[acceber123]

I'm 20 and currently work part time in a nursery. I have 3 A Levels (A-D) but didn't go to Uni. I always thought I wanted to work with animals or children...but I'm finding children pretty boring. It's not braindead because you do need to concentrate..but it's not overly stimulating.

All careers advice I've ever had was "you like animals...become a vet!" and that type of thing. But I don't want to go to Uni to study something for the sake of it (I'd rather train on the job if the job was something I liked than take a gamble on any Uni course)

So any ideas for interesting, varied and stimulating jobs? - I'm not hugely into strict routine but I do like to know what hours I'm working and for these to be regular. By routine I mean: 9am - open post. 9.30am Deliver relevant paper to office. etcetc all day every day. I also don't see myself as an overly office/admin type of person (my desk is so messy and I do leave everything till the last minute but it does get done if it has to be done). Obviously the more it pays the better (what can I say-I've always wanted to own a horse and go abroad to dive with sharks) but seeing as I'm on minimum wage now (and only for 15 hours work) I can live without earning £30k (for now ;p)

[Clare~Bear]

Zoo or some kind of wildlife/conservation centre? They're also the kind of places that have volunteers so you could do that for a while to get experience and if it is for you.

[Mbob]

Most interesting, varied and stimulating jobs are unfortunately quite hard to get and require a lot of training or education first.

As as I think you were implying, a vague idea of 'working with animals' or 'children' doesn't really help that much when it comes to a careers choice, as those descriptions could be applied to a huge range of careers which would require different skills and suit different people. Working with animals, for example, could cover anything from dog walker to research scientist. Try to think about exactly what aspects of working with animals/children you like. Are you interested in studying their behaviour, caring for them, etc?

You should bear in mind that the kind of work that the previous poster suggested is highly competitive, even for voluntary work.