Looking to change career...

Teaching is rewarding, I really love it, but a very very full on job with really quite long hours, especially in primary with all the prep and all the marking (I'm a secondary teacher and my primary friends work a lot longer hours than me) You'd have to be prepared for that and if you are then it could be worth looking into :)

I'm a secondary school teacher .. Pros - school holidays! - highly rewarding - Cons - possibly taking work home to meet deadlines - it's full on for 5/6 weeks

My mum was a social worker and is now on the EDT side of things and she would not recommend anyone get into social work now, they are understaffed and overworked with often more case loads than they should have although this will vary county to county. Also, just from my view of her experience you see the worst in society and you want to help people but you will be painted as the bad guy because of the awful stereotype of "splitting families up" when you spend months or years trying to keep families together and it's the familys own actions that lead to that sort of intervention It can also take a toll mentally seeing or hearing about domestic/child abuse etc so that's something to bare in mind. There is also a heavy legal responsibily where you may end up in court either to testify or justify your own actions if a family is not happy. I don't really have an pros however my mum did love it because of the problem solving side and has been in the industry for over 20 years so 🤷‍♀️😂

Paediatric nursing is a beautiful and rewarding career .. I would say though that’s it’s not completely child friendly in terms of the hours .. if you are working clinically in a hospital your shifts are 12.5-13hrs long .. it’s a mixture of days and night shifts and unless your ward staff are kind enough to manage your rota around your kids it’s extremely tough finding childcare to cover your shift hours and night shift hours. Alternatively there are some outpatient jobs and community jobs that allow for 9-5 Monday to Friday .. which in a way is more flexible.. last I remember a few of these community jobs would require you to consolidate your paediatric skills in a ward before moving off into the community but I think this will depend on the trust I know people manage with the long hours, I guess but for me I left the clinical setting as it was extremely difficult childcare wise , and I felt I didn’t see my daughter much due to the mixed nature of my shifts I hope this helps

Hey hun I actually partnered with usborne books when my little one was 1 and it has been so amazing. There are so many ways you can make money with this business. You can work everything around your little one too.I have mainly been working with schools and nurseries to get them free books which is the most lucrative way of the business and I have been able to contribute to the all the family bills and pay for days out for my little girl. If you wanted to know more I would be happy to have a chat.

I’m a social worker and it definitely does come with its negatives but there’s also a lot of positives too. I have a 5 month old baby and I have been told to wait awhile to go back to work as it can get quite intense especially with a child however they’re very accommodating to people with children and some jobs will have a hybrid working policy that allows you to work home or at the office . In terms of working part time there’s pros and cons to this. I have spoken to others who do this and this what I got : Pros - more work life balance Fewer hours Cons - part time doesn’t guarantee less cases in some teams . If you’re thinking of a career in social work I would recommend doing the frontline programme as you are paid for this but if you’re also comfortable you can go to university and I know they provide childcare support for baby . But don’t be put off about being understaffed etc because every council is different and every team is different with their own way of working

@Emily as someone who also works in the industry I’d say this is pretty accurate for someone working in the front line. I now too have a 4 month old and have just moved across to fostering whereby the work/family life balance is much more manageable. The career is rewarding but it’s tough too. I am going down to 4 days now I’ve moved but any less I don’t feel is do-able in frontline, too much happens in the space of a day you’ll feel like your never able to keep up. A colleague worked in fostering for 10 years doing 3 days a week so in this area, it can be done, as long as you can be very organised. Best of luck with it all x

I’m a qualified social worker, and have 2 young kids but I work for CAMHS and honestly I couldn’t work in children services with two children. Hours are long, days are unpredictable (I worked front line), most days I didn’t get home till 9pm, because children would disclose abuse and I’d have to deal with it all, liaise with police, other professionals etc. It’s hard work. It’s also understaffed, and it’s not as rewarding as it used to be. All 3 jobs, are very demanding in very different ways and demand long hours. Paediatric nursing you’d have to be careful because of the hours, and you’ll be required to work nights etc, so you’d need to guaranteed childcare. I’d have another look and see what else is out there, that can be 9-5pm, and flexible.

I'm a primary teacher and it's an incredibly demanding and stressful job so unfortunately I wouldn't actually advise anyone to go into teaching these days. Unless some drastic improvements are made soon! X

These are absolutely amazing replied thank you so much. I'll have a rethink. I think apart of me thinks my experience is obsolete and I feel I need a profession. I think I'm just panicking and a little part of me is being slightly superficial, like it's okay to take a step back in my career to care for my little girl and have a little part time job...working full time a lone would be worth the cost anyway!