Quote Originally Posted by Scum-Triumphant View Post
Spent most of my childhood in care and moved from school to school so never settled. I stopped going at all from about 15 and have never been unemployed

Completed an English Lit degree in 2001 and PGCE - I know run an education budget that is in 7 figures. It's loads of responsibility and I struggle to take things seriously 100% of the time but I seem to be decent at it.

I am also currently training as a Samaritans Volunteer ( There's more to it than I thought)

Jobs include:

FLT Driver
Hotel Porter
Powder Coater
Chemical Plant Engineer
Surface Grinder
Primary School teacher
College Tutor
Behavior specialist
Barman

I'm considering a change of career as a Social Worker. I really want to do it but feel I have left it a bit late.
Go for it. I was one of the so-called clever *******s, IQ off the scale, qualifications as long as your arm including a foreign university and I had no idea what I wanted to be. I drifted into teaching. You know what they say - "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach". I've read all of this thread apart from all of Brin's piece, which was far too long for me, and your contribution hit me in the face. If you have a calling, then follow it. After I became ill and had to give up teaching I went on loads of night school classes where I learnt you're never too old to learn and you must never stop learning. You'll be fine.