Change of career - calling all HATOs
Discussion
I am pondering a change of career some time in the next few years, and would like to hear from anyone who has worked for the Highways Agency, especially as a Traffic Officer because I'm pondering whether I could do that as a job.
My background is that I'm 42, and have been a software developer since leaving university with a Maths degree about 20 years ago, working in a variety of areas including marine radar, securities trading systems, and for the last 10 years on the software for smartcard ticketing systems (e.g. Oyster in London and Opal in Sydney).
To be honest, I no longer enjoy working in this industry as much as I used to - perhaps I've simply had my fill after 20 years. I am ready for a complete change, and would like a more 'hands-on' job that gets me out and about - and it's important to me that I do something where I feel I'm contributing something to the greater good of society. My current job gives me a bit of that, because I really feel that Oyster and Opal make their respective cities better places. Quite simply, I'd like to be involved in making the motorway network run more quickly and safely.
Perhaps a weakness in my application would be an inability to demonstrate a directly customer-facing role in my career so far. That said, you could argue that everyone's job involves delivering a service to a "customer" if you have the right mindset. I believe I have excellent interpersonal skills and have plenty of team leadership experience - I am not a socially inept techy geek. I reckon I could demonstrate this in interview or role-playing scenarios, but would my CV even get me to that stage?
Another area of inexperience for me would be that I've never done shift-based work. How hard would I find it to adjust?
Road safety is something I care about (and as an advanced driver I've taken personal steps to do my bit), but is that enough? Is my career to date too irrelevant to get me an interview? I'm aware that as a rookie HATO I might be taking a big pay cut, but I don't think that matters to me. (By the way, what would a typical starting salary be for someone joining from elsewhere in industry?)
If anyone on this forum knows any P/H HATOs who might have an opinion on this, I'd be grateful if you could give them a nudge in this direction!
My background is that I'm 42, and have been a software developer since leaving university with a Maths degree about 20 years ago, working in a variety of areas including marine radar, securities trading systems, and for the last 10 years on the software for smartcard ticketing systems (e.g. Oyster in London and Opal in Sydney).
To be honest, I no longer enjoy working in this industry as much as I used to - perhaps I've simply had my fill after 20 years. I am ready for a complete change, and would like a more 'hands-on' job that gets me out and about - and it's important to me that I do something where I feel I'm contributing something to the greater good of society. My current job gives me a bit of that, because I really feel that Oyster and Opal make their respective cities better places. Quite simply, I'd like to be involved in making the motorway network run more quickly and safely.
Perhaps a weakness in my application would be an inability to demonstrate a directly customer-facing role in my career so far. That said, you could argue that everyone's job involves delivering a service to a "customer" if you have the right mindset. I believe I have excellent interpersonal skills and have plenty of team leadership experience - I am not a socially inept techy geek. I reckon I could demonstrate this in interview or role-playing scenarios, but would my CV even get me to that stage?
Another area of inexperience for me would be that I've never done shift-based work. How hard would I find it to adjust?
Road safety is something I care about (and as an advanced driver I've taken personal steps to do my bit), but is that enough? Is my career to date too irrelevant to get me an interview? I'm aware that as a rookie HATO I might be taking a big pay cut, but I don't think that matters to me. (By the way, what would a typical starting salary be for someone joining from elsewhere in industry?)
If anyone on this forum knows any P/H HATOs who might have an opinion on this, I'd be grateful if you could give them a nudge in this direction!
Have a look on the civil service jobs site. IIRC salary was well under 20k, but there are opportunities for desk based roles. Have you thought about other agencies like Border control or National Crime Agency. Plenty of interesting hands on type stuff that might float your boat. You could apply your current skills to forensic crime for example.
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