Career change advice for a chronically ill civil servant

[FairTurtle]

I need career change advice!

I'm a civil servant, working in policy for a central government department, earning just over £50k. I live in London, am single and have a mortgage. About 2 years ago, I developed a pretty major chronic illness which greatly impacts my day to day life. I'm still able to work full-time, but it's 100% remote. I've often thought of cutting down my hours to just 4 days a week but I don't think I'd be able to take the pay cut.

It might be in vain, but I'm trying to consider alternative and more lucrative work/career options that would give me greater flexibility, more control over my hours and the ability to be paid a little more, over time, without having to commit hours and hours to applying on promotion to highly coveted jobs like you do in the civil service. I also need to retain the ability to work 100% remotely (civil service pay is basically stagnant, and you can only get paid more by being promoted, which isn't that realistic for me). I'd be able to study/retrain in my spare time a little, and can probably raise some finances for that if need be.

Essentially, I'm trying to recreate a more viable career path for myself, given my new circumstances with my health. I'm not paid terribly, but obviously costs are increasing for everyone and I'm just aware that going into the future, a civil service career might not be the best way to achieve greater financial security. I'm a Grade 7 (if that means anything to anyone here!) and am nowhere near being able to apply for Grade 6 roles. Even if I was, I'm not sure I'd be able, with my health, to take on that level stress and responsibility. I'm feeling a bit a silly, with the benefit of hindsight, that I didn't embark on a more lucrative career choice to begin with, like law or accounting, which would presumanly allow me to maintain a decent salary even if I was to reduce my hours.

Obviously, this isn't an easy question. I can't really see any clear options, and I doubt such a job/career change even exists, but I figured I'd ask just in case anyone has any helpful experiences or perspectives to share.

In case it's relevant, I'm 31 and have a 2.1 law degree from a fairly prestigious Russell Group university. I did maths and economics at A level and achieved A*s (just adding this because I've vaguely considered something like accounting!)

Thanks so much for reading!

I'm sorry to hear about your ill health.

When you say ul health, what do you mean by that in terms of adaptations you'd need from an employer? The reason I'm asking is the civil service is famously good in this area, and (depending on what adaptations you need) and if you leave for a more highly paid job, you might find that reality is they're not willing to accommodate.

NOT saying that this is you - you're young and I don't know what your actual issues are- but one of the hardest things I'm dealing with at the moment is accepting that I have limits, and actually I might need to accept that my disability means I need to give up on long term career goals.

@FairTurtle I'm an accountant, I earn a good salary but only because of the route I took which was tough, I had a training contract with a firm, worked full time for 3 years plus did study and 15 exams at the same time (over 3 years) then was an auditor for years which involved travel,my background, qualification and the fact I was an auditor and the firm I worked for allowed me to enter the public sector of which I had no experience at a relatively high level and continue jumping up the ladder. But it's was rough,the 3 years are hard, mentally and physically and it took 5 years to earn anything really close to £50k. Doing a less onerous qualification like AAT will only get you so far and probably wouldn't take you past £50k for years unless you are exceptional (not saying you arent lol...), you can earn alot in finance but only if you have the background training or are really experienced which takes time. I would say stick where you are for the time being and see how your health goes x

What sort of policy are you working on at the minute, OP?

Have you considered counter fraud / financial crime prevention or compliance?
There are lots of govt jobs focused on this (look up some of the PFSA material) so you could consider a sideways move to get some experience, get the CS to pay for some recognised qualifications then look for jobs in either the quasi-private sector (BBB and UKIB for example, which dont have their pay remit controlled by HMT) or the private sector. Loads of industries need compliance / counter fraud roles now - including law firms if you wanted to make use of your degree.

I think you should take a step back here - you have an extremley good setup both financially and in terms of working conditions. You are in top 10% of uk earners. I hope you are making savings wisely and making that money work for you - that will give you more options in the future

dropping down to four days on that salary is doable for sure - but sounds like you are struggling with value on money/how successful other people are versus your need to take care of your health to the extent you want 100% wfh etc and also more time

Are you making the most of progression options in your current role? Are you excited about putting in the work towards a promotion pathway? Or are you looking for a total career change in terms of content

either way sacrifices may need to be made

I don’t have any suggestions for alternative areas of work, but one thing I would absolutely highlight to you is the position you are in within civil service in terms of flexibility, acceptance of WFH, pension provision, ill-health retirement provision and sick pay entitlement is not to be overlooked as a person with chronic illness. It’s worth considerably more than many people realise and will likely afford you considerably more security as you progress with your life than other more lucrative roles might.

I've worked in both accounting practice and the civil service and don't think that accounting practice will give you a better deal overall. Civil Service is much more flexible and junior roles in practice are not well paid.

Sorry it's after midnight so just commenting now to mark my place and will come back to write more when more awake.

Back now. I agree very much with the points made by @LostInSpaceRaiders about the advantages of the Civil Service. In particular the pension and ill-health early retirement availability are things you will not match outside the public sector. Given your age and health situation I would think very carefully indeed about giving those up: you probably couldn't get the income protection insurance on an individual basis, though large firms do often offer some sort of scheme. Flexibility too does vary a lot and if you have that it is worth a lot.

Junior roles in accounting practice are highly unlikely to be 100% remote: my firm was keen to have people in the office learning from their seniors and peers, and out at clients as appropriate (though less of that these days than when I was training). Also the pay might be half what you are currently earning while you train, though you would qualify onto about what you're getting now (or a bit more in London). But if you say you can't cope with the stress of a G6 job what makes you think you could cope with a manager/senior manager role in accounting practice? There is a lot of timesheet pressure to be chargeable, deadline pressure to produce work by X date and people vary a lot in understanding. Also statutory deadlines can't be moved.

I worked in the accounting sector for 10 years, then was a G7 for 5 years and then a G6 for 5 before moving back into the private sector just before the pandemic. Getting to G6 was a struggle but I didn't find the jobs massively more stressful than G7. Obviously all jobs have their positives and negatives - and I left due to frustration with the pay/promotion system so I do get where you are coming from. I then did a senior role in accounting - and fortunately without timesheets but that was very unusual - before quitting a few months ago for a break. Since then I've had health issues. In theory I would consider going back to the Civil Service but there are no offices for a long way from here and I'm personally not up for a highly remote role. So I am looking at career change websites myself. I have found this one to be very helpful in giving practical ideas: www.careershifters.org/

There may be other employers who have policy jobs (e.g. an old colleague works for Wellcome Trust) but I don't know what their T&Cs are - as I said above, the Civil Service is very good on that and on reasonable adjustments etc. Private sector has improved a lot but is still not where the Civil Service is at.

Happy for you to pm me if you like.