni could help and you could do a part time degree or maybe chat to someone at the Open University.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along.
Good luck OP!

Could you train as a vet nurse?which animals do you like? What are you good at? Maths? With words? With people?

Op I am an account manager it's a bit of problem solving a bit of sales a bit of everything.

Would that interest you?

Some roles offer commission some don't.

Mostly home based. Maybe out two days a week. None at the min obviously.

You are 26 and have about 40 years of working life ahead of you.

What do you like doing?

Work in a school, like a pastoral leader, or student support person? At least you get holidays off with the kids!

You could become a dog groomer.
Lots of people have non-shedding dogs.

Dental Nurse?

Occupational therapy? I've just started my first year of uni with a 2yo and one on the way so it is possible with children. Funding for NHS degrees is great, especially with the children and there is a grant towards nursery fees too. I was a full time self employed gardener, mainly for elderly/inform people amd really liked helping them out so thought I'd pursue that.
Training is enjoyable so far, even with COVID meaning it is 97% online

What are your GCSEs? Any Alevels?
Any subjects you enjoyed at school?

Dog grooming is a very booming business at the moment.

If I could retrain I would either like to be a social worker or work at a 999 call centre, probably the ambulance one.

I know someone who did a degree in animal behaviour and then became a self employed dog trainer, and once she'd built a bit of a name for herself now runs a doggy daycare centre and literally plays with puppies all day :o

She still does one to one dog training sessions.

If you don't want to make loads of money I wouldn't worry too much about opportunities. Figure out how much money you need to make and stick with that. If you get to make more money in the future, fantastic. But you don't need to be chasing opportunities all the time.

I think let's explore the animal thing. Just off the top of my head I can think of the following workplaces where be either working with or doing something related to animals:

Animal rescue centre (may all be volunteer run though)
Other animal charity work - fundraising, coordinating, etc
Kennels/holiday care type place
Doggy day care
Pet shop
Dog/animal trainer
Groomer
Stables
Farm
Zoo / safari park / children's visiting type farm
Nature reserve
Vets (vet/assistant/nurse/receptionist)
Agricultural college
Loads of equestrian stuff if you like horses
Animal food/accessory/toy manufacturing company
Person who does therapy for animals - like dog/horse swimming for physiotherapy etc? Is this a specialist vet?
Work for animal related magazine - photography, journalism, editor
Pet photography/portraiture
Research centre into animal behaviour, wildlife populations, etc

See if there are any companies like these near you, and see if you can investigate them and see what they are all about. Have a look at their careers pages and see what kinds of jobs exist in these companies. Some of them might be ridiculous/not make any money but some will. From there and various job spec etc, you can see what you might need to study and/or whether there's a clear route of entry into any of these positions or whether it's more just give it a shot. Once you have an idea of the area you're interested in targeting, you'll have more scope to start building up relevant experience. If you've done cleaning, maybe you can move into cleaning for some kind of animal related company? Not forever, obviously, but as a route in.

There are plenty of volunteering opportunities with animals too which you may be able to do around other commitments to get some relevant experience to add - animal fostering for a rescue charity?

After covid, when people return to work, there will be lots of dogs who will need walking and grooming. Could you train in grooming and animal behaviour and strat your own business with that?

Can you afford to stop work to train ft?

Do you have any qualifications?

Neither are barriers but will help with advice.

Working with animals is woolly to say the least. You need to focus it down. I wanted to work with animals and did a marine biology degree and now work in real estate!

@JoanApple

Work in a school, like a pastoral leader, or student support person? At least you get holidays off with the kids!

How do you become a pastoral leader, or student support person? What qualifications are needed? I would love this. I have a professional career but am stuck and in limbo. Do you need a psychology degree or counselling experience? I'd love to know!

Teaching assistant? Fits with school holidays and gets you a decent pension, albeit the salary is low.

Could you go to uni to do teaching or nursing? You can do access courses to get maths gcse equivalent if you need to. Just make sure you’ve got a supportive partner or good childcare as the placement shifts are a nightmare.

I retrained at 40 in a profession. 26 is positively young- you’ve got plenty of time to work out what you want to do and how you’re going to get there. Studying might be a start. Something more academic than vocational perhaps?

I'm 61. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

Seriously. I've worked in shops. Ran a couple of businesses and sold them. Worked in the film industry. Been a painter and decorator and a building labourer. Became a stay at home dad. Was a professional actor for a few years. Draw comic books. Cleaned public toilets and am now housekeeping in a hotel.

It's all been fun.

Have a look at some of the freebie courses on FutureLearn they may give you some more ideas of what you're interested in. There are also career guidance quizzes on the gov.uk site though not entirely sure of how accurate they really are.
Think about your current strengths, are you good at problem solving? Working with others? Being creative? Numbers? Languages? Would you prefer to work with people? Or an office based environment? Will you need regular hours?
Could you volunteer in the areas you're interested in to see if you like it before doing any further training?

Dont worry about not knowing what you want to do. I got into mine after doing a degree (completely unrelated) and wanting to do something to fill a gap before I figured out what I really wanted to do.....20 years later I'm still doing it.

Totally agree with the above poster who suggested futurelearn. Before lockdown I was working pt but wanted to retrain, I had a rough idea of the direction I wanted to go. I got made redundant and kept myself busy with free courses on future learn and open learn. It helped me see exactly what I wanted to do and now I'm retraining properly through college

@RunningFromInsanity

Dog grooming is a very booming business at the moment.

If I could retrain I would either like to be a social worker or work at a 999 call centre, probably the ambulance one.

I came here to say 999 but Police and Fire lay around £30k whereas Ambulance is a fair amount lower - about £23k if I remember rightly.