What Colour is your Parachute - all help much appreciated

[Hopingforno2in2024]

So I am 35 years old and trying to find a career that is right for me after a couple of false starts (NHS management and school admin). I am following the exercises in the book What Colour is your Parachute and it asks me to get as many different opinions as possible. Basically if you look at the attached list what careers come to mind.

Thank you :)

work for the national trust?

Librarian

There are probably a variety of civil service roles you might be suited to. If you just look really broadly on civil service jobs (just set the acceptable salary range for you) you can look through all the different possibilities. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas.

Serve and care for suggests public sector

what didn’t you like about your previous roles?

Maybe off piste but something like Occupational Therapy?

Museum jobs: schools liaison / creative workshops or community outreach

Thank you all some really good ideas :) Some have been suggested by others too and some are new.

In terms of what I didn’t like about previous jobs:

NHS management - I quite enjoyed managing the waiting lists etc but I hated that I didn’t achieve anything (and nor anyone else). Every month we would sit in meetings talking about how we were going to meet the governments targets and every month we did but only by juggling figures, never by actually improving patient care. I also hated line managing others.

School admin - this one actually led to me having a breakdown as due to budget cuts I was eventually doing the equivalent of 3 people’s jobs. I did enjoy working around children however.

Project Manager
Information Manager - which will have a large element of digital skills nowadays.

I'd say work for a membership organisation - professional body, trade association or society whose aims or purposes you agree with, or for a good charity. Somewhere you are not bound by layers of red tape and hierachy, and can actually speak to your clients/members/service users and feel you are helping and making a difference.

Looking at the list, it seems that you are a logical and systematic person who enjoys organising things. I may be wrong but it appears that you enjoy being "task focused" rather than "people focused", and enjoy producing a "work product".
I think the "serve, care for" seems to be a bit of a red herring. I'm sure you're good at that but maybe it shouldn't be the absolute focus of your job search.
I could be wrong, but it's because it's how I am. I'm a lawyer but with a science background, Before I retrained in law, I worked in the public sector for a while and I hated it for the same reasons you list (not enough budget to actually do anything meaningful, our "achievements" felt false and contrived to be for that reason). I never felt like I produced anything.
In my job now, for example, I analyse documents and "produce" a written piece of advice. In doing this, I help my client with what they should do next, and they are usually pleased with my work overall. So that is where a "serve" element comes in, but obviously I'm not a nurse or a waitress so it's not "serve, or caring for" people directly. Do you see what I mean?

I should add that I career changed when I was 29 (I'm 37 now). I really enjoy what I do and I'm so glad I did it.

I can also recommend the "colour personality test" for finding out whether you're introverted or extroverted, and task focused or people focused".

In terms of finding a new career, I find it easier to think about what tasks I would like to do day to day, rather than the overall picture of what the organisation achieves, to find fulfilment. Although I thought that I would find working for public sector fulfilling because the cause was good, I didn't, because I didn't enjoy the tasks of my job. My job in law now is probably less "for the greater good" but it helps my clients, and they are trying to do good. Hope that makes sense...!?

Good luck!

Governance

That’s very interesting @neverwakeasleepingbaby, it sounds like we are very similar.

I think care for, serve is there because that is very important to me (my love language is acts of service) but I think I need to keep it to my private life and voluntary work. It is valued there whereas previous jobs have merely exploited it.

I am absolutely a methodical and organised person and am great at looking at chaos and bringing order. I am most definitely introverted. My favourite job ever was a 3 month maternity cover in reprographics where I was in a room in my own operating the printer, laminating etc. the room was a mess when I arrived and I got it all organised and I set up a system for keeping track of work requests, prioritising etc.

I will do the colour personality test now and see what it says.

Ok so it seems my colour is gold

What about a role in tech working with data or coding?

You might want to edit your post to change the image to a more cropped one. It’s got your friend’s name in the notification at the top.

Maybe a compliance type of role would suit you

Thanks @VinegarTrio, I am trying to edit it but it isn’t giving me the option with the three dots

I have reported my post

Development manager in retirement flats/housing.

You work independently but have people around.

Only issue I will say is you have not got much progression.

Unibersity administration, leading to head.of service role or senior management (admissions, registry, planning, data returns,.compliance) www.jobs.ac.uk is a good site for higher education roles.

Engineering design if you're able or willing to retrain. Massive need for engineers.

Agree with PPs on project management,.too. following process.and seeing things through are really great attributes for roles like that.

MN have kindly removed my image with the name on so I have added one without the name :)

I think from that profile you definitely need some kind of admin/governance role. I think it would be helpful to know how senior high want the job to be (in the end) and much responsibility you want to have. And of course how much you want and need to earn.
You may find paralegal jobs that would give you satisfaction in terms of organising things. But it would need to be working for the right person because some lawyers can be very unpredictable and disorganised! Others aren't like this 😊

Accountancy or tax. If that gold description is an accurate description of you, it fits pretty well with what it's like to work in the small to medium sized practice end of the accounting/tax professions.

If you work for individuals/small businesses, you get to tidy up and organise people's chaotic financial records into something neat and orderly ("here is a carrier bag stuffed with my crumpled business receipts/invoices from the last year and a random selection of bank statements, please turn them into a perfectly balanced set of accounts for me") and help them deal with the scary HMRC without getting into trouble.

Or help people who've had personal tragedies and fallen behind with their tax affairs get back on track and move forward without the fear of opening brown envelopes.

It's very common for people in the SME space to be scared of HMRC. Being the trusted adviser who helps them deal with the tax authorities and comply with their legal obligations can lift a huge weight off people.

You could also then use your skills to volunteer with the tax charities who help people on low incomes who have got into difficulties.

https://taxaid.org.uk/about

Right now I’m not too fussed about progression @neverwakeasleepingbaby and would ideally want part time work. Once I’m in my 40s/50s I might want to progress but impossible to know right now. Earnings wise I am fortunate that I don’t need to earn anything, any money I bring in will be for savings and holidays.

Thank you @folkjournals, will look into that link :)

What website did you use for the colour test, @Hopingforno2in2024 ?