Major career change lately and feeling trapped

AdviceSought

I am a 30 year old male who has been an actor for the last 10 years. I made the decision in January to pack it in as work has dried up for me over the past 4 years and I could no longer sustain a living. Plus I lost a lot of joy I once had for it.

I took a near minimum wage job as I was short on options. I have no qualifications or technical skills. I dropped out of college when I was cast in a film abroad. I have no experience other than acting or part time retail jobs when I was in school/college.

I have a young family and I can’t afford to live off my current wage and I do not know how to better it with no qualifications. It’s also causing a major strain on my relationship.

I am thinking my best option is to learn a new skill and work from there. However I am unsure which route to go down. Not only do I not know the “thriving industries” but I am needing something I can do part time and also a skill that will guarantee me a “decent” entry wage.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

seamus

Skills that can guarantee a good entry wage are usually going to require a full-time degree course.

Rather than entirely pursue a new career, try to leverage the experience you do have. You might say, "All I did was acting", but in reality that gives you "back office" experience of stage and film production that many others won't have.

Teaching is always a good route to look at. There are no end of stage schools popping up around the country, and it's surprisingly difficult to find people with actual real-world experience.

In order to make money, it will require some additional qualifications and experience, most of which you can do on the job.

mel123

Dont go looking for a new job/career based on salary. I know this is easier said than done and we all have bills to pay, but try and think what you would love to work at and pursue it. What is the point in spending your working life in a job your just settling for? Go after a job you will enjoy and it will make life much easier.

Speedwell

Don't know where you're based, AS, but someone I know who works for a nearby college told me they are always looking for people who can teach a skill or craft. She was after me to teach needlework classes (knitting, crochet, quilting) because I used to work in a craft store in America and I learned a lot of advanced technical tricks, and I was a corporate trainer in my last job. Sure, your acting experience will enable you to teach acting classes and maybe a seminar on "what to do and what not to do when you're trying to become an actor". Think of all the things you wish you could have told your younger self! You might also look into doing training/motivational seminars or trade show booth work. It's easy to teach someone about a product, but it's hard to teach someone to engage an audience.

hardCopy

I've often seen actors or former actors giving presentation skills workshops and courses. Maybe you could find work with a training company?

I know they have a bad reputation around here but would you consider the commission only door to door sales jobs? Your skill would transfer somewhat and you would learn a new skill.

Other than that Jobbridge and Springboard come to mind.

thirtythirty

I’ll start by saying that is a brave decision and you should be proud of having made the difficult call to turn your back on something that has been 1/3 of your life, regardless of external forces driving some of the decision.
The good news is you’re still young! It could be a different landscape if you made this decision even in another few years. Bluntly, the bad news is that you are mildly later to “the game” if it is a career you’re after, rather than just “a job”, given qualifications and past experience as you’ve highlighted.

If you’re already struggling on minimum wage with a family and your partner, you don’t have the luxury of dropping everything, “picking” a discipline for a “thriving” industry, getting qualified and then coming back to find what you can apply the qualification to. Also remember today’s thriving industries can be tomorrow’s dead ducks, so it’s not the way to pick a path. There are plenty of jobs that will pay AND let you pick up or train in skills as you go.
You need to strike a balance between something that pays and has a progression path, something that wouldn’t completely mis-match your personality, and something that could potentially leverage your people engagement skills.

The advice given so far is definitely the place to start;
- Look at jobs in your old industry; back stage manager, talent acquisition, coaching etc. However only consider “entry” level jobs like runners etc if there’s a clear path beyond that
- Consider sectors that you could leverage your far above average ability for engagement and expression; teaching & teaching assistance- either traditional primary / secondary levels or for dedicated disciplines e.g. English language schools, acting school (I’m assuming there is one!); or professional training centres and companies

There’s no denying you have a difficulty posed by the lack of a degree in some discipline, not necessarily from “having skills”, but purely from the aspect of 3rd level education is a minimum requirement for many “entry” jobs in industries meaning you won’t even get an interview for a lot of things.

But that only closes off a certain group of graduate-type jobs, and you might just need to look at completely different paths, but ones that offer career and training. For example, and even though you might shudder at the thought coming from acting, Banks historically have positions that are leaving cert-only grade entry, and once in there’s a defined career path and the opportunity to do further training like CIMA while on the job. You could also look at public sector and consider clerical grade jobs.

Alternatively Sales and /or Customer services is definitely an area you could look into, as every company and sector needs it to varying levels and communication skills are the main thing you need there. Options then range from standard call centres, to product field sales, to customer relations specialists (actually a form of phone & web support, but the “next step up” and often offering on the job training for whatever industry you’re in).

Speak to recruitment companies and see if they have any insights of where to look – it’s free to talk to them. For the most part they will deal with 3rd level qualified people, but you might get some pointers to chase up. Also speak to a career advisor, you’ll need to pay for that though.

Most importantly though, tell EVERYONE YOU KNOW, that you are job hunting and would take ANY views or advice they have. Most leads come from someone you know, and maybe someone knows someone in an organisation who has an internship opening up. This could arguably be the hardest thing to do mentally, but if you don’t embrace the fact you’re searching and use everyone you can, you’ll be struggling alone which will be much more difficult.

Good luck!

beauf

hardCopy wrote: »

I've often seen actors or former actors giving presentation skills workshops and courses. Maybe you could find work with a training company?

This. You will have experience you can leverage.

Contract roles as production operator are worth considering.

Musicman2000

A degree is not a magic golden ticket to a dream job that will land you with 50 k a year. I was in the exact same position as yourself all the advise I was given was to go back to college and do a full time degree .I completed the degree which in my honest opinion was a waste of 4 years. Found it very hard to get work and this was in IT.


There is plenty of great courses and certs that you can do without doing a degree. Solas/Fas run some great courses and with a bit of experience you will have no problem landing a job especially if you are in Dublin .

Also the new apprenticeship scheme looks excellent which in my option are better than any over rated degrees you gain on the job experience and a qualification at the end of it.