Not getting past entry level posts

[MmeSosostris]

Hi,

I am a trained teacher who left to do supply and try and find a role better suited to me and have never real got beyond entry level admin posts. I studied digital tech (some coding/web design, etc) but I have never managed to get at the graduate/career level despite lots of voluntary/outside of work experience.

Today I found out I didn’t get a job I thought I would be good at and I am pleased I got an interview but I didn’t get the post. The head of learning has a marketing/entrepreneurial background.

My degree is in English. I have nearly finished a masters in tech and have lots of project experience to show for it. My current post is tech related and I am doing something quite advanced for a low salary (although it is a charity).

Where am I going wrong? I have had over 20 years of projects, short term contracts and false starts on organisations that have led nowhere. I

What kind of organisations are you applying at? It sounds like you need a large IT company where you can join at a junior level and move around internally - somewhere like Accenture, Atos or Capgemini.

hi @JohnNutLips thanks for replying.

Actually I haven’t tried somewhere like that. I’ve gone mostly for the museum/charity/education/university areas. I am London based so could do the commuting but I just thought those big IT places wanted graduates straight out of university it was admin level again. I am considerably older.

I have had over 20 years of projects, short term contracts and false starts on organisations that have led nowhere.

Is this part of the problem? It sounds like you might have moved around a lot??? Not sure if that's a correct perception based on one sentence though.

@HundredMilesAnHour

No, that’s my concern too. Some of the projects were very interesting and quite niche and I was fortunate enough to get them but I am worried about that too. I did get a very entry level, apprenticeship in the civil service (which I couldn’t take - long story) and am tempted to try for them again for the security.

Some of the work was abroad

It might be admin level initially, but in my experience if you get your foot in the door it is much easier to move into the role you want. For example, we’ve had an admin support role filled by a lady who has an interest in coding and had been doing it in her spare time so put her in touch with a team to get some experience for a few months along side her day job - it’s likely that she will move into that area full time if it goes well.

Thanks John.

There was a job I took years ago at admin level with the hope that I could move up but I found I was pigeon holed very quickly and it didn’t work out. It was a small local company however so perhaps that’s where I have gone wrong.

It sounds daft to say it but I think I have worked with poorly funded charities/education sector for so long where it is all about ‘contribution’ that I have cornered myself into thinking this is all that’s open to me and had closed off to corporate sector. I will try those big tech names, cheers.

Good luck 😊

Cheers👍

Also, how have you worded your experience?

short term contracts and false starts on organisations that have led nowhere.
^

I'm sure you haven't listed the experience like that in your resume, but definitely think about how you can spin your experience in a positive manner.

Also, are you on LinkedIn??

Hi @immersivereader

I am trying to use the most appropriate language but have got a bit tangled up in fitting into academic settings,I think.

Need to be more clear it I think and recognise what I have done that works in a business setting ( and I have a lot).

Thanks for reading and replying though 😀

Yes to LinkedIn but not completed profile so will see to that too. Just bit unsure how to angle it all - lots of stuff that I need to pull together.

Just a thought, but with your background in English, education and ability in IT, have you ever thought of doing private tuition? I can't be the only older MNer who is really frustrated by their inability in IT (having missed out on training etc through child-rearing in the 90s & 00s) & would pay good money to someone who could teach me.

That’s an idea @cheapskatemum

Doing something similar with people at work atm.

In my experience, it's quite a rare and really useful skill set you have. When I wanted to change careers (I was an English teacher), I got excellent advice at my local jobs club.

@cheapskatemum

Thank you that’s a boost to hear!
There’s got to a role for me somewhere.

Have you deliberately avoided the private sector for some reason?

@topcat2014

Corporate? I think so. I just didn’t think as a mature graduate I would get in. I am not dynamic, I’m a thinker. I just don’t know where to place myself in that world.

For example, I read a lot of tech papers, research a lot and can see problems and the solutions and wonder why they haven’t been addressed. So, I do more research and realise why so come up with good working solutions and then put them in place and they do work. So, I know my judgement is good in this area. Just not sure I’m corporate stuff🙂

You could definitely be corporate material, especially given that lots of companies are now WFH! Is it the office mingling that puts you off?

Look into tech companies too. There are roles for junior developer, junior software engineer. Also, with a degree in English look into technical writing/information developer - they need people to write clearly understandable documentation for client developers.

For software development there may be a coding test. I used hacker rank to prepare. But being able to talk about your projects will be helpful.

Thank you all. I have just written a layman’s guide to a piece of software we use at work and it was well received. I also restructured the database content so users can locate the files they need and have some system to follow that makes sense to them. It was clear to me that the way to do this was through language so I enriched the existing metadata and switched on a stemming algorithm in the application. It’s superficial stuff as the application does the work but I suppose I wasn’t intimidated to get in there to understand how it worked which is something. I have an understanding of relational databases and mapping/map reducing MySQL or rather MariaDB👍

@immersivereader

Tech culture I think. Bit macho for me.

OP, I’m sorry but I can make neither head nor tail of your first post. No matter how many times I read it no clear chronology becomes apparent. So I’m still struggling to understand why you’re looking for entry level posts after 20 years experience.

(I don’t usually have problems with comprehension. But fortunately other people seem to have grasped what you wish to communicate.)

Aha! You’re much more fluent when not talking about yourself!

That might be the key.