Career Advice - Help me!!

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Career Advice - Help me!!

blu73

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Right 1stly apologies for the seriousness of my post.

I am now 23 nearly 24 and i'm currently in a dead end job just bumbling along. I'm earning just over £13k a year which isn't bad but crucially not good either. I really need to sort my life out a bit as i'm not feeling particularly secure in my job as the charity isn't doing so well right now and with a mortage lurking over my head and my inability to get through the month without running out of cash in the first 2 weeks or pay for my food i feel the need to sort this out somewhat.

Now I have been thinking over the past few weeks what kinda job i wouldn't mind doing and also that has some sort of future to it and i have always come back to the idea of learning how to spray cars with a view to eventually learning air-brushing, pin-striping and other custom paintwork techniques. This seems to a good plan to me as i get to play with bikes and cars which is always good. So i have been trying to look into the industry so to speak and i am completely unable to find anything to give me any advice on what to do now. It would seem that this is something you have to work at on the job so to speak, i cannot find any courses/apprenticeships for this kind of work.

Does anyone on here do spraying as their job that can give me a little advice an where to start, or anyone else got suggestion..?
 
i mean this in the nicest way possible, dont bother. many sprayers dont even earn 13k. few sprayers are only sprayers. go ask them. you'll need to train in autobody repair. there's a lot more involved than spraying. if it turns out they say they earn enough money to satisfy your needs, and its what you want to do, then ask them how they got their skills and jobs. you cant beat primary research (y)
 
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why dont u turn to something that would make some real money? like gas service engineer, train to be a plumber? run a window cleaning business? mate 13k is crap money and you say yourself you run out after 2 weeks,

theres plenty of things out there you could do, I was in a simular situation a while back having a dead end job with a weak salary, i borrowed some money off my parents and set up a window cleaning business, now at 21 it feels dam good earning over 600 a week.
 
Any input greatly recieved mate, not the answer i was hoping for though lol. Its more a matter of job security tbh though mate. On my wage i should technically have £90 to spend on me every week (thats after mortage, petrol and bills) which isn't bad i don't think, its just i tend to spend that in a couple of days but thats more to do with me. If i can earn the same amount cash and know theres money to pay my wage next month then i'm moving in the right direction.
Its obvious that i'm not gonna be able to jump into a highly paid job straight away, but as a long term plan, i would be thinking of opening my own sprayshop.
 
why dont u turn to something that would make some real money? like gas service engineer, train to be a plumber? run a window cleaning business? mate 13k is crap money and you say yourself you run out after 2 weeks,

theres plenty of things out there you could do, I was in a simular situation a while back having a dead end job with a weak salary, i borrowed some money off my parents and set up a window cleaning business, now at 21 it feels dam good earning over 600 a week.

Interesting indeed.

Right ok people, throw some ideas at me for a job that pays well
 
there are literally millions of job roles that pay very well. i never knew any of them even existed until i started to work in a professional environment. the finance department where i work has a dozen people who all earn over 30k, their job roles are just names, what they bascially do it put numbers into spreadsheets and databases. its easy, anyone could do it. no seriously anyone could do it. but the people who do it are given the job simply because they chose to enter that industry and got the qualificaitons they needed.

i was a self employed mechanic, young dumb and having fun but not really getting anywhere in life. so i decied to enter the IT industry and study towards a business computing degree. all i wanted was to made sure i could tick the boxes people ask for when looking for workers, but not just any workers, workers who get paid a lot for doing little, so IT seemed the natural choice (all the peeps in IT will agree :)). so i got my degree and now as if by magic i sit at a desk all day posting on fiatforum and they pay me 20k per year for doing it. and thats just my starting salary because i'm a recent graduate, the people 1 level above me have company cars and 30k salaries. that will be me in 3-5 years. how far i go after that depends on my ability and attitude, but even if i only make it to the 30k stage its still easy work and a secure job. all i did was get a degree but it opened up so many doors. the professional world is full of easy jobs and good money, i've still never even heard of most of them, but to join in you have to get qualified, then all you need to do is sell yourself. a degree only takes 3/4 years. if you can go to uni, then i strongly recommend that you do.
 
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No NOT IT. I would say learn a real trade, don't bother going into the IT "industry", one of my more recent projects involves putting much offshore and this is becoming the norm within IT with chaps in India willing to work 12+ hour days and earn 6 times less than some bloke in the UK. Long term I don't think IT is a good career choice, and of course every man and his dog jumped on the bandwagon years ago so pay isn't what it once was, especially if you don't have a great deal of experience.
 
Pottleflump is right. Don't expect big money from IT any more unless you are in a specialist area and/ or have experience. The market is flooded with IT graduates and much of the work is being shifted abroad where it is cheaper.

Also be wary of any kind of manual skills work, because the Eastern Europeans are good in that area and are coming over here in droves. They also do the work for far less than native British people would therefore driving down prices in what is becoming a competitive market.

If you want job security and reasonable money go into the medical field. Rising demands for healthcare means that healthcare professionals are becoming more and more sought after. This is a worldwide problem so certain areas of healthcare professionals will be able to work just about anywhere in the world (y) Suffice to say, I've chosen to re-train as an RN Nurse and am aware that I'll have very good career prospects once qualified. :slayer: It does mean spending one year at college and three years at University, but it will be worth it once I get my professional registration.

Other than that I wouldn't know what else to suggest. It's such a volatile and changing market it's hard to know what is the right area to go into.

Perhaps see a careers advisor who can assess your skills along with your aspirations? They might be able to suggest some good options for you to look at.
 
Blu - I'd go for the Gas / Heating Engineer career. Two of my mates do this, just finished there apprenticeships and there on a whack. Plus Homers at the weekend - they are absolutley rolling in it : ( One of them just bought a 10 grand Celica. Me on the other hand, Joined the council and dont make 'as' much. But i've just been promoted! whey! :D . But to earn the money they do I'd need to be promoted another 3-4 times.(n) There on around £20,000ish a year plus homers which takes it up to around £25 grand per annum. and we're only 20. :bang:
 
No NOT IT. I would say learn a real trade, don't bother going into the IT "industry", one of my more recent projects involves putting much offshore and this is becoming the norm within IT with chaps in India willing to work 12+ hour days and earn 6 times less than some bloke in the UK. Long term I don't think IT is a good career choice, and of course every man and his dog jumped on the bandwagon years ago so pay isn't what it once was, especially if you don't have a great deal of experience.

you're forgetting, with decent IT qualifications you can get into almost any area of business. its a respected academic area, unlike the old fashioned 'technical' IT industry that is dying in both size and earning potential, modern IT is much broader and focused more on business and commerce than hardware or writing code, which is why i'm a business analyst not a network admin. to be a network admin you go to college, to be a business analyst you go to uni and study computing. i'm not suggesting a technical IT career. server room monkeys get peanuts and have to fight for jobs, you'd be better off as a plumber or electrician than technical IT these days. but computing graduates like me can pretty much choose a job in any area. i've had 2 interviews and got 2 jobs since leaving uni. both in areas of my own choosing, and neither technical. coincidence? i think not.
 
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how do I purchase shares? (y)

you've never bought shares before?!
its easy, register with a execution only stockbroker (online have good rates), tell them what you want, pay them, and bingo you own shares.

i prefer premium bonds. its a lottery for your savings :D
(then again i havent won once in over 10 years)
 
you've never bought shares before?!
its easy, register with a execution only stockbroker (online have good rates), tell them what you want, pay them, and bingo you own shares.

i prefer premium bonds. its a lottery for your savings :D
(then again i havent won once in over 10 years)

Premium bonds are useless, you may aswell put your money into an ISA and use every penny of interest for lottery tickets if you want a chance of winning, the returns are so poor, even if I had reinvested all winnings over the last 4 years I would still be significantly down in real terms, great, an "investment" that loses money!
 
Premium bonds are useless, you may aswell put your money into an ISA and use every penny of interest for lottery tickets if you want a chance of winning, the returns are so poor, even if I had reinvested all winnings over the last 4 years I would still be significantly down in real terms, great, an "investment" that loses money!

true, no risk = no profit, and inflation eats into your premium bonds. but you can only have so much put into an isa, and shares are a risk unless you have a well spread portfolio, so premium bonds are a safe option with a small chance of gain. but yes i'd put it into an isa first.
 
Right folks I need an advisor. Who's up for the job? I have no experience in stocks/shares, but its something im really interested in learning about and getting involved with. all i know is buy low - sell high! :D - so you recommend get an isa. :)
 
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