Help with career move (or not)
Discussion
Hello and thank you for sparing your precious time to help/offer some advice.
So I’m 26 graduated a little over 18 months ago and prior to graduating I managed to secure a job at a software company in the engineering industry. I couldn’t believe my luck as there were so many people who were struggling to find jobs on my course. I did BEng Mechanical Engineering by the way.
The job sounded good and pays very well, being my first degree based job I went in very excited and have been doing well. I even received a small promotion at the end of my first year.
As it turns out, I don’t really feel like I am doing much more than final level technical software support – with customer visits to train them on using the software suite(s) every month or so.
I really feel like this is not somewhere I can progress, everyone in higher level roles are software developers/specialists in one way or another. There is no scope for me to work towards chartered status. Also, I don’t feel like I am really being challenged nor doing something I enjoy. To put it simply, this really isn’t why I picked the degree I did.
Based on university work and what I enjoyed, I would like to build a career as either a design or project engineer but I feel like if I move onto another job I will be taking a big cut in pay to do so.
It seems sensible that if I am going to change, it should be sooner rather than later as I will most likely have to start from the very bottom in a new field either way.
My current situation – I got married 6 months ago. We don’t have a mortgage. And that is about it really.
I apologise if I am waffling, I would like to know what people would do/have done in this position and how they would go about it. I am very grateful to have this job but do I stay here because the pay is decent or look elsewhere for the challenge/scope to progress?
I really appreciate any positive/constructive thoughts and comments on this. Or even any ideas I may not have thought of yet.
So I’m 26 graduated a little over 18 months ago and prior to graduating I managed to secure a job at a software company in the engineering industry. I couldn’t believe my luck as there were so many people who were struggling to find jobs on my course. I did BEng Mechanical Engineering by the way.
The job sounded good and pays very well, being my first degree based job I went in very excited and have been doing well. I even received a small promotion at the end of my first year.
As it turns out, I don’t really feel like I am doing much more than final level technical software support – with customer visits to train them on using the software suite(s) every month or so.
I really feel like this is not somewhere I can progress, everyone in higher level roles are software developers/specialists in one way or another. There is no scope for me to work towards chartered status. Also, I don’t feel like I am really being challenged nor doing something I enjoy. To put it simply, this really isn’t why I picked the degree I did.
Based on university work and what I enjoyed, I would like to build a career as either a design or project engineer but I feel like if I move onto another job I will be taking a big cut in pay to do so.
It seems sensible that if I am going to change, it should be sooner rather than later as I will most likely have to start from the very bottom in a new field either way.
My current situation – I got married 6 months ago. We don’t have a mortgage. And that is about it really.
I apologise if I am waffling, I would like to know what people would do/have done in this position and how they would go about it. I am very grateful to have this job but do I stay here because the pay is decent or look elsewhere for the challenge/scope to progress?
I really appreciate any positive/constructive thoughts and comments on this. Or even any ideas I may not have thought of yet.
Edited by Ver.4 on Tuesday 9th December 21:32
Thanks for taking the time to respond Mike.
I have had this conversation with both my line manager and the managing director, both were quite adamant that the only other option in this company is for a software developer/programmer (which I am not).
There wasn't any real response when I asked what progression is available and the fact that achieving chartered status isn't something they support is also a negative. Therefore, my PDR outcome was along the lines of learn to help customers in ways in which I haven't yet, to solve issues for them that I haven't come across so far.
The pay is good, and from speaking with ex colleagues, they have had packages around the sum of £40k salary + £6k bonus after around 12 years of service.
I am not learning anything that will help me in my career unless my career is only where I am now.
I have had this conversation with both my line manager and the managing director, both were quite adamant that the only other option in this company is for a software developer/programmer (which I am not).
There wasn't any real response when I asked what progression is available and the fact that achieving chartered status isn't something they support is also a negative. Therefore, my PDR outcome was along the lines of learn to help customers in ways in which I haven't yet, to solve issues for them that I haven't come across so far.
The pay is good, and from speaking with ex colleagues, they have had packages around the sum of £40k salary + £6k bonus after around 12 years of service.
I am not learning anything that will help me in my career unless my career is only where I am now.
Thank you very much, it has given me comfort to know that the way I am feeling is not just me being silly and naïve.
The question is what to do next? The job I have now was through a recruitment agency calling me and offering me the job...How do you go about getting your foot in the door in a new field and hopefully not taking too much (if any) of a pay cut? Where to look?
I will be updating my CV on the usual sites like CV-library, Total Jobs, Prospects, Reed recruitment etc...anything else? Is this the totally wrong way to go about this as I haven't yet heard from any job I ever applied for on these sites?
Any advice is sincerely appreciated and any guidance/tips would really be helpful.
The question is what to do next? The job I have now was through a recruitment agency calling me and offering me the job...How do you go about getting your foot in the door in a new field and hopefully not taking too much (if any) of a pay cut? Where to look?
I will be updating my CV on the usual sites like CV-library, Total Jobs, Prospects, Reed recruitment etc...anything else? Is this the totally wrong way to go about this as I haven't yet heard from any job I ever applied for on these sites?
Any advice is sincerely appreciated and any guidance/tips would really be helpful.
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