25 with no career prospects, feel like a waster
Discussion
EazyDuz said:
South Leicestershire.
I guess a 2 or 3 years of feeling unfulfilled in life has given me the negative attitude.
What really made me feel this way is my gf has just graduated uni with a 2:1 in modern languages.
Leading up to her exams she applied for graduate jobs, and ended up scoring a job at Ford Finance with a starting salary of 30k which goes up 1k a month. She's currently doing a paid internship until October when she starts with Ford. Basically just helping other employees with their presentations etc.
She tells me she is a minority and a lot of graduates do nothing for a while until they get a job in their field. But i cant help but feel just having a degree opens you up to all these graduate opportunities which everyone else don't get, with higher starting salaries and better/faster progression.
I have no commitments where i live, no mortgage or anything which makes me think uni makes sense. But at the same time the thought of being 30 odd with no money and a degree isnt that appealing.
I have 20k saved because despite low pay, i'm good with saving.
Marry herI guess a 2 or 3 years of feeling unfulfilled in life has given me the negative attitude.
What really made me feel this way is my gf has just graduated uni with a 2:1 in modern languages.
Leading up to her exams she applied for graduate jobs, and ended up scoring a job at Ford Finance with a starting salary of 30k which goes up 1k a month. She's currently doing a paid internship until October when she starts with Ford. Basically just helping other employees with their presentations etc.
She tells me she is a minority and a lot of graduates do nothing for a while until they get a job in their field. But i cant help but feel just having a degree opens you up to all these graduate opportunities which everyone else don't get, with higher starting salaries and better/faster progression.
I have no commitments where i live, no mortgage or anything which makes me think uni makes sense. But at the same time the thought of being 30 odd with no money and a degree isnt that appealing.
I have 20k saved because despite low pay, i'm good with saving.
Edited by EazyDuz on Friday 8th July 09:53
EazyDuz said:
South Leicestershire.
I guess a 2 or 3 years of feeling unfulfilled in life has given me the negative attitude.
What really made me feel this way is my gf has just graduated uni with a 2:1 in modern languages.
Leading up to her exams she applied for graduate jobs, and ended up scoring a job at Ford Finance with a starting salary of 30k which goes up 1k a month. She's currently doing a paid internship until October when she starts with Ford. Basically just helping other employees with their presentations etc.
She tells me she is a minority and a lot of graduates do nothing for a while until they get a job in their field. But i cant help but feel just having a degree opens you up to all these graduate opportunities which everyone else don't get, with higher starting salaries and better/faster progression.
I have no commitments where i live, no mortgage or anything which makes me think uni makes sense. But at the same time the thought of being 30 odd with no money and a degree isnt that appealing.
I have 20k saved because despite low pay, i'm good with saving.
Marry herI guess a 2 or 3 years of feeling unfulfilled in life has given me the negative attitude.
What really made me feel this way is my gf has just graduated uni with a 2:1 in modern languages.
Leading up to her exams she applied for graduate jobs, and ended up scoring a job at Ford Finance with a starting salary of 30k which goes up 1k a month. She's currently doing a paid internship until October when she starts with Ford. Basically just helping other employees with their presentations etc.
She tells me she is a minority and a lot of graduates do nothing for a while until they get a job in their field. But i cant help but feel just having a degree opens you up to all these graduate opportunities which everyone else don't get, with higher starting salaries and better/faster progression.
I have no commitments where i live, no mortgage or anything which makes me think uni makes sense. But at the same time the thought of being 30 odd with no money and a degree isnt that appealing.
I have 20k saved because despite low pay, i'm good with saving.
Edited by EazyDuz on Friday 8th July 09:53
There's two ways you can look at this
1. You spent your entire education life planning and working up to being something. Like a doctor or a lawyer, something you're headed to do
2. You didnt do that
Many people fall into category 2 and still go on to forge very successful lives for themselves. I dont like using the term 'career' because a career to many people is doing the same job with varying levels of responsibility, for a long time for various companies.
On the upside, you've got a lot of options and possibilities. If you're working retail jobs, you're not going to be stuck high n dry while you're either retraining to do something or feel like you're wasting the 10 years of education it took to get to the point you're at now.
I dont think everyone has to know what they want to do at 25, I'd tried a few jobs and fell into one that didnt seem to want to fire me, so I kept going back in.The more I worked there, the more I liked it. My point is, it doesnt need to be 'astronaut' for it to be a good job for you. b
ks to what other people think, and there's no point comparisong yourself to others either, because they're doing their thing, you're doing yours.
And hobbies, for the most part are what you do outside of work as they stop becoming as enjoyable when people start demanding you do things you ejoy doing, for them and for money. One to give a wide berth to IMO
1. You spent your entire education life planning and working up to being something. Like a doctor or a lawyer, something you're headed to do
2. You didnt do that
Many people fall into category 2 and still go on to forge very successful lives for themselves. I dont like using the term 'career' because a career to many people is doing the same job with varying levels of responsibility, for a long time for various companies.
On the upside, you've got a lot of options and possibilities. If you're working retail jobs, you're not going to be stuck high n dry while you're either retraining to do something or feel like you're wasting the 10 years of education it took to get to the point you're at now.
I dont think everyone has to know what they want to do at 25, I'd tried a few jobs and fell into one that didnt seem to want to fire me, so I kept going back in.The more I worked there, the more I liked it. My point is, it doesnt need to be 'astronaut' for it to be a good job for you. b
ks to what other people think, and there's no point comparisong yourself to others either, because they're doing their thing, you're doing yours. And hobbies, for the most part are what you do outside of work as they stop becoming as enjoyable when people start demanding you do things you ejoy doing, for them and for money. One to give a wide berth to IMO
You need some "get up and go" OP.
I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was 18 after college and left with a C, D and an N from my A-levels - I basically flunked them all. I didn't want to go to Uni and dismissed that as I wanted to get a job.
I found an office junior job in a solicitors office. I liked it and approached them after a few months to ask if they'd fund me to do my ILEX exams, which they did as I seemed enthusiastic. 4 years later I qualified as a Legal Executive and I've now worked my way to become a Senior Associate at a top 15 law firm.
I'm not writing this to blow my own trumpet; i'm writing it to show that by starting at the bottom and with some hard work and enthusiasm, anything is possible.
As said above, if you're in sales there's nothing stopping you reaching management level with some hard work and the right attitude. Good luck OP!
I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was 18 after college and left with a C, D and an N from my A-levels - I basically flunked them all. I didn't want to go to Uni and dismissed that as I wanted to get a job.
I found an office junior job in a solicitors office. I liked it and approached them after a few months to ask if they'd fund me to do my ILEX exams, which they did as I seemed enthusiastic. 4 years later I qualified as a Legal Executive and I've now worked my way to become a Senior Associate at a top 15 law firm.
I'm not writing this to blow my own trumpet; i'm writing it to show that by starting at the bottom and with some hard work and enthusiasm, anything is possible.
As said above, if you're in sales there's nothing stopping you reaching management level with some hard work and the right attitude. Good luck OP!
I would try the OU.
That way you can continue working, rather than running up huge debts, and it will help to motivate you as you'll be working towards something positive even if your current role is getting you down.
I left college after A-levels with worse results than you, albeit 20 years before you when such high grades weren't the norm/expected.
I went into industry - manufacturing - and worked my way up to a reasonable level but knew that didn't want to spend my whole life in factories.
It wasn't until I was 27 that I realised I would probably need a degree to keep moving upwards in my chosen line and went about starting with the OU. I got work to sponsor some of it, although I'd have done it anyway, and eventually graduated with an honours degree in Maths/IT.
The fact that I was working towards something positive made the long hours (often nightshifts in st conditions and working with people I couldn't stand) bearable and kept me positive.
The fact I'd got off my arse and done a degree the hard way was recognised by employers and opened lots of doors. I've now got a job I love - it's more like a hobby at times - earning a very good salary and am happy knowing that the hard work and time I missed socialising was worth every minute.
That way you can continue working, rather than running up huge debts, and it will help to motivate you as you'll be working towards something positive even if your current role is getting you down.
I left college after A-levels with worse results than you, albeit 20 years before you when such high grades weren't the norm/expected.
I went into industry - manufacturing - and worked my way up to a reasonable level but knew that didn't want to spend my whole life in factories.
It wasn't until I was 27 that I realised I would probably need a degree to keep moving upwards in my chosen line and went about starting with the OU. I got work to sponsor some of it, although I'd have done it anyway, and eventually graduated with an honours degree in Maths/IT.
The fact that I was working towards something positive made the long hours (often nightshifts in s
t conditions and working with people I couldn't stand) bearable and kept me positive.The fact I'd got off my arse and done a degree the hard way was recognised by employers and opened lots of doors. I've now got a job I love - it's more like a hobby at times - earning a very good salary and am happy knowing that the hard work and time I missed socialising was worth every minute.
Nezquick said:
You need some "get up and go" OP.
Must admit that's my gut feel from what the OP has posted.Fair enough I perhaps got a little lucky and fell on my feet with a reasonably good career and this may sound a little harsh but I'm not seeing any mention of applications or interviews or of actually having tried to do anything about it.
EazyDuz said:
Access to HE course
This is what I have done, albeit at 21 not 25. I have done my Access course and am going to university in September to study Engineering (At a bloody good uni too 
) What I used to justify or at least decide wether it was a good idea to spend 60k on uni fees etc was a best worst case scenario of each. It turns out if I failed in my degree or didnt get a job after uni, my future wasnt much different from what im doing now, so I had nothing to lose.
Don't know If it will help you make your decision but it helped me.
If I were your age and in your situation I'd be looking at the armed forces.
You've said you like fitness (big tick), you can expand on your engineering skills in any of the forces. If you do it right they will pay for your further education and you will be highly employable when you come out. I work with plenty of ex forces guys in their 40's who are earning pretty decent salaries.
You've said you like fitness (big tick), you can expand on your engineering skills in any of the forces. If you do it right they will pay for your further education and you will be highly employable when you come out. I work with plenty of ex forces guys in their 40's who are earning pretty decent salaries.
UberMeister said:
What about accounting?
Have a look at a low level finance role where you could study towards an accounting qualification which would open up many career options.
Snooze fest.Have a look at a low level finance role where you could study towards an accounting qualification which would open up many career options.
I'm interested in optometry but had mixed opinions on what kind of salary to expect.
My eyesight is quite bad and needs a lot of correction so I've spent a lot of time at optometrists and always found the eye quite interesting.
Correcting other peoples vision might make me care a bit more about others too
There's nearly always a chain for you to progress, sometimes you just need to think about it, where you want to go and what you need to do in your role to get there. Be clever about it, subtly show off your skills to the right people, ready for when you apply for a job with them.
I was in a retail job (hated it) for a few years, decided I wanted a career in financial services (wasn't exactly sure what area). I applied for a temp job in PPI complaints for a very large bank as a way in. Decided I quite liked analytics, so I showed off these skills. Went for overviews in different departments that employed analysts. Found out I needed to learn SAS, so I learnt it. Applied for a role as a financial analyst, got it. Did the same thing again for a year, then applied for a promotion in a higher grade within the same bank, senior analyst/manager.
I've been in the latest role for 2 years and I soon start as an analytics consultant for an extremely large American software/analytics company.
It may or may not have helped that I have a degree in Accounting, but the method is sound. Sit down and think about what you want and just do it.
I was in a retail job (hated it) for a few years, decided I wanted a career in financial services (wasn't exactly sure what area). I applied for a temp job in PPI complaints for a very large bank as a way in. Decided I quite liked analytics, so I showed off these skills. Went for overviews in different departments that employed analysts. Found out I needed to learn SAS, so I learnt it. Applied for a role as a financial analyst, got it. Did the same thing again for a year, then applied for a promotion in a higher grade within the same bank, senior analyst/manager.
I've been in the latest role for 2 years and I soon start as an analytics consultant for an extremely large American software/analytics company.
It may or may not have helped that I have a degree in Accounting, but the method is sound. Sit down and think about what you want and just do it.
Edited by jan8p on Sunday 10th July 12:34
jan8p said:
There's nearly always a chain for you to progress, sometimes you just need to think about it, where you want to go and what you need to do in your role to get there. Be clever about it, subtly show off your skills to the right people, ready for when you apply for a job with them.
I was in a retail job (hated it) for a few years, decided I wanted a career in financial services (wasn't exactly sure what area). I applied for a temp job in PPI complaints for a very large bank as a way in. Decided I quite liked analytics, so I showed off these skills. Went for overviews in different departments that employed analysts. Found out I needed to learn SAS, so I learnt it. Applied for a role as a financial analyst, got it. Did the same thing again for a year, then applied for a promotion in a higher grade within the same bank, senior analyst/manager.
I've been in the latest role for 2 years and I soon start as an analytics consultant for an extremely large American software/analytics company.
It may or may not have helped that I have a degree in Accounting, but the method is sound. Sit down and think about what you want and just do it.
I've done something similar. I worked in a bar after dropping out of uni. I was a bit of a tech geek, so started working in a call centre doing customer support for a couple of the big (at the time) manufacturers. I then took a job in a call centre for a bank and have worked my way across and up into a lead business analyst role with a few steps in between. In my mid 30s, I've now got a decent career out of it, initially from taking a drop in salary to join the bank. I was in a retail job (hated it) for a few years, decided I wanted a career in financial services (wasn't exactly sure what area). I applied for a temp job in PPI complaints for a very large bank as a way in. Decided I quite liked analytics, so I showed off these skills. Went for overviews in different departments that employed analysts. Found out I needed to learn SAS, so I learnt it. Applied for a role as a financial analyst, got it. Did the same thing again for a year, then applied for a promotion in a higher grade within the same bank, senior analyst/manager.
I've been in the latest role for 2 years and I soon start as an analytics consultant for an extremely large American software/analytics company.
It may or may not have helped that I have a degree in Accounting, but the method is sound. Sit down and think about what you want and just do it.
Edited by jan8p on Sunday 10th July 12:34
My point is that you don't necessarily go into a job knowing what your career is going to be; if you work hard you end up just finding one.
Have you considered working at sea as an Engineer?
http://www.careersatsea.org
Get a modest amount of pay during your training phase. Decent money when qualified and can be an interesting and rewarding job.
http://www.careersatsea.org
Get a modest amount of pay during your training phase. Decent money when qualified and can be an interesting and rewarding job.
OP, one thing to keep in mind. The first three years of your employment career may not have gone as you hoped, but you're almost certainly going to be working until you're at least 68. You've got another 43 years of employment in front of you. There is plenty of time to find something. Of course that "something" might be a bridge to jump off if the thought of 43 years at work makes you feel suicidal.
Kermit Power's post on student "debt" is really worth digesting as is his advice on choosing a subject. Don't let the finances dominate your decision. If you think you'd enjoy the study and come out with a reasonably good degree, then go for it.
There is no such thing as a dead end job, particularly at your age. Every role teaches you something. You learn how other people work, what motivates them, what pisses them off. Dealing with customers is excellent experience for the same reasons. Any exposure to any business will give you insights into how that business works. The fact that you've held down a job says something to a future employer. If you go into an interview for something totally different, and they ask you why you used to work in retail, you can say it's because you didn't know what you really wanted to do, but it brought in a salary and allowed you to save while you figured things out.
You've got some cash in the bank. That buffer allows you to take a bit of risk with your employment. There's no better time to do it. The older you get the more responsibilities you'll have, so if you're going to throw the dice, now's a good time to do it. As already said, you have years and years and years in front of you, so even if things balls up in the short term, where's the harm?
Kermit Power's post on student "debt" is really worth digesting as is his advice on choosing a subject. Don't let the finances dominate your decision. If you think you'd enjoy the study and come out with a reasonably good degree, then go for it.
There is no such thing as a dead end job, particularly at your age. Every role teaches you something. You learn how other people work, what motivates them, what pisses them off. Dealing with customers is excellent experience for the same reasons. Any exposure to any business will give you insights into how that business works. The fact that you've held down a job says something to a future employer. If you go into an interview for something totally different, and they ask you why you used to work in retail, you can say it's because you didn't know what you really wanted to do, but it brought in a salary and allowed you to save while you figured things out.
You've got some cash in the bank. That buffer allows you to take a bit of risk with your employment. There's no better time to do it. The older you get the more responsibilities you'll have, so if you're going to throw the dice, now's a good time to do it. As already said, you have years and years and years in front of you, so even if things balls up in the short term, where's the harm?
Du1point8 said:
PH is hiring, why not see if you can join them?
(not in a bad way, but in a good way)
There are plenty of large companies like Haymarket that take on all sorts of people to do all sorts of roles. You could easily get a job selling advertising at Haymarket and be on £50k within 3 years of doing that, yes you'd start on £20k but its not difficult, and there are plenty of routes you can take.(not in a bad way, but in a good way)
Thanks for all the replies, a lot to think about.
I'd just about meet requirements if i do well in a science based Access to HE course, leading to study Optometry at uni.
Graduates start on around 25k which isn't bad for a fairly low stress 9 to 5. I'd imagine its quite rewarding fixing and saving peoples eyesight as well.
I'm giving it serious consideration. I have nothing keeping me where i am currently. No kids, no mortgage, minimal friends (they all went to uni and became something, and moved as a result). The ones that didnt knocked up their girlfriends and live on benefits. Or worked their way up in a corporate white collar office job, which i cant say appeals much to me at all.
I'd just about meet requirements if i do well in a science based Access to HE course, leading to study Optometry at uni.
Graduates start on around 25k which isn't bad for a fairly low stress 9 to 5. I'd imagine its quite rewarding fixing and saving peoples eyesight as well.
I'm giving it serious consideration. I have nothing keeping me where i am currently. No kids, no mortgage, minimal friends (they all went to uni and became something, and moved as a result). The ones that didnt knocked up their girlfriends and live on benefits. Or worked their way up in a corporate white collar office job, which i cant say appeals much to me at all.
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