Failing in work, higher education and jobs

[Cinnamon]

Just hoping to learn the experiences of others. Are you working? Full-time or part-time? Paid or unpaid? Did you get through higher education courses/university? Do you work in your field of education? Do you have any good advice on whatkind of work to do or how to keep a job?

 

I have so far been miserably unsuccessful in work, and to be honest I feel like a failure and it's gettign me down.

 

I am 43. I'm currently self-employed as a childminder, but will soon stop my business. Mainly because we are moving house and I will therefor lose my client base, but also because I cannot seem to get the paperwork right, which resulted in me paying taxes and bills that I shouldn't need to have paid. I didn't earn a lot at all. Fortunately my partner has a steady job and income. I also stopped looking after kids under the age of 6, because for that you have to do a lot of paperwork as well... observations and such. I asked for asiistance with that, and was told my observations were very good. Still, I couldn't manage them. I spent weeks on them, not sure what I should and shouldn't include, and I got so stressed that I eventually gave up. Similar with risk-assessments. I did do those, but it got me into a state of panic.

 

I have also had many different jobs before this one, and none worked out well. I have never worked full-time.The longest I managed to stay in a job was 4 years. I used to get work reviews, and was told all sorts of things that I didn't understand. Like that I did not take enough initiative (yet when I consequently did, I was told off!). Or that I wasn't involved enough, and that one I really couldn't understand, because that was in a nursery where I felt extremely involved and devoted to the little ones in my care!

 

Also, I am fairly intelligent and have A-levels in maths, chemistry, physics and biology. I was one of the brightest students in school, but so far most of the jobs I had were production work or cleaning. Childcare is the most highly educated field I have worked in. Kids are fun, but, well, to be honest, after doing it for 30 years (started volunteering at 13) it's becoming a tad dull.

I have started a few higher education courses in the past, but couldn't finish any, although the subject matter was always very easy.

I am currently doing courses at the OU and hope this will prove to be more effective.

[Shnoing]

Firstly: I don't want to discourage you.

That said: full time job in the local administration (not in the UK), university degree, so hopefully a job that I'll able to keep. I have to travel more that 100 miles every day (both ways), though.

I was just lucky that the persons who wanted that job, too, got better offers quick enough.

[Aeolienne]

Just hoping to learn the experiences of others. Are you working?

I've been unemployed since my last job ended in February. That was actually a poorly-paid internship which I accepted in the hope that it would lead to a proper job, but it didn't. I've been offered a job of sorts in the trading division of an oil company via the NAS Prospects scheme, but it's only a two-month contract and the employer has been tiresomely vague as to what it will involve.

 

Did you get through higher education courses/university?

Yes. First degree in joint honours maths & philosophy at St Andrews, master's in applied maths at Oxford.

 

Do you work in your field of education?

In all the jobs I've done to date, my maths degree was (as far as I could tell) instrumental in getting me hired, and yet I didn't actually use much of the maths I'd studied in the job. For instance, in my longest job to date (scientific civil service) I barely looked at a differential equation. In the next job after that (environmental consultancy) my capabilities in statistics were grossly overestimated. The only statistics I'd done at university was a first-year module at St Andrews that probably wasn't much beyond A-level standard, yet in that job I was somehow expected to get up to speed with the likes of copulas with only a post-doctoral level research paper to assist me.

[Mike_GX101]

I'm stuck in a rut at the moment with regards to the employment situation having just been made redundant. I love where I live - it's amazing because I get a view of the sea when I draw my curtains in the morning.

 

But employment-wise it is far from ideal and I might have to move inland a bit (where I'm originally from) but that is something I really don't want to do. But the clock is ticking and the sand is falling and soon time will run out and I will have to do something.

 

I could go back into education although I don't favour the price tag (keeping in mind the September new-term is rapidly approaching) but I think realistically I will have to decide whether to take a lesser-job than what I had at least to cover my bills for a while or move to some place I really don't want to be and away from my support network and get a job I deserve.

 

My head is spinning at the moment!!

[Canopus]

My recommendation is to set up a business and then claim Working Tax Credits for the self employed. You get around £40 a week from HMRC for being a low paid self employed person.

[Aeolienne]

My recommendation is to set up a business and then claim Working Tax Credits for the self employed. You get around £40 a week from HMRC for being a low paid self employed person.

Maybe I'm just too unimaginative, but I can't really see how my work experience to date would lend itself to something self-employed. The scientific civil service job was focussed on internal systems and quality controls, so no direct application to the outside world. If I try to think outside the box, the only thing that springs to mind would be to some kind of freelance computing languages tutor or programmer (assuming there are people who use the same applications as my erstwhile employer did and are prepared to pay someone to teach them as opposed to learning on the job), but frankly that doesn't interest me. As far as I'm concerned computers are a means to an end, not the most interesting things in and of themselves.

[A-S warrior]

ive consistently dropped the ball for the last 2 years. ive tryed to pull it all back together but with the ridiculously low employment rate its been near impossible, but theres no one else to blame for my own lack of experience but myself. so i am returning to education, and will be doing un paid work in the youth offending service, and a teenage drop in centre. can i start the foundation of a strong career from here? only time will tell.

[assmerger]

 

I have A-levels in maths, chemistry, physics and biology. I was one of the brightest students in school, but so far most of the jobs I had were production work or cleaning.

 

same here what a waste of my brain and life and time..Got all these A grades and cant even keep or get a decent well paying job.