Jobs to retrain for

Sunny Disposition

My 35 year old son has worked in the media since he left college.
There is an opportunity to take a package coming up and he’d like to take it and retain at something. Has a good bit of cash, but would like to be back to work in a year or so. IT wouldn’t really be his thing. Obviously he’s good at humanities type stuff as a journalist, he’s excellent with numbers too, although he didn’t study maths. I reckon he’d be good at project management type stuff but would be very interested in what younger people think would suit someone in such a position?

What about a master's in digital marketing or a master's in development studies and working with an NGO as a policy researcher, both go with someone who has good research skills.

Lots of journalists have become political advisors.

Special advisers are placed on the Principal Officer scale, which begins at €79,401 and goes up to €91,624.

Duke of Url

Maybe a career in Social Media?

Many Global Companies are investing in this area.

Sunny Disposition

Thanks for the replies, I think he doesn't want to work in media of any kind for much longer so the social media wouldn't be for him. Public policy or politics or something like that might suit alright though.

Sunny Disposition

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, I think he doesn't want to work in media of any kind for much longer so the social media wouldn't be for him. Public policy or politics or something like that might suit alright though.

The only thing is it a very sought after area a lot of it goes to the type that are involved in everything starting with the student union in college. Making connections is a big part of it or in other words networking.

Brianmwalker

He's 35, it's time to let him find his own path!

Mrs OBumble

Sunny Disposition wrote: »

....but would like to be back to work in a year or so.

Wants to retrain in a totally new area, but only has a year to do it.

Mmm. Challenging.

Health care assistant?

amadangomor

https://springboardcourses.ie/

Lots of retraining opportunities here

OMM 0000

I think when you're retraining at 35, you need to be really careful about doing things like politics as the chance of getting a job out of it is very slim.

But as you say, he's not interested in things like IT, so he should avoid that.

Why not project management, as you suggest?

ChikiChiki

Brianmwalker wrote: »

He's 35, it's time to let him find his own path!

How helpful.

A parent who is proactively taking an interest in their offsprings future is a good thing no matter what the age. Not really sure of your patronising attitude.

OP, project management is a good one. He can maybe pick a role in a PM office to learn the basics and do a few relatively quick certifications at the same time. It's also a very transferable skill set to have across all industries. Most companies have big change programmes within them and with continuous improvements in processes and new technology finds, I think it's a strong one in the long term. It also provides great networking opportunities as whatever company you are in, you will be building relationships with people in strategic levels. The variety of projects means you are not doing the same thing all the time.

To date I've worked on Software Dev, Process Improvement, AI, Robotics, Machine Learning, Data Migration and most recently IT infrastructure projects all in the finance industry. I love construction and doing things with my hands so I think my next step is construction project management.

Added bonus it pays quite well. Best of luck to him. A good age to change.

Sunny Disposition

Brianmwalker wrote: »

He's 35, it's time to let him find his own path!

Ffs of course he will do whatever suits him best and will decide that for himself. Just doing a bit of research to see if I come across an area that might suit him. If he doesn’t think it would that’s absolutely fine at 35 years of age!

LimeFruitGum

Check out Springboard, the list of funded courses should be available on their site now. I just finished a Springboard funded postgrad through UL and the course helped me pivot out of an industry I had grown sick of, into something new.
What I learned through the course will transfer to multiple sectors. If he’s unemployed, then the course will be free, otherwise he pays 10%... either way, it is a brilliant opportunity. I would strongly recommend it.

I would also agree that project management is a useful skill to have. You would need to be a clear & skillful communicator, good at analysis, and well-organised.