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've seen a number of accountancy trainee roles with starting salaries of 26-28k, so I wouldn't say it's completely unrealistic.

What part of the country are you in as some starting salaries will depend on that? For a trainee role (in what?) you'll need to interact so you can be trained.

You seem to want what lots and lots of people would like but don't have but seem to need people to tell you what that is.

Have you applied for any of them?

Do you meet the essential criteris for the roles?

*criteria

Working entirely from home? Suitable for those who struggle dealing with others and have no experience in this area outside of a 2.1 in history? Rising to a 60k salary?

Oh, I absolutely don't think it would be possible to earn that in a job I have no experience in. What I'd like to do is earn 50-60k in 10 years' time. By which time I will have built up 10 years of experience!

No, I haven't applied for any yet as I'm only just starting to explore options as of today!

You're right though, it's unrealistic to expect to work from home straightaway (unless I look into the option of expanding on my previous copywriting experience perhaps).

I thought 25k was a reasonable/normal starting salary for trainee roles?

As a trainee what?

If you’ve seen these jobs-where you need no experience and can just walk into them in your 40s asking for WFH because you’re not good socially-how many have you applied for?

The trouble is lots of entry-level or junior-level jobs don’t want 100% remote because you learn more in person, and companies want the starters and juniors in the office to do the grunt work. There are some fully remote companies, but lots of places are a mix, and the 100% remote workers are the senior ones – but not too senior, because then you’re expected back in to coach and mentor the juniors.

In 10 years’ time when you have the experience you can probably do 100% WFH at whatever you choose. But right out of the bat, a lot harder.

£25k is not an unreasonable starting salary in accountancy for a bigger firm in London, but around £20k is not unreasonable in the north and/or for a smaller firm. You'll find most firms prefer their trainees to be in the office, at least for the most part, as there's still a lot of traditional views in accountancy that will take a while to break down. The fully remote/fully flexible roles tend to be for managers with proven experience.

Your salary expectations within 10 years are not unrealistic, but you have to bear in mind that accountancy is a really people-y career, especially if you're working in practice rather than in-house. Many people who don't work in accountancy assume it's just number crunching, but it's mostly talking to people.

I'd echo previous suggestions that investing in therapy is a better idea than jumping into a new career. Introverts are not uncommon in accountancy, but it's vital you can express yourself and communicate well if you're to survive the training period and to hit the salary you wish to command.

I'm naturally introverted. I will never enjoy a networking event. I just won't. However, I can communicate in small groups with clients and staff, and as much as I hate presenting, I can survive that every once in a blue moon. I think you need to be comfortable this is a base level you can reach before committing to retraining - hence my suggestion that therapy is more important.

I say this with kindness, having had therapy myself. Sometimes we need to pause to sort out what's going on inside our heads before we can sort out everything else.

I work from home part of the week but communication is key to my role.
I would suggest focusing on the type of work rather the location if working undisputed matters to you.

That makes sense. Perhaps I can change my goal to wanting to earn 50-60k and be fully remote (or a couple of days in the office a month) by 2032. I accept that if I'm changing career I will need to spend time in the office.

@rarelyontime thanks for the advice. Perhaps I'm trying to run before I can walk. I'm just keen to achieve a decent career for myself before it's too late.

A huge part of data science/software engineering roles is about effective communication with other people and really doesn't suit people who aren't good at interacting with others.

Anyone who says otherwise has no idea what the job actually is.

@careerchange2022 There are aspects autism such as social anxiety which people suffer from without having autism. So using techniques which help people with autism cope with social interactions might help you. Females with autism struggle and mask autism so don't always know they have it. Autistic people struggle with social communication and interaction.

Why do you keep talking about accountancy roles when you openly admit you are not a maths person and only have gcse maths. I am a maths person (have a heavily maths focused degree) and even I would hate to be an accountant - accountancy exams are not easy and will definitely not be easy for someone who struggles with maths and has not undertaken any maths training for the last 25 years.
10 years is not a long time for someone to go from day 1 (potentially a levels) to earning 60k, especially outside of london/big cities.
Finally, no sucessful training which puts you in a position to earn a higher salary, is ever going to be full WFH with very limited interactions - how would you ever learn anything! Any job that really is offering full WFH and limited interactions with people is probably not one that will set you up for learning/being good at your job.

DH earns that WFH mostly but going into the office once a month or so. He works in IT support and retrained 20 years ago by doing an MSc conversion course (expensive). He has only WFH in the last 5 or so years though so did 15 years full time in the office. He has excellent communication stills though and most of the job is speaking to/video calling users.

I am also quite shy naturally. I earn a decent salary wfh in a communications role but there are plenty of online meetings and I have to travel to meet people a few times a month. I was painfully shy at uni but trained in journalism and the training really helped me be able to bite the bullet and talk to people. Have you considered doing something socially which helps you overcome anxiety etc ? I know it may be excruciating but it could be worth a shot.

I also think that you should be looking for a job based on your skills and interests. I couldn't imagine how painful it would be for a non mathematical person to try accountancy. It won't do anything for your confidence if you find it a struggle. How about finding a niche area of copy writing?

@careerchange2022 If accountancy is an option you're seriously considering, it's not one with an age limit. To be honest, you're better off entering it as a young'un (with no real commitments) or as an older person (because the kids are old enough to take care of themselves), so sometimes being older can actually be in your favour. The people in the middle who are trying to juggle working full-time, studying full-time and caring for others are the ones who have it the worst.

Re the comments on maths - if you have a decent grasp of maths (can you do the grocery shopping with a rough idea of what you're spending, can you split a bill in a restaurant?) and English (can you read and write coherently?) then you have the level required. It's really not as maths-focussed/geeky as some people think it needs to be.

However, with all that said, I'm not sure it's a career you would be considering if not for the earning potential, and that's not a great reason to get into it.

'Before it's too late' sounds a lot like you're putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, which is only going to make your anxiety worse and trap you in a vicious cycle. I think you need to work at finding better coping strategies, because that would change your requirements and open up many more options, some of which might appeal to you more strongly. You say you've only just started on new meds and with CBT - I think you should give yourself some time to see how those go.

I would also treat the therapy as step one in achieving a better career, rather than step zero. It's a big investment in yourself, it's something you should be proud of yourself for trying, and it sounds like you need to nail step one before moving onto step two, which is defining what your job requirements are. If you skip step one, you're limited step two far too severely.

You're not too old to retrain. You also still won't be too old to retrain after you've spent more time in therapy.

I'm another accountant who is also an introvert (as opposed to shy) but as pp have said, accountancy requires a lot of interaction with other people. You don't have to be great at maths (I have a grade C at GCSE) but you do have to be very comfortable with numbers and have an analytical mind.

To be an accountant earning the salary you hope to achieve you would need to be qualified and that involves sitting a lot of exams whilst also working full time. You can go down the route of working in practice or working in industry but all require speaking to people on a daily basis, being comfortable asking people questions and challenging them. Depending on the route you go down, you may also spend a lot of time at a training centre though some of that may be possible to do via zoom now.

I've employed lots of non-accountants in finance roles over the years but that's been in processing roles eg purchase ledger, credit control etc that wouldn't get you close to your desired salaries. Possibly data analysts but again, you would need a lot of experience to get close to the salary you want.

OP, I think what you need to do is define your goals clearly in writing. I did this not too long ago when I felt like I was sort of just floating through life. Then write what steps you can realistically take to achieve them. So for example what courses you'd need to do. Have a look at these roles you see online and see what the requirements are the plan out what you've got / done so far and what you need to do. It's going to take a lot of work and effort but it's not impossible.

I was also going to say WFH suits many people well and I understand you on that front. It saved my sanity because I really just do not like having to deal with people. (Though i'm not fully 100% remote).

I've recruited 2 junior accountants on 25k each in the past 9 months. We are still working from home, just coming into the office maybe once a fortnight, but different people on different days, so only interacting face to face with 2-3 people at a time. We do a lot of video calls (though often without the cameras on!). They are both graduates with about 18months basic work experience, and have been working towards AAT exams in their own time. With a 2:1 and an A at gcse maths I would say you would definitely be able to achieve something similar - but the key is you'd need to do at least a couple of the AAT levels first (one of my new starters had passed level 3,the other level4). If you have the money to do the training it can be done online. One is now signing up to do ACCA qualifications which will probably take him 2 years (he has a few exemptions - the full course would be 3 yrs). We are paying for the cost of his course, and providing 2.5 days study leave per exam. If he passes the ACCA qualification in a couple of years I would expect to increase his salary to 45-50k salary. From there he will, I'm sure, be earning 60k+ after the 10 years you mention.

Ignore the location- but example of skills needed for a trainee accountant? Can you tick those off? I think average salary was £25k. If you have the skills- go on and apply!!! Good luck.