Unemployable? Please help Mr Small

[BlooDeBloop]

Like Mr Small I'm looking to step into work but keep finding unsuitable options. Without judgment please, my work life to date has been patchy but now I'm facing up to the fact that an income would be good for me and the family.

Background is

• Degree in life sciences
• PhD
• Teaching secondary (I left a year after QTS).
• Decade+ in bitty work - teaching English as foreign language, hospitality, translation work (fluent in a second language), secretarial work. The longest I last is 10 months before the novelty wears off and I get pissed off for a variety of reasons.
• Qualified recently in an alternative therapy but I'm struggling to find premises and with doubts about my ability to do this independent business thing.

Kids are in secondary so the time feels right to branch out but I'm mid 40s with sod all experience in anything. Feeling quite down especially as I invested money in the training (it seemed to be the answer but now feels like a silly pipe dream). I checked out civil service websites but I just can't see myself in those jobs. I feel like I've wasted the talents I was born with, like I've never found my 'thing', and now worried it's too late in any case.

I'd love a steady salary, a pension pot of any size and a bit of social standing if I'm honest.

I'm open to any ideas 😊

Care worker?

Would you go back to teaching?

Teaching your language and pshe in a good school? You'll find age helps with behaviour as does the culture of the school. If you have qts there is a shortage.

I'm qualified in a shortage subject. I dipped my toe with some cover recently but school hasn't changed. Teens are challenging. I'm an introvert. It's such a hard job.

Lower your expectations. There needs to be an element of understanding that a lot of people don't actively like their job. They do it for the kinds of reasons you've mentioned and stick at it despite being pissed off, hating parts of it or finding it difficult. You don't need to "find your thing". You just need to pick something, do it and commit to keep doing it no matter what. If you want a new job for whatever reason, you find one before you quit your old one. That's all there is to it.

My whole family work in care in some way or another so I feel I know what it's like. Also hard but not in the same way as teaching - poor pay, poor conditions, if it's care in the home then the agencies take the mick with travel times/costs.

I know all jobs have their downsides. I need to find something where the downsides don't outweigh the upsides. I'm an introvert. I'm good at focused concentration but get bored easily. I'm great at picking up new skills. I'm more of an independent worker than a team player. I'm also creative and like something I can put in a bit of myself/character.

Ok, my background is a bit different (didn't finish the PhD, for one thing...) but I've also done a bit here, a bit there. I really recognise that feeling of "am I wasting my gifts". Self-employed the last several years but the admin doesn't come naturally and I've been trying to get back into a previous (long-thought lost) career with the goal of ultimately doing both part-time. As of this year both my children will be at university.

Am I hearing that you are very capable, but struggle with motivating large groups, benefit from being around other people and having external structure, but also desperately need variety and enough challenge in your life to stop you getting bored?

It does sound like teaching and explaining is quite a strong thread. Do you enjoy teaching / tutoring small groups? Do you have a local university where you could get some tutoring work? Might there be opportunities in Adult Education you could get into? Special ed?

With your alternative therapy qualification, is there any business near enough that you could join on a part-time basis to add to their offering? Might be a way to not have to do all the advertising and billing and so on yourself if that's a sticking point. On the other hand, our local pharmacy has one or two rooms that a variety of people use once or twice a week eg podiatrist, massage, not sure what else I've seen there.

Good luck finding your niche - or a set of them if that will suit you better!

I work in technology (infrastructure engineer) and am a bit like you, suits me to a T. But with everyone and their grandmother trying to enter the field you have quite a bit of competition, there's a shortage though.
Every time I get bored something new to learn comes along and I get excited again.

Don't know what you mean by 'character' but people can certainly spot my handiwork a mile off....

You could earn £££ as a science or medical editor - they’re always looking for people with related degrees (and I can therefore never apply for those jobs myself 😂)

Science technician? No interaction with students needed and always in short supply.

Retrain in something in healthcare?

You've summed things up nicely Pythonesque! I hate to come across as complainy but it's been a real challenge for me over the years trying to find the right fit. Also watching all the people I trained with either with great careers lecturing at unis or heading up schools 😨. I wouldn't like to say I'm jealous as I'm so happy for them. But the comparisons naturally come and I just feel lost.

Where I've fallen short on teaching is that although I love imparting new thoughts (I love learning myself) most learners are not so enthusiastic 😊. You'd be surprised at how many adult learners just want to pass the test 🙄😆. Sadly the uni is too far for a daily commute as both myself and partner would thrive in that type of environment (partner is also a life long underachiever...).

Well, I also love writing. You say they're always looking for people but where are they looking? When I've looked in the past I didn't find any.

Agree with others - some kind of researcher/technician. Something that you can hop from project to project and not be in too many meetings. What's your nearest university?

Interesting, thank you. I'll chew that idea over.

I do live in a rural location probably 40 mins to the nearest uni, but I will check the science park as it's closer. For me schools are out.

I'm gonna go left field here... retail... I know, I know...but, at management level I spend the day explaining stuff to people who genuinely have enthusiasm for it (think skin care, beauty), there is a structure to follow but literally every day is different and with a fantastic team, we spend the whole day laughing with each other and the customers. If I want to go down a rabbit hole and learn about .... anything...my company offers and online learning portal,, so if I am bored of one thing then I just switch to another topic and off I go.

https://www.charityjob.co.uk/

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/ IT and support jobs in the higher education sector

Tutoring, particularly online?

There are a lot of remote (or at least hybrid) jobs, but also bootcamps and qualifications offered remotely.
If you search 'women in in tech', 'tech career change', 'how to get into tech' on MN there are plenty of threads with good advice.

@HorsePlatitudes are you also a follower of £10 horse walk thread? Hahahaha
As an aside OP I know MN is quick to suggest these but have you considered any form of neurodiversity, e.g. ADHD?
I have it and am also academically excellent with good focus , the degree I did was for was a 'boring' job and my first job in it was somewhat related and sooo boring, very meeting-y.
I don't like teams and meetings per se but a lot of them seem to be pointless with people who have no idea what they're even talking about. Productive meetings about actually interesting stuff, with engaged people, I like...

How do you find this sort of thing?

I wondered about ADHD too. It might explain why you get bored of jobs so rapidly. People with ADHD can still "hyperfocus" when something's interesting, but find it very hard to push through the full dull bits.

I also feel the same. I'm 31. But ive not got a degree and I've worked admin and retail jobs my whole life. Which I hate.

I dipped my toe in to a graphic design degree with the open college of arts but had to drop out due to personal circumstances.

I'm now debating the OU for English lit and CW. Like you I'm an introvert. I like to work on my own rather than be a team player. I have no idea where it will take me. But o know I need to be creative in some way. I know my chances of being a writer are slim. But, I just wanted to pop on as a fellow introvert and say I feel you. The same. I feel like I've spent my life wasting my talents, not knowing what I want to do and on actual fact, not knowing what my talent even is.

Well now you mention it.... Yes, MN is quick to suggest ND 😁😆. That's fine. Whatever I am, I'm a poor fit for the general workplace.

I'm diving deep and wide tonight with everyone's recommendations. Thank you for all the suggestions. I'm going through them all. I didn't know the diversity of work in the charity sector, or how widespread remote working has become. I'm very curious about the tech ideas. It's been hard not to notice previous threads on women in tech but I haven't quite applied them to me if that makes sense.