How to actually find ‘career’ job? SO lost, am I the only one

[ASDnocareer]

I’m desperate to leave my dead end job (pays 33k in London) with no prospects. I only have a 2.1 degree in humanities (graduated 2021).

have I left it too late to find a career? I’m genuinely so lost how people manage to get experience when you are lacking the ‘right’ specific experience. Even junior roles seem to expect it. I have applied for roles where I meet all of the minimum criteria but still mostly rejected. What can I do? I’ve had my CV reviewed by professional friends. Signed up to recruitment agencies within my industry but they don’t respond.

I’m looking to do a job with career prospects that pays around 35k (I’m based in London).

I did a 12 month work placement working in financial services (entry level marketing role).
I performed well in this role so they offered me a part time role during my final year.

Fresh out of university, I took a ‘graduate’ entry level job (not a graduate scheme) in different company, again working in entry level Marketing role for financial services.

I ended up moving cities, and now work in dead end job as entry level manual tester in same industry - financial services. I couldn’t afford an employment gap before finding a ’career’ job, and I naively thought I would be able to find one eventually but maybe I’m being delusional about my skills as I only have ‘soft’ skills such as time management, stakeholder management, and agile methodology.

So I’ve always worked low skilled jobs in financial services, but how on earth do I get a job that pays at least 33k which has career prospects.

I can do my current job role well (likely because it’s low skilled lol) and my performance review was excellent but there’s no future prospects in this area, manual testing is a dying field and I am unable to upskill in automation testing because my industry tends to outsource these roles to foreign workers who are exceptionally well educated and over qualified. Not only would it take me far too long to catch up I don’t even have a mathematical/STEM academic background, and I’m not keen or numerical anyway.

I have never had an employment gap since my final year of university and always hit my targets but ultimately the jobs I’ve had are ‘low skilled’ and not career jobs. Junior marketing roles don’t pay enough or if they do I’m getting rejected.
How do I go about getting a job that leads to a career without a pay cut? I seemingly lack the skills / experience but how do I even get a foot in the door

In my own experience, and that of my friends, you do often have to take a pay cut to get a foot in the door to the jobs which lead to further prospects unless you already have the relevant experience. So for me I did this early on after leaving uni, the job I actually wanted I was qualified for on paper as in I had my degree & the other qualifications they were asking for however I didn’t have the direct experience they needed for that role. I took the hit and applied for a job 2 grades down but same employer. I got that job and was then able to get the experience, prove myself, and actually it was so much easier getting promotions once I was in than it was applying as an external candidate- I was promoted twice in 12 months so was in the role I actually wanted within the year.

Most of my friends have done similar, taking a pay cut in the short term to allow yourself the time to develop the skills and experience to then push yourself up is worth it if you can find an opportunity to do it.

Financial services companies , have lots of varied careers and roles. It might be that you have to start at entry level and do further exam qualifications to progress, which companies will often pay for. If you are willing to work at it the progression can be relatively quick.

Thanks, I do agree but just in my current company when I look at internal vacancies there’s constantly lots of new vacancies for senior/experienced but very rarely do we have openings for entry level roles.

I’d happily do most entry level roles within my industry, and I’ve always had good performance reviews in each job so really willing to work hard but still struggling to even land an opportunity where I have a chance to prove my worth and progress.

I’m already in an entry level role (unskilled though) so moving to another entry level role (but one that has actually has prospects) would mean a lot

How do I go about getting a job that leads to a career

It’s very basic - you need a professional qualification. I don’t know a single person who graduated around the same time I did, who didn’t either study for a postgraduate degree (academic or MBA) or take up training in Law, Accountancy, Surveying, Medicine, etc. (Unless they became Management Consultants.) Simply having a degree isn’t enough to compete with all the thousands of other graduates.

There must be professional qualifications for your industry? Or a related one? How might you go about acquiring them?

@Mrsttcno1 well done, getting promoted twice in a year is excellent- I’m glad it worked out.

I’m already at the lowest pay grade and entry level for financial services in London. Only other step below for me would be taking an apprentice (admittedly future prospects) but the wage wouldn’t be enough to live off, and I don’t have enough savings to subsidise. I live a very frugal lifestyle anyway, paycheck to paycheck

Thank you, I have thought about how professional qualifications would improve my CV but it may sound stupid I struggle to know which one I’d benefit from because I’m not even in an entry level role which has a career path yet if that makes sense, and it seems slightly risky to me because I don’t know if it will pay off.

For example if I were in an entry level business analyst role within financial services (strong career path), I could benefit from having lean six sigma certification.

But as much as I’d love to work as a FS business analyst, even with further qualifications I can’t guarantee I will end up landing even an entry level BA role.

Affording the exams for certification will be a stretch for me, and it may sound crazy but I’m genuinely scared to take the risk of it not paying off.

Have you looked at qualifications with the CII?

Certain qualifications could lead to roles in insurance, underwriting, compliance, financial management, investment management, financial advice, technical paraplanning. Perhaps research trainee roles and see what the entry requirements are.

You are still so young, and I don’t mean to sound patronising, so try and relax a bit and figure out what you want to do for the next, say, 5 years. Try and talk to as many people in your current company, in different departments, and figure out if you’d like working in that type of role. Also talk to friends / family, and engage with your uni alumni careers service to get networking contacts.

Then, I’d really recommend applying to graduate schemes in an area you’re interested in, so for next September start. Most financial services firms will have grad schemes that let you rotate around a number of functions and then specialise if you can’t pin down precisely what you want to do. It may be an initial pay cut, but prospects should increase after a couple of years. And yes, you’ll probably have to do some professional qualifications to get career progression, but ideally a company should be funding this, usually as part of, or after, a grad scheme.

Could you look outside financial sector and towards marketing so still linked? There’s middle grade and senior roles in marketing. Alternative is government or NHS.

Reading your updates, I think you need to decide what you want to actually do. Ie what do you want a career in. Realistically, getting there is going to take some financial or time sacrifices, so you need to do it for something you see a future in.

Then work backwards and identify how you get into those jobs. Might take some further qualifications, a graf scheme and entry level job before moving up. Or it might mean on the job training and qualifications while you work.

Working in IT change for example as a business analyst within financial services industry is one very desirable career to me. Varied work and pays very well. I work in this department in my current role, and work alongside BAs but I don’t have any related experience.

when I look up the BAs I work alongside, they often started on an extremely competitive grad scheme so landed their first role without related experience which then gave them excellent training and skills. I had tried applying to grad schemes since my final year and again after graduating but with no luck. As a paranoid student, I knew from 1st year I wanted to increase my chances of landing one so did internships but I still wasn’t good enough to beat the competition. Many grad schemes wouldn’t let me apply now as it has been 3 years since I finished uni. Also, I still apply to grad jobs from graduate recruitment agencies but I am less desirable than a fresh young graduate. I feel like I’ve missed the boat and instead been stuck in low skilled work for too long whilst being overtaken by younger graduates.

Some other BAs had started their career in similar roles (operations or process analyst) but within same departmental area and once built up plenty of niche experience moved into BA role for that same area.

In my company they use tools such as Confluence and Visio which I also use regularly and they often have certificates which they gained after landing their first related role.
As other pp’s have suggested, I could certainly pay to sit exams that may help but slightly risky if it doesn’t pay off, as from reading career advice online many people say relevant experience beats any certificates. Also, once you land entry level role some companies often fund exams as well as time off for studying.

This is probably not the advice you were hoping for, but I really would recommend getting out of financial services and into a more interesting and exciting industry that aligns to your passions and values. I am 10 years on from you and feel so disillusioned with finance / the corporate world. I wish I had been brave enough to do something else when I was younger.

Instead of commenting on the zombie, you should have reported the spammer above you that resurrected this old thread. HTH.

Have you had any career development conversations with your line manager?

Ah well this old post was slightly hard to read back, thanks to the spammer for bumping 🥲

A whole year has passed me by since posting this and I achieved nothing, feel even more of a failure

I’m definitely open to other industries but I simply thought I’d have a better chance of being shortlisted if I have some (albeit ‘low skilled’) experience in financial services that’s all.

I rarely get shortlisted but when I do it’s for jobs within FS. Never been shortlisted for junior roles in different industries.

Sorry you’ve had a frustrating year. Have you added any skills since this time last year? Is there anything that you can do alongside your role to build your CV. What do the business analysts have that you don’t. Can you develop really detailed AI expertise for example. There is a lot of free online learning available.

It can be very difficult to move from entry level into the more professional side of any organisation. People know you and see you in that role, and moving to the place where there’s real progression is competitive. Do you have someone doing the business analyst role who would mentor you? I’d build good relationships, show myself to be interested and effective and talk to them about how you can move. I often find people happy to share their experience.

Making a move is going to require focussed effort on your part, it’s not enough to just keep applying for jobs (important though that may be). How can you be more visible where you are now? Are there organisational projects you could be involved in, is there a way for you to build the skills you need where you are now? It’ll mean going above and beyond your job description, taking on things you might not enjoy but that increase your visibility and your skills. Does your current organisation know you want to move into analysis - is it something you’ve talked about in performance reviews? Most places would rather develop someone they know is good than appoint an unknown entity. Are you that good, reliable, energetic person? It’s ok if you feel a bit deflated, but for others to invest in you they need to see you keen and willing. Then have a look at professional qualifications - which might be supported by your employer.

You’ll be very surprised at how many people around you and in senior roles are just good at confidently talking the talk, and to get your way in, a willingness to learn, and to deliver that with the confidence of ‘I’ll figure it out” and then do your best to, may well get you a foot in.
i know it’s very frustrating and soul destroying to be applying and applying and get rejected, but don’t let it get you down!
See if there are any decent temping agencies, not just ones that cast a wide net on possible candidates to push in front of any role that comes to them, as the rejection the candidate feels from the rejection of what wasn’t a role suited to their experience can really put a dent in the candidate’s confidence.
As for soft skills, if you have some free time at home, look up vids/tutorials on LinkedIn learning or YouTube on Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Alteryx, PowerBi, Salesforce to sharpen up your soft skills, as these are very versatile soft skills that are valuable in roles across so many industries and may get you a foot in the door of a ‘career’ job. Good luck op, and don’t give up! X

Embarrassingly not really added any new skills because I’m often so exhausted from work stress, and it takes so long just to apply for jobs (tailored CV etc). I know I need to do better

However I did since sign up for two different mentors at work but tbh both just gave weak generic advice. Also it’s so hard to even schedule time with them which made me feel guilty for bothering them. I wouldn’t complain because they don’t owe me anything, and it’s nice they even signed up to mentoring scheme.

I also got a (limited) place on L&D sessions hosted by my company which focused on Gallup strengths but it didn’t actually improve my career prospects.

Maybe I sound bitter but sometimes I feel my team/department culture is part of the blocker. I understand working hand to stand out when there’s an incentive but feels a bit like wasted energy here. In four years not one person has been promoted in my team of 10, and the team leader (not that senior) has been at this company for over 15 years. Personally it seems too much of a coincidence to me that all 10 are simply too lazy or not good enough for any promotion in four years. Meanwhile, I have friends who have had opportunities arise within their company in less than a year

Despite only holding low skilled roles at my previous companies, at least within a year I noticed some kind of change (eg offered part time role after internship, and a pay rise in second company after 10 months due to efforts).

I’m the one who sends a formal comms email on behalf of my team which includes lots of stakeholders from across the company but this additional exposure doesn’t seem to count for much.

Ok, if you graduated in 2021, it really isn't too late to find a career, you're barely into your career lifespan at all. It is a tough market, but do keep applying until you get out of current setting which obviously isn't offering your anything to move onto. Having 'only' a 2:1 really doesn't make any difference, I got a First and it didn't make me more employable than anyone else

I found something that is more of a 'career' for the first time last year aged 46 and pivoted into a slightly different area where my skills were useful. I honestly didn't imagine I'd change careers and I didn't see how people managed, but it can be done.

Looking at your competency list I'd think project management would be a natural fit. If you could get your company to invest in you getting an agile practitioner qualification you could then move through the ranks. You may need to move to a different employer if you're not seeing progression where you are

Is it software testing that you do? That can be a career. Get ISQTB qualifications, for your CV. Learn to code, so that you can do automated testing as well as manual testing. Or learn something more specialised like security testing or performance testing. There's a lot of free tutorials online for a lot of this.

Look around for jobs that would give you a wider range of experience. Sticking in the financial services sector is likely gonna be easiest as domain knowledge is valuable in a tester. Later, you could also transition towards things like software development or business analysis, though this requires a bit more of a leap.