25 with no career prospects, feel like a waster

[Willeh85]

CX53 said:

I happen to know of a Motorsport company in Leicestershire who take on trainees most years in the winter in a hands on job with decent prospects, not working in a garage but in an air conditioned room. It's not amazing by any stretch but plenty of overtime available to make the money fairly good (I earned 27k in my first year as a trainee), plenty of prospects after a few years to travel with work etc. If it sounds like the sort of thing that might suit you then drop me a PM and I'll send you the details of the company and what the work involves.

Edited by CX53 on Monday 18th July 05:11

Whilst it seems this thread is a little old and the OP hasn't shown much interest, would you mind if I contacted you about the aforementioned role?

[Rich_W]

Prohibiting said:

sparks_E39 said:

You'll need a degree to be a police officer of any kind shortly.

Really? I honestly find that hard to believe and I'm specpital if that would ever be implemented...

Just did a little google and it's not for definite. Realistically though I think they should increase the minimum requirements to A-levels, e.g. grades BBC.

Depends. From what I gather via a friend whose a PC. The standard of recruits generally isn't great. Young kids with various qualifications. But no real life skills. No experience of people at their best or worst. No thick skin that you need.

What would you rather have?
19year old. BBC in Maths, Science and English
35year old. 9 GCSEs but nothing higher. Plays Rugby. Trained in another industry. Then changed career to Police?

[sparks_E39]

Prohibiting said:

sparks_E39 said:

You'll need a degree to be a police officer of any kind shortly.

Really? I honestly find that hard to believe and I'm specpital if that would ever be implemented...

Just did a little google and it's not for definite. Realistically though I think they should increase the minimum requirements to A-levels, e.g. grades BBC.

Edited by Prohibiting on Friday 23 December 16:46

From what I understand it definitely is being implemented before 2020.

[Ms R.Saucy]

Rich_W said:

Depends. From what I gather via a friend whose a PC. The standard of recruits generally isn't great. Young kids with various qualifications. But no real life skills. No experience of people at their best or worst. No thick skin that you need.

What would you rather have?
19year old. BBC in Maths, Science and English
35year old. 9 GCSEs but nothing higher. Plays Rugby. Trained in another industry. Then changed career to Police?

Depends if their 'life skills' outweighs their prejudices, bias and socialisation doesn't it ...

'Plays Rugby' is a red herring based on an assumption that brute strength is required for control and restraint.

[drab]

I can sympathise with you op, your mindset is similar to mine at that age.

I went to uni because my friends did and I felt like I was missing out. I studied an easy social sciences degree which wasn't career focused and left me almost unemployable as people were even less keen on taking on a graduate who would probably leave at some point. Eventually I took my degree off my CV and worked manual labour jobs for a while and ended up going back to uni to study something useful, and choose surveying. I've now got a massive pile of student debt and it doesn't bother me one bit. It doesn't even register with me as debt to be honest. I've had 3 jobs since then and they've all been great in different ways. Nothing I do relates at all to what I enjoy doing outside of work. In fact the things I enjoy most about my job are the things which I thought I would hate. Your brain works in strange ways I guess.

My advice would be to look at what the big industries are in your area and aim for them in terms of what you do, whether it's further education or not. Unless you're one of those people who've always dreamed of being a doctor or an astronaut I don't think there's a sure-fire way of choosing a career. Just choose something and go for it. The enjoyment you get out of your working life will be determined 90% by the people you are surrounded with and 10% from the work itself. Don't be scared of making a bad decision in what you do, in all honesty I don't think there is one.

Edited by drab on Monday 2nd January 22:22

[greggy50]

A degree is not the be and end all to be honest

Decide the career you want and work your way up it is possible with hard graft.

If fancy FM at all let me know and could maybe try and put a word in. Could easily work your way up in this industry without a degree and get decent money with some effort.

We have account managers on £60k + who started off as apprentices etc...

I started as a graduate so bad example but my degree was not relevant to the job I do at all and I am fairly certain I could have got in a similar position by now working my way up in the industry as I know several people within the business who have done it.

Personally I am 24 and pick up circa 38k a year not amazing by PH standards but certainly not bad either considering I am based in Chester and not down south.

[johnwilliams77]

greggy50 said:

A degree is not the be and end all to be honest

Decide the career you want and work your way up it is possible with hard graft.

If fancy FM at all let me know and could maybe try and put a word in. Could easily work your way up in this industry without a degree and get decent money with some effort.

We have account managers on £60k + who started off as apprentices etc...

I started as a graduate so bad example but my degree was not relevant to the job I do at all and I am fairly certain I could have got in a similar position by now working my way up in the industry as I know several people within the business who have done it.

Personally I am 24 and pick up circa 38k a year not amazing by PH standards but certainly not bad either considering I am based in Chester and not down south.

It's pretty damn good - well done.

[arm3000gt]

I am/was in the same situation as the OP. My advice is if you can get on a apprenticeship scheme for anything engineering related do it and do it now. Even if it is not in a field you particularly want to be in it will open doors down the line. I already had a mortgage so couldn't take the hit on wages for 3/4 years. Instead I've had to claw my way in inside the company.
I only have GCSE's so even less than the OP and where I work if you don't have HNC or higher under the age of 35 ish you are stuck. Everyone has a degree in something these days even if it is unrelated to the job they apply for it puts them up the list. Look for every opportunity no matter where you work. Bit of extra overtime to help out, do it and make sure the manager knows you've done it. You then become a face not just an employee. See something that could be improved, write it down and pitch it to someone further up. Just keep chipping away. Ask for training courses if you can. Even if you don't get any extra money take on extra responsibility. You can use it later to negotiate a better job elsewhere.
I still earn less now than I did 10 years ago despite doing more. This is my own fault I wasted too much time moaning about how badly paid I was instead of doing something about it. It is hard to keep motivated but try and push yourself a little bit at least once a week. I've finally managed to get my work to pay for education in something I can use in my job and in the future when I decide to leave.
Talk to others where you work, offer to help them out if someone is sick/short staffed. Stay on for an hour unpaid if it will help you learn something new. An hour in the grand scheme of things is nothing. Then approach you manager say x is short today can I help do y for a few hours. Next time x is short staffed the manager might approach you and ask you to help out doing y for a week as you've done it before. Now you've got you fingers in two pies and another door has opened. Try look at the long game . I think this is the only way to open doors for yourself if you don't have higher education and work as an employee. I think the days of starting as an apprentice and working your way up to MD are for the very lucky.

[anonymous-user]

You are not too old for an apprenticeship, I started as an apprentice at 18 with similar grades to you.

Couple of my friends have trained at Airbus, started between 16-29!

O.K. I went to university in the end via night school but you can make that decision when / if required.

[Ms R.Saucy]

Trexthedinosaur said:

You are not too old for an apprenticeship, I started as an apprentice at 18 with similar grades to you.

Couple of my friends have trained at Airbus, started between 16-29!

O.K. I went to university in the end via night school but you can make that decision when / if required.

however a lot of apprenticeship schemes do want a certain age and lack of qualifications , primarily so everyone is on the most generous funding support from the DfE

[Ransoman]

What would be the chance of finding an apprenticeship for someone who is 31 with only standard grades (no Highers) but an HND? I am fed up of IT work and want to get into something more hands on/technical. Preferable electrical engineering.

[l354uge]

Ransoman said:

What would be the chance of finding an apprenticeship for someone who is 31 with only standard grades (no Highers) but an HND? I am fed up of IT work and want to get into something more hands on/technical. Preferable electrical engineering.

No mention of age of this job ad for GKN
Or this one.

JLR dont have an age limit either it seems

Being older may make you less desirable in terms of the years they can get back from you and funding from the goverment, but you never know until you've applied.

[Marc p]

And herein lies the biggest problem with 'Millennials'(and yes, I'm actually a millennial myself), they think that opportunities should just arise with little or no work.

Stop moaning, if you spent less time moaning that your life isn't going the way you envisaged it and more time actually working towards a goal, then you'd maybe be there by now. I hate people who moan that there working in a stty job whilst others are now starting to get somewhere in life, boo-fking-hoo, the only person to blame is yourself, shut up, look for positives, get yourself a goal, put a plan in place, work your ass off and you could be a successful guy when you enter your 30's.

I didn't do uni, I barely passed my A-Levels, I flaked around some stty low paying jobs for a couple of years before I got my act together, I could still do far better though, I could be much further on if I work harder for longer, but I can get distracted easily, but that's my fault, I know what the problem is and I'll work on it, moaning gets you nowhere in life apart from just being the one who gets left behind.

The best thing to have is competition, I have a friend who is also doing well for himself and we compete(in a healthy way, not by getting into debt), it's good, it drives you further.

[Ransoman]

l354uge said:

No mention of age of this job ad for GKN
Or this one.

JLR dont have an age limit either it seems

Being older may make you less desirable in terms of the years they can get back from you and funding from the goverment, but you never know until you've applied.

Thanks for this. Since my post I have taken a look around. It seems in my area (NE Scotland) Apprenticeships just mean trainee window salesman or electrical wholesaler assistant but looking for "Trainee" instead has given some interesting results.

[edc]

Ransoman said:

Thanks for this. Since my post I have taken a look around. It seems in my area (NE Scotland) Apprenticeships just mean trainee window salesman or electrical wholesaler assistant but looking for "Trainee" instead has given some interesting results.

Have you searched in the right place for proper apprenticeships rather than just key word searching on jobsites?

https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship

[l354uge]

Ransoman said:

l354uge said:

No mention of age of this job ad for GKN
Or this one.

JLR dont have an age limit either it seems

Being older may make you less desirable in terms of the years they can get back from you and funding from the goverment, but you never know until you've applied.

Thanks for this. Since my post I have taken a look around. It seems in my area (NE Scotland) Apprenticeships just mean trainee window salesman or electrical wholesaler assistant but looking for "Trainee" instead has given some interesting results.

I had a similar issue at 18 as I was living in the deep south west. The only engineering "apprenticeships" were CAM programming and machinist roles where you were basically used for cheap labour. I didn't have the resources to move up north with no support and do a JLR apprenticeship so I went uni and swallowed the debt instead instead. (despite not being ready for the maths, got there in the end) Have done very little actual hands on stuff at uni, most of it was during placement, so not really ideal for people wanting hands on.

NE Scotland does limit you with big companies, but it does open you up to the oil and gas industries if you don't mind spending time in the middle of the North sea..

Just a thought...isn't there a load of wind turbines up there? maybe look into that?

[Ransoman]

edc said:

Have you searched in the right place for proper apprenticeships rather than just key word searching on jobsites?

https://www.gov.uk/apply-apprenticeship

Thanks, But when i click on the scotland link I get 404'd (page not found)

[l354uge]

Apprenticeship in Inverness for siemens wind turbines