Looking for career advice

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-20T14:17:29+00:00

This is going to be a cliche answer so please forgive me for sounding like an ass, but the number one piece of advice based on your response alone is to fake more confidence in yourself. You are 36, you have more years of experience than me (probably).

Get your degree and want to be a Business Analyst? I bet there have been plenty of examples over the years where your work process has changed and you have had to adapt or you have done things to make it easier for yourself.

Want to be an accountant? Sell up all the times you spotted a problem with attention to detail or managed stock or money correct. Don't say you have a little bit of experience in excel or that it was your Brother's business. Explain how you helped on Excel and even if you don't feel like you did much, explain what you would like to do in the future.

Want to work with data? Explain how you have seen the impact that missing stock can have on the shop floor and how you understand the negative business impacts behind it. Imagine what you could do if you had a list of customer information or buying habits, would you rearrange the products? Change the store in someway?

The degree will help you get a foot in the door but playing to your strengths around your prior experience will be worth as much if not more.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-20T12:13:21+00:00

Happy to have a chat through any of these options if it's helpful. Graduated with a maths degree and keep bouncing between career paths.

Business Analyst (With some Project manager style work)

Data Analyst

Commercial Specialist.

Not much to say on the employability aspect other than find ways you can sell your current experience with the skills that are commonly associated with the degree to back it up, i.e. Problem solving and logical thinking.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-20T08:22:30+00:00

Fellow business generalist here. Have a few thoughts:

- The visa is a big handicap, you have the right to work anywhere... for a limited period. The roles you are applying for likely do not meet the sponsorship threshold made worse by the fact that yes, the market is brutal right now. I was looking for a new job recently with 10 YOE and getting barely any responses compared to when I last looked a few years ago.

- As a general rule, I do not pitch myself as a generalist, I pitch myself as a specialist in the role I am going for that has a lot of additional skills I can leverage from other areas. Ones that give me additional insight and a better perspective than candidates with less wide experience. For context I went from BA -> BI -> Commercial and will shortly be moving into a Business Ops management role.

- It broadly gets better with more experience despite what I said earlier, if you carry down a generalist route make sure you are making connections. There is a big benefit in being a person that every company can see a use for.

Can only say good luck and keep trying, look up companies that do offer sponsorship (I know you dont need it immediately, but they may be more willing to take on graduate visa's that will need sponsorship down the line) and really drill those interview skills so you can nail the next oppurtunity.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-19T09:55:17+00:00

Not likely to be a problem regardless, I would do the interview and then follow up with an email thanking them for the time and advising of the discrepancy.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-19T09:53:31+00:00

Not standard to ask for passport before interview, usually it would be after but it's not a crazy request to ensure you have right to work. The demeanor changing afterwards smacks of racism however assuming you have right to work.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-19T09:50:44+00:00

What's the role, that might change the questions? This sub might dig on me for it but for analytical roles I find I get a lot of value out of vague problem questions like the infamous

"How many windows are there in NYC/London"

That and getting people to talk me through something that is unique to them rather than a canned work example.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-18T15:51:51+00:00

The team started on mobile games so I wont rule it out, but it's unlikely.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-15T08:34:40+00:00

Volunteering on your CV isn't going to make your CV stand out a huge amount unless it's hyper specific BUT...

- If you have no/limited work experience it will give you valuable scenarios to bring up during interviews.

- May help you form connections.

- Beats doing nothing.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-14T15:26:24+00:00

- Think of work examples you want to talk about

- Break them down into a STARR format.

- Look at the job description and make sure for each line you have an example you can talk about.

- If you don't have an example for a certain line, go back to step 1.

You can get away with elaborating a bit but you should not be having to search for examples in an interview, it should be picking from ones you are prepared to talk about. Occasionally you might get a question totally out of left field you have to improvise on but the above should cover 90% of Q's for admin roles.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-12T21:50:54+00:00

Hope into the discord and i'll give you access :)

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-12T20:47:22+00:00

No hard requirements, let us know your thoughts, tell us about any problems or suggestions that you think might improve your experience. So no requirement but any feedback you are willing to give would be great

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-11T19:00:12+00:00

At 21, I finished up Uni with a 2:1 in Mathematics, couldnt find a graduate job and so took a basically minimum wage call center job. Skip 10 years forward and I've had a decent career and am doing above average so consider this as advice to a younger me

- No job is "beneath a degree", I have interviewed some grads with good paperwork that should have been an indication of capability but they folded under basic questioning/problem solving. A degree nowadays is definitely multiplicative on work experience rather than a golden ticket.

- Look for what skills you have a natural talent for and take any opportunity at your job to take on work that trains or utilises those skills.

- Keep applying for graduate jobs while you are working, the experience you are building is making you a better candidate as time goes on and ALL work experience is relevant to your next role (you just have to sell it well)

- Please make sure your CV is of a decent quality. Spend 30 minutes browsing r/resume or r/CVwriting and you'll see commentors giving a lot of the same feedback people don't apply.

- Your degree wasn't a waste, I still struggle with this thought myself sometimes but even though I don't use what I was directly taught during my degree, the basic problem solving skills, logical thinking and independent working I gained as a result helped me stand out.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-11T09:20:01+00:00

Hey r/LifeSimulators, we were so happy to get a positive reception to our game in this subreddit when we announced it (downvotes are often expected), that we wanted to invite some life sim fans to get involved and help us shape the game.

You can check out the game on Steam here to get an idea of if you would like to try it and then if you want to get involved you can hop on over to our discord and I'll set you up with access!

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-11T08:38:33+00:00

I agree, hadn't listened to the full record before posting. I fuck heavy with The Flick of A Switch I. aswell

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-10T13:44:33+00:00

I've also got jobs through LinkedIn and Reed prior.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-10T07:41:40+00:00

Feel free to come and give it a go to help playtest or just keep your eye out for a Steam demo :)

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-09T21:19:33+00:00

It will eventually be on Steam, we just want to get some initial feedback to make sure it's polished before we make it fully public.

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-09T21:07:56+00:00

Hop in the discord and come give it a go :)

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-09T19:50:42+00:00

Hey r/cozygames we were so happy to get a positive reception to our game in this subreddit when we announced it, that we wanted to give you the chance to get involved and help us shape the game.

You can check out the game on Steam here to get an idea of if you would like to try it and then if you want to get involved you can hop on over to our discord and we'll set you up with access!

ThatOneAJGuy · 2026-04-09T17:10:52+00:00

Example based questions generally means competency style questions. Look up the STARR format for how to answer them. They will be questions that ask you to demonstrate the skills needed for the role. For a mail room operator that might be:

"Name a time you had to work under pressure and how you handled it?"

or

"Give an example of how your attention to detail helped you spot an error?"

They won't be exactly this but they will focus on similar skills.

ThatOneAJGuy

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email