Careers that give you adequate time for pony cuddles!!

[Doormouse]

hank you very much all!! some of these jobs do interest me but to be honest, my horse course drained the life out of me and that's my passion! So I really want to work my way up instead of study any more.

Does anyone have any opinions on Estate Agency work? That interests me but I'm not sure if I can handle the way you don't earn much if you dont help sell enough houses, also I have no idea if I can work up to the roles. I'm looking it up, but I'm not getting anywhere, haha!

I am a negotiator for an Equestrian estate agents, I also do the marketing and am paid a salary. I love it and would recommend agency as a job but you do need to be a real people person and also have quite a thick skin as many people are convinced you are trying to rip them off! I think it also depends on the agent you work for.

 

[Stockers]

I'm a qualified accountant and trained on the job. I did train at a big 4 firm and yes, the hours were long but I had to give up horses for a while as I trained. wasn't the end of the world and only for three or so years.

I moved out of practice and now work as a Finance person in the private aviation industry. while crunchig numbers isn't exactly exciting I do get satisfaction froma job well done and I love the private aviation industry. The earning potential is huge.

a job with transferable skills can open far more doors for you.

 

[laura_nash]

After I stopped working with horses, I did an Open University computing degree alongside office work (so no debt) and am now a programmer. I really enjoy the work, but you do need to have a natural aptitude. It is basically 9-5 but usually flexible hours as not people-facing. Fairly well paid with little stress. I've always had good employers who are very understanding about things like dashing home to retrieve escaped horses. I now work remotely most of the time (rent a desk near home), so no-one cares if I smell of horse!

 

[The wife]

I am a freelance writer. I love my job and the variety it brings (and of course the pay is awesome!!) My hours aren't as flexible as they could be but this is down to my choice to have such a big workload to fund horses, a house that needs alot of repairing and a lovely little savings stash...

I have no 'official' qualifications to my name, apart from 11 excellent graded GCSE's (however many years ago I got them) walked out of both my A Level Maths and English exams after being predicted A grades for both. I am a fully trained psychologist, just never properly practised and kind of fell into my current job. I love it and hate it in equal measures, so long as you can BS your way through a subject that you know nothing about and can research well and type quickly its very easy to do and flexible - I can often be working at 3am and no-one bats an eyelid.

 

[Champers and Co]

I work in recruitment and I'm very lucky that I have incredibly flexible hours, I can work 11-6 or 8-3 or any reasonable variation of those hours. I can also work extra hours on one day to take them off of another. In recruitment or most sales type roles if your making the company money and hitting your target no-one really cares what you do to be honest. I can also work from home when needed. Plus the basic isn't bad and then you at least double your salary with commission on top.

If you are happy getting on the phone and are a people person I would definitely look at sales. I did have to work very long hours when I first started - I used to work 8-7 or 8-8 and I did have to give up horses for a year when I was establishing my desk as it is bloody hard work. But once you've cracked it it becomes much more flexible and the industry has a VERY high demand for experienced consultants.

The only other career I would consider is in IT as my contractors are the only people I know that make more money than me haha!

 

[Arniebear]

I'm in a similar situation except I went to uni have a degree, and the debt and took what I thought was to be my career. But on Monday I handed my notice in after 4 years and I have no idea what I'm going to do!

I'm actually applying to a few horsey related roles just to see if I can figure out what I'm meant to do as I literally have no idea, all I know is I'm bored and miserable so obviously this job isn't working for me!

Don't go to uni just because someone thinks you should, go if you really want to, I don't regret my degree I loved it but I don't feel it's helping me much with a career right now, it should it's a biology degree afterall!! Your young enough to try a few different things until you find what you want to do, I'm nearly too old to get away with it but I'm going to give it a go and pray I land on my feet!!

 

[Jenni_]

I work in Payroll and HR. Hoping to drop payroll in the near future as I hate it with a passion, but absolutely love working in HR.

I started off as a payroll trainee, up to Administrator, up to manager (gaining my CIPP)... then went sideways and down a bit to start off in HR within a payroll role. Got my CIPP qualification and now I am ready to drop payroll and get away from its yukiness!

I went to equine college, I'm glad I did, but I'm also glad I left working with horses when I did because I wouldn't have the lifestyle i do now!

 

[EQUIDAE]

Have a look at modern apprenticeships - some businesses will allow you to go to university on day release.

 

[RunToEarth]

I completely disagree with this, you are much less limited WITHOUT a career specific degree. If you do a nursing degree then you are only really qualified to be a nurse. I did a geography degree and could go into basically anything, finance, teaching, oil, I actually went into sales!

If you have a good degree from a good uni it doesn't really matter what the subject is, your options are much more open if don't do a career specific degree particularly if you don't really know what you want to do in life and are then stuck with a specific qualification.

I completely agree with this, and tend to think the people who are quite fiercely anti degrees are those who aren't in roles where a specific degree is a requirement.

I'm a land agent, I'm chartered, I needed my degree to be where I am. I probably do about 45hours a week which is longer than I am contracted but I'm trying to work my way up. fairly flexible (as in, I'm at home now because I have to be 120miles from home at 7.30 tomorrow morning) I work with like minded people and I get to be out of the office wondering around amazing places a lot of the time. It is unpredictable in terms of hours because it depends what unholy amount of hell unravels in the space of a day, or most likely 4pm on a Friday - sometimes I am at home at 5.45pm on a Friday with a gin in one hand and a pony in the other, sometimes it is nearer 8. Horses fit to a certain degree around what I do, and to be honest I wasn't willing to fit my career around the horses.
We have estate agency teams in the office and they all seem to really enjoy what they do, but above a certain point the people who deal with the big deals are also chartered. If you are interested look into RICS accredited degree courses available.

 

[EBHouse]

I work in construction - civil engineering.

From school I went down the route that it sounds like you have taken - followed my dreams to work with horses. It was a fantastic experience and I finished it having gained qualifications and travelled the world but I couldn't escape the reality that I was going to be permanently skint for the rest of my life and was starting to resent my passion to boot.

I ended up going to college for a couple of years and then straight into civils. HOWEVER the company I work for have taken on a lot of trainees straight from school/unqualified to train up themselves and put through college on a day release basis. It all worked out for me but I do wish I had managed to secure one of these before I ended up in debt from student loans!

It is a good job, it's well paid and like another poster I have a nice car, my own house and can just about afford the horse on full livery on top of it. I think it is a case of deciding what you want in life - do you want to work funny shifts - late nights or early mornings in order to spend more time with your horse, or can you cope with doing a 9-5 and then making do on evenings and enjoying your weekends. I would love to have more time with the horse but I am career driven and want to succeed in that too so I suppose it just depends on what your priorities are. Good luck with whatever you decide

 

[Sealine]

I work in IT and as others have said it's an area where there is high demand for good people and the money is good. I work from home (as do all of the team I work with) giving me the flexibility to ride before work or pop to the yard for farrier/vet visits if required.

I don't consider myself a techie but I do have a very logical brain. I started my career training end users on specialist software. There are software companies specialising in just about every industry i.e. Accounts, HR, vet surgery, doctors surgery, estate agents etc. This led me to doing QA (software testing) being a business analyst, project manager, product manager and sometimes all of them at the same time! All of these roles pay pretty well if you work your way up, do some training courses and prove yourself. The company I work for always have trouble recruiting good people which is why we recruit people across the UK and let them work from home. The top money goes to the real techies i.e. the developers who write code and the senior infrastructure guys.

 

[teapot]

I completely agree with this, and tend to think the people who are quite fiercely anti degrees are those who aren't in roles where a specific degree is a requirement.

That I can understand, but the demand for Arts degrees has dropped off. The stories of 'oh generic Arts degrees open doors, everyone wants the transferable skills' arn't as true as they once were sadly. Those transferable skills and employment sectors have been replaced by very specific courses, requirements and expectations. Careers that once wanted graduates who had been trained to write, research, and analyse, now want specific degress in Business or Marketing or PR.

I wouldn't tell anyone to do a History degree at the moment unless they're got decent work experience lined up for every holiday going. I've been told my CV is good, and it's varied both experience and skills wise, but I'm struggling to get anywhere. It's easy to criticise, but from the other side, god I wish I'd done something that meant I was qualified in something that was recognise.

 

[ihatework]

I work on a consultancy/freelance basis in the pharmaceutical industry (clinical trials), you need a bioscience degree to even be considered at the bottom of the rung. There are pros and cons, it's not all plain sailing but I've reached a place whereby now I do have some flexibility to slot the horses in!

There seems to be a lot of people in my industry that have horses