That is a good plan. After 35 years in the Civil Service good old Dave and George decided that they wanted rid of 10,000 of us in our Department alone, so I took early retirement at 51 and it was the best thing that I ever did.
Now in my 5th year since leaving and haven't even thought about getting another job. I did have an interview once to be a Postie, but only made the reserve list.
I certainly don't miss getting up at silly o'clock and the early morning commute.
Don't bother with the military unless you have a passion for it. The technical skills you learn there can be decades old and might not lead to a good job back in civvy street. There are dozens of charities helping ex-forces folk back to real work for a reason.
Decide if you want to chase money or not. That will lead to a different answer.
I chose not to chase money initially, but look back and think I made a mistake. I ended up in IT and earn what most would consider a good salary, but I do think if I'd only known about finance and made the same success I'd now be a millionaire many times over.
Get your degree, get a good mark and think about your next plan. You could go work in financial services as a grad if your maths skills are hot and you're at a good uni. A maths grad I know started at 45k and was at 60k in their first year. You could also think of getting into IT. Developers in the right industries get paid a lot. An IT director/Head of position is attainable for the right minded person in 8 or so years. That's a 6 figure salary.
I give a lot of masterclasses to grads as part of my job. When asked how to have a successful career my answer is usually something along the lines of find something you like that nobody else does, get good at it and you'll be overpaid.
Good luck.
Property renovation
If you have money to start with it could really mortgage why not try some renovation?
You're own boss
Clearly you are hands on with your work study etc
You can't chase a dream if you don't have one
I think if you stay as you are then look at who you wish to work for
What brands impress?
Or is it all about the money
Love your girl
Treat her right
Depression is crippling and I admire you even mentioned the word
People try and make you feel guilty at times as they think you have it all
I've gone through it
"Nice car, got your own house..."
what? So being lovely ir upset isn't allowed then?
Not going to get all self help but try and look at what makes you smile
For me now it's about giving - time - volunteering etc
I hate my rat race job
Stay well and ask for help if you need it son
I did an engineering degree and started out with a modest salary. I worked hard and over a thirty year period I got myself up to a six figure annual salary and a lifestyle to go with it.
Only then did it become boring and I noticed that my management realised how expensive and old I was and, after a certain amount of negotiation, we parted company and I bought a franchise business.
Having never run a business myself before a franchise was a good way to go. While fine at first, I realised that the skills that I had from engineering together with close liaison with the sales people, meant that i could apply myself to business quite easily and make things work very well. Looking back, taking a franchise was a good way to establish myself but is also a tight noose once up and running.
Time will come when contract renewal is necessary. Will a renewal take place? Probably not. Retirement or partial retirement will probably follow because we have saved enough over the years to make this possible.
We have a nice house, financial security and, most importantly, health and happiness. The last two cannot be purchased and trump anything in the bank. We also have the money to make choices, limited ones yes, but reasonable ones so money has some value.
If I had my time again I may consider going it alone far earlier. I didn't trust my own capabilities and was scared to make the leap. I would also not take a franchise route again. Rocky though going it totally alone is, with common sense and some decent advice it is possible. However, I see a lot of people in business who have no business or common sense whatsoever and can see a car crash waiting to happen.
If I was young again, and our son is doing an engineering degree right now, my advice would be to stick at getting a qualification. A degree is a door to a vocational rung on a ladder that lesser qualifications simply dot get to unlock. An engineering degree doesn't limit you to being an engineer. It's a golden key to a wide range of stuff.
Get your qualification, see some of the world if you want to do so - perhaps, like I did, with the company paying for most of it, and get yourself some commercial and management experience. It teaches you to think and behave in certain ways and this will pay dividends for your career later. Make your mistakes, learn your lessons, grow your knowledge at somebody else's expense and then use these skills to your own advantage afterwards.
Keep your options open now, get don't close any doors and then evolve your life. You only get one go and it doesn't have to be set in stone right from the start.
One small change I would make would have cost me nothing and gave me major gains...
After college (in the late 1990s) I rented here and there with other blokes for about five years, I then worked offshore, worked as an ex pat and was generally very mobile for 5 years, so I purchased my first house 10years after leaving college. What I should have done was...
When I graduated borrow £20k off my old man and buy a small 2 or 3 bed house in a city or town in an affordable neighbourhood.
If I had done that, I could have rented a room whilst I lived there (I'm easy going)(or rented the entire house whilst I travelled). Had I done that I'd now have a rental property fully owned that I could view to sale to fund my kids college.
SO in summary, renting as a young professional is a terrible waste if you have any option at all to purchase.
Ally,
You initiated this thread in hopes of identifying some direction to take in your life. You provided some good background and even added that you may be depressed.
Numerous fellow members from wide backgrounds and ages have responded with their thoughts on how you might proceed, given your particular circumstances. You have rejected every single idea presented to you. Having re-read this thread a second time, I would submit that you are either in a far more depressed state than you realize, or you are being disingenuous with us, either consciously or subconsciously.
Regardless, I would urge you to make an appointment with a respected psychologist in your area. You mention that money is not an issue, so what do you have to lose? The odds that the third next post here will suddenly solve your career problems is remote, at best.
With sincere best wishes, Tom
Couple footnotes:
1) You state you have a partner of six years with whom you live (in your partner's house?). However, your response to 'travel' is that there is no one to travel with. Am I misreading this, or is there a major life issue at play here?
2) You've written several times about military. At age 27 a military officer career is not a realistic option, especially for someone with undefined direction.
Last edited by pacifichrono; 22nd April 2017 at 19:37.
Not true. Some of the comments here have really helped.
Property renovation is one good idea that I've thought about and may relook, perhaps alongside a 9-5.
There's nothing disingenuous here I can assure you.
1) Correct, of course we enjoy holidays together but circumstances don't allow for extending travel together. No relationship issues what so ever. Apart from the fact my partner is against me offing to join the military.
2) Why is military a non-starter at 27 ? They take up to 33years old here.
I would go territorials/reserves before any forces decision.
I'm not sure I could have taken roaring and shouting when I was passed the age of 30...
Your in a fantastic position Ally.
I would set up a good fish and chip shop in the right area. In ten years time you will be minted.
All my mates that went to Uni got good engineering positions and did ok, the few that went down the fish and chip route are minted.
Would have married someone better or not at all. Its the only thing I would change.
Although after the fact that's a bit like Steve Irwin wishing he'd never developed a fascination with stingrays.
I will regard the last 25 years as the beta testing phase. The next 40 hopefully will be the actual release candidate.
I have a friend who was similarly directionless. Joined the Navy and has spent time touring the world doing disaster relief, catching drug smugglers and gun runners, has the best group of mates you could wish for and loves the job with a passion. Happily married and be-sprogged, so some relationships can survive periodic distance.
With my time again I might have considered similar.
I'm really confused at where graduates outside law and banking earn so much.
What're your gcse and a level grades like?
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If you like aviation, get involved in aviation.
Get a pilot licence and fly rich people fancy places without necessarilt bombs.
Need motivation? Get into rescue missions.
Fly a chopper!
Qualified as a stone mason in my 20's, moved about the country, worked for some bastards etc.
Didnt really have a grand plan: not easy to do in your twenties. Then I lost my father to cancer. Drove me a little mad.. quit my job, joined the nhs. That was 1988. I have two jobs now, one self employed, and an 11 year old son, who is the finest thing in my life.
So, make sure you have enough to live on and think about a pension. Critically, make your sure there is NO WAY any one can take that away from you. Dont spend half your life fixing property for it to be taken in a divorce .
Go make a great life abroad, maybe Oz ( have an old friend there who is an ITU nurse, he has a great time) I think this country is too anxious to screw its occupants with tax , but I don't discount the positives though.
Lastly, the old saying 'God laughs at the plans of man' says it all.
I dont mean to be a super cynic, you will have a great time, so you should at your age if you can.
Last edited by sestrel; 23rd April 2017 at 17:05.
If you love aviation, you can always become a private pilot or a glider pilot. Or become a balloon pilot, way more adventurous than flying planes (more complicated too, but hey...). It happened to me, have been doing it for 31 years while mostly earning my living otherwise, and it has not been boring to say the least. That still leaves the question about what to do for work. ;-)
Agree with some of the above, flying is your passion, if you can find an income in aircraft/flying you'll enjoy going to work.
If you can't get into fast jets try racing motorbikes, I've never flown jets but have raced bikes (wish I started earlier) & I'm told by those who've done both it's the closest you can get to the buzz.
Two best pieces of advice I was ever given;
'protect your anonymity' (hard in this facebook-powered day and age)
&
'you make your own PR'
And its not just 'travel', its 'as much as humanly possible' before kids (new dad at 42, and it rocks) & mortgage.
I'm 54, mortgage on a 4 bed semi in a nice road paid off, kids both finished education and working full time, but still at home.
What would I change? Well, in retrospect I'd probably have risked a bigger mortgage and have a more valuable house, but that's about it on the financial front. Maybe put some more money into pensions in my 30s and 40s, bu they're not too bad...
We had our daughter when I was 30, we'd travelled a bit before that and have done so many times since - I feel one of the better things I've done as a parent is given my kids a chance to travel. If you can afford it, don't let kids be the excuse to stop travelling or doing things you love. They don't really owe you anything, so no point being bitter in later life if they've emigrated to New Zealand and you're wishing you'd done things differently.
A few personal decisions I would have changed along the way, but I'm not dissatisfied with how my life has panned out so far, perhaps because I never had a plan to fail to achieve
My advice, though ,fill your life with experiences not things... (Although my wife would suggest I have far too many THINGS!)
M
PS Oh, and if you can, buy property, you don't want to be spending 2/3rds of your income funding some TZer's exotic watch collection through rent, do you?
Last edited by snowman; 25th April 2017 at 10:57.
I just wish I'd stayed at home that night in August 1986,
Should have gone through my officers training whilst in the RN and not stayed a rating and should have stayed in longer.
Snowman has the right ideas above. I'm 15 years behind him but on track :)
There's only two things in my 39 years on this planet that I genuinely regret - running out into the road when I was 14 (left me seriously injured in a way that stays with me every day since) and not spending more time with my Dad before he got sick.
Everything else - including all the dumb decisions I've made many, many times over, just make you who you are.
Try to save as much as you can do and try to retire asap. I started saving in the 80s (high interest on savings account, tbh) The money is not for sitting behind the curtains, but for a change: career, scenery whatever. When you're 50 y/o you have still 15 or 20 yrs to do something else! I left teaching and got involved in classic cars. I did return to teaching for a few days/week. But next August, it will be the end of that. Being 59 (then) with lots of classics around me, I think I can go on for at least 10 yrs doing what I like.
Did all that saving makes me wealthy? No, not when you keep in mind that you'll need the money to bridge gaps. I consider the money not as something I have/own, I consider it something I need. Currently, things are going well, business wise and they did during the last depression, but you need to save for rainy day! I need that money, it's not spare money until I am 67 and I get my (official) pension.
Menno
Use your ISA allowance and learn about compound interest.
I certainly wish I could mail that advice back 20 years!
Listened to my maths teacher in 1985!
He told me to learn as much about computers as possible as they are the future!
Looking back I should have listened 😀
My maths teacher told me that The Rocky Horror Show was the best thing ever.
I guess we had different maths teachers!
Good, but will be irrelevant once I have a degree anyway surely ?
My intention regardless where I end up career wise is to buy another property. Probably won't get a mortgage for a while with being "new" to employment.
Money in an ISA isn't much good these days though :(
Some great replies so far........however i'm 42 with a good job and i still don't really know what i want to do for a living! Moreover i worry that with the whole world at your feet with no limitations or constraints then there are too many options.
I guess my advice would be to stick with the degree (you're almost there) and then try the first job. You might hate it, you might not. it might bore you. you might love it. You won't know until you try.
I know it feels like your options are narrowing and you NEED to make a decision now.....a decsion that will then set up the path you follow for the rest of your life....but it's not the case in my experience.
I graduate at 22 with a degree in Marketing and i now run an IT team of 70 people for a blue chip company.....i've had a shit tonne of jobs along the way, many of them i didn't enjoy but many really helped me along the way. I don't hate my job, but i can't say i bounce out of bed every single morning and think "yes". However i have more good days than bad days, it pays for my watch and car hobby....so all being said i'm happy.
I agree with others that the depression or the hint of depression is a concern but i do wonder how much of this is self imposed pressure from making the "right" decision. It's definately worth looking at how happy you really are - the job is part of it but if you're expecting and hoping it to fix everything and make you happy then you might be found wanting.
Good luck!
[QUOTE=-Ally-;4328807]Good, but will be irrelevant once I have a degree anyway surely ?
Only for a rubbish job. Girlfriend is a qualified solicitor at a high flying firm and still had to show gcse certificates. Standard for good jobs. And her first salary was less than 25k.
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The thing people forget about ISAs is that money is tax free forever. These days it may not seem important with low interest rates and the savings allowance (a govt plan to bubble the economy imho) but if / when rates go back up again having the 8% tax free will suddenly be very interesting.
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
I wish I had actually bothered at school, I coasted along as I was going into the RAF and knew I would pass their entrance exam, I did, but failed the medical (not planned for), by then was too late, so spent the 80's in dead end jobs. Found a niche career, which was made redundant by technology change then lucked into my current role.
If I'd got the right exams I could have got the degree (free too) and jumped past the cr@p bit in the middle :-)
I stuck it out for 35 years and retired 4 days before my 52nd birthday ..........I rest my case. Sometimes taking the boring route pays dividends, I was reasonably well paid in a secure ( albeit boring and sometimes dangerous) role.
Every morning, when I brew my second pot of tea and drink it at my leisure, I think about the guys in their mid-late 50s who are still working and 'enjoying their job'.........personally I'd rather enjoy not having one.
As I said earlier, sometimes it pays to keep your nose to the grindstone and get your pleasures from your hobbies/pastimes. That's what I did and I've no regrets.
Paul
Lessons learned:
- You will probably end up with several careers between now and retirement. Hopefully, some of those careers will be vocations, in the sense that you will discover that they seem that they were purpose designed to make the best use of your skills and attributes.
- You probably won't have many skills as a recent graduate. You need to get out there and do something you think you might enjoy, and see whether your attributes suit the job, and vice-versa.
- Some people go for the financial rewards ahead of job satisfaction; the financial rewards, especially in a career like banking and finance, can elusive; but by the time you realise that you ought to have thought about the money earlier in life, you're probably a bit late over the starting line. Whatever job you do, starting saving and investing early. It will (literally) pay dividends later.
- The Royal Navy can be a fantastic job. I served for 8 years, and sometime still miss it, several decades on, as friends who opted to stay in for a full career come up to retirement. One, who did very well and recently retired as an admiral, has just been recruited to run a major commercial organisation. You'll learn skills and develop resilience that will pay off later - though the skills may not be the ones that they formally train you in - there are some, but very few, civilian jobs where a prerequisite is the ability to navigate a warship, or search a ship's bottom for limpet mines. However, naval aviation can lead to some interesting and still well paid civilian work. Though, if you focus on aviation rather than developing your all-round skills, you'll not do as well in your naval career. a friend who was an RN fast jet pilot is now an airline pilot. He probably wouldn't have ended up as an admiral, anyway, unless he'd diversified his career earlier on - which is rarely compatible with being good at flying a fighter jet.
- If you want to get into the RN, then find out as much as you can; try and meet as many naval people and visit as many units as you can - you'll need to demonstrate a lot of get up and go to get selected for officer training.
Good luck.
[QUOTE=snowman;4329073]Horses for courses. I wouldn't check my employees a levels even, but our billable rate is much lower. Their billable rate is massive so they need to preserve quality.
I really think OP needs a financial reality check. The average U.K. salary was £27,600 in 2015 apparently. Expecting more than this as a new graduate who has proven himself a bit flakey with their apprenticeship is crazy.
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Some great insights to members past and present lives.
My daughter has a degree from Glasgow School of Art and is still working in a bar.
I keep trying to get her to join the RAF as an officer, but not having success.
Told her even if it's for a few years it will open up a lot of doors later in life.
I've spent 35 years in the RAF.......and loved pretty much every minute. Great mates and (generally) good times. Life was sweeter before Gulf War One; since then, we've all spent a good few years in the sandpit. Given the chance, I'd repeat.
Spent 20 of those years flying C130 and a foreign similar type. Your asthma may well (read will) preclude RAF flying though (maybe not civil if you fancy that). There are plenty of other opportunities.
I'll pm my number. Better to chat than play mail ping-pong
Cheers
Pete
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Definitely get it finished. I always wanted to be a fast-jet pilot and that was my singular goal since about age 8, had a flying scholarship at 18 etc etc...However, the RAF isnt what it was even 20years ago, and I'm glad that didn't pan out. I'm lucky in a way that I fell into another career and have had lots of interesting jobs and have worked my way up from admin monkey to relatively senior in 18 years. I'm now thinking there must be more out there than working in a large faceless beaurcracy and so have started my own business. Have you thought about starting something on your own? The difficult thing for me was working out what that 'thing' would be...!
- - - Updated - - -
His age will preclude Military flying.
Some good advice in this thread - Enjoyable reading.
To the OP - I think that you are thinking about this too much - At the same time, I think that your perspective needs to change.
Take a step back and look at what you currently have. Owning a house at 27, in good health and with money in the bank, is 99% better than the rest of the people your own age. It's perfectly fine to be in a position where you are unsure on what to do - Embrace this, try other areas, roles, travel, explore and gain experiences.
Unfortunately, we live in a society where our age group has grown up to believe that everything should be given and that we should be entitled to everything. From reading your responses I would class you as a motivated individual who doesn't want a "comfortable" life (I use this term loosely), but at the same time I am picking up that you don't necessarily want to be "uncomfortable". Trust me, uncomfortable is where the magic happens.
As an example - You mention you would not be happy with a 25k grad job and would be expected to jump through far too many hoops. This is on par with the average UK salary. I took a 50% pay cut to do an internship in London (14k) working 16 hour days and probably jumping through every hoop possible - I've stayed with said company and 4 years later earn 6 figures have zero expenses and travel the world. I'm under 30.
Let me ask you a question - What is your definition of success?
[QUOTE=snowman;4329814]Yes, if you've got 10 new grads all with 2:1's you need to differentiate. You can use A-Levels and GCSE's to do this and/or work experience. A lot of grad programs I think use a program to deselect. Plus if firms want candidates to demonstrate commitment etc good grades in school can show this. All in my opinion of course I have crap grades from school and did my degree at 35 with the OU!