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People often say careers are a bit like marriage. You spend your twenties figuring out what you like, and your thirties trying to find it!
You may have spent a lot of time developing a career in your twenties, perhaps you’ve changed jobs a few times in your industry or used your transferable skills to work in another.
While it’s been fun and you wouldn’t change it, you’ve always had that niggling feeling.
Unfulfilment.
You feel butterflies and excitement when you think about doing something else. Maybe it was something you studied when you left school, did part-time or for a hobby.
Follow Your Dreams
We all have our dreams, an idea of what we’d love to do. But it’s scary! Especially if you’re worried about whether you’ll be good enough to retrain or whether you’ll be able to survive financially.
Our first piece of advice: follow your dream!
Our second piece of advice: if you don’t know what your dream is yet, read this article
Here are some common paths you can follow, with examples of people who’ve achieved their dreams:
1. If You Want A Business — Salon Owner
Beauty therapy is a lucrative career if you want to set up a salon. Obviously, you’d have to consider all the overheads (staff, rent), but you can make a lot of money beautifying people.
Some of the benefits of being a beauty therapist/salon owner:
- Varied work — you’ll be involved with everything from night makeup to nail technology, you’ll never be bored.
- Create your hours — beauty salons and therapists work flexible hours and can choose whether they work in the morning or afternoons.
- The people — you’ll always be in contact with different people, having a chat and making friends.
Even if you’ve never studied beauty therapy before, it’s easy to get qualified, and vocational qualifications prepare you for the working world.
There are several ways you can qualify to become a beauty therapist: you can go back to college and study an NVQ, you can study a qualification at a salon or private beauty school, or take an online course and learn at your pace.
If you have aspirations to run a salon or go freelance, qualifications will prepare you for this, they’ll have client management and business modules.
Although you don’t have to have any qualifications in beauty to set up a salon, it helps.
To succeed as a beauty therapist or salon owner, you’ll need to be:
- Caring
- Talkative
- Empathetic
- Ambitious
Jobs with transferable skills:
- Business owner
- Recruiter
- Personal trainer
What to consider before you open a salon:
- Set up costs
- Location
- Staff
- Pricing
- Marketing
- Legalities
Further Reading: Discover how this business turns stylists into entrepreneurs
2. If You’re Creative — Social Media Manager/Influencer
Social media is everywhere now, there’s no escaping your best friend’s daily Instagram uploads (unless you block her). If you love social media, why not try and forge a career in the industry?
The benefits of becoming a social media person are:
- It’s fun — what could be more fun than sharing content you love on social media all day? That’s if you work for a fun company, of course.
- Job security — there are 3.484 billion social media users worldwide, it isn’t an industry that’s going to crumble any time soon!
- Make connections — you make connections with people you never thought you would, from places you’ve never heard of.
While universities and colleges do offer qualifications in social media, they aren’t necessary. A marketing, design or writing degree could also help you get a social media job.
Failing that, if you can prove you’ve got a strong presence on your personal accounts and have worked for companies promoting their products, some companies may offer you a job.
To succeed as a social media manager or influencer, you’ll need to be:
- Social (duh)
- Organised
- Creative
- Trend-conscious
Jobs with transferable skills:
- Business development officer
- Instagram/Facebook seller
- Graphic designer
What to do before you become a social media manager:
- Improve your overall marketing knowledge
- Determine what type of business you want to work for
- Improve your writing and design skills
Further Reading: Learn how Mediabistro’s Franny Goldberg kickstarted a career in social media[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner el_id=”blog-cta”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text el_class=”blog-cta”]
Do you want to start 2019 by learning a new skill?
Posh Nailz offer various, high standard courses that help you on your way to create you own profession career in the beauty industry. For course start dates for our training centres contact us now.
Sign Up Now [/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]
3. If You’re Tech Savvy — Software Developer
Software developers are in demand in the UK, but the supply isn’t there. While it isn’t a traditional career for women, there is a gender gap. While it can be intimidating to go into a male-dominated profession, if you’re passionate, go for it![/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The benefits of becoming a software developer are:
- The salary — being in demand means you can charge a premium! Entry level software developers can earn £25-30k.
- Remote working — all you need is a laptop and an internet connection, so you can work from home.
- It’s creative — this may surprise you, but you’re essentially building something new when you’re a software developer, so you need to be creative to be able to do that.
There are many routes you can take to become a software developer, such as teaching yourself code or taking a degree in computer science. If you’ve already got experience, you could build a software program to impress an employer.
However, if you don’t have any experience, consider what you can bring to the table from your current experience, such as problem solving or analytical skills.
You could also network your way into a position and enrol at night school.
To succeed as a software developer, you’ll need to be:
- Innovative
- Analytical
- A good communicator
Jobs with transferable skills:
- Data scientist
- IT support
- Civil engineer
What to do before you become a software developer:
- Invest in excellent equipment
- Learn to cope with high levels of stress
- Soak up information like a sponge!
- Be prepared to fail, a lot
Further Reading: This is what a female software developer looks like
4. If You’re a Fitness Fanatic — Personal Traning
The value of the UK fitness club market has been valued at £5.1bn — a figure which is expected to grow by more than 8% each year.
British people are starting to take health and fitness more seriously, and if you’re one of those people you could forge a career out of it in the process.
The benefits of becoming a personal trainer are:
- Client choice — you can pick who you want to work with, so you’ll end up working with people you like.
- Helping people — you’re helping people achieve their personal goals, and to feel better about their bodies.
- Independence — no more annoying boss that doesn’t trust you, you’re on your own (scary huh?)
To become a personal trainer you would need to study an NVQ in personal training. There isn’t any way around this.
If you’re going to advise people on what they need to do with their bodies, you need to give them the right advice. If they end up getting injured and you aren’t qualified, you’ll be in trouble!
To succeed as a personal trainer you’ll need to be:
- Energetic
- Positive
- Understanding
Jobs with transferable skills:
- Public services (army, police force)
- Outdoor activity instructor
- Sports professional (boxer, runner)
What to do before you become a personal trainer:
- Get fit! People won’t trust you if you don’t
- Eat well, it’ll improve your morale
- Be prepared to work crazy hours to begin with
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Further Reading: From legal recruiter to personal trainer
What Interests You?
Remember, the key is you have to do what you want to do. All the above examples are great, but only if you want to do them.
You can consider some of the following factors when you make your decision:
- Passion — if you made a living out of what you are passionate about, will it make you happier?
- Location — where do you want to work? Are there opportunities available in your area? Do you want to work from home?
- Family situation — if you have children/pets that depend on you, will your decision impact them in a positive way?
- Financial situation — do you have the funds to be able to pay for qualifications, time off for training and new equipment?
- Time — how much time are you giving yourself to switch careers?
Now it’s time to ask yourself the question… are you ready to change your career?[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text el_class=”blog-cta”]
Do you want to start 2019 by learning a new skill?
Posh Nailz offer various, high standard courses that help you on your way to create you own profession career in the beauty industry. For course start dates for our training centres contact us now.
Sign Up Now [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]