Careers with good progression opportunities

[Willeh85]

So I’m sat here on my lunch and once again find myself contemplating my career or lack thereof. I enjoy my job, work environment, and work with lots of great people (a hard thing to find I Know), but I find it exceedingly boring and I think I’m not working anywhere near to my potential. I work about 50 hours a week in this job and an additional one at weekends to bring in around 20k which just about affords me to do the things I want to do but I wouldn’t deem myself comfortable and it eats into my free time.

My main job is an administrative job and the career progression is very long and drawn out with limited steps up through each level and even in the senior positions managers only earn around 30k unless you’re executive management. They’re also a bit precious about skipping levels even though I’m more than capable with demonstrable evidence at doing some of the higher level jobs advertised.

Some of the professional roles here like IT can earn up to around 40k but this is for guys with well over 15+ years’ experience and we tend to pay the lower end of the market anyway as we’re public sector.

I’m 30 and my highest qualification is A levels. I’ve worked in bars, finance call centres, fraud, a bank, customer service, and administrative roles. A year ago I was studying CIMA at certificate level in an effort to start a proper career and took and passed a number of the modules but found the subject matter very boring indeed, although now I’m older the law module whilst wordy did actually make sense to me and wasn’t gobbledegook. I also did a 6 month secondment in the finance team with my current employer but this just confirmed through my studies that following solely a finance route wasn’t for me.

So this brings me to my question of what careers offer good progression opportunities either through further study/qualifications gained/accreditation, or experience but would also take on people at a junior level?

I’m happy to start somewhere from the bottom and study part time whilst working provided I could meet my current financial obligations and that there was potential for good future earnings and progression. I'm only entitled to one years university funding, the rest I would need to find elsewhere.

I’ve recently renovated my house and really enjoyed managing the project as a whole and I’ve been thinking one route is possibly surveying? I know what I don’t want to and that is Sales or anything that is a predominantly a customer service role.

[okgo]

Just out of interest, how do you know you don't want to do sales?

It always strikes me that many people seem to have NFI what they want to do but they know FOR SURE that they don't want to do sales..?

Also, what is it about progression that is so interesting? Is it the money or something other?

[Willeh85]

okgo said:

Just out of interest, how do you know you don't want to do sales?

It always strikes me that many people seem to have NFI what they want to do but they know FOR SURE that they don't want to do sales..?

Also, what is it about progression that is so interesting? Is it the money or something other?

It is a very brief/broad working history I've provided, but in a number of those roles for part of It was under a lot of pressure to sell products and services, and sometimes in circumstances I didn't feel comfortable in.

The progression side of it is a combination of reward, recognition, and respect from my peers for the work and effort I put in, but also to give me a sense of working towards something and not feeling like I'm stagnating in my career

[esxste]

Think about what your talents are:

Are you gregarious?
Do you find it easy to lead?
Do you enjoy a certain amount of repetition or do you prefer constantly changing enviroments?
Are you physically fit?
what interests do you have? Any hobbys you could make a career from?


There are plenty of jobs where you can get a good career progression if you make the effort, show the initiative and have the confidence to go do it.

The question is... what do you want to spend your time doing every day? Find that career you'll enjoy doing and can make a living doing

[randlemarcus]

There was an interesting thread about automation on here a while back. When selecting a new career, avoid anything that might be in the firing line of automation before your pension date, unless you actively enjoy starting all over again.

Shuffling paper seems like a great target for outsourcing/automation.

[Gargamel]

Try the opposite of sales.

Loads of good careers in Procurement at the moment, if you have some finance knowledge, can negotiate and run a process then you are most of the way there.

IS/IT Procurement is a super hot sector at the moment, loads of jobs, not enough people, join a BIG firm and get stuck in, good money in it too.

[p1stonhead]

Willeh85 said:

I’ve recently renovated my house and really enjoyed managing the project as a whole and I’ve been thinking one route is possibly surveying?

QS'ing pays well; at least on the contracting side.

You can be on £60-70k after say 6-7 years if you are motivated. A degree is often a factor in employment though.

Sky is the limit though as it often leads to Commercial / Financial Director roles. A lot of Managing Directors I know started in QS roles..

Mental money is possible in London at the moment.

Edited by p1stonhead on Tuesday 7th July 18:43

[Willeh85]

Thank you for the responses so far chaps, they’ve helped me to do a bit of self-reflection and I’ve started to do some research on some careers either online or by checking out some books from our library (I work in a university so plenty to choose from).

I did find the comment about automation interesting, although none of the jobs I’ve done in the past or career paths I’ve researched so far would likely be in line for automation.

Gargamel said:

Try the opposite of sales.

Loads of good careers in Procurement at the moment, if you have some finance knowledge, can negotiate and run a process then you are most of the way there.

IS/IT Procurement is a super hot sector at the moment, loads of jobs, not enough people, join a BIG firm and get stuck in, good money in it too.

I must say Gargamel I hadn’t even thought about procurement at all, likely because I don’t know a single person that does it or has any relation to anyone that does. What are the big names/firms in procurement?

p1stonhead said:

QS'ing pays well; at least on the contracting side.

You can be on £60-70k after say 6-7 years if you are motivated. A degree is often a factor in employment though.

Sky is the limit though as it often leads to Commercial / Financial Director roles. A lot of Managing Directors I know started in QS roles..

Mental money is possible in London at the moment.

And what about the none contracting side of it? I’m aware a degree will be a factor in working so I’ve been looking into doing a FdSc Construction and paying for this myself to show I’m willing and serious about a QS career with the view to getting an entry level job and the employer sponsoring the degree.

[mm23]

I am in the same situation as you, however I have two years experience in assistant level project management. I wish to pursue a career in quantity surveying and I have found it difficult to obtain a trainee role at a big firm.

Best of luck .

[edc]

Every company has a procurement requirement of sorts as every company needs materials/services to produce to sell but also for basics/services to keep the daily operation going. It's not a case that you can go straight in with no experience and be earning a decent amount. The obvious choices are manufacturers, but with the way manufacturing is being outsourced then so can procurement functions. For some reason, the term buyer seems as prevalent but in other industries then purchasing/procurement seems the norm. If you are serious about it, and with no experience then have a look at the basic CIPS qualification as it will at least get your CV looked at with no current procurement experience.

[Nickbrapp]

Get a Trade of some sort. BMS commissioning is a sector seriously lacking in Trained engineers. No way that can be outsourced or automated.

[Martin_M]

What about recruitment? Some of the folk who aren't actually that good but manage to get a couple of big sales throughout the year can make incredible commission.

[Willeh85]

Nickbrapp said:

Get a Trade of some sort. BMS commissioning is a sector seriously lacking in Trained engineers. No way that can be outsourced or automated.

Forgive me, but whats BMS?

[iphonedyou]

Willeh85 said:

Forgive me, but whats BMS?

Building Management Systems. Computer control systems for mechanical and electrical installations within buildings.

Or, from my naive QS point of view, a big black magic pit of time and money!

[Gargamel]

Martin_M said:

What about recruitment? Some of the folk who aren't actually that good but manage to get a couple of big sales throughout the year can make incredible commission.

It is a very cyclical industry, and it burns people out on a regular basis.

Most large firms have a procurement department, but there are some outsourced providers


Pro Procure
Procurian
Buying team

Plenty to google.

I maintain it is relatively easy to get into and offers a fast career path if you are good.