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

Also assuming you're a woman, you could look around for Women in Tech events or mentoring, this would help you make more contacts outside your own company.

Name changed for obvious reasons.

I work for Aviva and got an email today telling me that their graduate scheme has opened for applicants for Sept 2026.

It actually said “whether you graduated 2 years ago or 20 years ago….” (it made me smile as I graduated over 25 years ago so presumably am older than Adam and Eve 😂) you definitely are suitable. Looks like most of the starting salaries are similar to what you are on now but there is a significant prospect of moving up.

I joined as a 21 year old graduate on one of the schemes nearly 25 years ago. Really doesn’t seem that long!

https://careers.aviva.co.uk/early-careers/graduates/

Well done on the career pivot! :)

& I appreciate your kindness, but I do find it alarming I’ve still not found a career approaching 2026. All of my friends (and I live in big city with a diverse group of friends) found careers and some are now in very desirable jobs. Some are on visas which complicates things but still found good jobs

One friend earns very well as a receptionist for prestigious firm, and she only learnt English in her late twenties.

Even my sheltered friends from my hometown who never left parents home found careers a while ago. Nothing wrong with being sheltered btw but I naively thought relocating to a city and challenging myself to start social life from scratch would increase my chances in building life skills and finding a career.

Why don't you talk to HR in your current workplace. Tell them that you are really keen to move into a BA role and ask if they would consider putting you onto a graduate scheme or phasing you into one at the appropriate level, given you already have some know how and skills? The people I know who have done well were all proactive. Not one of them relied on applying through regular channels. They all made direct approaches. But they also knew what they wanted to do.

I think you need up stop comparing yourself to your friends, you still have plenty of time.

You really need to let go of ideas about where you're 'supposed' to be or that anyone is judging you for it. I'd maybe be concerned about being in a dead end job in, I dunno, my mid 30s, but not mid 20s. Plenty of people are still trying to work out what they're doing on break out of starting roles at your age.

Thanks, I know beggars shouldn’t be choosers but I still don’t really want a career in testing as find it pretty soul destroying and antisocial.

From my experience in FS the majority of testers will be highly educated foreign workers eg STEM MSc and strong coding, automation skills but often lacking social skills. I don’t stand a chance against such smart qualified people (especially if I don’t even enjoy testing in first place).

I know software developers used to have a stereotype of being antisocial but I’ve found times have changed and developers I work with are from all walks of life including social people. Can’t say the same for testing teams I’ve encountered - in fact each team has always had one nationality significantly overrepresented, and come from a country with poor work life balance.

I previously did one of those women in tech coding bootcamp courses which I really didn’t enjoy but stuck it out to add to my CV.

Have you spoken to your manager about an internal move? I also work in financial services and this would be one of my first steps.

out of interest, why did you move cities? This sometimes does make a difference to whether you are in a ‘dead end’ job as there are limited roles in certain satellite offices.

I already spoke to a L&D manager about my desired role types and why I’m interested. I was told the company can fund study qualifications if there is a business justification, and a supportive manager can easily put a spin on things to justify funding. But ultimately approval is at line managers discretion.

I have a toxic micromanager who will complain if my teams status is showing away for more than 10mins or if you finish before 5pm even if you worked 2 hours overtime day before or logged on hour early. She also tried to stop me even going to L&D sessions too and will come up with any excuse to implement new strict rules that don’t create any value, just making things harder for others but that’s another story.

I’m not eligible to apply for my company grad scheme as it’s been too long since I graduated. It’s very competitive because it’s a well known company.

I don’t have a supportive manager, she knows I have been interested in other role types as you have to inform line manager when applying to internal vacancies. Also, in four years not one person has been promoted in team of 10. Manager has been in her role for ages (won’t say how long because risk being outed).

I naively thought if I moved to London as it’s a bigger city I could increase my chances of getting a career job. I used to reach career threads on MN and Reddit, so many would say how simply moving to London gave them far more work opportunities.
I feel so embarrassed that it hasn’t worked out.

Thanks, I’m closer to my mid 30s than mid 20s

In my opinion having a dead end role is one thing, but being stuck in a dead end role for years without any hope is really hard to accept mentally. Today is another evening I’ve spent crying my eyes out because I don’t know how I’ll ever find a better job.

Feel free to think that’s dramatic but society perceives you differently when in a dead end role, as if it’s simply your fault for not ‘working hard’ enough. Just take a look at some threads on MN

Is it wrong for people like me to dream of a future where life isn’t restricted by low pay stress

Where are you looking for roles, £35k is minimum starting salary in most places. Look at civil service, nhs and councils. also apply for jobs out of your range even if you won't get it, you have nothing to lose.

@aluvss ‘35k is minimum starting salary in most places’ 😯 this is far from my experience, but I appreciate it may be different for people with career jobs.

I have a BSc and now worked for few years for a very well known company, hit targets but my raw salary is still less than 35k.

I mostly search via LinkedIn Jobs and Indeed but also apply for vacancies via recruitment agencies. If I see an ‘easy apply’ LinkedIn advert I will always try and apply directly via company website instead as sure they are swamped. I also sign up for job notifications for companies in industry

I’m even open to a slight pay cut ‘side step’ role if it at least involves gaining some new experience and a less toxic management.