26, nearly 27, and still not got anywhere

Well, where do I start...

I'm 26, 27 in December, kinda wasted a year. I've been unemployed for over a year, after starting out studying GCSE's from home, I got involved with someone, didn't work out and have been suffering from anxiety/ocd, but it's not an excuse. Quite frankly, i'm disgusted with myself for feeling like a lazy slob this past year and a bit.

I still have no clue what I want to do, given that I've not got A-Levels and messed up my GCSE's too. I failed all my GCSE's, except for English, Maths, English Lit, Science and Short Course IT. I achieved C's in all of those.

Now, onto the positives:

I have an interview for a part time role this Friday. It's only store work for B&Q, but money is money. It could be a key going forward.

I'm still young at 26.

I feel confident in my ability to study.

Questions:

What would you guys do? I've narrowed it down to three options really: 1) find a full time, dead end job. 2) start an Access course next year and work part time. 3) Start a business whilst working part time.

I've given it thought, and figured that I only need to put down the past 5 years of history on my CV going forward, so the gap over the past year should be fixable.

What are some realistic career options from access courses? I've considered becoming a paramedic and gaining voluntary experience with St Johns, but I'm not sure how well I'd enjoy working shift work with fluctuating shift patterns. The same applies for becoming a police officer.

The dream would be to become an academic and get into neuroscience or psychology, but being realistic, I think that ship sailed a long time ago. I'm still open to opinions contrary to that assertion.

Two of my passions are religion and philosophy actually, but again, not sure how realistic that would be for landing a role.

I've considered becoming a software engineer, but I would imagine most universities would put me through a foundation year for Computer Science even if I did the Access course. Not that I wouldn't do that, but it's more tuition to shell out.

27 is nothing in the grand scheme of things! It hasn't been a wasted year, it's been a learning experience. You won't do it again.
Don't start a degree with the intention of getting employed, unless it's something you really want to do. I feel you'd much prefer doing a degree in neuroscience/psychology/philosophy, than becoming a paramedic.
I think we can cross number 1 off the list, calling it a "dead end" job doesn't exactly sound fun 😂
Number 2 is possible. You can do a vague access course and hopefully decide what you intend to study at uni by the UCAS deadline, whilst working part-time.
Number 3, depending on what kind of business it is, is also possible. If it's an online endeavour, why not start it now anyway and see how it works out over the year, with the intention to start studying in september '19 anyway?
These situations are mostly hypothetical, as you cannot guarantee you'll get the part-time job.

I think if you truly know what your passions are, and you want to study asap, there's nothing stopping you even going this year (providing the course is available in clearing, and has a foundation year).
In my opinion, taking out the extra year of student finance to do a foundation degree would make more sense than trying to balance working part time, and funding yourself over the access course.
My advice is to find which course you'd truly enjoy, and work towards getting into studying that.

I would say that as we live in a technological age, that learning programming languages with a view to starting a business or finding work as a software engineer would be a good idea. Quite a few adverts out there require a degree in something like computer science, so if I pick up prior experience *before* a degree, then getting a degree at that time would probably be the best time to do it, then I have an education, experience and a portfolio going into future employment by the age of say 32.

A lot of businesses hiring graduate software engineers are looking for a specific skillset rather than a specific qualification. The term 'graduate' implies a standard of competency in number of key areas around programming, problem-solving, logic, software development principles, databases, technology, some common tools, and some software/project management skills. -- people without that graduate/education background can reach the same standard in other ways.

Realistically you could self-teach up to a graduate standard in the space 12-18 months if you put your mind to it and work at it - but that requires a lot of motivation and enthusiasm, as well as being willing to "push" yourself uphill when it may feel like staring up to the summit of Mt Everest at times.

Aside from that, you could do almost all of it for free using a combination of online courses (MOOCs), tutorials, blogs, youtube videos, freely available tools, personal projects, and a lot of good-old-fashioned persistence. (you want to be looking to at least 1000 hours of solid, focused learning/studying as a bare minimum, and at least one large non-trivial personal project which might be equivalent in size to the kind of thing a 3rd year student would do for their Final year project)

From someone who self-taught as a programmer when I was 14, before MOOCs, before interactive online tutorials, and even before YouTube -- I mostly relied on books, blogs, text-based tutorials, forums, and my personal projects; self teaching is actually a lot more accessible now

Firstly, there's a whole plethora of sites with tonnes of superb free resources:


Some great non-free (but reasonably priced) websites with some very high quality material include TeamTreehouse and Pluralsight -- these are good for a lot of the tools and other non-programming technologies. TeamTreehouse has some very well-structured "tracks" for learning a lot of different languages and frameworks. Pluralsight is less-structured but has videos for some more advanced tools/technologies that are harder to learn just by google'ing.

Aside from that, it's about taking everything one step-at-a-time and having goals to give yourself the structure that you need to self-learn without ending up flip-flopping all over the place or treading water. Your goals would probably be:

That probably sounds like a lot, and it is - but it's achievable to learn alot of that in 12-18 months, and to reach a point where you'll have a lot to talk about on your CV in terms of tools, technologies, concepts and principles that you'll have learned, with projects you'd have worked on in that time, and to be able to sit down with interviewers hiring junior engineers who would be asking technical questions and looking to see how you'd approach problem solving.

Also, I'd point out that there's no age limit on an apprenticeship for IT jobs like software engineering; if you spend time learning some of these things, you could consider jumping straight into an entry-level role on something like the Digital & Technology Solutions degree-apprenticeship scheme, which lasts for 4-years but mostly consists of on-the-job learning, with one day per-week in lessons to work towards a degree qualification. (And no loans/tuition fees)

I just want to thank everyone for the support and advice you've given me thus far. I quickly ruled out becoming a paramedic - it was just a thought as it would be an emotional thing to do seeing as my dad was a former st john member, but it wouldn't match my personality or skillset, to be honest. I think development is more like me, and there are courses out there you can do part-time, so I think that would be both realistic and fulfilling, but i'm just looking for part-time work as I work towards something in any event.

Well, where do I start...

I'm 26, 27 in December, kinda wasted a year. I've been unemployed for over a year, after starting out studying GCSE's from home, I got involved with someone, didn't work out and have been suffering from anxiety/ocd, but it's not an excuse. Quite frankly, i'm disgusted with myself for feeling like a lazy slob this past year and a bit.

I still have no clue what I want to do, given that I've not got A-Levels and messed up my GCSE's too. I failed all my GCSE's, except for English, Maths, English Lit, Science and Short Course IT. I achieved C's in all of those.

Now, onto the positives:

I have an interview for a part time role this Friday. It's only store work for B&Q, but money is money. It could be a key going forward.

I'm still young at 26.

I feel confident in my ability to study.

Questions:

What would you guys do? I've narrowed it down to three options really: 1) find a full time, dead end job. 2) start an Access course next year and work part time. 3) Start a business whilst working part time.

I've given it thought, and figured that I only need to put down the past 5 years of history on my CV going forward, so the gap over the past year should be fixable.

What are some realistic career options from access courses? I've considered becoming a paramedic and gaining voluntary experience with St Johns, but I'm not sure how well I'd enjoy working shift work with fluctuating shift patterns. The same applies for becoming a police officer.

The dream would be to become an academic and get into neuroscience or psychology, but being realistic, I think that ship sailed a long time ago. I'm still open to opinions contrary to that assertion.

Two of my passions are religion and philosophy actually, but again, not sure how realistic that would be for landing a role.

I've considered becoming a software engineer, but I would imagine most universities would put me through a foundation year for Computer Science even if I did the Access course. Not that I wouldn't do that, but it's more tuition to shell out.

What I'm reading here mirrors my own experience somewhat!

"I still have no clue what I want to do, given that I've not got A-Levels and messed up my GCSE's too. I failed all my GCSE's, except for English, Maths, English Lit, Science and Short Course IT. I achieved C's in all of those."

In fairness, 5 GCSEs at grade C is a good achievement and something that most employers and courses require (especially in maths and English) - this is far from failing!!

Have you thought about taking an Access to HE Course at college? This gives you the academic qualifications to start a degree (and may make entry to the Police easier if you do an Access courses in Public Services). I did this, and found it a great experience as you'll be on a courses with people in a very similar situation. It gave me a tonne of confidence and I ended up going to university at 28. It might not be for everybody but it worked out well for me. The other benefit of Access is that in less than a year, you learn a lot about the chosen subject and get a feel for whether that route is for you.

You're only 26, and there is loads to play for - don't feel you have to rush (I know that doesn't seem very helpful sometimes).

That's very useful, thank you. Yeah, I heard of an Access course, but the subjects I'd want to do (Computer Science, Philosophy, Neuroscience) tend to be very focused on exams rather than coursework, and from my understanding, Access courses tend to be primarily based on coursework. Plus, i'd want to get into a Russell Group university and not every Russell Group university would accept an Access course. I'd want to do something that prepares me well that is focused on exams and mirrors the assessment on the degree. Having said that, I guess a lot of universities would look at putting me in for a foundation year on a STEM subject if I did do an Access course.

Alternatively, I could work full time and better my education on a part-time basis. I know a local university offers Applied Computer Science as a part time course.

Well, where do I start...

I'm 26, 27 in December, kinda wasted a year. I've been unemployed for over a year, after starting out studying GCSE's from home, I got involved with someone, didn't work out and have been suffering from anxiety/ocd, but it's not an excuse. Quite frankly, i'm disgusted with myself for feeling like a lazy slob this past year and a bit.

I still have no clue what I want to do, given that I've not got A-Levels and messed up my GCSE's too. I failed all my GCSE's, except for English, Maths, English Lit, Science and Short Course IT. I achieved C's in all of those.

Now, onto the positives:

I have an interview for a part time role this Friday. It's only store work for B&Q, but money is money. It could be a key going forward.

I'm still young at 26.

I feel confident in my ability to study.

Questions:

What would you guys do? I've narrowed it down to three options really: 1) find a full time, dead end job. 2) start an Access course next year and work part time. 3) Start a business whilst working part time.

I've given it thought, and figured that I only need to put down the past 5 years of history on my CV going forward, so the gap over the past year should be fixable.

What are some realistic career options from access courses? I've considered becoming a paramedic and gaining voluntary experience with St Johns, but I'm not sure how well I'd enjoy working shift work with fluctuating shift patterns. The same applies for becoming a police officer.

The dream would be to become an academic and get into neuroscience or psychology, but being realistic, I think that ship sailed a long time ago. I'm still open to opinions contrary to that assertion.

Two of my passions are religion and philosophy actually, but again, not sure how realistic that would be for landing a role.

I've considered becoming a software engineer, but I would imagine most universities would put me through a foundation year for Computer Science even if I did the Access course. Not that I wouldn't do that, but it's more tuition to shell out.

You could study an access to he course leading you to uni or even an open university degree online, they have degree's in computer science, law, psychology, maths, physics, environmental science, humanties (history) etc.

I use to be deflated like this. Done open uni physics, started at 27. Done 120 credits a year alongside full time work for 2 years and part time in third year. I use to look at job adverts and think, geez im a loser i can never do the stuff they ask. Im doing well now, work in space industry at a major enginerring company on a good wage.

Be smart and pick a core science, engineering or maths degree - they get you jobs and access to a better life.

That's such a timely response, thank you.

I'm thinking of self-teaching front-end web development to get a full-time job as a developer. I am now considering doing an Open Uni degree alongside it, depending on the modules. I think I want to mix and match though and may consider doing the Open Degree with some programming and more Maths, as it's the theory I'm after. I'm currently comparing Open Uni modules with modules from top universities and seeing how close they get.

I know what degree I want to do and I have a fair idea of where I want to get to career-wise, but just keeping my options open for how I do it. In the meantime, I'm going to go freelance and study towards my Maths and English GCSE's.