To consider a career change?

[mashh]

I work in civil service as a manager on £34k. I'm 26 and feel like I've been in a stop gap career since I graduated.

I want to work in tech eg data analyst, but would need to learn the basics at home to change careers.

I have a psychology degree, did a bit of statistical analysis then but it's not enough to get a job as an analyst. Any job I get might also be a pay cut. Aibu?

Look up ‘government skills bootcamps’ there are loads of free courses at the moment designed to help get people into jobs where there are skills shortages, including data analysis, software engineering and lots of other things.

Lots (maybe all, not sure) of them are linked with employers and you do a job interview at the end of them.

I just finished one and got a job paying 50k from my interview so wouldn’t necessarily be a pay cut!

What field are you in @restisall ?

Looking at data analysis, signed up for a course (Maven Analytics) but feeling slightly overwhelmed as it's a big change from my previous role (accounting field).

I did one in Service Design and Management and have joined a company which does that, although not actually in a technical role, more project support.

This is the precise one I did: www.nulondon.ac.uk/study/apprenticeships/skillsbootcamps/

The problem that I have with skills bootcamps is I work full time 9-5, how did you fit the course in? Most seem to be in working hours as opposed to independent study

I think you'll be alright long term as it sounds like a dream combination of skills for a financial analyst

Thanks very much @restisall , that's great.

@mashh you're right - I need some confidence. I worked with some very "but characters" in my previous role including my line manager who was very high up in the company and I think I need to remember there are jobs for introverts!

There are some evening courses in the government funded bootcamps, but also have a look for opportunities within the civil service. Another option would be to move company to a tech one but doing the role you are now (dependent on what you do)? If you're unhappy though go for it, I changed careers from a very well paid corporate job to something much lower paid but more rewarding; no regrets.

Aww. I'm excited for you - seems like you're on track for a great 2023!

Thank you, I'll have a look. I work in a huge department in CS but it's so hard to enter a digital role. Most of the opportunities seem to be ringfenced for digital colleagues for example. The only way I can progress is in operations

Thank you! Hope so!

Getting out of civil service is a great idea, the pay is crap and the few well paid top civil service jobs all go to ex-management consultants from private sector.

Look for either

• a funded course to retrain in a well paid and growing tech sector such as cybersecurity, or
• if you have great academic grades, a job in management consultantcy. You would not believe what they earn.

Fair enough, I did mine around full time work. One evening lecture and one during the day which were recorded so I could catch up in the evenings/ at weekends.

Good luck with yours @Flurbegurb, forgot to tag you in my last post, but hope it goes well! I’m sure an accountancy background has lots of transferable skills with data analysis.

Thank you very much @restisall

I don’t have any practice knowledge, but I do know data analysis is a growth area.

So I’d do your research and get moving. a temp pay cut is not the end of the world.

@mashh they are about to open fast stream for applications (reversing the previous decision to pause it for next year) so you could try as an in-service applicant to the DDAT fast stream? Or look out for something like this opening for next year www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/government-security-cyber-apprenticeship-level-4/ - the amount of funded training you can get in CS is unparalleled, it's just a matter of finding a route into it. Might be a bit of a salary drop - sounds like you are HEO or SEO and most of the schemes are EO or HEO entry level but you might be able to negotiate something and govt is crying out for people with tech skills, it's hard to recruit them competing against private sector so there's increasingly lots of investment in building entry routes.

My story is a bit unique...

But my salary was £0 at 34.

Did not start a proper job until 36 after a very long time in academia (almost 16 years and four degrees).

Now making £80K at 43 and increasing every year.

It can be done if you are motivated enough.

I am not a big fan of public sector jobs because they are so limiting career wise.

@restisall would you mind telling me a bit more about your course please? How did you choose that particular course and did you have tech experience before applying? Are you enjoying the new role? I'm seriously considering doing one of the Bootcamps but am not sure which to choose. I have no prior tech experience really and am in my 40s! However I'm a fast learner.

Following for interest. The boot camp sounds great, I’m gonna look into it!

May I ask what you do now?

Oops sorry @Jailapeche I missed your message. I actually came to it via recommendation from a former colleague who did it first and got a new job out of it. He vouched for the quality of the teaching and the course so I thought I’d go for it too.

I had previously done some online coding courses and things just to get a feel for whether it interested me but I didn’t have any professional experience.

That said, the platform that Bootcamp focuses on doesn’t really involve coding anyway. The role I got isn’t a technical one, just working for a tech company, but some of my cohort have got jobs as data analysts or consultants or whatever since.

@restisall, thank you so much for the information. I'm definitely going to look into this. Can I ask if most of your cohort landed decent jobs after the course?

I don’t know what kind of proportion did I’m afraid @Jailapeche, I only know about the ones who shared it in our Slack group.

But then I didn’t announce mine because I knew a couple of other people had gone for the same role.

Many thanks @restisall.