If I knew then what I know now...

[Acrylic-bob]

A thread by mel3ft, "Work Experience", has got me thinking. Between us we must have hundreds of years of experience of working for a living. From that collective experience, what is the best advice you could give to a young person leaving school and hoping to start earning a living?

What career choices would you hope to steer them towards and which would you try to steer them away from and WHY?

I remember that when I was starting out at the tail end of the sixties my choices were very limited, it was either Bulloughs or the Bakery. It seems painfully obvious now, but why where we not told that solicitors, doctors and accountants make far more money than factory workers? Why were we not told that at 15 years of age anything was possible and that no goal was too high?


To start us off I remember a sage piece of advice I was given one day while hand digging a drainage ditch. "You'll never get rich if you work with your head below the level of your arse".

[-pixie]

Do something that you enjoy, even if it's not what you were 'brought up' to do. I had it drummed into me that I should be a teacher, it wasn't till I got my degree that I realised that I didn't want to be a teacher!

[Debbie J]

Do whatever YOU want as long as your happy. Never mind what others tell you.

[lettie]

I was told never to go into nursing or midwifery unless I absolutely had to. I now know what this retired nurse meant when she said that. It is the most frustrating, stressful job, although not as badly paid as it used to be.

[entwisi]

I work in IT. If there is one thing I would say at a careers class in a school it would be. Get a trade. If you want to earn good money, probably work for youself(i.e. no boss to answer to) and live a comfortable life then Plumbing, Joinery, Building and Electrician is where you should be.

Whilst IT can pay good money if you skillset is 'in vogue' there are a heck of a lot of sys admins eaning less than 20K. Web monkeys unless they are VERY highly skilled in whatever bleeding edge is around at the time are also poorly paid. With the rise of third world countries emerging into the IT arena jobs in the UK are vanishing. I have just spent 6 months having to train a lad from the Phillipines how to do my job. He earns 10% of what I do. He works 10 hours a week more than I do. India has already taken most of the call centre work. Thailand, the Phillipines, Vietnam and most of all China are starting to make big noises in the IT industry. There will always be a need for some people in the UK who understand western processes to design the solution but the build work is fast moving offshore. This is a trend I see every day. I was stopped from doing a piece of work last week and was asked to send it offshore to our colleagues in Manilla. In order to try and keep some form of career I am having to retrain myself so I can be spread across multiple components within our organisation. Whereas 5 years ago my Java skills alone would have been enough now I am Java(J2EE), WebSphere Application Server, Websphere MQ , WBIMB and LDAP skilled. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy learning new skills, but this is a must do or I'm out on my ear type of situation.

Ian

[Margaret Pilkington]

Do something you love......and get paid for it.......and don't do it just for the money.
Always put your best effort into whatever you do........sometimes you'll miss the mark, but you'll be respected because you tried.
Don't EVER think you aren't good enough to do something.

I would never encourage anyone to go into Nursing.......although I wouldn't have missed my career for the world.......it IS different now(not necessarily better).......I had 30 very happy years looking after patients, but I wouldn't go into it now.

[Roy]

With all those skills Ian, why are you working for someone else? I did my time as an electrician(some here might argue with that), but now I work for myself as a web monkey - far easier, less stress and i can play GTA for most of the day while the servers are doing good!

[WillowTheWhisp]

Isn't it amazing how we all seem to be able to tell people what to avoid?

I would say avoid banking. When I first went into banking it was supposed to be a career for life and no-one was ever mad redundant. Ah those were the good old days when it was the personal approach. We knew all our regular customers by name and could remember their account numbers even if they couldn't. Granting loans and overdrafts was a matter of skill and judgement not a case of pushing a few buttons on a computer and seeing what it added up to. Nowadays it's all about selling people things they don't really want or need, and profits and targets. I remember an old manager of mine once saying that there was a difference between selling and marketing. Marketing was finding out what people needed and then seeing if we had the product to suit their needs, selling was finding out what we'd got and making as many people as possible have one regardless of their wants or needs. He said if we ever stopped marketing and started selling it was time to quit. He didn't need to bother about deciding to qut though, so many banks "downsized" and offered tempting redundancy deals to those who were disillusioned by the trend. I was glad to get out. Maybe they aren't all the same but the change of attitude and philosophy just didn't go down well with me.

[entwisi]

Originally Posted by Roy

With all those skills Ian, why are you working for someone else? I did my time as an electrician(some here might argue with that), but now I work for myself as a web monkey - far easier, less stress and i can play GTA for most of the day while the servers are doing good!

£££££'s, security(I have a no redundancy for 5 years clause), enjoyable work, Superb environment( 10 in 9 working fortnight, flexi time, 35hrs a week, Fully equipped gym, 2 squash courts, 3 football pitches, rounders, 2 rugby pitches, putting green, crochet lawn, 4 tennis courts, on site subsidised restaurant), Good bunch of people to work with, I'm well regarded and am left to just get on with it as they know I get a good job done on time hence I can play on Accyweb!

If it all went pear shaped or I stopped enjoying my circumstances then Iwould be out quicker than anyone. The contract market is picking up again and I would be happy to go into that(I have numerous friends who work the contract game). As it stands with IR35, I'd need to cover ~£90K to be much better off than I am here. I wouldn't want to work away from home so although that gives me a geographical area from ~Holmes chapel up to Lancaster and from Liverpool to Leeds I would hate to be at home for any length of time between contracts( I get bored very easily plus I'd probably enjoy looking after Siobhan too much and not want to go back to work)

So some of it is that I don't need to move, some of it is I'm happy in my lot and don't need any more money etc to be happy, some of it is sheer apathy.



Ian

PS, What time and where on Sunday, I did respond in the original thread.

[garinda]

My advice?

Follow your dream, as much is reasonably possible. I did and had a great seventeen year career in fashion in London. l was lucky my parents encouraged me into my Art degree, not a totally easy career to enter unless your Dad's is Sir Paul M cartney.

I always think the saddest thing is, to be led on your death bed, and to have regets about your life. Try not to, I don't.

[Less]

I want, I want, to be a lumberjack!


Lumberjack Song

I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay.
I sleep all night. I work all day.

Mounties : He's a lumberjack, and he's okay.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees. I eat my lunch.
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shoppin'
And have buttered scones for tea.


Mounties: He cuts down trees. He eats his lunch.
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping
And has buttered scones for tea.

Chorus : I'm (He's) a lumberjack, and I'm (he's) okay.
I (He) sleep(s) all night and I (he) work(s) all day.

I cut down trees. I skip and jump.
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing
And hang around in bars.

Mounties : He cuts down trees. He skips and jumps.
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around in bars?!

Chorus : I'm (He's) a lumberjack, and I'm (he's) okay.
I (He) sleep(s) all night and I (he) work(s) all day.

I cut down trees. I wear high heels,
Suspendies, and a bra.
I wish I'd been a girlie,
Just like my dear Mama (or Papa in later versions)


Mounties : He cuts down trees. He wears high heels,
Suspendies, and a bra?!

Chorus : I'm (He's) a lumberjack, and I'm (he's) okay.
I (He) sleep(s) all night and I (he) work(s) all day.

Yes, I'm (He's) a lumberjack, and I'm (he's) ok-a-y.
I (He) sleep(s) all night and I (he) work(s) all day.

[andrewb]

I say entwisi gets me a job at his work

Meh... College is boring and furthermore pointless, at least for me. I'm currently doing Physics Computing and ICT, just finished the AS courses and plan to go to Uni to do Software Engineering, at most of the Uni's you don't even need ICT/Computing, you just need 3 good grades, which I won't get because I'm bad at the problem solving (maths) of physics and think the exam board for computing are quite frankly, morons ;o

[entwisi]

Cyfr
I too hated Physics, in fact it is the reason I don't have a degree. I went to Uni to do Applied Maths and Computation. In the first year you got to choose what subjects you wanted to take, I opted for Pure Maths, Applied Maths and Physcology. However they wouldn't let me do Physcology and forced me into Physics. I got over 90% on each Maths course at end of year 1 and 26% on Physics (Oops!) They were having a load of work done at the uni that summer which meant that there were no resits. So I had a choice of wait a year and resit all three again or get a job. I choose the latter. Up to now I've sold TV's Videos and Hifi(3 years), Worked the Pub Restaurant game(8 years) Managed a Call centres staffing requirements and Management Info(2 years) before moving to what I do now. Even then I made sure I followed the 'sexy' skills and worked hard to get myself established as a known expert in them. On top of all those nice things I mentioned above, I spend 2 1/2 hours a day and over £200 a month on commuting(and thats before any accidents on the M6 turn a 60 minute trip into 3+hours) + I'm up and away by 6am every morning.

Don't ever think that a lack of qualifications will stop you. Its all about how you set about furthering your career. Sometimes you have to do a crappy job to get the experience to move into something better. That my friend is life. The sooner you accept it the easier and faster you will progress. Be focused in what you want to achieve and strive for it. It will pay off in the end. It may not end up as you expected and you never know what is round the next corner but face it with a smile and determination and you will get through it and come out better off either financially or in experience.

[cashman]

the best advice i can offer is do whatever you can to be able to do what makes you happy,its no good looking back at 40/50 thinking IF ONLY,and believe me many people do,remember you never miss oppertunities- they are just taken by SOMEONE ELSE.good luck.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I did a variety of jobs before I went into Nursing. No job is a waste of time, you can always learn something.
I had no paper qualifications when I left school, but I did have a vision of what I wanted to do....it took quite a while for me to be able to achieve my goal.
I was 26 when I was accepted for training.......I felt really old among the class of 18 year olds.
I always felt that I had to prove that I was WORTH training. What I didn't realise at the time was that my experience of life, being married and being a parent gave me a head start over the 18year old with their GCE's.

I did very well(but worked hard and consistently) and came top in the Hospital Finals.....and also achieved a practical nursing prize. So it was worth the slog.
Learn from every experience Mel...even the bad ones.