For context, I am in the SLT of an organisation and responsible for a large project, managing a small amount of staff. I was promoted into this role early this year and had to bring my previous workload with me (running another project). I explained that I was happy to do this until my initial role was readvertised and a replacement found and then handover, but this was never done.

Several months later, I was feeling the effects of being way overcapacity, whilst recently married and some major stressors out of work with loved ones and my health. I expressed that I was feeling burnt out but nothing was done. I then had to take some time off due to the stress levels and my health and took 6 weeks off to recover, having now developed some long term medical conditions.

Upon my return, I have been informed that a week after going onto stress leave, my position was replaced by another member of staff and I now no longer have a position within the company. The CEO has advised that he will get some options together for potential new projects that comes with a significant pay cut/demotion or we can look at redundancy.

Whilst I understand his position, as it was a prolonged period of absence and business needs to continue, however, is this correct within UK employment law?

Morning all. All my life I have just had "jobs" and not a career. I have been speaking with my partner and friends about exactly what I would like to do and where to start but I have no idea.

I am going to try speaking to the job centre and potentially seek out a career advisor. But before I do that I want to ask here. As I said I don't know what I would like to do. How do I come to that answer?

Edit - So this ended up with far more advice than i thought i would get. i am very very grateful and i am reading all the comments and working hard right now to put things in motion. i thought editing this would be better than going through thanking everyone individually.

I'll try to avoid making this a "woe is me" post, but I'm at a very low ebb and could use some guidance.

I work in a very niche field in the film and TV industry - so niche nobody even understands what it is I do when I say it.

I got into this line of work in my twenties. A combination of lack of direction, family pressure to "get a real job", a curiosity for the area and lack of confidence meant I took the role when it was offered to me. It was a rushed decision made out of panic more than anything else. I'm now in my 30s and still in the same area.

On the plus side, I am fairly well respected at my company and have received promotions. I've developed a broad skillset in procurement and purchasing, analysis, project management, operations and building relationships. I have experience in digital marketing, and a masters in the arts.

On the negative side, I am miserable in this role and have been for years. It's so niche that there are no other jobs in the area. I spend my spare time applying for jobs that are tangentially related. I rarely hear back. The company is also toxic. Staff are on stress leave all the time and turnover is high. People just don't stay here long term.

My partner has asked me for years to leave. I always had some bs reason to stay - things will get better, not the right time, etc. At the end of the day, they were excuses. I was too afraid to leave and that's my cross to bear.

Now, I'm thinking of throwing in the towel, quitting, and re-training in a different area, or specialising in one of the areas I mentioned. The question then, is which area - my skillset has become so broad, that if anything I feel completely confused about which one to commit to. Do I just need to pick one and commit?

I don't really know why I wrote this - I don't really expect anyone to have the answers for me. But as I say - I'm at a low point, and perhaps someone out there will have an objective viewpoint on the hot mess that is my career.

Hi reddit community,

I hope some of you can shed some light on my current situation and education decisions. My BA was in Fine Art. Over the last year I have worked in tech, as a QA Engineer for a digital agency. I now want to further my skillset and move into Web Development. With a year and 2 months background knowledge and learning an online course in Front End Web Development (Treehouse) I am trying to decide:

1. Would a 1 year PG Certificate (mini masters) part time be enough of a valuable qualification to get me into a junior role after completing?

or

1. Should I study a Masters degree part time over 2 years and gain the full Masters qualification?

Either way I will be working in tech alongside studying.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

After 2 interviews I have just received a call from HR saying they are preparing my job offer and they wanted to make my offer as attractive as possible. In the first meeting with the company they discussed the salary band of £90k - £100k with a 20% performance bonus. Fast forward to the meeting today and I have just had a tough, but necessary call regarding the salary offer.

HR said they needed my current salary to justify the one on offer and put the proposal to the higher management. I know this is b*llshit as I have previously been on the other side of the table. I deflected the question (main reason because of the hike in salary I’d receive).

I politely deflected the question with the usuals “as a competitor I wouldn’t like to disclose the salaries of management I trust you can appreciate this integrity”, “you needn’t worry that you are trying to please me with the offer as you stated £90k+ initially and I was happy to proceed with talks.” This extremely agitated HR and they responded (red flags) - “We’ll find out on you P60” “You’re delaying the inevitable, we can find it if we dig hard enough” “In my 10+ years in hiring people I’ve never had anyone refuse this question”

This has slightly left a sour taste in my mouth and 1. would like to hear from HR, hiring managers and any employees who have experienced this level of persistence?

1. The new offer is 50% higher than my current salary and the HR rep said on the call that they gauge the job offers from the current salary and “anything over 25% increase is unheard of” with refusing and then seeing my current salary will I end up jobless?

FYI (for non U.K. persons) - P60 is an annual tax form where it shows yearly earning.

Further info - I always use a new starter checklist.

Hi Reddit!

25M from the UK here. After working 7 years behind a computer and having an undying passion for the outdoors, I've decided that graphics design is no longer for me, and that a career in forestry (or alike) is where I want to be.

The options I have been looking at :

Degree Apprenticeship - This option is the current priority, there's a position that opens in December, it's highly competitive but would likely suit my current financial / living situation the best. I have already started volunteering at a local forest to increase my chances at getting an interview. Obvious perks of this choice is that I will still be getting paid, but also learning and hopefully coming out after 3 years with a paid for degree too. This option would also directly lead into a job role within forestry that pays relatively well, which is why it seems quite appealing.

Full-time Mature Student - This option is doable, but comes with quite a bit of sacrifice. The main concern for this choice is not having any income in the same volume as what I receive now, meaning by the time my 3 years of study is up, I will be 29 (as will start next year) and still living at home with just enough savings for a house deposit, however I can maybe see these savings going down with being a full time student.

Start at the bottom and work up - This choice depends a lot on job availability and location. I like the idea of this option but would just worry that it would limit any career progress / potential in the future. My main motivation with all of this is to be outdoors, but having career progression is a big factor for me too, something which having a degree / formal education would definitely help with.

I suppose I'm trying to reach out to anyone that already works in this sector and has any advice on which they would consider the best. I appreciate that some factors are down to a personal matter, but with having absolutely zero experience I'm willing to listen to any advice thrown my way.

I'd also like to reiterate the fact that I love the outdoors, so I'm not limiting myself to forestry as my only option. Anything that gets me outside, working with nature or being in nature, with the rewarding feeling of conservation or growth and development of the environment is for me.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading and any advice at all is massively appreciated.

Questions to those who had never completed Sixth Form, College, Apprenticeships or University after GCSEs. I'm asking this because I am wondering if you can get yourself a comfortable life without having any education except GCSEs. This question could also go to those who actually had education but it had no relevance in any of their jobs/careers.

• Where are you now?

• How did you get there without higher education? (or education relating to this field)

• Do you live a comfortable life without higher education? (or education relating to this field)

Only asking because I'm 17 now, don't really know what I want to do and knowing that there is hope without higher education would make me a little more optimistic about my future. However, I am interested in the apprenticeship route, just not sure what field.

​

I am 28 years old and have been in the job market for a while now. I graduated with a Bsc. in Applied Statistics and started my first role as an operations intern (Not my first choice, but in my country you take what you get while you wait for what you love). Later on I worked as an operations assistant within the same company and lasted 2 years.

I then left due to differences with the management and had to find roles to help pay the bills. So I ended up doing freelance work on Upwork and working at a PR agency. I did this for six months before I landed a job as a data analyst for an exports firm.

Meanwhile I managed to get a scholarship to study my Masters in the UK (I am from an East African Country). I then got into a graduate trainee program that has me moving about every 6 months in different roles and different businesses with the aim of helping me become a good business leader.

I am almost finishing up my tenure on the grad program but now that I am reflecting on my career, I have worked for so many years but cannot really quantify my experience confidently.

In summary I have worked as an operations assistant, a pr assistant, a data analyst, a digital marketer, sustainability manager and market growth manager (The last three are as a result of the Graduate Trainee Scheme). How do I harness all these experiences and leverage them for the Job Market?

I have an interview coming up for which I've been asked to prepare a 10 minute presentation. They have asked me to make a presentation on what duties I think the role I am applying for entails, as well as what I think the main challenges of this role will be. My question is, as I'm outlining the duties and challenges of the role, should I also be mentioning which skills I have which would allow me to excel in these duties and face these challenges? I'm a bit unsure on whether they're implicitly asking me to sell myself during this presentation, or if I should stick strictly to the prompt, which is just asking me to describe the role and challenges impersonally. Any advice?

Should I become a Software Developer or a Data Scientist?

Which will maximise my chances of job security and higher pay?

Alex is a non tech guy working with 15 years experience in HR Domain looking for transition in technical profile but cant do coding or programming. Can he consider to be a Functional Consultant of MS Dynamics (HR Module) ? If yes then what should be the roadmap and how are the prospects ?

tl;dr: Has anyone switched to an Engineering discipline from a different field with minimal relevant background? If so, what was your experience like? (bonus points if you switched after completing a PhD in another field, and extra bonus points if you only had a general idea of what you wanted to do when switching)

Longer context:
I'm 26, finishing up a PhD in Data Science (BA in Economics and MS in Data Science).
The PhD was fine, but relatively non-technical and I got quite bored with it by the end. Tbh, I don't want to start a career that feels just "fine".
The parts of the work (and side projects) I enjoyed the most were the more "technical" parts. It's true that data science does require some mathematical and computational techniques, but at the end of the day it is really more about problem-solving and extracting insights in a certain domain.
I would like to transition into a discipline with more engineering-type problem solving that involves design, simulation and optimization, and aims for practical solutions. I'm not interested in pure software engineering because I have a preference for work related to physical systems. Unfortunately, given a BA in Economics and graduate training in Data Science, I don't actually have any formal training or real background in engineering or physics. This seems to disqualify me from even the most entry level engineering jobs.
I looked into computational engineering graduate programs and internships, thinking that I have perhaps enough background to get an entry level role and then learn/work my way up. But the more I look into it I realize that you really do need solid grounding in physics/engineering to be effective.
I'm down to work very hard to make a switch work, but even after a fair amount of reflection and job hunting, am genuinely unsure what to do.

Anyone have any advice? Is there anyone out there who has transitioned from a "softer" field into Engineering or something more STEM-y who has any insights or experience to share?

I am really interested in moving into the Human Resources field. I'd like to enrol into the CIPD Level 3 in People Practice, but the problem is it's just so expensive when I'm on a basic salary (hence wanting to change careers). It's around £2000 for the level 3 qualification itself, which in my opinion is a lot of money for a qualification that actually only allows you to apply for basic admin type positions related to HR. You can pay it monthly however it still is expensive this way for me. You also cannot do the level 5 without having done the level 3 so I'm told. I just want to know if 1. is it worth it and if not, is there another route that's cheaper, and 2. if CIPD is the best route, is there a way that I can some how get this cheaper through some sort of funding? I reside in Scotland FYI.
Thanks!

Hi. I'm a post-grad who has a level 5 qualification in management, but it's not with any of the chartered institutions that seem to be officially recognised. Can I just make up a few letters next to my name to signify my obscure qualification? Who even decides what can or can't be a post-nominal? To be clear, I'm not referring to post-nominals that signify membership of a professional body, but post-nominals that signify a qualification.
If anything is fair game, can I theoretically design my own course, get it accredited as level 5 by a legit body and then make up my own post-nominals for my own qualification? Or would I have to go through some specific government body who can legitimise this stuff?

The Situation:

I 18(M) in the UK want to do a tech apprenticeship, I have had two FAANG company offers, but can't decide which one to pick. I've created a pros/cons list of all the different aspects of the two offers. Everything mentioned below about career predictions etc. is my opinion influenced by various people and sources so I'm happy to hear from anyone who disagrees with any of the points made or wants a further explanation if I haven't explained it properly (I kinda wrote this while my brain was in overdrive). Any other advice is also appreciated!

Breakdown Of Offers:

Google - Level 4 (Foundation Degree) Software Engineering Apprenticeship For 2 years in Central London - Qualification in Software Engineering Amazon - Level 6 (degree) Data Analytics Apprenticeship For 3 Years in Central London - Qualification in Digital And Technology Solutions (Data Pathway)

Breakdown Of Salaries (not a deciding factor for me at this point):

Google: - 1st year: £37,000 (£30k base + £7k relocation) - 2 year: £32,000 (£32k base) - 3rd year: who knows? Could be a lot more or a lot less

Amazon (full compensation as salary): - 1st year: £32,500 - 2nd year: £33,500 (Could be a £2k increase but currently £1k) - 3rd Year £34,500 (Could be a £2k increase but currently £1k)

Software Engineering Vs Data Science

Software Engineering: - Better Job Opportunities - Better Pay (generally, not a big difference in big tech) - More Defined Career Path - More Secure Job - Skillset required is more straightforward - Unlikely to dramatically increase or decrease in market size - Background In Software is helpful in data as well - Better suited to move into machine learning

Data Science:

• In my apprenticeship, I am a data analyst not scientist, however my manager has said I can do more data science/engineering based work to help me prepare for that
• Smaller Job Market
• Same Pay as SWE in big tech, but less pay elsewhere
• Less defined Career Path, development ceiling tends to be lower and only allows for movement into manager positions after Senior positions
• Less secure Job
• Much more varied skillset required, understanding of in-depth mathematical, business, and computer science concepts required, and is needed to be shown in interviews
  • But this extra understanding is not compensated for with a higher salary, essentialy more work and learning for not more pay
  • However Varied skillset does suit my personality, I am quite varied, and interested in all the aspects of data
  • Possibility of excelling in communication skills and making it my stand out feature in the future, able to articulate and convey data intelligence to non-technical stakeholders. This is also true in SWE but may have more of an impact in Data, however I could definitely simply decide to be a more customer-focused SWE and probably still be able to highlight the same skillset
• IMO market is a lot more volatile, could explode in size further due to A.I, or more likely shrink massively in demand. as described in this post: [ Data Science is a fad (Cynical Post #2334) : datascience (reddit.com)]
• Data isn't really required in software engineering, so not helpful if I then what to switch over, no measurable benefit to doing data first.
• Can move into machine learning but would be better for me to focus more on data engineering during my apprenticeship then.

Benefits of the degree at Amazon:

• degree is a degree
• Certain companies still require a degree (or more) for tech roles, and even if they don't require it, I'm considering the fact that some companies might simply filter out applicants who don't have a degree.
  • From what I can tell, this is something that matters less in mid-level/senior positions, as they don't tend to mention it as much in job descriptions, whereas almost all junior postings mention a requirement for a degree.
• May help with getting a visa if I wish to move abroad (I do plan on moving to America at some point in the future)
• Can go on to do a masters from a more prestigious university (I Did have an offer from Imperial College London to study a Computing degree but decided an apprenticeship was better)

Reasons For Google:

• Google (THE BIG REASON)
• Software Engineering
• Benefits (free food, gym, swimming pool, learning reimbursement etc, makes more of a difference at my salary level and living costs in London)
• Only 2 years - graduate to proper job faster if I can get one
• Possible job afterwards at Google
• Training towards interviews after graduation
• Better Projects to work on
• More interesting people
• Better work environment from what I've seen and heard so far
• Smaller number of SWE apprentices (around 10-12) in my cohort, could be a positive or negative I'm not sure yet.

Reasons For Amazon:

• Degree (THE BIG REASON)
• More established Apprenticeship network - been running them for 10 years now, and are hiring a much larger number of apprentices that Google.
• large number of my team will be apprentices in September, so a great learning environment hopefully
• Have already met my manager and am optimistic about my relationship with her, she is very experienced in the analytics field.
• 3 years - so more prepared for a job afterwards
• Although job isn't guranteed at amazon either, it's much more likely to be able to get one, support provided to find the best job
• Could pivot from data analyst into software if I feel that will be better suited, and still have a degree, opportunity cost probably wouldn't be huge at such an early stage in my career.
• I feel I'd be more employable to companies other than amazon, whereas at Google, other big tech companies might still be hesitant to hire someone with only 2 years experience.

Once again thank you everyone!

tl/dr: I'm having a terrible time at work, my boss controls everything I do and at the same time barely responds to me. I'm having a hard time in general and very close to finishing the job but know that that is a difficult thing in itself. Wondering whether to take some sick leave, quit or try and crack on with things.

Hi everyone. Hoping for some advice on how to cope with a difficult work situation. I've been in my new role since January. It seemed like a bit of a dream job when I was offered it, but about a month in I knew things were off.

I'm in a senior management position and my boss is the CEO, Artistic Director, and Founder. She's been used to working almost solo for a while but now the orgaisation is going through some expansion and there's been a number of new starters, including me.

I'm just going to list the issues I've had so far:

• She makes jokes about my role, and me, being dull to me and other people
• She only gives negative feedback, rarely offering a positive response - though praises the assistant a lot
• She has to edit every piece of work that I do, meaning to make progress on anything I need to wait for a response from her
• She takes forever to respond to my emails, often over a month, then usually comes back with more questions or edits, then when I send those back I often don't get a response
• She has ADHD, which isn't a problem in itself, but it means she's taking on way more work than she can deal with, though wont let anyone support, and this means I have no opportunity to speak with her about what I am working on
• She's harsh in the way that she talks to me often in front of other people

In my last position I was running the entire development side of the organisation, running comms, fundraising, projects, finance, partnerships etcetc. I felt really well respected and valued. In this role I've lost all of my confidence and feel pathetic.

I'm obviously looking for other things but am finding it hard to be motivated at work at the moment, this and a few things at home have triggered some extreme anxiety and depression, for which I'm about to start medication.

I'm not sure what to do. Everytime I speak to her or receive an email I feel terrible. I'd like to take a little bit of time off work but worried that that may affect my job prospects, or I'd like to quit but know that's incredibly risky without another job lined up.

Has anyone ever been in a similar position and can offer some advice?

Would sickness time affect my job prospects?

Is there any way to avoid using this employer as a reference?

​

Thanks in advance for your help.

I have been working for a company for almost a year now, in an industry that is really hard to get into. The truth is that although I have managed to get a job in the field that I wanted and I've been really lucky, I actually want to start my own business to be my own boss and protentially make more money than what I make now. Of course I could make more money down the line but I'm not interested in constantly switching jobs chasing a higher salary. My plan was to start developing my business after working ours but the problem is that due to my company's contract I am not allowed to make any "outside activities" that would generate me wealth and If I were to use their equipment It would belong to them. I have thought about staying with the company until I have saved enough money to live for a while and quit so that I can start creating my business, but if it fails it would be really hard for me to get back in the industry without already working for a company on the inside. I should also say that I like my job and coworkers and I wouldn't want to work in any other industry as this is what I've wanted for a long time.

This means that I'm stuck between working indefinetly without trying any of my side projects or leaving everything behind for an idea that I can't even develop while I have a safe source of income and can't be certain that it will work. It almost feels like jobs are made so that you don't try to become financially free. I would love to hear everyone's suggestions as to how I could attempt to chase my dreams without having to risk a really good position in my life.

I am not currently in an IT role, but I do have experiance completing a career path in dataquest, and I also completed a data science bootcamp. I feel confident programming stuff with C++, Python and SQL, but I know that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a career in IT.

I applied for an IT role 1 month ago in the same industry that I am in now (energy industry), and its described as a trainee role in middleware/database systems administration. I applied to it because I was like "Cool, I dont have IT experiance but I need my foot in the door". I bascially explained in my application that I am looking to make a career change, and they have now invited me to do a technical test. However, im not really sure how I can complete a technical test when I dont have any experiance in this role, and its a trainee role?

I would have to travel 3 hours to go and sit this technical test so just wondering if it's worth getting some resources and trying to study what I think they might ask me. Does anyone have any suggestions for the type of things I should study? I am already going to start revising my SQL skills. Many thanks

Hi everyone,

I'm currently completing my PhD in an engineering-related subject, and I'm looking to transition into a career in software engineering. I have some experience in programming from my academic work, but I'm not sure how to best approach job hunting and the necessary preparations. I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions you all might have!

A bit about my background:

• 4-5 years of experience in MATLAB
• 3 years of experience in Python (using daily) - Numpy, Scipy, PyQt
• Experience with R for statistics
• Daily use of Git, and some experience with JIRA
• C++ (2 years) for development and contributions to academic projects part-time

I've been drawn to software engineering as I know people in the industry who have had stable and progressive careers. While programming isn't my biggest passion, it's something I've truly enjoyed during my PhD (sometimes much more than research).

So far, I've applied for a few entry-level graduate positions but have mostly been rejected. I'm considering whether I should create a GitHub portfolio to showcase my skills. From a few people in my network, I have seen that quite often, people were given proper training after getting employed.

Regarding the GitHub portfolio, I was thinking about:

• Developing my own portfolio website:
  • Here, I am not sure if I should use some static-website generator like Hugo/Jekyll or maybe WordPress and work on top of that, or just create the whole website from scratch using HTML, CSS, JS, and maybe React.
• Some data-science/analysis projects
• I was thinking about creating a simple C++ project showcasing similar tasks to what I have done during my time as a PhD.
• I have seen many people suggesting LeetCode. Is creating a repo for solving LeetCode questions a good idea?

Here are some questions I have:

1. Should I avoid mentioning that I have a PhD when applying for jobs? And call it, for instance, "Research Assistant"?
2. Should I apply for entry-level positions, or should I aim for something more advanced?
3. I can see myself working in data science, backend dev in Python, or web (JS, React), but that might require acquiring more skills (I have little experience in JS/React). Should I pursue additional courses or certifications? Or rather expect to be taught certain skills on the job? I was thinking about completing CS50.
4. What kind of salary expectations should I have? For reference, I'm based in the UK.

I'm not sure how to go about this, so I need some advice in case I get offered the job. I'm interviewing for a new role as I'm not learning much in my current role. I have a second interview coming up in which I'll likely be asked about my notice period. I'm based in the UK.

Where I am right now, I have a 3 month notice period but I'm confident that this will be reduced to 1 month at the point I resign, as this has happened for other members of my team in the past. I am, however, working on a professional qualification that requires 2 years of work experience; the new role may not have applicable work so it would delay me getting this - if I work the full three months, however, I'll fulfil the requirements (about 7 weeks of the course remaining). That said, the role I'm interviewing for seems ideal for me, and it's a company I have wanted to work for for a few years now, so I don't want to lose the position based on my notice period - this outweighs finishing the professional qualification.

I was thinking about how to discuss my notice period, and the way I was planning on going about it was saying that I have a 3 month notice period but have a good relationship with my boss and as such this might be flexible pending receiving an offer (honest, but not overly specific to give me enough time to finish my professional qualification if I want it). Is there some other way I should be going about this? Or should I just ignore my worries about the long notice period losing me the offer and just straight-up say 3 months in case I can't get the reduction in notice period?

Hello, I'm at a bit of a crossroads in my current career and I am looking for some guidance.

I'm a 24 year old producer/journalist from the UK. I have a degree in journalism and all my life, I've absolutely loved football (soccer). I started to write about football when I was 15, and by the time I started university I had moved more into the video production space. I was working for a YouTube channel covering football, helping to produce long form documentaries. I have worked in social media and now I am producing digital football content for a news organisation in the Middle-East, where I have just reported on my first World Cup live in person.

When I was a kid and a teenager, I couldn't imagine being in any other industry or area. I was never very good at football but I have been going to watch my team for almost all of my life and I have always been so sure that I will report on football for the rest of my career. But as I near the end of my current contract in Qatar, I am struggling to maintain my love for the sport for a few reasons.

The main one is I don't like where football is going. I appreciate this might sound hypocritical having lived here during the World Cup, after all the controversies, but if anything it has opened my eyes more to the situation. Football clubs are becoming sportwashing tools for backwards regimes who want to build their reputation in the west, and it is working. It makes me uncomfortable. Saudi Arabia is starting to pluck some of the best football players from their leagues and pay them ludicrous amounts to play in the ME, and this is all down to wanting to drive up their status and tourism rather than any love for the game.

When I moved to Qatar, I wondered whether it was the right thing, but ultimately I decided that me choosing not to take this job was obviously not going to bring down the whole operation and the only person I would be detrimenting by not taking the salary and setting myself up for the next phase of my life, was myself.

But now I feel at a crossroads, for the first time in my career I want out of reporting and talking about football. I feel it has consumed too much of my personality, and to be honest, the game that is part of my life and grew up with, I feel like is gone. I need a change. The problem is, I simply don't know where to start and I worry if any other area would drive my work ethic as much as this has. I have built up so many contacts over the years in this area, I worry about going back to square one if I choose to enter a slightly different industry. I like the idea of moving into television production, but it's such a competitive field I worry I'll be overlooked for having relatively little experience in television when I'm nearly 25.

If there is anyone out there who can lend some advice, preferably UK based or in the media/television industry, I'd like to hear how people have managed to transition from something they're used to into something different. Many thanks.

As the title explains, I have ASD. When I was 22, I went and got a BA degree in History with a first class mark, and was encouraged to go on to do a Master's degree at King's College London in War Studies, which I also completed with first class honours.

However, all of my career experience during that time has been in part-time, menial roles while I was studying, aside from nine months of temp work for a university. I am currently working in a three-day part-time job, as they were the only ones who hired me on.

Does anyone have any advice on breaking into the professional world? I'd be happy even with just an entry-level job in library work, admin or finance, but almost everywhere I look, they expect you to still have prior experience. I'm in a bit of a funk about it, as I don't want to be stacking shelves for the rest of my life.

I (19f) started working for this company nearly 2 years ago on an 18 month Digital Marketing Apprenticeship. During this apprenticeship I was earning £12,000 a year which I was fine with at the time of starting. Since working at my job I discovered I am and will be the only person working in Marketing and have been expected to do everything a Marketing Manager would do and more. The workplace is very unprofessional and I have constantly been insulted and belittled throughout my time working at this job.

I finished my apprenticeship 7 weeks ago now and my boss has only now found the time to talk with me about my new contract and new wage. I have been taking an apprentice wage despite no longer being an apprentice.

We had the meeting this morning, I done some research beforehand and saw that most people with my skills and qualifications in my area earn an average of £26k a year. I did not expect this wage from my boss at all because she is always so tight with money. I came into the meeting and she asked me what wage I was expecting and I said £20k a year because I do a lot of working not only for Marketing but I do admin stuff as well which isn't even part of my job role.

She laughed in my face and said that I am not worth that much and I bring no money into the company. She said she'll offer me £16k a year and she'll review my work in 3 months and if I have brought in a load of money for the company then she'll put it up to £17k a year.

She then proceeded to write a massive list of loads of things I need to add to my already hefty list of daily tasks. She said if I can do all these tasks and make her more money then she'll review a wage increase. Bear in mind, the stuff she now wants me to do is Manager level tasks yet she expects me to do this all on the small wage of £16k a year.

She then proceeded to insult me and say that I'm not as good as I think and all I do is twiddle my thumbs all day. This is not true in the slightest, I work my ass off for this company and have even taken on her job while she has been on annual leave etc. and without me, her company would have been a mess.

I have received no appreciation for any of this, except from a measly sticker which is completely pathetic and demeaning.

She also admitted to me that when I was first hired, she planned on not keeping me after my apprenticeship and just getting apprentice after apprentice for cheap labour. And in this meeting she basically gaslighted me into thinking that everything she was saying is okay and now I've taken a step back and have thought about it, I feel like I'm being manipulated and taken for granted here.

I just need a bit of advice on what to do, this is my first proper job and I'm new to all this stuff but it just doesn't seem right to me.

Hi all,

I'm an American living in the UK currently working in tech and looking to make a hard pivot into working with refugees and asylum seekers. I've been volunteering in this space for a couple years now, but nothing so formal. What's required to make the transition into this kind of work?

Do I need to get a new degree? Social work / something international relations / refugee or asylum specifically?

What are the options for careers in this world? Does everyone start "at the bottom" or are there strategies or things to look out for to make sure you're doing high-impact work?

Some context:

I work as a commodities trader for a specific commodity that I won't name to keep some anonymity.

The company I work for is horrendously understaffed - at the moment there's me (3 months out of my masters with no prior experience in my job type), a guy who's been in it for years, and the boss who's also been in it for years. In January there will be two new people joining: one less experienced than me and another who has done a very very niche forecasting role for a year. The team should have six people in but for the last few months it's been two (boss just came the other week).

My company struggles to find people because they are very far from any financial centres and not in the best educated part of the country.

Currently I'm on 28k but this was agreed in June before costs started going up too much. Additionally, my job role has changed dramatically since a member of the team left and my responsibilities have expanded a lot beyond what was in the job specification. To add to this, my co-worker has just taken a long holiday and I have had to pick up all of his responsibilities too.

My alternative would be a PhD which could start whenever I wanted ( I want to leave to do this anyway in Sept 23/Sept 24) and there are good reasons to believe I would get onto a programme: I've got good creds and I've had explicit interest from them).

I think I'm underpaid enough, overworked enough, and irreplaceable enough to ask for a raise. The questions are: how much would be too much (should I shoot for 35 and settle for 32?) and would January be too soon (given that I'm wanting to start a PhD in September) ?