Career change advice needed

[pifflepaffle13]

Hi everyone. Name changed but long time user. I also started this thread in 'work' but thought it might be worth posting here too.

I'm after some advice and guidance please. It's a bit of a long story and a mess, so thank you for reading!

I'm mid-thirties, have 2 small children, not planning on having any more. Settled and happily married. My work/career, however, is a total mess. Since I left uni I have worked in a variety of jobs relating to my subject, both as an admin type person, as well as in more practical roles. I trained to be a very specific thing 10 years ago, and have been working in that role in between having children. I've worked in schools and hospitals mainly in this role.

I don't enjoy this role and find it hugely stressful. There are many reasons why and I have decided that I need to get out now and do something else with my career. I have thought about teacher training in the subject I did at uni and have subsequently trained in further. I suffer hugely from imposter syndrome, however, and I don't think this is ever going to go away (I've worked hard and overcoming this but it still looms over me). I always feel like I'm not good enough at this thing so why would I ever be able to teach it.

So. I think I need to do something completely different and unrelated to that subject, however I have no idea where to start. I have thought about what I enjoy and what I find stressful, as below:

Enjoy working with people as part of small team, enjoy being creative and thinking of new ideas, enjoy working with people, like stability of one place (so not moving around a lot), quiet and calm environments are best, talking and being with people I enjoy a lot as well as being able to get stuck into projects.

Things I find stressful include working in a very fast paced way, working in very big teams, talking in front of large groups, being put on the spot etc. Moving around a lot and not having a base I also don't like.

Can anyone suggest some roles/career paths that might fit with these things? I'm not hugely academic, much more creative, but I am a good communicator, work hard and am bright. I know I'm probably being too vague so happy to answer more questions if more info needed!

Thank you so much in advance, I appreciate any help I can get!

There is a really good thread on AMA about the moment from a professional career coach

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/AMA/3964756-i-m-a-career-coach-ama

You could try posting your question to her in the first instance but it sounds as though you might benefit from actually having a session of advice/counselling from a proper career coach (do choose carefully though as like with any kind of coaching/counselling there are people out there who've done an online diploma in 20 mins or there are people with genuine qualifications and expertise both calling themselves 'career coaches'). You sound like you have done some good thinking about your preferences -do you also on a practical level have a minimum income requirement, and can you afford to invest time/money into training and qualifications or do you pretty much need to earn an income right away? You sound as though you'd be well suited to social care, ancillary healthcare type roles (although the need for a 'quiet and calm' environment and not 'delivering at pace' might be a sticking point in some jobs depending on what exactly you mean by that, does it have to be an office based environment, does anything involving dealing with the general public automatically stress you (it certainly does me!)?), or possibly something creative if you have talents/skills you can utilise, or maybe admin/business support work, perhaps project management or IT/software development? The trouble is that with the 2 former it can take a long time if ever to earn a good income, whereas the latter can require qualifications which might need some investment upfront?

Thank you @maxelly , in theory I can retrain to some extent, but I don't have a lot of money or time to spend. It would have to be something lasting a year max.

I really like the idea of IT/Software but have absolutely no clue where to start with that. I'm not adverse to working with the public but would rather work in a small team. I've realised that a lot of my time at work is spent in quite extreme states of anxiety and I just want to get away from that feeling!!

@pifflepaffle13 the link kindly posted by @maxelly is my thread and I would be happy to help, here or there. There's some good insight above, but the most important question is a. What environmental factors do you need in place to be at your best? e.g. flexibility, small team etc and b. What experiences do you want to have in your work - how will you define a successful week/year? Once you know these it will be easier to be specific about work that could work, as it were :)