Careers that "help" but that also have a lot of progression.

[NeverHomeAlone]

I am early 30's. I have been successfully working away at a job that is largely about cosmetics. I have reached the top of what this career can offer and I also feel unfulfilled by the nature of the work. I have done a lot of work on myself and my values lately and I recognise that I am an altruistic person, I get a lot of satisfaction out of helping others, but I am also ambitious. All of my qualifications are vocational and related to my current job, so I will be starting a new career form scratch. I do have experience as a foster carer though.

I would like ideas for careers that I can really sink my teeth into, something with progression and opportunities to gain further qualifications and training, but something that involves helping people.

I've been looking about online, but a lot of caring careers have very limited career progression. I volunteer for an organisation that welcomes refugees and I've applied for a role helping refugees find support when they enter the country.

I don't have a degree, and I feel this holds me back a lot. There are apprenticeship type jobs that put you through a degree but a lot are aimed at people under 24 years old.

I have finished having children and we can scrape by on my DHs income, so I'm in an ok position to look at this now, I feel.

Physiotherapy

Have a look here, lots of people undertaking study and retraining for new careers:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students

HR - you can do the qualifications without a degree and how helpful you want to be depends on the company you chose to work for. But progression is pretty good and you don't need a degree to get started.

Medicine?

Maybe check out apprenticeships for public sector? They aren't restricted by age. Lots of altruistic options. They're desperate for social workers.

We live in NI, which limits me. The nearest physio course is about 100 miles away and there doesn't seen to be any of the social worker apprenticeships available here, loads in England.

Yeah that can be a problem. A starting point might be to see what is available locally. I wanted to train as an ODP but couldn't agree to 12 hour shifts with childcare needs. So had to knock that one on the head.

Just be aware it’s very hard to “help” even in the helping professions. Lots of red tape, and a severe lack of funding means people get frustrated and earning potential is severely hampered within the public sector. Also without a degree it can be hard to be taken seriously above HCPs.

Occupational Therapy. Can do as an apprenticeship now and certainly don’t need to be under 24

Green jobs. Anything climate change or environment related – helping people and planet. And obviously can have so many sectors within that, whether research or third sector or innovation or NGOs etc

Are you a makeup artist? There’s a charity (I think) that helps women with makeup whilst going through chemo. I think there’s another one that helps people cover up scars, birthmarks etc. Might be a route in somewhere.

Environmental Health

All the professions allied to medicine, as already mentioned.

Civil and/or environmental engineering , if you are at all numerate. Massive skills shortage. Has provided me a great career of 25 years. Very much doing “good” if you get into the public infrastructure side of things. (I do flood defences), but even private development has to have consideration for sustainability, climate change, environmental impact etc, with specialists in those areas. It’s great if you don’t want to always be chained to a desk.

I work for a large national mental health charity. I went back into the workplace after several years at home with my kids. I've been back nearly 2 years and have had 2 promotions already with scope for further progression.
I don't have a degree either but gets loads of training through work. And I work in a front line crisis service so feel like I help people every day.

@GlitchStitch

I work for a large, National MH charity and my experience couldn’t be anymore different from yours. All I see is the inefficient waste of public funds, and an incoherent team with zero motivation.

Our service is commissioned via the NHS so that is what I meant by public funds.

@IdrisElbow

Good to hear. I don’t make a blind bit of difference and neither do any of the colleagues in my particular project. I’m looking to get out asap as it’s not what I signed up for.

Nursing? There is certainly room for progression in terms of pay scales and seniority.

Have a look at civil service jobs, if you get in you can then do the fast stream as an internal applicant without requiring a degree, the fast stream gets you to G7 but you don't have to fast stream of course, you can get promoted traditionally.

@userg5647 do you know what salary progression is like in the civil service? I've never worked in the public sector before. Is it generally an annual increase (if that) or is there much scope for moving up pay grades as you develop? Thanks in advance!

@Winecheesesleep unfortunately salary progression is almost non existent unless you get promoted. There are (usually, outside of pay freezes) small annual cost of living increases, but you can no longer go up the salary increments, you generally start at the bottom. It's a bit hit or miss, I do know some departments/bodies will be open to negotiation to put you higher up the scale, but I haven't managed that so far! There is retention pay if you become indispensable but it's not a huge amount. I think the pay is generally reasonable, excellent pension and I have very low outgoings due to flexible and home working which reduces my childcare and commute.

I have to say though I've found progression pretty quick, I was an SEO in 2019, a G7 by 2021 and am pretty confident I could get to G6 within 1-2 years. I've always been very flexible about moving organisations/roles though and I'm in a technical area that's in demand which helps.

@userg5647 thanks for answering. I saw a role I liked the look of but the pay is below what I'm currently earning, was just curious how long term that would likely be. I'm not massively money oriented but need to pay the bills!