Hello,

I live in Brisbane. I had an extremely troubled childhood which led to me being "set back" in adulthood. I was quite immature in approaching my career, during my early adulthood. I completed a BA which was basically a waste of time/money.

I am now 26 and studying law/psychology mostly external so I can work full time. I work in child care (I also have a qualification in this) to pay the bills. If I apply for a child care position, I always get a response and sometimes immediately offered a position but i don't want to work in this field anymore. I want to develop my skills further and also, I recently discovered i have scoliosis and my back has deteriorated since working in childcare. I try to maintain good practices at work to protect my back but no matter what, it is hell on my spine. My back is pretty much fine when I am not working. I also do yoga and getting treatment for it but when I go to work, it is just agony and feel like I will never get better if i keep working in this industry.

I have done some unpaid volunteering here and there in data entry and I have paid work experience in customer service/hospitality. But now my work and studies take up all my time so it's hard for me to do anything unpaid. I can't really afford to work less due to financial needs but I would be willing to do so if I had unpaid work experience in the field i want.

I apply for jobs in customer service, admin, law internships. I put a lot of effort in my resume/cover letters. I rarely get a call back at all despite meeting all the requirements listed for the position.

I am also studying some other short courses on the side to help increase my options.

Does anyone have any tips for breaking into a new industry (esp. admin) in the Australian job market? I am wondering whether doing an admin course or unpaid admin role will actually help or they only care about paid work experience?