I'm looking for career path suggestions for a family member. From debt adviser in the charity sector to ???
March 23, 2012 8:24 PM Subscribe
I'm looking for career path suggestions for a family member. From debt adviser in the charity sector to ???
He currently works for a charity here in the UK advising members of the public who have got themselves into debt they can no longer manage. He feels like there are a few reasons why he should now start to look into getting out: the government's austerity measures threatening funding for charities, wanting to move to another area of the UK, and also the increasing feeling that for every nice elderly couple that got missold a product they couldn't afford there's a crowd of irresponsible people on low incomes who deliberately bought luxury goods on easy credit only to walk into his office to say "Now what can you do for me to get rid of this debt?"
His other major job, before the current one, was in another unrelated field (lab testing for safety standards). He's smart, but decided not to go to university and I think this may have convinced him there's limited scope in his employment prospects. He doesn't want to now look at a third completely unrelated field because he now he has a young family he wants the security of a career rather than a succession of self-contained and unrelated jobs. He's learned some major skills over the past few years - knowledge of UK law regarding debt and debt recovery, customer service skills, business admin skills - and he wants to make use of them if possible to move on to something solid. He's just not sure what careers value these skills.
So, given the above, does anyone have any suggestions for what kind of area he could start looking into? If you were to see "4 years as a debt adviser to the public" on someone's CV/resume where could you feasibly see that possibly leading to?
He currently works for a charity here in the UK advising members of the public who have got themselves into debt they can no longer manage. He feels like there are a few reasons why he should now start to look into getting out: the government's austerity measures threatening funding for charities, wanting to move to another area of the UK, and also the increasing feeling that for every nice elderly couple that got missold a product they couldn't afford there's a crowd of irresponsible people on low incomes who deliberately bought luxury goods on easy credit only to walk into his office to say "Now what can you do for me to get rid of this debt?"
His other major job, before the current one, was in another unrelated field (lab testing for safety standards). He's smart, but decided not to go to university and I think this may have convinced him there's limited scope in his employment prospects. He doesn't want to now look at a third completely unrelated field because he now he has a young family he wants the security of a career rather than a succession of self-contained and unrelated jobs. He's learned some major skills over the past few years - knowledge of UK law regarding debt and debt recovery, customer service skills, business admin skills - and he wants to make use of them if possible to move on to something solid. He's just not sure what careers value these skills.
So, given the above, does anyone have any suggestions for what kind of area he could start looking into? If you were to see "4 years as a debt adviser to the public" on someone's CV/resume where could you feasibly see that possibly leading to?
In the US, my dad used that same type of experience to go into hospital administration doing stuff to help low-income patients work out payment plans for healthcare. He found it really satisfying.
posted by spunweb at 11:45 PM on March 23, 2012
posted by spunweb at 11:45 PM on March 23, 2012
spunweb - that is a whole industry which does not currently exist in the UK.
posted by Lebannen at 3:33 AM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Lebannen at 3:33 AM on March 24, 2012 [1 favorite]
Some people cross over between debt advice and the 'other side', i.e. debt recovery, or eg housing officer type jobs for social landlords. I wouldn't expect much future in local authority jobs though. The future for advice seems to be less face-to-face, more telephone based contacts, the same may apply to debt recovery as well. Consumer advice could be an area to transfer to relatively easily, or student services as above.
posted by wilko at 5:03 AM on March 24, 2012
posted by wilko at 5:03 AM on March 24, 2012
Oh man. You have no idea how nice it is to read one of these threads and, for once, think "Hey, that person sounds completely employable in a number of stable and remunerative jobs".
Customer service skills, business admin skills, and legal/practical knowledge of debt and debt recovery? That screams "client-facing job at a retail bank" to me.
I know a couple people (in Canada and the UK) who have started in low-level positions at a bank and have worked their way to stable and desirable careers in the financial sector that way without much previous education in the field.
posted by ripley_ at 10:12 AM on March 24, 2012
Customer service skills, business admin skills, and legal/practical knowledge of debt and debt recovery? That screams "client-facing job at a retail bank" to me.
I know a couple people (in Canada and the UK) who have started in low-level positions at a bank and have worked their way to stable and desirable careers in the financial sector that way without much previous education in the field.
posted by ripley_ at 10:12 AM on March 24, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Madamina at 9:20 PM on March 23, 2012