Career or lack thereof

[scorpiogirly]

Very very confused right now.

My background is on graphic design. Left before last year of uni due to personal reasons and got a job as an operations administrator. From then I moved to the civil service. Been working basically the same role for almost 10 years. There qas room for progression but since I had my daughter had to go part time which limited options and now I feel stuck. I was fine just working this job, getting my money and not having to think about it.

Lately I've had the urge to change jobs and actually try to better myself.

Currently 42, single parent to a 5 year old. Work part and receive universal credit.

I was just looking at jobs earlier and saw one for a credit risk assessor and the salary was substantial to say the least.

I should mention I have a business nvq from school.

From what I can gather, you would need a business manager or administration degree to so this.

Any advice at all on the above greatly appreciated.

The job spec would say which qualifications are essential or preferred?

Thank you. Its not necessarily this specific job but it did mention a business management degree.

Just wondering if anyone has done a degree in business management and was it worth it? I am assuming this would be good for a range of potential jobs.

Is the qualification under essential or desirable? If desirable, then work on getting the other skills and proving knowledge through experience. There will always be a couple of companies that may say a degree is essential when knowledge can be learnt on the job but there should be some accepting that a degree is not the only route to gaining knowledge and experience.

However, what about moving up in your current role. Not specifically with your current company. There are directors of operations roles that will pay very well. Look at what skills you would need to reach that and work up the ladder towards that. You don’t need to go all the way to that level if you don’t want to, but following the ladder back down will tell you what skills to focus on, what job titles to be looking out for.

Have a look here in case there are any similar questions or experiences:

Mature Study and Retraining board

To be honest, i wouldn't recommend a business management degree, no. It can be quite woolly, its regarded as the poor relation of more traditional subjects like economics, maths or engineering.

Well paid business & finance roles often go hand in hand with professional qualifications like accountancy. Generally the schemes offering accountancy tend to like good a-level grades and degrees in traditional subjects.

Credit risk assessor sounds like it might be a back office job in a high street bank?

Thank you all. This is what I mean, I don't have a clue what I am looking for. My current job is fine but so so boring. I have no interest in working my way up in current organisation. The management work seems just as dull and I don't care enough about the nature of the business if that makes sense.

I figured I finally wanted to do something and get a better paid job and hopefully get off any form of universal credit which I hate having to claim.

Are there any recommendations on what sort of work you do and the possible ways to eat into it?

Thank you for this. I will definitely have a look.

What are your goals? Do you want to have a more interesting job with progression prospects (maybe even back in graphic design) or do you just want to earn as much as possible? Nothing wrong with that of course, but working out what's most important to you will give you insight into what you should do next. Your DD is 5 and at school, so now's a good time to work out where you want to go next - you have another 25 years of working life ahead of you and there are so many possibilities out there!

I'm the same as you, working part time and it seems very little part time jobs which are that next level. My salary has never really gone up considering my experience. This hasn't been important as my DP is the main breadwinner as such.
I feel like I have a lot of transferable skills to the next salary band but don't seem to be getting anywhere. So like you I'm wondering if I should do some sort of training, no idea where to start / would it actually pay off in the long run!!

I wouldn't go back for any extra training without applying for other jobs you are interested in first. You may find you can move sideways into another field without new qualifications.

Also what about your pension? From my understanding the pensions with the Civil Service are good, as a single person I think you should definitely think about financial security for the future. I am not suggesting you stay put if you are bored, but do you have benefits that would be hard to replicate elsewhere?

If that is the case can you move into a more interesting role in the civil service?

I don't really have any goals as such. Just to get a better job with better money. Tbf the pensions changed in the civil service some years ago and aren't really that great anymore. Plus working part time, there isn't a great deal going into it.

I thought about design roles but I think I would find the creative process difficult under pressure if that makes sense. I find it hard to force ideas.

I'm thinking any job with a respectable salary would be more interesting than what I am doing now. Even if it isn't, the pay would surely make up for it.

Civil service pensions have changed but they are still much better than what most people get in the private sector, so do your research carefully and don't assume that you'll get a comparable pension elsewhere. It's also worth thinking about factors such as sick pay, flexible working etc. Not all employers will offer the same.

What are your skills like on the Mac? Did you keep up with Adobe, software's? Even if your design skills like you say under pressure aren't great there is a need for artworkers and content creators, video editing is outsourced lots.

The industry is fairly slow, but just thinking it maybe worth upping the computer skills so you could grab some freelance work.

I thought the civil service was a really exciting place to work???

I have neighbours who have been in the civil service for years now. They love the work they do there. No bad points apparently about working there.

Are you on linked in? Look for women's career networks in an area you are interested in. Go to networking events and meet people who can explain their career to you and help you work out what to do.

I have taken a jump into another sector, with good promotion, pay and pension in my mid 40s after plateauing for a while. I was lucky in that my skillset had continued to build although the recognition and pay hadn't plus my skills are unusual in the corporate world due to background in charity - but it really made me realise that movement at this age and this point is entirely possible. The big thing is believe you have the right to a better job and keep trying.

Not to put a dampener, but my DH who had a design background but took some time out to be a SAHD found graphic design quite impenetrable when he tried to return to work. Extremely competitive and he gave up after a couple of years with only low paid sporadic/ temp work offered.

Maybe it was just him but I would be aware of how very competitive it is if you pursue this. Especially now with so many jobs offering wfh or hybrid so the candidate pool is expanded.