Career Advice Needed!

[LazyDaisy]

Hi everyone, I have changed my nickname for this as afraid someone might recognise me!

Have just been made redundant which is a bit of a pain in the bum but have decided it's time for a career health check. The thing is I haven't a clue what to do.

Years ago I did one of these sessions with a career advisor who said I was suited to something creative. I have never done anything creative in my life( won an art competition when I was 10!) and proceeded to do a degree in Economics followed by a post grad in IT (my mother would have had a fit if I didn't go to a proper university and get a proper degree-none of this arty farty namby pampy stuff!).

Years later I had a bit of a crisis which lead to a spot of ECT - (anyone who has ever experienced hospitalisation due to depression will know what I'm talking about!) followed by years of antidepressants. I was told that I should reconsider my career choices but I didn't as I just wanted to get back to some sort of normality as quickly as possible.

Now I'm at a crossroads - do I go back into IT or try for something creative - I am late 30's have no idea where to start and I have started this conversation fuelled by a few glasses of wine. Can anyone offer any advise or emphatise with me!

Thanks - I will probably look at this tomorrow and cringe, dh is getting up with dd tomorrow hence the wine!!

Hi LD - sorry to hear about your redundancy (been there a couple of times and it's a real pain in the butt). First off, why not have another session with a career advisor like you did before, or there are numerous books containing similar sorts of tests/quizzes to help you identify your primary career strengths and values (can't think of any titles off the top of my head, but try surfing about on amazon). Creative doesn't necessarily mean working in the arts - you can be creative in almost any field, including IT. I don't know what area of IT you've been working in, but perhaps you could add to your existing skills and move into a more creative area within your field? I work in web development and application design, and I would consider that to be creative even though it isn't "arty" ... just a thought. Would you be able to afford to go back to college/university to retrain? Or get another IT job and do a course part time? I guess a lot depends on your financial/domestic situation. I think in your situation my first question to myself would be what would my dream job be? Perhaps draw up a list of things I would really love to do - even if some of them were silly/impossible - this could be a starting point for thinking about where you'd really like to go. I'm in my mid 30s and although I like what I'm doing now, I get restless sometimes, and it's surprised me that whereas in my 20s I always felt like there was plenty of time to do whatever I wanted, now I feel time is running out and my age would make it much more difficult, so I can empathise I think!! Anyway, sorry if this is all a bit garbled (I've had a few shandies meself), but good luck!!!

Thanks spacemonkey - I worked in the boring end of IT - tech/server support. Web design sound promising. I have done some html but thats about it! How did you get into it, is it hard to break into??

Thanks a lot

I kind of stumbled into it really LD, was a technical author at the time and had to do some HTML stuff and found it enjoyable, learned HTML and did some design stuff, then got into coldfusion and now make web applications (shopping carts, intranets, CRM etc etc etc) with a little bit of front end design work here and there - not much formal training, it all just happened, but experience/a decent portfolio counts for much more than qualifications anyway.

I'd say web design/programming is reasonably easy to break into as the tools for doing it are so accessible (I mean in theory all you need is Notepad!) and your tech background will only make you an even hotter property - a "tech creative" is a rare and desirable thing! There are a lot of people doing "web design" - but take heart in the fact that most of them are doing it badly! Have a look on Jobserve at the web design/programming vacancies to see what skills are in demand. If I can be of any use, ask away - there are various other web people on mumsnet too, I know Lucy123 is an ASP developer who would have some good advice too if you're interested in going down the web road ...

oh blimey, i'm now paranoidly wondering if i dreamed that lucy123 is an asp developer - sorry if i'm wrong!

SpaceMonkey - thanks for this - I am definitely going to check into this. I was rambling a bit last night had almost a bottle of wine which pretty much laid me flat out! normally after 2 glasses i'm done for - I'm surprised I don't feel too bad this morning

thanks again

Must have been good quality wine

You can learn to work on dreamweaver and build small websites of good quality... that's what DH does and he is no designer.
I know that designers do use dreamweaver.

What about strating your own business of pottery for kids.
What sort of creative do you like? What do you do well?

The session with a career advisor, as space monkey suggested, might be a starting point. They often bring up things you've perhaps not considered before, they might be able to pinpoint your skills more clearly for you.
I've been thinking of doing this myself.I like my job but it's no longer a challenge, and I can slowly feel myself getting very board.
I'll have 2 days a week free in September, so I'm thinking of retraining, or just trying a variety of P/T jobs that interest me, until I hit on something I enjoy.
I think when we've been in a particular field for sometime, we become "blinkered", when considering the skills we have.
I've always fancied floristry. Also, got chatting to a woman who drives a water taxi, in our newly renovated bay area, and she mentioned they were looking for P/T staff, driveing the boat, greeting/chatting to passengers, and doing a bit of a comentry during the trip.Really, opened my eyes as to, how dull and boaring my veiw of work has become.

Thanks everyone, I am a bit scared of starting again although while i've enjoyed what I do I feel it is not really me (and i'm 36 so not exactly a young thing!). Also I have always worked in a city envirnoment and thats not really me either. I am going to check out a career advisor and try and get a low down on alternatives. I do fancy the thought of web design but as I've never done programming I hadn't really thought of it before this.

I always fancied something in the artistic line - when I was a child I was always drawing but I have had no formal training in this either. I think my real problem is that while I used to love drawing and sketching (I havent done this in years though) I don't know whether I have any real ability and wouldn't know how to start putting a portfolio together.

Pupuce - will check out dreamweaver courses - have heard of this but never worked on it. I did maintain intranet sites using html but they weren't v exciting! also wrote scripts to go along with presentations and it competitions so I reckon I really need to see someone to see if I actually have any creative ability and if I have what can I do with it...

Good luck Jac34 hopefully you'll find your niche too.

Don't be afraid to start again. When you are 60 are you ever likely to say "If only I'd gone straight back into IT after I was made redundant ....." I think not. Give yourself a couple of years if you can afford it. I worked part-time as a marketing manager while doing a foundation art course (if you're in London there's a fantastic one day a week foundation course for grown-ups (e.g. over 21) which lasts one year at London Guildhall University. It is a huge amount of fun). Try out different stuff. don't think about another "career" think about how you want to spend your time, day to day. I can't believe so many people try to stuff themselves into offices when there are so many more fulfilling ways to live (apologies to those fulfilled by offices). Sorry this is turning into a rant so I'll shut up. I hope you find something you can feel passionate about to do.

The only thing I wanted to add is that I changed career - moved sideways, really, from running press offices into journalism - in my mid 30s. It was hard; I too worked part-time while building up my 'real' job and that wasn't always a brilliant combination; but I really, really enjoy what I do now. My week is fairly structured, on account of one (soon to be two) kids, I work four days a week from 8am to 4.30, I have a lot of variety and most of all it's what I want to be doing. I was unhappy for a very long time!

Good luck, honey.