change of career? how, when, where?

[micegg]

I have one DD of 10 months and I am begining to think about what I would like to do when we decide to have another child. I am thinking of a career change as my current job has a few down sides, namely: long way from where I live, have to get in very early to get the hours in, I really dont want to do the same job for the rest of my life. The good sides are: fleaxible working and good materbity leave package (6 months full pay!).

I am starting by looking at what interests me: floristry (already done a 10 week evening course), finance (for some reason I am quite into mortgages, etc.), property (I would love to do something with this but not sure what) and animal welfare.

If you have had a change of career how did you do it? Have you found something that fits in with the children, etc.

Seems like you're picking a difficult time to change career. Do you mean you want to change after you have had 2nd child and after you have gone back to work for 3 months or so?

I was desperate to change job (not career) just after dd2 was born and I did. It ended up being pretty stressful as I was a bit bonkers (probably slight pnd in hindsight) and struggling to cope with toddler and baby.

I changed career when kids were 8 and 6.

I'd say, take your time, decide what you want to do and then carefully plan what it'll mean re childcare changes, income changes, out of hours study etc and weigh that against how strong and energetic you're feeling!

I was just about to post my job change !
I worked full time ever since going back to work after DS (now 5). Jumped at the chance to take voluntary redundancy & now am about to start work as a Teaching Assistant in a secondary school !! The pay is about a third of what I was on before, but I wasn't particularly happy there, felt under valued and used and now I don't have to worry about coping during school hols!
I did a distance learning TA course & volunteered as a helper at my sons school

It takes a huge effort and sacrifice to establish yourself in a new career and, with a baby and a toddler, my advice would be to stay at your job, train in the evenings and when the younger kid is at least one year old, then take the step.

Hi Whizz. Sorry to gatecrash thread but what you posted is really of interst to me. I would love to be a teaching assitant but in a primary school. My dd is about to start school and I have a 14 month old ds that could go to mil once a week so I could volunteer in the school. Which distance training course did you study and how long did it take?? Any advice would be great, thanks ever so, debbie

I did a BTEC Level 2 TA Certificate distance learning with ICS. Started in March & finished (well last assignment posted off) 10 days ago!! You can do it as fast or as slow as you like - but the course is aimed to be to done in 12 months.
Course material OK & you get a TA Handbook too - tutor support not too bad - they also have a chat forum which is not really that much help.
You have to submit 4 written assignments (answering their set questions) either based on the work you are doing in school or on a case study school they give you. If you were only doing 1 day a week (like I was) - the case study would be the best option.
If you need any more info - I'm happy to help
Whizzz_123@yahoo dot co dot uk

I was thinking of changing careers once I had had our second child. It sounds bad I know but I am partly staying in my job for the maternity leave.