Introvert seeking a fully remote job - what can I do?

[careerchange2022]

I'm almost 40 and am looking for a career change.

I'm very shy, introverted and don't have a lot of confidence and as such, a job that is fully WFH and doesn't involve much interaction with people would be ideal for me.

I'd really like to end up on a salary of £50-£60k in the next 10 years, although that might be ambitious.

Does anyone have any ideas?

I work from home full time, 63k a year for 30 hours a week, pretty much solo, but I'm afraid I had to work my way up in a lot of in-office teams to get there and if it hadn't been for the pandemic I probably never would have worked from home. That's in publishing.

Coding/software development. Lots of free stuff on the internet, or pay for an intensive course.

No, I didn't do computer or programming A-levels. As I say, I'd like to completely retrain and do something different, but perhaps analytics or data is not something that's achievable to someone like me.

@Thatswhyimacat can I ask what area of publishing you work in?

Virtual / Remote EA or PA

I'm confident with Word and can use Excel to do very basic spreadsheets. I've never used PowerPoint or Wordpress.

I have a 2.1 degree in History and am nearly 40.

If you don't like to talk to people, how do you manage interviews? This is key because the higher up you go in your career, the more involved the interviews are.

Try these webinars to help with your social anxiety.

thegirlwiththecurlyhair.co.uk/services/events/

I really struggle with job interviews, although I'm much better over Zoom than face to face. I suppose job interviews would inevitably involve face to face though.

@Thefruitbatdancer thanks but it looks like those are all aimed at people with autism, which I don't have!

You could explore starting off in a trainee or junior position, and try to find one of these junior roles in a company/industry that interests you e.g.

Administrator
Web admin
Copywriter
Content executive
Marketing executive
HR support

If you have a background in admin and copywriting you probably have some transferable skills for these roles. Going in at a trainee level means you might not need many qualifications and you’d still be able to earn £20-30k depending on where you’re based. You will need to have some interaction with people though.

A lot of places can’t hire for these roles fast enough - I remember a post quite recently where an OP was interviewing for trainee roles in an agency and they were really struggling to recruit.

There are lots of remote jobs in things like IT or data analysis, but I doubt they are for someone who is openly saying they are not very strong at maths. And all of these would involve Teams/Zoom calls.

I have a friend who proof reads theses for students who have English as an additional language. Everything is done over email (which the students generally prefer anyway due to poorer English!). She's not earning 50K, but is making a steady income. That's the only job I can think of that I know anyone doing where you can pretty much avoid talking to anyone almost at all.

Will my age be a barrier when applying for trainee roles do you think?

So you don’t have a lot of experience or qualifications?
Sorry but I think you are being a little unrealistic thinking you can get to £60k after 10 years starting at that level. Fair enough if you already had a decent degree from a good university.
If it was that easy surely we would all be doing it.

You are unlikely to walk into a job on 25/30k without any prior training.

On the contrary - I think addressing the anxiety is absolutely the first thing OP should be doing. A month or two of sertraline may do her the world of good and e actually help with the confidence piece

Well I do have a 2.1 degree from a Russell Group university .So that's something.

What has motivated this thread today OP? With really you seem to be wanting the moon on a stick. You must surely realise this is unreasonable, so I’m wondering what’s underneath your question.

I thought 25k was a reasonable/normal starting salary for trainee roles? Agree that 30k might be a bit ambitious!

I WFH 100%, would earn that FTE but I’m part time, and attend as few meetings as humanly possible, which some weeks is zero! Yay! Copywriter.

I disagree that wanting a career change with a starting salary of 25k, is the "moon on a stick". I also don't think working my way up to a higher salary over the course of 10 years is an impossible goal either?

Have you actually seen any training roles advertised at £25k?

I think your first step is to do some research. Loads of info out there, as jobs are advertised online, so it is easy to look them up.

I also think £25k/30k is quite high for a training position, but you may have seen some.

I think wanting to earn 60k without ever interacting with anyone with no relevant experience isn’t realistic. Everyone with a 2.1 would do it if it was that easy. Could you further explain the issues with your job? Maybe troubleshooting there would be more realistic than aiming for a top paid job with no experience or ability to work with others.

@stuntbubbles that's interesting as I do have some prior experience in that field. Is it really possible to earn 50k-60k as a copywriter then?

If you’re as shit hot as I am

Wanting to earn 60k while working entirely from home (and admitting you have poor interpersonal skills) in a job you don’t have any experience of or interest in (since your main requirements are that you wfh and are a high earner) is wanting the ‘moon on a stick.’