Help - Career change after redundancy - Back to College?

Board.surf

Hi,

I need assistance or advice. No matter how outlandish, please throw it at me. I've been made redundant after 11 months at a new job. I had worked at a University abroad for 3 years and had being doing very well in management and financial administration. Moved home with my wife and 2 kids and this US company who were eager to hire me, eliminated my position, having given me 15 minutes notice(literally). Now, moving forward!

I completed my Level 8 Degree in Legal Studies w/ Business, 2.1, 8 years ago. It seems useless now. I am looking at A full time Masters Degree (or other options) and will list my options below, having done some research. If you would be so kind as to start a reply with the number you suggest, or ALT, for an alternative suggestion, all your assistance would be extremely helpful.

Just please don't suggest some kind of IT qualification. It seems to me (just my opinion) that it's Ireland next big bust. Having worked along side IT professionals, I am IT competent, but have no desire to become a developer.

So here are my thoughts.

1. ACCA or CPA accountant. A masters may be needed followed by up to 12 professional exams that can take 5+ years. This seems like an awful handful at 29.

2. An M.Sc in Human Resource Management at DCU. I'm fairly late applying, but with previous HR centric experience (projects in HR, payroll and benefits, committee work etc), I should have a shot. I have no "HR" in any of my titles though and HR people seem to love their keywords. This is my worry.

3. Secondary school teacher: After a 2 years MA in education, I can teach business. I was sad though, to see the state of the employment situation and it scares me. No job security it seems. A dream dead then? I also can only teach business, unless I do a masters, then get certified by the teaching council, then go back to add another subject. Most of the competing teachers would have 2+ subjects.

4. I've applied to a free springboard scheme at trinity in entrepreneurial studies. It's level 9 which would bar me from accessing support for future level 9 study but would buy me some time to have a think. I would more than likely open my own business if I go down this route. It'd be a long road. Don't ask in what please. Feel free to suggest though.

5. MLIS - Masters in Librarian studies. There have been plenty of these vacancies during my job search, contrary to popular myth. I would feel better about these prospects than the chances of getting a teaching job. Issue here is, none of my experience is in a library per se. A lot of relevant experience but none specific. Am I crazy to even be looking at this?

6. A masters in public management or similar and continue to seek out jobs in an Irish Higher education institute. I have had interviews in over a dozen in the past 4 years but no deal closed. They either offered me a bad wage or gave the job to Mary from across the hall. I would very much enjoy working in an academic environment again, but it seems to be a closed book with the "one of our own" mentality. Would a masters help?

7. A Masters in Economics

Anyway, suggest away. I am feeling really terrible, to the point that I'm exhausted. I want to work hard, spend all my money if need be to up skill, but there seems to be long term plan that is even remotely suitable.

Mep

Hi Surf,
given your professional experience in finance and previous degree in law I would suggest two other areas you could look at: FinTech (you could find some Springboard programs about it, I am sure DBS has one) and GDPR/compliance/privacy.

Achasanai

Board.surf wrote: »

5. MLIS - Masters in Librarian studies. There have been plenty of these vacancies during my job search, contrary to popular myth. I would feel better about these prospects than the chances of getting a teaching job. Issue here is, none of my experience is in a library per se. A lot of relevant experience but none specific. Am I crazy to even be looking at this?

Jobs are indeed beginning to be advertised in the library and library-related fields, but remember that there are a huge number of qualified librarians that will be applying for these jobs (and even for library assistant jobs, where technically you don't need the MLIS). It might be the same in other fields, but there are a lot of unemployed people with this qualification (the lucky ones have short-term contracts) in contrast to the few that have full-time permanent positions that actually require the MLIS.

There are a fair amount of LAI-associated groups that hold events and seminars where you can attend and talk to people in the field. It's a good way to get to know people and make an informed choice on whether this is for you.

Experience is nearly essential for any positions (even the jobsbridge one I had years ago) even though what they really should be looking for (particularly for library assistant posititons) is relevant and transferable experience (as well as general social skills - often all too lacking unfortunately).

PhoenixParker

Alternative:

The HSE have positions advertised for assistant staff officer, grade 4
https://www.publicjobs.ie/publicjobs/campaignAdvert/55259.htm

The salary isn't great to start but the increments add up quickly and there are promotion prospects. I'm pretty sure there are opportunities to get funding/facilitation of further study too.

Board.surf

Thanks for the suggestion. I've already sent in for this hse competition. The test will be emailed to me later in the month. I am considering it, and do feel the same about the wage as you do.

@Achasanai

Yeah I've kind of given up on the librarian idea. It's sad really as I'd be extremely dedicated.

@mep

I am currently looking at accounting (starting with account technician)options, but fintech really isnt for me. Most of the jobs are dev heavy it seems. Your GDPR idea is a good one though and I'm currently researching where the jobs are for the coming changes.

@all

I've been offered a place on the Masters in HRM course, but to be honest I'm terrified now, looking at starting salaries in HR of 24k. I'm taking my time on this offer and might or might not accept it. Thanks so much for bringing up these ideas!!

Board.surf

Alrighty, I'm doing it!! I'm going to work through either the CPA or ACA exams.

bennyineire

There is a massive bulge of Kids making it's way through primary school and just about to start passing into secondary school (thanks to the baby boom we are experiencing since 2008)

I really don't think you would have any issue with employment as a secondary school teacher, especially if you are male.

So by the time you are qualified the bulge will be in secondary school and government spending will also have increased in education.
Also the hours/holidays are great

This is just my opinion BTW

bennyineire

Board.surf wrote: »

Alrighty, I'm doing it!! I'm going to work through either the CPA or ACA exams.

Accountancy much like I.T. work is likely to have massive disruption over the next 10-20 years and the skills you learn now could be obsolete very quickly and will require you to constantly upskill, just be aware of that is all I'm saying.

https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/trends/3-trends-happening-now-that-will-impact-the-future-of-accounting

Board.surf

bennyineire wrote: »

There is a massive bulge of Kids making it's way through primary school and just about to start passing into secondary school (thanks to the baby boom we are experiencing since 2008)

I really don't think you would have any issue with employment as a secondary school teacher, especially if you are male.

So by the time you are qualified the bulge will be in secondary school and government spending will also have increased in education.
Also the hours/holidays are great

This is just my opinion BTW

Sure, and this is EXACTLY where I started out and what I was thinking. But then I looked into it, and couldn't believe what I was reading. There aren't too many business teachers, but there isn't demand for them either. Fresh graduates of the masters (after doing 6 years of college) need to get a few years of experience in the classroom, but they aren't able to meet the hour requirements.
Apparently it's so bad, that some teachers have been qualified 8 years and are still on 4 hours contracts (yes 4!!). So they are guaranteed 4 hours per week of employment. When an old teacher retires, they hire 2 or 3 young teachers to replace them, and split their hours. They also only have 3,6 or if they are lucky, 12 month contracts. Then they are let go and go on the dole, over and over. Moving towns for a job every year isn't ideal. It's all very sad really.

Board.surf

bennyineire wrote: »

Accountancy much like I.T. work is likely to have massive disruption over the next 10-20 years and the skills you learn now could be obsolete very quickly and will require you to constantly upskill, just be aware of that is all I'm saying.

https://www.accountingweb.com/technology/trends/3-trends-happening-now-that-will-impact-the-future-of-accounting

That's a fair point, but everything is this way. Particularly IT for example. Accounting seems like one of the only professions that has full time, decent paying work, and I don't see it dying for quite some time. If you have another option besides a terrible job for someone in my situation, I'm definitely open to suggestions. Every path I've looked at, I see it as requiring a lot of upskilling in less than 20 years.

I guess I should also add that I am already advanced in most of the IT accounting tools, from previous work experience. I'm just not into the development side of IT.

Glenster

Board.surf wrote: »

Alrighty, I'm doing it!! I'm going to work through either the CPA or ACA exams.

I assume you mean the ACCA exams because you mentioned accounting technicians earlier.

Do you have a job lined up already? The accountancy exams are designed to be studied around work, that's their benefit.

My two cents would be that if you're doing the exams while working (at any job) it shows some determination and passion, but I'd be very wary of hiring someone just doing some exams and nothing else.

Board.surf

Glenster wrote: »

I assume you mean the ACCA exams because you mentioned accounting technicians earlier.

Do you have a job lined up already? The accountancy exams are designed to be studied around work, that's their benefit.

My two cents would be that if you're doing the exams while working (at any job) it shows some determination and passion, but I'd be very wary of hiring someone just doing some exams and nothing else.

You don't have to work while doing CPA exams and you can studying at level 9 while doing ACA. Further, I'm not sure why you assume ACCA? Regarding the iati acct tech, I've been advised by all relevant parties that this would be a wase of ym time, having 3 years acct supervised experience, and many exemptions already. I assume you wanted to just advise me to work while studying. I intend to, but might take a few weeks/months while doing the first exam to either volunteer or take on another project.

bennyineire

Board.surf wrote: »

That's a fair point, but everything is this way. Particularly IT for example. Accounting seems like one of the only professions that has full time, decent paying work, and I don't see it dying for quite some time. If you have another option besides a terrible job for someone in my situation, I'm definitely open to suggestions. Every path I've looked at, I see it as requiring a lot of upskilling in less than 20 years.

I guess I should also add that I am already advanced in most of the IT accounting tools, from previous work experience. I'm just not into the development side of IT.

Mmm looks like you have the answer yourself, in fairness you have done your research. But I would like to add that the I.T. field is massively broad and certainly not all about development, quite the opposite actually.

I'm in I.T. myself in a project MGMT/System admin role and I know I will have to constantly up-skill but I am more than OK with this as I like to learn new skills all the time.

Best of luck to you

Board.surf

bennyineire wrote: »

Mmm looks like you have the answer yourself, in fairness you have done your research.

I'm in I.T. myself in a project MGMT/System admin role and I know I will have to constantly up-skill but I am more than OK with this as I like to learn new skills all the time.

Best of luck to you

Yeah it comes down to me being ok with upskilling in accounting but not IT. I have also worked in contract jobs with two IT companies in the financial/admin side of things and having communicated extensively with the IT staff, I don't think I'd enjoy the work. Thanks for your response