Career that is flexible, or am I doomed to benefits / min wage?

[BobandBenway]

I know I'm probably asking the impossible here, but I'm looking into returning to work in the next few years and need something that will be flexible.

I'm currently a carer for my son, but am anticipating that he'll need less of my help in the next few yrs and was hoping I could return to some sort of employment or retrain in a new career. However, I've recently been diagnosed myself with a chronic autoimmune disease, one of the main symptoms being extreme fatigue! I'm not sure how exactly it will affect me - at the moment I'm ok, but with the odd day or two where it feels like I have flu from hell and am made of lead, and find it almost impossible to do stuff. It could get worse, but on the other hand, lots of patients find their symptoms do not worsen as the disease progresses!

So, I don't want to be relying on carer's / disability benefits for the rest of my working years, and I want to get into something that will give me the opportunity of a career, but also bearing in mind that in the future I may need it to be flexible. Any ideas, or am I asking the impossible?

Background: engineering degree, worked for a bit in utilities before having children, considered retraining in accountancy or similar but prob not for me, considered something in IT but not sure what / if I'd be any good at it / if I'd enjoy it / if it's flexible??

I've also racked my brain for some idea for self-employment - perhaps training in indexing / proofreading, but again, not sure if that's for me.

I also enjoy gardening / crafting but don't think I could really turn any of that into something that makes a living compared to the time it takes to make things.

Another major problem for me is an extreme lack of confidence! Why would anyone want me when I've been out of work for so long, by my own admission I've forgotten most of what I studied and used in my earlier years of employment, I have a sick child to look after and have a chronic illness myself. I'm not exactly a great prospect, am I?!

Am I doomed to years of poverty on benefits / minimum wage? :(

[vincentaroony]

It sounds as though you have lots to offer but need to find your niche - if you're not planning on going back to work straight away then you have time to make plans and if necessary to learn the skills you need for your dream job!

If your health is unpredictable a working from home type role sounds like a good option. I worked from home for a year but found it a bit lonely, so it depends if you want that adult company! Once you find something you're good at and enjoy, your self confidence will increase so don't worry about that.

I retrained as a web designer on a course at my local college. It's a fun and varied job with the option of working in a company or for yourself. I don't know if that's something you might enjoy? It was something I loved so I was prepared to put the hours in to get my skills up to scratch.

[BobandBenway]

Ah yes, web design might be something. I taught myself basic HTML around 14 yrs ago and made my own website from scratch to showcase & sell my crafts (this was in the days before Etsy, Facebook and blogs etc - how much easier would it be nowadays lol!). Of course it would look very crude & basic now, but I was so proud of it back then!

I've also dabbled a little bit in programming - both yonks ago at uni, and recently playing about with the kids & RasPi. I'm not actually sure if I have the flair for it, but I do enjoy it and maybe it could lead to something? I have no idea how the IT / programming / web design / developer etc industry works though tbh!

Thanks for the advice :)

[vincentaroony]

You have got a bit of a head start already then! I forgot you had mentioned crafts in your first post, have you tried selling on Etsy or anything like that? It's not something I have experience of myself, although I do like shopping on there. It must be difficult to make yourself heard on sites like that as there always seems to be so much lovely stuff.

DM is a brilliant crafter and sells at craft fairs and in local shops. Not exactly a reliable income, but I know she loves it when people say how much they like her stuff and buy things. I think she could have a lot more success if she embraced technology, social media etc...

I guess there are lots of different ways of getting into IT, I started out freelance then ended up working for a big company, DH is a contractor doing a few days here and there for different companies, and there are design agencies of all sizes so there's quite a bit of variety. The good thing about it is that you don't really need any specific qualifications, unlike accountancy or professions like that. How about your engineering degree, could you/would you want to do something related to that?

[OneLittleToddleTerror]

I wouldn't suggest programming as it is a very male dominated market. I work full time as a software developer. As you can imagine wit a mainly male workforce I have barely met anyone who is part time. I'm lucky with my current company. It has a mother who is 9-3 during term time. She is 9-5 on non term time as she has parents for the kids. So it would be sometime I could ask for when I want it.

The contractors I have met at work also live away from home during the week. Many stay in b&b Monday to Thursday and go home in the weekend. They chase the jobs wherever they are.

If you don't have caring duties like you have, I would say it's very suitable for a mum as it is very office hours and also have flexible for working from home occasionally.

However there might be others who work entirely from home but I haven't met any.

The industry is very collaborative despite the external image. We have daily scrum meeting and work very closely with business analysts (stakeholders). That's why face to face is important. Also work is hard to transfer from one developer to another. And you usually get to be owner of a part. And that's why there are no job share.

[BobandBenway]

OLTT - thanks for that info. It was something I was wondering about. I suppose it's not really a flexible industry, and although there may be opportunities to work from home, I'm assuming I'd need to have a few yrs experience working in the industry first before I could go it alone, which might prove difficult. I come from a male dominated engineering background, and it was difficult back then to get flexible working - I'm not sure how it is nowadays.

It's hard for me as I'm just newly diagnosed, and I don't think it's really sunk in yet. It's one of those "hidden" diseases, where I may look ok, but inside I'm struggling with awful fatigue that makes it difficult to concentrate. Another potential side effect affects cognitive function. Actually, the more I read, the more I'm beginning to think I won't be able to have any sort of career at all! :( What is making it even harder for me is that I was already out for years looking after ds, and I just assumed that at some point I'd go back myself, never thinking for a minute I'd get ill too!

However, I'm not badly affected yet, and I don't see why I should waste years when I can function, sitting about on benefits. I'm also wary though because I do get flare ups where it is a struggle to get out of bed and function normally, and I'm not imagining an employer looking too kindly on that, especially a new employee!

So, I guess after all that, the best option would be to go self-employed somehow, but do what? Again, it doesn't help that I suffer a chronic lack of self-confidence - how do I go about selling myself and my ideas??

I've thought about Etsy & crafting, but the things I make aren't of a high enough standard I don't think, plus the time it takes to make them, it wouldn't be a viable income. Perhaps I need to think more about ideas, eg patterns & kits, rather than crafting things myself?? Still not sure I could make enough of an income from this though.

I also enjoy gardening / allotment / being outdoors - not sure what sort of employment that could lend itself to??

Anyone any ideas - both in terms of actual job / career / business ideas, and how to cope working with a chronic illness?

Thanks :)

[BobandBenway]

So, a new year and I thought I would give this a bump and see if anyone had any other ideas?

I think it's becoming clear to me that my best bet is going to be some sort of self-employment, but doing what?

It's been such a long time since my degree that any technical knowledge I had relating to that is gone. I've gone over all the jobs I have had and a common theme seems to be organising / being good at the admin side of things, and liasing between departments / outside companies/agencies etc, e.g. organising commissioning tests at a new plant, arranging with outside labs, getting all the paperwork in order, ensuring each dept knew what to test when, what paperwork/labelling needed etc., liasing with govt agencies, helping companies fulfil their environmental and health & safety responsibilies wrt relevent legislation etc (often fun when trying to explain these things to senior management etc!)

Basically every job seems to have involved me being very good at being organised / paperwork (hilarious if you could see the state of my own house!), and liasing between various departments / outside agencies. It's funny because I wouldn't have said that organising and communicating were my strengths, but apparently looking back at every job I've had, they seem to have been main components! Anyway, not sure how that helps wrt possible career/ self-employment!

Any advice or thoughts much appreciated!

[BobandBenway]

Hello,

Thought I would bump this again to see if anyone had any other thoughts!

I've recently done some personality type tests, which put me as ISFP. I'd say it sums me up quite accurately: I'm quiet & reserved, hate criticism (receiving & giving), avoid conflict, people pleaser, loyal, good listener, friendly & compassionate, prefer working alone, have a need for time alone and personal space, need to do work with meaning, no desire to lead or control, but need freedom & independence myself (one thing I've loved about previous jobs is freedom to go at my own pace, not tied down to a desk or a schedule (within reason obviously - I still had deadlines to meet, but freedom to plan my workload)).

It says I like short term planning, being hands on, focusing on details and the here and now rather than abstract ideas, and that ISFP types are generally very creative & artistic. Suggested careers include: caring type roles (nursing, social work, counsellor etc), teacher and arty/creative stuff.

I've said before that teaching does not appeal to me (fills me with dread!) and neither do nursing or social work type roles! Arty & creative stuff does, problem is, I don't think I am that creative!!

Interestingly, when I was younger I was a dancer and played an instrument, which I loved, but I was not at a high enough standard to make a career out of them. Also, when I was younger, common answers to "what do you want to be when you grow up?" type questions were fashion designer (!), interior designer and architect. I loved drawing but was ok at art, not brilliant.

I love making things and being creative (especially knitting - I love how essentially an uninspiring bit of string can be turned into all sorts of things). (I also love this about computer programming - starting with an idea of what needs to be done, then line by line creating something complex that works to solve a problem) I love playing with colour, which colours go well together etc. I love gardening - starting with a seed and ending up with a full garden, enjoy being outdoors in all weathers. In fact, I'd love a garden where I grew stuff for natural dyeing, dyed my own wool etc, but I don't think that's a very viable business idea!

So, are there any creative type careers for people who aren't that creative (or am I being overly optimistic?!)?! Anything that fits with any of my info? I feel like I'm going round in circles trying to find what exactly I should be doing! Maybe there isn't anything that fits, and I should just be grateful to find any job at all! I just want to find something that I'd be good at, and do it well.

[addictedtosugar]

You mentioned proofreading. Could you proof read / layout / write for some sort of technical magazine?

[Breadbin9]

Hi BobandBenway.

It's a shame you've not had much luck with this post. Your post and subsequent messages have compelled me to contact you. I see many mums wanting to find meaningful interesting work that fits around their kids, and of course in your case the added requirement of fitting around your health.

I actually think that your background will be a huge help, and I think freelancing as a web developer or designer could work really well for you. Clearly you'll need a bit of training to get you up to speed as your experience is going to be a bit out of date however you're not starting from scratch and that's great.

Some organisations / individuals want to pay someone to have ad hoc work done rather than large projects. This would clearly suit you better than the large highly stressful corporate projects.

Clearly confidence will be playing an issue in your head, so I think you need to start small and that will build your confidence. Anyway I took a course on web development and it included a doc on how to start freelancing as a web developer. It's high level but I'd love to share with you but not sure how. Can you pm me in some way (I'm new to mumsnet so haven't yet worked out the ins and outs).

I also know someone who has a whole blog on this stuff. I'd love to put you in touch. I'll reach out to her and try and connect the two of you if that is of interest?

Christina

[BobandBenwayAgain]

Hello,

OP here (had to change accounts after hackergate fiasco!).

Sorry, only just seen your post Breadbin9 - will try and message you!