I have no job and am quickly running out of savings. What do I do?

I (34M) feel truly lost. (Living in Surrey, UK)

I was made redundant in December from a job as an Email Developer with a digital marketing agency (earning £32000/pa – which was awful for the area and my length of service). My severance pay was fairly decent, and I used a chunk of it to pay off all of mine and my wife’s outstanding credit card debt. Kinda wish I hadn’t done that now…

Although my previous job was fairly boring, I enjoyed it because it afforded me a lot of free time, and it was pretty easy. I never looked to advance my career because I got too comfortable. If only I had a time machine eh?

In the past I had considered moving into Copywriting. I took an online course and managed to get a few freelance gigs (made about £5k over 2 years), but ultimately – as much as I enjoyed the writing, I did not enjoy the freelance lifestyle, and I don’t really like marketing.

I thought that UX Design might be something I enjoyed. I see lots of jobs advertised for UX Designers on LinkedIn, and so I’ve started the Google course on Coursera. I’m now on the final stage of the first portfolio piece but just the idea of making a case study is killing me. I don’t know why, but I’ve been staring at it for a while and I just don’t want to do it. I think I’m tired of making portfolios and trying to desperately sell myself. I also read an article yesterday saying that getting into UX right now is a terrible idea, so that probably hasn’t helped.

At this point, I feel like I have just screwed up my whole career. I’m surrounded by friends and family who are constantly getting promoted, higher salaries, new houses – and I’m here unemployed, with a child and mortgage that I need to support. My wife makes around £37500/pa, so without me making at least £30k/pa, we cannot afford our monthly outgoings.

I just don’t know what to do. At this point, I just want a job that will pay me enough to survive, that I don’t absolutely hate, and that does not require me to have a portfolio. Something that provides full training, a good wage, for someone with no experience would be great, a man can dream right?

I have enough money from the severance pay to last another 5 months at most… any advice is most welcome.

TL;dr – I have enough savings to last me 5 months before I’m officially f’d. I have no idea what to do.

Thank you!



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