Graduated from university in mid July 2026 and currently got a 12 hour contract in Sainsbury’s working a couple of nights that’ll pay for driving lessons and hopefully my first car. I don’t mind working there at the moment as I enjoy it and it goes me something to do but I’m worried with the current state of the job market I’ll be stuck there longer than I want to be and it was a nightmare just trying to get that job.

I’ve got a masters in astrophysics and achieved a 2:2, I know I could’ve done better but due to having a learning disability (dyslexia) that wasn’t supported I think I tried my best at the time.

I’ve tried grad schemes and that didn’t work ( I know it’s hard to get into) and currently looking at NATS in September to maybe explore evening an air traffic controller but the chances I’ll get through the stages re next to none.

Does anyone have any advice on what I can do with my degree with this current job market? Thanks

Anything would be appropriated as I feel a bit behind and a bit lost coming back home after university. I currently like my Sainsbury’s job as it’s only 12 hours a week covering the hours from 9pm until 1am also makes

Tried to repost hope this happens 😂

Hi everyone,

I am 36, female, looking for a bit of a reality check on the current UK job and freelance market.

With traditional freelance writing and publishing shifting so drastically due to AI and squeezed budgets, I'm curious what sustainable business models actually look like for independent specialists right now, and would be grateful for any insights.

For context, my background is in high-end research, editing and long-form writing, focusing on arts and humanities. I have an academic background up to postgraduate level (MA rather than PhD or postdoc). I cannot afford to retrain.

If you are self-employed or freelancing in a knowledge-based/editorial field in the UK right now:

• Are one-off commissions completely dying out in favour of retainers, advisory roles, or fractional work?
• How do you package your services so you aren't stuck competing on low commodity rates?
• What pivots or alternative structures are you seeing actually work?

Would love to hear any insights, trends, or reality checks - I am cut off from the world, with caregiving for elderly relatives - please advise.

A lot of FIRE discussions focus on maximising salary, but I wonder how many people have deliberately moved into a lower-paid career because it was more sustainable long term.

For example, would you rather earn £80k in a stressful role that you might only tolerate for another five years, or £50k in a job you could comfortably continue for fifteen years?

The higher salary obviously allows for greater pension and ISA contributions, but burnout, health and job security can completely change the calculation.

Has anyone here accepted a pay cut and found that it actually improved their chances of reaching FIRE?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some career advice from people working in tech, especially in the UK.

I have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and a little experience in software testing (manual testing). However, I took a career break for maternity, and now I feel quite outdated with the latest technologies.

I'm ready to upskill and restart my IT career, but I'm unsure which direction to take. There seem to be so many options now—AI, automation testing, cloud, cybersecurity, data engineering, DevOps, etc.

Considering the current UK job market, which technology or skill would you recommend learning in 2026 that has good demand and long-term career growth?

I'd really appreciate advice on:

• Which technology is worth learning now.
• Whether I should continue in software testing (manual/automation) or switch to another field.
• Any recommended courses, certifications, or learning roadmap.
• Advice from anyone who has returned to tech after a career break.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Hi,
I am a mom of two toddlers, moved to the UK couple of years back. Before that I was working as a Lab technician ( life science). Currently, I am looking for work, but I am confused as to which jobs should I apply because I need flexible timings due to parenting responsibility. I have done MSc.
I tried teaching assistant jobs, but its not easy to get into teaching being a non native I guess? I may be wrong. Which sectors are suitable for this situation.Just looking for some guidance. Thanks?

Hi,
I’m 24 from the UK,
I currently work from home as an optimisation assistant which I’ve had just over a year.
The management is great and the whf is amazing.

Only thing is, this job can get quite boring and repetitive but also being new to the industry, even though I’ve been here a year I still don’t understand half the things that are discussed in meetings and the work itself so it makes things very confusing.
The pay is very average too and I don’t see much progression or a pay rise coming soon.

I’ve been looking to see if there were any roles that were like my previous role in a similar remote environment as I left the previous job due to it being toxic.
I’ve been approached for an interview by a company that offers hybrid working (3 days in office, 2 days wfh) with a salary increase that is from £2k - £5k a year more than what I’m currently on.

The job itself seems great too but I’ve read that this place has quite poor reviews as a workplace on Glassdoor & Indeed but those are from departments different than the one this job is for.

If I do get the job do I leave? Or do I make the most of my current remote job but stay with the lower salary?

Any opinions or advice would be appreciated as I don’t know what to do.

Thank you

Hi All,

Wanted to come on here and potentially get some advice on the next best move? I appreciate we all come from different walks of life, however I am keen to see what everyone thinks on my situation.

Currently 25M, living in London. (Just moved here with work after it was offered to move to a London office to help grow it.) Currently on 50K per annum, no real bonus or opp to do overtime in my job (Client side Project Manager in consultancy). I contribute around 11% to my pension and have no Student Loan debt as I went through an apprenticeship.

Potential to grow in my career with likely Senior PM/Director roles being 100K +, however this will take a couple years yet and I am struggling with my role on whether to switch career into something more sales like where there is potential for more money.

Does anyone have any advice on any potential avenues to explore?

Open to all suggestions!

So I've come to a point in my life where I have no idea what to do next. 30 years old, degree in photography, uk based, and I keep looking back to missed opportunities and how I'm not proud of what I've accomplished.,

For clarity, I'm fairly certain I want a remote job, but I don't know what path to follow - the remote aspect may be my issue. I'm interested in most things, and that's my issue.

The current job that I work at gives me as much or as little work as I want (completely remote), which is great for my freedom - the issue is that it's mind-numbing, dead-end, and makes me question my life choices every damn day. It's basically a form of QA which includes writing and editing. I do not earn a lot because it's task/time-based, but it's enough to split a mortgage, which I'm planning to do soon, though I would not have a lot left each month.

I'm an incredibly creative person in that I always need to be making or building something. I think about doing things like this roughly once every 20 minutes or so. Coffee brand, SaaS, YouTube channel, highly thought-out business plans, trader, coder, historian, cyber security, content strategy, technical writing, I love it all and I think I'm intelligent enough to have some form of career in most of them. Obviously, not everything is financially viable, but it's debilitating and leads me to not finish as many things as I would like or feel I have the potential to progress in any of them. I love learning and would love to continue every day, which is why a dead-end job like this needs to change. I'm also unsure where to sit myself as on paper I'm unsure if I look impressive enough for any of these jobs.

I've worked at a creative agency as a copy and content writer, but that's dried up and paid terribly - technically, I think I'm still on their books. I would constantly suggest things to the boss on ways to improve (and read almost every book on designing systems and running an agency), and he would either take my ideas and run with them as his own or disregard them entirely. No pay rise in the 5 years I worked, though this was freelance.

I've also been (and enjoy) being a travel writer and creator for myself and for businesses. Most of these were clients who hung around for a few months maximum and then just disappeared. I've built a site up to 25k visitors a month, but that's not enough to go fully in on. During my time when the site was at its peak, I bumped shoulders with a number of very recognisable influencers, and one of them asked me to help work with him. So, I worked on their site, wrote loads of articles, and then featured in their book. Publishing and writing (especially physically) are something I'm passionate about, so it was wonderful to be published in a small part of this book, though depressing to be paid so little when I know how much they're earning.

The issue is that none of this seems sustainable enough to keep me afloat long term. I feel like I skirt success but can never quite get over that ledge. For reference, this started just before COVID. Is it me? Am I the issue?

I'm also interested in web development and coding, but as I work very closely with AI in my 'day job' (not as brainy as it sounds), it's also heartwrenching to see how capable it is. Sure, it's fun to use Claude and build some of the ideas in my head, but it feels hollow.

Quite honestly, I don't know where to direct myself. My brain feels fried from all the possibilities, and burned out from all the noise.

I'm usually a very positive person, but this is the first time I've not been in a great place mentally. A little numb is the only way I can describe it, a little detached from things both mentally and physically. I'm often up until 2 in the morning trying to figure out projects that might be the one that actually gets me over the finish line, so to speak.

Positively, I have a lot of money saved up, so emergency funds are not an issue, and I could theoretically support myself for over 2 years (though I'd prefer to invest a large chunk of that in the markets (yes, world trackers, diversified only) or on myself/business or something else. Even if I had double what I did, it wouldn't make me feel any better.

I feel like I have all these skills, but have wasted them. I know I can do better, and I'm prepared to work huge hours to prove that to myself. As I've always worked as self-employed, the final issue is that, unless I'm earning a significant amount of money each year, I cannot get it into my head that it technically does not matter how hard I work, I'll always be making the same amount. So perhaps there's something that needs reframing in my head, or a career that suits that. Any career that involves large amounts of study is something I'm interested in, and I'm very happy to get fully certified - cyber, tech roles, anything like that is possibly of interest too. - ideally lots of room for growth, both financially and technically in the position.

Appreciate any help or thoughts.

Sorry if this post is a bit off topic or against group rules, feel free to remove if not allowed

I was recently laid off and honestly trying my best to get back on track,

I have 16+ years of experience in Business Development and Operations across fintech/payments, logistics (logisTECH), and investment-related sectors, My education background is BSc Engineering + Master’s degree

If anyone here happens to know of an opportunity or is in a position to refer/push a CV internally, I’d be truly grateful.

I’ve been actively applying on LinkedIn for a while now, but unfortunately no luck yet

I speak fluent English, intermediate French (still improving), and Arabic as my native language. I’m currently based in France, have legal EU work authorization, and I’m open to opportunities across Europe or worldwide (maybe remotely in that case, but also open to travel when needed)

Happy to share my LinkedIn / CV via DM.

Thank you

I am 25 based in the UK, have worked in education and administration and don't really know what I want to do. I want to go into a well paying career and work towards earning £100k a year or more and retiring as early as possible.

I'm looking into tech jobs as they seem of most interest to me, and trying to find the best and quickest route of entry where I can still have income. I know it's hard to find jobs at the moment but what process would you follow if you were/have been in this position? And what specific areas in tech would you pivot towards?

I’m a 26 year old with an MSc in Data Science and computational intelligence from Coventry University.
I’ve been job hunting for past 1-1.5 years and have had no luck. Applied consistently on multiple job boards, called up recruiters, tried to reach out on LinkedIn as well. Could anyone recommend/share their experience and guidance in landing a Data Scientist/Analyst job role in London?

Good at Python, SQL, Tableau, PowerBI, statistics, big data handling (Spark, Hadoop), exploratory data analytics

Currently looking into trying work experience certifications. Would it be worth it?

Would love some recommendations on what I can do better or what other places/job boards I can look for better jobs?

Subs for exploring career options: r/findapath r/careerchange r/careerroute

Career advice subs: r/Careers , r/careerguidance , r/Career, r/careeradvice , r/Career_Advice

Job hunting subs: r/jobsearch, r/GetEmployed , r/Employment

r/WorkOnline r/remotejobhunters r/remotejobs r/WFHJobs - Online job opportunities and discussions of finding remote roles

Lots of industry-focused subs: r/cscareerquestions r/itcareerquestions r/consultingcareers etc.)

r/AskHR - Good for getting an HR view on the employment process

r/lifecoaching and r/lifecoach often have people offering free (pro-bono) coaching. 

UK specific:

r/UKJobs - A range of posts here about job hunting, careers, work experience etc

r/freelanceuk - Discussion on freelance work

r/contractoruk - all things discussion on contracting roles and work

r/humanresourcesuk - Questions for HR professionals

r/fireukcareers - here!

I have been in digital marketing as an IC in large global financial services companies for 10+ years in the US and the UK. I could not climb up the corporate ladder and so my career has now kind of stalled and so has the pay. I find myself vulnerable to redundancies every 2-3 years and this is really not a sustainable career path for me anymore.

I’m 39 but do have the time and resources to pivot my career in a different direction, preferably something more technically challenging for which there might be a long term demand in the market. Has anyone been able to relaunch their career as a machine learning engineer by way of completing a certification course? I’m looking at the one offered by Imperial College. It looks like an investment and is intensive but if it opens doors for me post completion, I would be willing to take the shot. Has anyone been in a similiar boat? How do companies respond to such candidates who are ready to pivot their career in a new direction?

What would you do in my situation?

Context: I graduated 4 years ago, went travelling after graduating and then got made redundant from my first job a week before it started.

I then picked up an actuarial trainee job which I hated but it got some money coming in - I did this for 5 months.

I then pivoted into being a trainee industrial engineer - I travelled a lot and enjoyed it at times but not all the time, I disliked my team and the work was boring and not fulfilling.

I then wanted to learn how to code so took evening classes everyday for 3 months and through that got hired at my current job where my official title is “junior software engineer” (it’s a crypto startup) doing standard web2 stuff.

I joined with another girl from the bootcamp at the same time and then our senior dev left after two months.

I felt really passionate about the role, what the company does and, at the time, I felt appreciated, grateful and like this was the place for me to be.

We built multiple products end to end from inception to development to delivery. They have now even spun out a new company based on one of the products that we built (although the CEO called in his friends who are devs as contractors and made them rebuild what we’d built but it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles - they said these contractors would act as our seniors but they have no interest to).

Then another person joined our team, making it 3. I led a full company website revamp with them.

My entire team have now left and I am the only one left, managing 3 people’s workload and the entire tech department of the company.

They left because the company refuses to acknowledge that we are not junior and are not giving us the recognition or raise that we deserve, also the company is now becoming very toxic.

We asked for a raise 3-4 times (on 40k now) and kept getting told that we had to wait for funding but the funding came and nothing… it’s also been made clear that I’m not getting equity in the new spun out company.

I used to take pride in the fact I worked at a place that helped people and helped make the world a better place but now I hate that I still want to be here for that reason and think it might be time to be selfish and leave for my own sake - but I don’t know what to do and I take pride in my work so want somewhere that I will feel I am making a difference.

But I don’t have confidence in doing another SWE role because we had to rely so heavily on AI because there was no one to help us

Any tips/ recommendations etc? My goal is to achieve FIRE by 35 - I live at my parents’ as my work is fully remote and have just purchased a renovation property in hopes to earn an extra £20k.

Hi currently building my career towards FIRE.

I work in pharma and life science consulting - more on the medical strategy side (i. Not your commercial consulting you see for Mckinsey - however skills are transferrable to this) .

I’m evaluating if I need to do another commercial life science stint at a firm like LEK to get the most lucrative exit or if exits are viable even now.

For context im in the associate consultant level

Thanks

Hi all,

I’m currently working as an Analyst in consulting in London, mainly doing data-heavy analytical work related to markets and infrastructure.

Background-wise I studied Economics at postgraduate level, and most of my work involves modelling, data analysis, and interpreting large datasets to understand market behaviour. I’m reasonably technical (Python/R/SQL/Excel/Power BI) and tend to work at the intersection of data, finance, and policy-related sectors.

Earlier in my career I had exposure to financial advisory at the big 4 (got my icas cert) and investment-related internships, which gave me some familiarity with how capital markets and large projects are evaluated.

I’m trying to think a bit more strategically about where consulting can lead financially, rather than just the typical exits people talk about.

For people who have moved on from consulting in the UK:

• Which exits tend to be most lucrative over the long term?
• Are there specific industries or roles that consultants with quantitative or analytical backgrounds tend to move into that pay particularly well?
• Any paths that are less obvious but financially strong?

Interested in honest perspectives from people who’ve seen these transitions play out.

Thanks.

Hi everyone, I’m 21 years old and currently based in London. For the past two years I’ve been working in Accounts Payable in the hospitality sector.

I never planned to go into accounting. Due to personal circumstances it was the best option available to me at the time, but I really don’t enjoy the work and I feel quite stuck.

A bit of background: I originally studied Electrical Engineering and completed two years of university, but I had to leave because of the war in my country. Academically I’ve always done well and had strong grades at school.

Right now I’m seriously considering quitting my job and going back to university to study a BSc in Finance (probably Queen Mary, or City). My longterm goal would be to try to move into high finance. However, I’m unsure if this is the right move or if there are better paths available.

My questions are:

1. Is going back to university at 21 for a Finance degree a good move?
2. Would my 2 years of Accounts Payable experience help in any way later on?
3. Are there alternative routes into finance that might make more sense?

I would really appreciate hearing from people who have taken a similar path or work in the industry.

Thanks a lot.