Desperate. ANY junior office job I can retrain in that pays 37k+?

[ASDnocareer]

• I don’t have dependants so can be flexible. (at this rate can’t see myself ever starting a family as I’ve never landed a career path).

• Happy to work long hours (I often work 8 - 6 in my current low skilled role which barely pays much. If I was actually paid 37k+ with career prospects I would happily work much longer hours!!)

• Happy to make work my priority (I always join network groups, and volunteer in the companies I’ve worked for).

• Happy to give up remote working. I live in London and willing to work fully from the office, but also don’t mind hybrid.

• British citizen so no visa/sponsorship issues

• Not fussy about company ‘benefits’ (pension, maternity leave etc) - I’d rather just land a career job first, then can later be picky about companies.

(All of my performance reviews have acknowledged I’m willing to go the extra mile, not just me being delusional)

I know it doesn’t count for much but I also have 2.1 BSc degree with industrial placement, zero CV gaps, completed a coding bootcamp and 5.5 years experience of working in financial services. My roles have always been low skilled (not intentionally, I just never land any career jobs after multiple internal and external applications).

I’m open to getting further qualifications however I constantly hear people say experience is more important, and companies often fund qualifications once in the related job. I don’t want to risk spending money I don’t have on a qualification which won’t guarantee me a job, and potentially end up working in a different area.

Information/cyber security?

You could do one or two certifications online through Udemy or similar for minimal cost. If you’ve got experience in financial services a career in cyber security within this area could be very lucrative.

What is your degree in? You might not get £37k straight away but it might be a good long term career path if you went for entry roles or even a grad scheme in a big company related to your degree depending on what it is. Our graduates for example start on £32k and will be earning around £37k after 2 years, and much more as they go up after that.

anti money laundering if you're already in FS, but try and train up so you're not just doing screening etc.

Take a job in a high paying industry: admin coordinator, project coordinator, exec assistant (to a relatively junior role -VP rather than Csuite) office manager are all job titles to look out for.

focus on pharma, oil & gas & tech. Many pay that sort of salary as a starting point.

You don’t need to retrain, apply directly or get work through one of the big agencies and start proving yourself.

Check the Civil Service? You might not be able to start on £37k but once you’re in, it can be a job for life. Good holidays/pension and work/life balance too.

This is a good idea. See if you can get yourself up to speed in data protection and information requests and you could easily rise to become the head of a service without needing formal qualifications to do so. A low level management job in this field where I work pays in the region of 40k starting salary.

EA roles easily pay that in London, temping is often the easiest way in as once they know your face you're much more likely to be offered a perm position.

Go for further training/entry roles in one of the many functions / departments / professions in a financial services company and work your way up?… risk, audit, compliance, propositions, sales/distribution, leadership, project management, policy/standards, training, HR, legal, financial crime, underwriting, actuarial, finance, IT, data analytics… Various different professional qualifications available for each.

What do you want to do? What kinds of things do you like doing ant work and where could you get more of that?

thanks for the suggestion. My degree isn’t useful - Business related. I applied for graduate schemes for 3 years but never had much success due to fierce competition. In assessment centres I saw how much smarter and confident the other candidates were, didn’t have much chance but still tried my best anyway. Only a minority of grads actually land these schemes anyway, so I had hoped I could work my way up from a job instead but that hasn’t worked either- rejected four times when applying internal jobs.

Also, I imagine employers would easily prefer fresh graduates versus a stale graduate with low skilled experience. It almost feels like a stigma being stuck in low skilled work, you have to prove your worth more than people lucky enough to skip low skilled work and land a career job straight out of uni. I feel embarrassed I don’t have much to show for the past 5 years, and still starting from the bottom.

I am still applying to some graduate vacancies but not the prestigious schemes, ones I see with smaller firms or agencies.

Thankyou! Will look into this, I have zero experience of cyber security but I work in IT operations role at the moment

What is your current role and why the specific salary of £37k?

A friend wanted a career change, starting temping in a big corporate, they liked her and she's worked her way up to a highly paid role. Like you, she did have some relevant experience already.

Agree to go for a more basic job but in one of the big paying industries, so aside from oil and gas look at property and real estate, banking, consulting etc. They all need EAs, project managers etc.

New grads are all very well but they have no experience of working life and don't know how to actually do anything.

Could you get an A+ IT support qualification and start that route? I see women moving within a year from 32k to 40k and up. You do have to upkeep your qualifications though.

I think you're going to struggle without a much clearer idea of the career you want. It all sounds very wishy-washy at the moment which may well be why other graduates are landing jobs that you aren't - perhaps they are more focussed on the sector/role they are aiming for.

Civil service is currently experiencing a slow down in recruitment. DH department not hiring consultants, offering voluntary redundancy and early retirement to shed in house jobs rather than be actively recruiting. It'll be that way for a few years... til they realise getting rid of a whole layer of experience was daft and now they need to hire consultants to fill the gap... again...

I really wouldn't count on the civil service as a job for life any more. Lots of redundancies on their way.

Junior office positions do not pay 37k+

You've got to apply to all the tech companies that you find. Something will come up. Even if it's not your specialty, but somewhat related and you might retrain on the job. They are the ones with the money and happy to pay more to hard-working individuals. And always ask for more even if you think you don't deserve it. You wouldn't believe how much less some women earn than men in the same company, doing basically the same job.

In many industries they do. I have a temp admin in my team currently who is on £48k (that’s her pay not the agencies). My EA earns 6 figures with her bonus.

There is such a huge gap in what industries pay and many people just don’t understand what opportunities are out there. A fact that is thrown into sharp relief everyone someone posts about their 30 something year old “friend” who has just gone on another holiday and bought a new car and posters shout that it’s all credit without it occurring to them that as a marketing manager she’s on £150k

This!

Also once in make yourself useful, identify the tasks that need to be done and how best to do them, show initiative and be a problem solver, these are the people that end up successful.

it sounds so simple but so many people do the bare minimum and then wonder why they’re the one that’s always “made redundant” or don’t get promoted.

I’ve only just noticed your user name. Information/cyber security is REALLY autism friendly. I love it.

Train to be a paraplanner in wealth management/financial services. There's always huge demand for them. Salaries start at about £40k. Higher if you're chartered.

Hi I’m based in London, I know from friends experiences that many junior office positions can start on 37k or higher.

My old flatmate wasn’t British, moved to UK in her late twenties, strong accent, no degree and first job was a barista. She isn’t a graduate and is now earning 50k as a receptionist in the City (she had to declare to our landlord agency for checks so I know she wasn’t lying)

I’ve also seen many MNers say their DC started on higher salaries fresh out of uni.

Thank you!! I don’t have any AML exp, clutching at straws here but in my role I often liaise with other banks and we have to first verify their signature, check identity before actioning things (admittedly will only be ‘basic’ queries from them).
It’s a little challenging trying to sell the very low scraps of responsibility I have as it sometimes feels like it’s not enough to get a foot in the door of an actual path.

Thanks, you’re probably right but I started to panic when my previous strategies had failed. I wasn’t able to find a job relating to what I already had some experience in (Marketing in financial services) so back to square one hoping to try my luck at working in another area that has an opportunity to work my way up. Even when I met 80 - 100% of job ad reqs I’d still get rejected. I don’t want to be too fussy about the type of role, can tailor to my desired career when I first get a foot in the door of something. Most of my friends haven’t had linear careers, and changed their mind after each role.

Some of my friends moved to London with very little idea of what they wanted to do, accepted the first role they could simply get there hands on, then changed roles.

I first did an industrial placement in marketing within my industry (FS). I worked hard so was then offered a permanent role part time during final year and then full time once I’d graduated. I declined the full time role as I was offered a better paid job in a bigger city (also marketing in FS). However, I then moved to London a year later and couldn’t find an equivalent role, so took the first job I could which was at least in same industry but doesn’t really have prospects. I’ve had a handful of interviews including internally but still not any luck yet, so I want to open my mind to other areas.