Does Anyone Do a Job They Have Zero Qualifications For?!?!

I'm a Product Manager in a tech company, my undergrad degree is Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology. I just kind of fell into it after university and I get paid a lot more than I would as an academic!

But yeah I got a job in my company initially in customer service and worked my way up.

It's fairly common for accountants to not be qualified, having never done the exams. If they've been doing it for many years they are considered "qualified by experience".

Life?

There’s a guy I know who doesn’t he’s had various jobs, currently he looks after budgets with no qualifications in them. His boss is just as bad though.

Yup. Science all the way through school with an eye to do medicine until I messed up my A levels, so did Biochemistry as a bridge. A degree in that and the mind numbing work of NHS and research biochemistry beat to death any desire I had for being a doctor so I went and worked in a computer shop.

30 years later and I do cybersecurity. I still have yet to do a formal course in it. One day people will find out about this and I will never work in this field again. I can't wait.

Any of the recent prime ministers

Qualifications! - I've got x2 CSE's so I'm not sure I'm qualified for anything! 🤣

Got 40 years experience in the print trade though.

I'm a Practice Manager in a GP surgery, I'm the boss for 25 members of support staff, three salaried doctors and four nurses and associated staff , and I look after the business [of a ltd company with well over a £million turnover] and the good deal of the personal affairs of the four partners. Supplementary to that I control the finances of a group of local GP practices that employs a further 20 or so folks, and has a turnover well into the multiple millions. I'm responsible for H&S, training, HR and the complex regulatory affairs that being a medical practice requires in the UK, and ultimately I answer to the many thousands of our patients.

There is no formal training at all for the role, and there's no regulatory body that supervises me, or judges whether I'm fit or able.

Yes of course.  In IT, the industry doesn't really require official qualifications and whilst many developer types have Computer Science degrees, a lot don't (including me) and it's not really needed. They just care about what you can do.

🙋 Civil servants, assemble!

I’m a University full Professor. Yes I have a PhD, but I have no formal teaching qualifications. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, but for that I just had to put together a 5000 word reflective piece of all the teaching I’d done.

However, I do care about my teaching so I have attended some voluntary courses to improve but give no qualifications. Quite a few of my colleagues do hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) but that wasn’t offered at my Uni at that point of my career and wasn’t deemed an issue for my progression.

I do have qualifications for what I do; subject relevant masters and bachelors degrees, professional qualifications including one fellowship and another on the way, plus my various employers have invested in me. For instance I'm about to do my Programme management quals. and I've only been in this job 3 months

I'd say that I've learned more by doing my job, the qualifications just makes it easier.

There's also the question of how do you learn?

I'm kinaesthetic learner (learn by doing) so anything I pick in a taught environment has to be applied or it doesn't sink in, i wouldn't be surprised if most on here without quals are the same

I have a degree in Chemistry, worked as a chemist (synthetic organic chemistry, actual lab work!) for a few years.

I'm now a Transport Planner (the role actually involves a fair chunk of data analysis and it's more overall transport strategy but it's not remotely related to chemistry and I have no formal qualifications in it.

Go figure.

My family has a lot of teachers and professors - Mum, Dad, uncles, aunts etc - who are obsessed with getting people educated and qualified so I obviously antagonised them by proposing that most qualifications were pointless and that training was better than education once you had established the basics of reading and writing. The key thing was to train the person to thinks about the problems and develop an approach to resolving or avoiding them and there is no qualification for this.

One uncle, an Ofsted Inspector, even went as far as doing a mock interview with me as if I was a teacher to show how little I knew and how important the training and qualifications were. Even he admitted that my answers would have been good enough not to raise any red flags if it had been a real Ofsted interview.

So, is there any real use for qualifications other than being handy 'notes of promise' to show that someone has spent enough time to pass the exam, even if they have never done the job?

Feels like it, yes.

I've never been trained in any formal engineering procedures or techniques, despite having two degrees in engineering from a redbrick, and really needing formal engineering procedure knowledge in my current role.

Everything IT here, 1 of a team of 2 looking after many branches and ~300 staff around the world

highest qualification I have is a HND in design and production engineering...

I have a dual degree in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (not 2x degrees, although it felt like it, just the option to use BSc or BEng) and a Masters in Engineering.

I spent 5 years during the downturn in the energy sector working in TV. The first weeks of which was spent holding up cables and asking what they were called / used for. I knew the principles of photography as a hobbyist, but had zero qualifications for it other than that! Ended up quite well paid and lots of fun. If I was single and / or 10 years younger I might have stuck with it. But unless your household does something similar you never see them.

MrsTH is a business analyst for a major bank.

She’s a Marine Biologist, by degree.

Don’t worry. The main reason to go to university is so you can really understand how useless the education is.

You are actively working in carbon composite, on the shop floor, on real world problems.

Likely at most UK uni’s they give you textbook training that is 10yrs or so out of date.

Best training is to switch through 3 or so similar CO’s and learn how they do things better / worse, while building up further theoretical knowledge from books and your peers, alongside fixing big **** ups as they happen.

I realise as I age it doesn’t matter what industry or role you are in. Everything is basically a sales job and very few have a decent training in that. Even more so the more senior you get.

Ecology degree

I'm the lab manager / Next Generation Sequencing specialists, in a molecular biology / genetics research lab in Glasgow University. When people are talking at me in the lab, I pretend I understand what they're saying and nod knowingly, a lot.

Shhh, someone's coming...

there isnt a budget for training, but more so, the company fear that if they train people, they will leave for another job

So the flip side of that is that they are guaranteeing you a job for life in return? Yes? You've got that in writing I presume 😉

I have a degree in Biotech and I work in retail! No qualifications needed for my role and I manage 70+ colleagues and a turn over of around €20million. Been working for them about 35 years now and still not been found out. God help them!  Anyone could do my role and most are promoted from within as they know the workings/role expectations etc.

I guess I am qualified for what I do as a job. Programme Manager by trade, but worked my way up from web developer/computer programmer/engineer, through project manager.

I have a degree in Business Information Technology, although I got an E in my GCSE IT!

Whilst PRINCE2, Agile etc. are all useful professional qualifications to lean on, in reality everyone seems to run a bit of an amalgamation of them on actual projects.

Based on interview experieince i.e. me interviewing people, I'd much rather have someone who has good solid experience of doing the job as opossed to formal qualifications.

I'm a software engineer at a big SF based fintech startup - no formal computer science background, entirely self taught. I have a Mechanical Engineering degree and did that for my job for the first 5 years after university.

I learned software development just out of personal interest and eventually jacked in the Engineering job to move to a software agency and I've been doing it ever since. I can't quite believe that I get to do a job that I would still consider an enjoyable hobby if I weren't being paid.

I have an Engineering degree and an MBA and I work part-time in a shop selling whisky and hardware 😁

Likely at most UK uni’s they give you textbook training that is 10yrs or so out of date.

Very unlikely, Uni's invest a lot into providing access to current materials, not just in physical copies, but in huge online repositories. When i was doing my masters we were using contemporary case studies and bang up to date theories and methodologies.

Whilst I have a PhD in Theoretical Physics, I have not a single Biology* qualification (took Geology O'Level instead). The irony is not lost on my colleagues when I tell them, since I spend all day doing a mixture of Mathematics, Medicine and Biology! I'm also a Fellow of the British Pharmacology Society - but have no qualifications in errrr Pharmacology (but 25 years of experience doing it). Based on experience, I was considering becoming a Chartered Biologist, but that might upset Mrs TiRed (Plant Scientist by degree).

*I read a LOT of Biology papers though 😉 .

I have zero qualifications and only have a couple of bad A level results as evidence of anything.  So any of the roles I have had over the last 40 years have been without any qualifications by default.

I'm an insurance underwriter, basic qualifications required are some school but not sure how essential that is to be honest. You just need to have some common sense and be a bit pessimistic and able to see what could go wrong.

What is a weakness when it comes to mountain biking has made me a comfortable living in the end, which I seem to spend mostly on bikes.

I did a mechanical engineering degree but have worked in computers ever since - all sorts of roles from programmer to project manager to solutions architect. I still put "programmer" on forms that ask for job. No relevant qualificationa.

My father-in-law had a HND than a degree in aeronautical engineering via Hawker Siddeley at Filton. He then became a travelling salesman for Shell because they offered a company car which was a step up from the motorbike and sidecar that he brought his son back from hospital in. No relevant qualifications but he did have the gift of the gab.

He ended up in tribology and management at Shell - Shell did pay for him to do an MSc for the tribology and even sessions at Insead for management. Shell was a pretty good employer in the 70s and 80s.

One uncle, an Ofsted Inspector, even went as far as doing a mock interview with me as if I was a teacher to show how little I knew and how important the training and qualifications were. Even he admitted that my answers would have been good enough not to raise any red flags if it had been a real Ofsted interview.

So, is there any real use for qualifications other than being handy ‘notes of promise’ to show that someone has spent enough time to pass the exam, even if they have never done the job?

You may have been able to blag it, perhaps due to being intelligent enough or perhaps having grown up with lots of educators; but it would be foolish to rely on such people to staff schools or indeed any other profession.  Training can do a lot more than teach you how to do a job - if everyone does the same training then everyone can take the same approach which means that the industry is consistent.  I could probably wire a house based on my knowledge of physics, but can you imagine what would happen when the homeowner has to hire someone else to work on it when I'm not available?

I trained as a chemist (degree, then on the job in a detergent lab) before staying in chemical ingredient manufacturing - variety of roles with nothing but experience and the odd skills course - stuff like how to lead cross functional teams, etc., rather than understanding the chemistry better.

Then 5 years ago i switched - into scientific research, specifically metrology. I passed the interviews and assessment day and was then invited in to discuss (what i thought was) two possible roles - one leading a group on climate science and the other leading a group on..... well, turns out the CS role had been earmarked for another candidate and so when i got here they asked me if I'd be comfortable leading a group on quantum physics.

Schroedinger had been a mystery to me 30 years earlier when i was clever, and hadn't formed a large part of my ingredient manufacturing experience since  - I literally understood nothing.

Which turned out to be the right answer. It's literally so leading edge, what they're doing, that they don't even really understand each others areas - the quantum superconducting team can only just get their head around quantum optics and so on. So with a science lead equivalent i focused on what i can do which is organise and develop people and projects, and let them worry about the science. To know 'a bit' would be probably be far worse than knowing nothing and accepting it.

It's NOT common for Accountants to be 'qualified by experience' these days. Maybe accounts assistants etc, but not the Accountant - all our Accounting roles have Qualified staff. I passed my exams aged 23, and have another 31 years post qualification experience.

paper qualifications are useful for CV filtering purposes, once you;ve  decent amount of experience you wont really need the training.  The most useful bit ofs training (when I used to have that sort of thing) was talking to the other people on the courses and finding out that their companies have the same challenges and you aren't alone!

Btw your company doesn't sound all that bad - the alternative is a company that expressly doesn't move people around and whenever a vacancy arises, insists on hiring in 'senior' people from the outside the company who don't have a scooby after a couple of 1 hour interviews and seems to actively try to bore existing staff into leaving or accepting their fate of doing the same thing until they resign to progress

Friend of mine is a Director of Online IT Services at a major UK bank.

They have DPhil in Chemistry.

FWIW I need a minimum of a Masters in Computing Science or related subject to do my current job, or the last one for that matter. I'm an Engineering Designer by qualification. And only a lowly Bachelor (and a poor grade at that).

One internal job that i applied for (and turned down after being offered it) required a PhD. They were going to do a "work around" to make sure the PhD question didn't come up.

Most people in the history of the world have done jobs for which they had no qualifications beforehand. I don't know whether that tells us something good or bad. Myself, I run a bike company, with my ever-so-useful Geography Degree and little else qualifications wise.

Yes of course.  In IT, the industry doesn’t really require official qualifications

I think a lot of us "in the old days" drifted from other professions into IT without any qualifications other than knowing stuff from meddling with computery stuff. In my case I'm an ex-chartered civil engineer, drifted into IT via sewerage modelling and digital mapping.

my ever-so-useful Geography Degree

So when you colour in the designs for your new frames your three year degree means you don't go over the lines?

My entire career in IT comes from a place of zero qualifications. To the extent I dropped out of my university degree which would have been an appropriate qualification for what I do!

Currently senior member of a small team who operate the cloud infrastructure for the largest company in the sector we operate in. A team who while small are a) very capable and b) equally without qualifications.

Even many of the software engineers in the company are without a degree, but are truly excellent at what they do.

I have a 2:2 in BSc Music, Acoustics and Recording.

I currently work as an Email Marketing Manager, writing HTML, tinkering with automation, subediting people's copywriting, and managing a team of 2 people.

I got a degree in computing at uni and was thoroughly fed up of it at the end.

For the past 12 years I have been designing gas connections for a big gas transporter, and have zero qualifications as the company didn’t want to spend the money training people. I think one of us in the office has the official qualification from years ago before she joined our company. I just feel trapped here as would be really difficult to move anywhere else. The annoying thing is that any external people wanting to do work on our network we insist on them being qualified…. doh.

I started temping answering the phones and worked up and took advantage of the office relocating a couple of times and 99% of staff not wanting to relocate.

My first career was in insurance, and I got my qualifications through the CII.

Everything for the last 25 years I've not had any "formal" qualifications for. Currently a (very) under-qualified civil servant.

Which kind of proves experience and on the job training may be a better route for many.

sewerage modelling

I get visions of some grubby urchin sitting inside a giant pipe, moulding shapes out of... something 😂

As said I think it's pretty common in IT. I'm a programmer and have nothing beyond a basic introductory course with a City & Guilds certificate. Mostly learnt privately out of interest or on the job.

Years ago I had an optician who took up programming as a hobby, wrote a program to help run his practice. He then went on to sell it to others, realised programming was better and left to do that instead!

I can of drifted into IT, I knew it was the direction I wanted to go, just wasn’t sure how.

I work as a Technology Director for a large Investment Bank. I don’t think actual qualifications would be of any use to my role, I work on a diverse cross section of business areas, my general focus is on Operation Efficiency (budget management) and with a secondary task of being in charge of the technical aspect of. Mergers & Acquisitions for my business unit.  Maybe a business management qualification of some sort, but I’m too old and tired to even look into it. I’m 50 but my role is very time consuming, I don’t think I would have the energy to go back to studying.

Back in the early years (1990’s), working in an IT support role I did my MCSE and over time then moved into Project Management and ultimately Product Management. I have completed my Prince 2 Practitioner but it’s out of date. I do have to go on an Agile Course but it’s an internal course with no formal quals.

Technically for me to get promoted I need a Masters. That’s not going to happen. Was quite strange as I had a 1-2-1 with the CIO last year and he asked me what my Masters was in…..he was pretty surprised when I explained I don’t have one, just a GCSE in PE….

I have a degree in geology which I've never used in anger.

I've spent the last 30 years working in the Events Industry doing lighting and rigging for which I have no qualifications whatsoever. Big electrical systems and hanging many tonnes of gear over people's heads - largely based on "I didn't * it up yesterday, so I'm probably not going to * it up today". There's been a few gigs I've done where if I had ****ed it up, it would have been front page news on pretty much every paper worldwide, which definitely focuses the mind!

So when you colour in the designs for your new frames your three year degree means you don’t go over the lines?

this reminds me of a mate at unit doing geography. Each year we used to buy him a new pack of felt tips for his birthday for the coming years’ map colouring in.

Masters in chemical and a process engineering. Did design for 10 years and whilst paid well and I was good at it, realised that ultimately I didn’t really enjoyed it. Moved into business management and now run a function that looks after Nuclear Decom across the globe. Keeping the lights on and the wolf from the door!

The company i work for are pretty archaic in their approach to things, and after recent discussions about getting me some proper training (along with other folks) the general consensus is that there isnt a budget for training, but more so, the company fear that if they train people, they will leave for another job….. nothing like investing in your workforce.

Would you rather work somewhere that values bits of paper over proven experience?  Where people milk the company for every ounce of training then leave?  There's a happy medium but I'll be surprised if there's not a project management course on udemy or similar that you could use to learn a few tricks of the trade and perhaps make yourself even more valued internally, less stressed, more confident etc; Yes your employer probably should pay for that, but given your company seems to promote internally that seems like a small investment in your own career for future progression inside the business or as a great way to have the right words at a future interview!

Degree in microbiology, 20 years experience as a bacteriology lab technician, currently seconded into IT despite me being very open and vocal about the fact "I know nothing about computers!"

There’s a guy I know who doesn’t he’s had various jobs, currently he looks after budgets with no qualifications in them. His boss is just as bad though.

worthy of recognition @Drac 😂 (well, if I've understood the inference anyway; if not move along...)

I'm a photographer, sport mostly, while I do have a BTEC in it photographic qualifications aren't something you need, you're either good at it or you're not. Many of my colleagues are either self taught or trained up via local papers, agencies etc, many are qualified in other fields but photography is an enjoyable way to earn a living so have moved across, some did degrees in photojournalism but they're definitely in the minority.

It's harder to earn a decent living from these days but still fun, I've had nearly thirty years getting away with it so mustn't grumble.

And you somehow still have the time to post on this forum!

Parent.

That is all.

This makes laugh a bit as in my organisation there is a certain kudos if you are Dr or Prof in the company directory.

I sometimes ask the question "what did you study" for the Doctorate and amazingly more than half have nothing to do with the job the person is employed to do. So Dr Fred who is head of Cybersecurity or whatever has a PHD in Marine Biology - I guess they have still 'earnt' the right to use the title, but it gives a false impression they might know what they are talking about. I think people just assume the study was in a relevant field.

(db - no qualifications beyond an A level or 2)

I am not only unqualified for my job, but was actively rejected when trying to study for it because I was an 18 year old oik who had no idea how to talk to the middle class people selecting for it (or anybody else to be fair). So I carried on with my self taught obsession and am still a working photographer 35 years later. I’m willing to bet 99% of the people who were accepted onto that degree are not.

This makes laugh a bit as in my organisation there is a certain kudos if you are Dr or Prof in the company directory.

The first chemistry lab I worked in - bear in mind of course that PhDs were 10 a penny in a place like that, it was really only us Junior Chemists that were a mix of BSc, MSc and PhD.

We bought out another local chemical place and all the staff there got brought up to our labs. One of these guys was ever so proud of his PhD, in fact his conversations revolved around it.
"When I was doing my PhD...."
"Just after I completed my PhD...."
"What was your dissertation on in your PhD...?"

Anyway, he got allocated a reaction which he proceeded to screw up so they brought me in to fix it - I'd done it several times before and somehow seemed to be regarded as the in-house go-to for that particular reaction. It wasn't uncommon for staff there to have "favourite" reactions or ones they'd done so many times that they were the acknowledged fixer so off I go to help, we're getting along fine, chatting away as I help him out.

Next thing:
"What was your PhD in...?"
Oh I don't have a PhD, I came straight here after my BSc but I did a year in industry during my degree as well.

That was it. He was outraged that a non-PhD should be telling him how to do stuff. A mere minion like me should be doing nothing more than washing the glassware. He was genuinely mortified that he'd taken instruction from someone of lesser rank.

Then he got fired when he screwed up the next reaction. I've seen a few PhDs like that. Good theoretical knowledge, no ability to transfer it into a real-life lab though.

😂

I'd say that being a GP is almost all learning on the job.

Yep. But as someone has no doubt mentioned already, I don't have any qualifications to speak of anyway!

I write software, currently architecting a new product. Did Electronics as a degree, not a single SW qualification. I basically just make it up as I go along, googling stuff. No one seems to notice.

I've got a subscription to Udemy and CloudAcadmey which are both really decent, learned shed loads from their courses.

Left school with okay GCSE's, did an apprenticeship but dropped out of the college part of it. Years later still in same industry but now have a COMAH site with many tons of highly toxic materials under my engineering control. Have traveled the world on someone else's money, am well paid, and haven't accidentally killed anyone.

It worked out okay.

I have little in the way of a formal education yet somehow I’m Head of Sustainability where I work. Impostor syndrome looms large in my daily life. I often shock myself when a grown up asks a question and I answer it with confidence!

and haven’t accidentally killed anyone.

How many have you killed on purpose?

How many have you killed on purpose?

That's commercially sensitive information.

I came in here to say parent but @bigginge beat me to it. Still of all the jobs I've had, that one still had the most WTF? Is there a manual for this things in it 🙂

I’d say that being a GP is almost all learning on the job.

Only me that's slightly worried about that? Practicing medicine indeed 🙂

I sometimes ask the question “what did you study” for the Doctorate and amazingly more than half have nothing to do with the job the person is employed to do. So Dr Fred who is head of Cybersecurity or whatever has a PHD in Marine Biology – I guess they have still ‘earnt’ the right to use the title, but it gives a false impression they might know what they are talking about. I think people just assume the study was in a relevant field.

It's a weird thing, those who go on to be PhD students from courses we do, so moving from masters tend to do it more for the uni lifestyle and work environment, it's a lowish failure rate for them, and a part of that is those who just want to move on.

As for me, yes, in my job we are assessed and trained all the time, i did a 4 year apprenticeship and 20 years work experience before doing a masters, and during that process i was annoyed several times by the absolute lack of reality in several assignments against actual real-life scenarios i'd worked with, flip side is i learnt a lot about the subject matter that helps.

Qualifications are nice, but reality is you're in a job where you've been interviewed and met the criteria, a lot of folk have imposter syndrome, and qualifications just adds to that sometimes unfortunately, as 'he's got a PhD and i've got 3 GCSEs', that doesn't provide the basis for one being better than the other in several instances.

Sadly I've got professional qualifications in finance and a masters in IT Systems in which I work.
But long ago I got a city and guilds in brickwork which I'm still proud off.

Sales Engineer for a software company. No sales or software qualifications but I did work in the industry we sell into for 14 years.

Nothing beyond a-level because I spent most of my student loans at uni on herbal cigarettes and cans of Carlsberg Export.

EDIT - removed as appears to have been done!

Only me that’s slightly worried about that?

Not worrying for me. The truly dangerous General Practioner thinks that they know everything and won't seek help/advice until it's too late.

"A man's gotta know his limitations".

For my first proper job there aren't any relevant qualifications, which is mind blowing when you look at some of the tasks people are asked to carry out and responsibility they have to hold.

My second career; they're a bit of a joke and overseen by a governing body that sees the world and people through a binary filter.

Seeing that so many don't work anywhere near their area of qualification is interesting. Uni was never an option for me, but I'm kinda glad after reading all this.

I'm a software engineer (mainly web, mobile and some backend) - no qualifications. Completely self taught. When I started there was no such thing as bootcamp courses or Udemy so I spent hours pouring through others source code.

I originally went to art school - final year project was to design a website. But I wanted to get something working for my end of year show, so spent the rest of the year teaching myself ActionScript and built the whole thing in Flash. My tutor submitted my work to some BA student awards run by Mando and it won 2nd place. After that I knew what I wanted to do.

Lots of the younger devs come through now with CS degrees, but they seem to be more theory based rather than practical hands-on problem solving and coding. Although I'm sure more of them could do a binary tree inversion than I could 😀

I have a degree in music technology (a first thankyouverymuch) but am currently a director and financial controller of a SaaS company with turnover in the £4-7 million range. I'm currently working on a bookkeeping qualification to help me keep track of what all the debits and credits are doing, but nothing else directly relevant.

Although my university degree is not directly relevant, my time there did help me learn how to motivate myself in a self-led environment and an approach to problem solving that has been useful over time. I also met my wife there, so all things considered I think it was still worthwhile.

@poly Would you rather work somewhere that values bits of paper over proven experience?  Where people milk the company for every ounce of training then leave?

No, i would rather the company invest in me so i can be more efficient and do a better job. I understand the risk of people leaving, but if you make the work place good, people wont want to leave.

@Alex

Only me that’s slightly worried about that? Practicing medicine indeed

We do have qualifications to make sure that we're safe(ish) to be let loose on the general public. The profession wants to make the training longer, the government resists.

It's one of the beauties of the job, there's so much to learn (and it changes all the time) that there's little room to stagnate.

I was quite experienced as a doctor when I came to GP training, I do wonder how my colleagues who do it straight after their registration manage to cope, because there is so much responsibility so early on.

Not worrying for me. The truly dangerous General Practioner thinks that they know everything and won’t seek help/advice until it’s too late.

I have a fair few qualifications. But among the many things I'm not qualified to do, for the next few months I'll be collating advice from specialists for GPs to use to help them make decisions about referring patients.

Not worrying for me. The truly dangerous General Practioner thinks that they know everything and won’t seek help/advice until it’s too late.

“A man’s gotta know his limitations”.

Very true. And surprisingly hard to keep on top of.

I have a dual honours degree in PE and Geography, but didn't go into teaching, then spent next 4 years in the army before injury..

Coaching qualifications in rugby and lots of outward bounds sports (as it used to randomly be called...)

I now head an insurance fraud team, looking mostly at motor/ RTA claim fraud, whereas i am the only one who is not an ex-copper or similar.. and just sorta fell into it, mostly by being inquisitive and nosey!

Very true. And surprisingly hard to keep on top of.

<gallows humour> You can always bury your mistakes </gallows humour>

I have two job titles, depending on which of the two org charts for our joint NHS-Local Authority structure you're looking at. I am both IT Manager and Principal Engineer, I have qualifications for neither.

As IT Manager, I have no background in IT and don't actually manage anyone
As Principal Engineer, I have no background in Engineering, and don't have many principles either.

I have a degree in Environmental Energy Science, and a career that's ranged from Environmental Management and conservation, through kitchen work and bar work, to managing a bar, to Data Analytics, to Forestry, back to Data Analytics and then sideways into Project Management and IT. Oh, and I do a lot of event work and water/hill safety stuff on the side (which I do actually have some qualifications for...)

I've got a HND and BSc in Applied Maths and a MSc Mathematical Modelling

But for work, this is my business card... I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.