Need career advice! HELP!

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think like what some other posters have said, you dont have much calibre to actually be entrusted with high-level mentally stimulating work. How would I, an an employer, be able to trust a below average graduate that has been job-hopping with minimal experience? I cant, no boss in his right mind would ever give you such work. Those who end up directing policy and actually doing things that matter have 20 plus experience under their belts. Not to mention that most of them were all straight A scholars. You have neither the grades nor the experience.

Counselling will definitely not work. You'd need to study masters in counselling in NIE to get a job with MOE. Meaning you will be competing with the throngs of psychology/social work grads from NUS/NTU each year. And trust me, some of them who grad with even a second upper could get in. Its pretty competitive because there are lots of people like you who want to do counselling but there is just not much demand. And seeing how your grades are not good, you wont get in. Another method is to get your masters overseas. But its not a confirmed thing that you will get a job when you come back, because once again, the demand for counsellors here is actually pretty low.

What you can do, however, and this is pretty drastic, is to take up another degree. Maybe from unisim if you want to do part-time. Or just head to NUS/NTU again and do full-time. Get a degree in something you actually want to do and restart.

Or else, you just have to suck thumb and work hard and climb the ladder. Once you get a higher position, which of course takes a few years, you will be tasked with more responsibilities and more ways to change policies.

Sensible advice for most parts except that I dont think taking another degree will work for him/her. That can only work once he/she change the attitude and way of life.

IMO the main problem is his/her unwillingness to work hard, stay humble and learn from others who are more experienced. You can detect quite a fair bit of elitist and sneering tone in the way he/she describes boss, colleagues and work. Basically everyone around is just beneath him/her and there is nothing to learn.

As long as this attitude dont change, even if get another degree and move into another profession, the same problem will happen in the new job and new company again.

since you do write that you have done better than your peers in your current position and organization, why not remain in this field? Why keep thinking of switch career? You will not earn high salary if keep changing job field because your salary will remain low. There few options i believe you can take.

1st, try find financial analysis job in any other hospital ( or other industry) or higher position (relating to financial analysis) in your current company. Based on your relevant experience and total work experience, you can put higher expected salary.

2nd, if you think relevant qualification can help you in this job, how about acca, cfa related? or even postgrad dip/ masters? since you are of accounting background, shd be alright.

3rd, how about working in those voluntary or welfare organization doing accounting since you like social work? you can always check it out at ncss. There hundred of jobs over there.

I really hope you can find the right direction in your life.

[littlesunray]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

since you do write that you have done better than your peers in your current position and organization, why not remain in this field? Why keep thinking of switch career? You will not earn high salary if keep changing job field because your salary will remain low. There few options i believe you can take.

1st, try find financial analysis job in any other hospital ( or other industry) or higher position (relating to financial analysis) in your current company. Based on your relevant experience and total work experience, you can put higher expected salary.

2nd, if you think relevant qualification can help you in this job, how about acca, cfa related? or even postgrad dip/ masters? since you are of accounting background, shd be alright.

3rd, how about working in those voluntary or welfare organization doing accounting since you like social work? you can always check it out at ncss. There hundred of jobs over there.

I really hope you can find the right direction in your life.

thank you, your advice and encouragement means a lot as i needed to bounce back my thoughts with others.

working in the vwo or welfare org is something that i have considered before some time back. i will find out more about accting in vwos through volunteer /active job searching to find out a more about various roles and positions.

actually i do enjoy my current job, and am learning a lot and supported by my peers and bosses. i think some forumers thought that i was belittling my jobs, but i just wanted to know if i needed to gain more exposure to other areas of finance (not sure if further ed or actual job rotation will be better, since i have had colleagues who had rotation but experienced pay cut).

if i were to have further ed, i will go for CIMA since it is directly related to my job. but not sure if lacking experience in other areas of finance, will be disadvantageous in the long run. hope u or others can share some thoughts on this.

additionally, some of my female colleagues who had kids were passed over during promotion (and the pay raise) even though they were competent. so i was thinking along the lines of opportunity loss from starting a familiy (guess it all boils down to personal choice and making do). that's why i was bouncing around the idea of switching to the govt/moe industry where it doesn't really matter (promotion quite standard - unless my perception is wrong). maybe some ppl can share with me their experience.

[littlesunray]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Sensible advice for most parts except that I dont think taking another degree will work for him/her. That can only work once he/she change the attitude and way of life.

IMO the main problem is his/her unwillingness to work hard, stay humble and learn from others who are more experienced. You can detect quite a fair bit of elitist and sneering tone in the way he/she describes boss, colleagues and work. Basically everyone around is just beneath him/her and there is nothing to learn.

As long as this attitude dont change, even if get another degree and move into another profession, the same problem will happen in the new job and new company again.

i think my post has been misinterpreted.

the reason why i left teaching and my first finance job was due to lack of learning and stagnation. i never regretted my choice, and in fact, would rather work longer hours in my current job and learning more. it gave me more opportunities and options in the long run. i think i have weighed my pros and cons, before leaving a cushy higher paying job.

just that i should have made the smarter move of making decisions faster. so that i wouldn't have wasted my first 2years of career. nonetheless, i never regretted teaching and am still doing so on a part-time basis.

[littlesunray]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You keep saying all the jobs are boring and not mentally challenge for you. So what kind of challenge are you looking for?

actually the mental stimulation was more of analytical work.which i am currently doing today..

[littlesunray]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

after reading the wall of text i still don't know what you want or what you like. so i dont know what to advise u. but i can related to my experience.

when i first graduated, i hated finance, hated big 4. i wanted to do engineering, but grades were not great. so i had to settle for light software engineering work within a bank. took me some time to understand the whole industry. fast forward few years later, i'm in advanced studies in finance, and looking forward to big 4. why? big 4 is more than just accounting. i'm more interested in the advisory side of big 4, where advisors gets to interact with clients such as CEOs, analyze their business models, and propose strategies. you get to travel all over and work with different colleagues all the time. doesn't sound mundane to me.

when your mind is not open, you lose a whole lot of opportunities. they dont always come the ways which you expected.

thanks for sharing your experience with me. i agree that i have not opened up my mind to more options, hence will be doing so from today by finding out more.

[littlesunray]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

First, kudos for being forthcoming with your career choices, thought processes and the like. But I have to admit that the immediate thought I had when I read the post was, "Wow, this dude sure has a romantic notion of what working as a/an - insert career choice - is."

And to be honest, I was rather offended for teachers and social workers out there when you wrote that their work offers little to no "mental challenge", or that they are merely executing "government policies". And also how their work are not "helping people".

Rude.

Anyways, as the above posters have rightly pointed out, we will need to know more about this "mental challenge" that we see all over the post.

i am very sorry that my post was interpreted in such a way. the mental challenge i was referring to was analytical work with numbers. which i didn't get during teaching.

regarding social work, i am sorry that it was interpreted as such. just that i have had some experience volunteering in SW, and have encountered some people receiving the help who feel more needs to be done. and i couldn't do anything to help because of the resource given. so i was not saying SW are not helpful, more of the environment and resource issue.

also im not belittling the policy, just that sometimes when u meet ppl asking for help and crying, and u cant help,it makes me feel quite helpless. over time, SW have to close one eye and harden their hearts a little.Hence why i didnt go into SW in the first place for my degree...

[littlesunray]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I think like what some other posters have said, you dont have much calibre to actually be entrusted with high-level mentally stimulating work. How would I, an an employer, be able to trust a below average graduate that has been job-hopping with minimal experience? I cant, no boss in his right mind would ever give you such work. Those who end up directing policy and actually doing things that matter have 20 plus experience under their belts. Not to mention that most of them were all straight A scholars. You have neither the grades nor the experience.

Counselling will definitely not work. You'd need to study masters in counselling in NIE to get a job with MOE. Meaning you will be competing with the throngs of psychology/social work grads from NUS/NTU each year. And trust me, some of them who grad with even a second upper could get in. Its pretty competitive because there are lots of people like you who want to do counselling but there is just not much demand. And seeing how your grades are not good, you wont get in. Another method is to get your masters overseas. But its not a confirmed thing that you will get a job when you come back, because once again, the demand for counsellors here is actually pretty low.

What you can do, however, and this is pretty drastic, is to take up another degree. Maybe from unisim if you want to do part-time. Or just head to NUS/NTU again and do full-time. Get a degree in something you actually want to do and restart.

Or else, you just have to suck thumb and work hard and climb the ladder. Once you get a higher position, which of course takes a few years, you will be tasked with more responsibilities and more ways to change policies.

for the past week have been doing some research. i did have an interest in counselling with family / young children. but as a side interest for now and not as a job.

u seem to have exposure to the counselling field. do u know anything about the post-grad dip with moe and what is the job nature like?

[littlesunray]

Originally Posted by SOD

Pardon me for being straight, but you look like a guy that despite working for quite some years still don't understand what working is about.

95% of the people work because they need to, not because they love to. Sure they might find some parts of the work interesting, but they also accept a large portion of things they don't like as part of the package as long as overall the pay is decent and environment tolerable.

You seem to be jumping ship within a short time the moment you find something in the job you don't like. And I must say some of the things you are complaining are pretty ludicrous and are part and parcel of what most of us are going through anyway.

In summary, you want a job that pays well, comes with good increment every year, mentally challenging, work life balance, no bureaucracy, no office politics, must have skills mobility, no stress, nice colleagues, no need to climb corporate ladder, must have mental challenge to strategize and not just executing policies etc.

The absurdity of this Christmas list aside, you should do some self-reflection and ask yourself who do you really think you are and what sort of value can you really offer to any organization?

If you look at what you have shared objectively, these are the salient points of your career so far:

1) Poor academics in accounting, mostly "C" grades

2) 6 mths as a contract teacher, inability to work long hours and handle stakeholders

3) Does not appear to be organization savvy as constantly complaining about bureaucracy and office politics in various short stints in other jobs

4) Salary currently at a level significantly below peers with the same degree and years of work experience

5) No specific professional skills, network or experience, hopping between various entry level executive roles

Given this kind of profile, what sort of mentally challenging and high paying jobs can you actually take up?

You mentioned wanting to settle down and set up family. For you and your future family's sake, you better start "settling down" career wise and come up with a realistic set of expectations for your job. Drifting from one low level job to another constantly complaining about perceived negatives ain't gonna get you anywhere.

i have seen your posts... just wondering what is your background in?
i appreciate your candor, directness and clarity of thought. i know that i lack those qualities, hence i do seek advice from others.

Mentally stimulating and challenging job that brings satisfaction, usually also mean long hours and definitely can't gel with work-life balance.

Can't have the best of everything and in life, you usually have to settle and learn to handle the things at work that you can't control. That's an important part of learning too, and is not taught at school.

What's important in any job is that you gain transferable skills that can be applied to another job so you can move easily should the need arise. Or failing that, better make sure that the job is fairly guaranteed and you won't lose it!