Anybody here changed career or learnt a trade in their mid 30s or later?

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adamm82adamm82 Frets: 448
I have come to the conclusion that I hate working in an office and don't fancy this for the next 30 years. on a 'career ladder' that I don't actually want to be on. 

Not sure exactly what I want to do but I want to something more physical and I quite enjoy doing handyman tasks. Perhaps to learn a trade and also make some money.

Anybody made such a big change? how did it go?
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  • DiscoStuDiscoStu Frets: 5373
    edited April 2018
    Redundancy in 2016 forced me to change career. I worked in Optics, making spectacle lenses and glazing them in to frames. Same room, and mostly the same people for 20 years.
    Now I'm self employed selling and fitting blinds, I'm out and about every day meeting interesting people and on fitting days I'm all tooled up which is a reminder of my first job when I was a furniture maker.

    I work from home and decide my working hours, and I can't get sacked. 
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  • Matt_McGMatt_McG Frets: 321
    I switched careers in my mid 30s. I was an academic, and then I moved sideways/backwards into running IT projects (as a product owner / technical architect).

    But that was a switch back to something I'd done earlier, my first job leaving school was a YTS for a computing company -- £29 a week! -- and I'd self-funded studying in my 20s by doing bits of IT work on the side.

    So I guess it was a switch from one white-collar job to another, but a lot of the business and the type of work I do is radically different.
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  • p90foolp90fool Frets: 31367
    Almost everyone I know has done something similar, other than a few people who've been on the local government gravy train since school you pretty well have to diversify to survive in this area. 

    It seems daunting but really isn't a big deal tbh. Just stop what you're doing and go and do something else.

    I've probably had half a dozen radical career changes and yet here I am, happily married with a nice home which is nearly paid for. 
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  • FretwiredFretwired Frets: 24601
    Yes, I've done a few times, but you'd want to employ the McCann's as babysitters before getting me to do any DIY.

    My youngest son retrained as a power engineer and now travels round the country repairing power generators and methane engines - very well paid and he loves it.

    My mums gardener was an electronics engineer  - got made redundant and became a gardener (it was a hobby) and he's done very well. He's branched out into doing handyman work for his elderly clients and now does decorating and other odd jobs in the winter.



    Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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  • underdogunderdog Frets: 8334
    Yes went from IT (server support) to self employed body piercer is my mid 30s. Hell of a risk for me, from a stable job with a huge multi national, well paid and excellent benefits package, but almost 8 years later I can say it was well worth it.
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  • Phil_aka_PipPhil_aka_Pip Frets: 9794
    I think you should talk to @VimFuego

    I found myself out of software engineering for a while, during that time I did a course at the Guitar Institute, then a teacher training course (it was called City & Guilds 730 at the time), and subsequently found myself doing reasonably well as a freelance guitar tutor. Didn't make it into the state musical education establishment because my degree is in computer science not music, I have no formal training on piano, and my face doesn't fit (see avatar). Things went well until the banks crashed, then I started losing customers because they'd lost their jobs (can't do much about that) but also lost some who although they had money they decided to stop spending it in case they lost their job. I'm not a brilliant businessman, and couldn't find more business despite trying, so ended up signing on until being extremely lucky to land the software job I have now (and have held for the last 5 years).
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • chillidoggychillidoggy Frets: 17136
    It's commendable when people do change careers, and there's many a time when I've considered bailing out. However when talking about employed status, the majority of firms will want to see experience in a given field before they take anyone on, so it can be a bit of a gamble in my view.


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  • mellowsunmellowsun Frets: 2422
    Best thing I ever did was a PhD when I was 40. I didn’t end up as an academic, but it opened a lot of doors. I was lucky with the timing though, as previously there was little demand for AI/ML but now it’s the opposite.
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  • bingefellerbingefeller Frets: 5723
    I'd love to change career, but I don't have to guts to do it!  I've worked in the same job for 17 years now and would like to become a barber.  
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  • proggyproggy Frets: 5827

    I changed career in my 30s, for years I worked as a stock controller for a building company and I really got to hate it, then one day I got a letter from the management telling me I would need to take a cut in pay to keep my job, that was it, after 16 years of working for them I walked out. Got a job working for a printing company, took a course in running a Heidelberg Press and now I work as a printer, and guess what?..............I fucking hate it.

    But then again, I am a miserable fucker.

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  • BluesyDaveBluesyDave Frets: 410
    edited April 2018
    I changed when I was 40.  An accident at work meant medical retirement from the Fire Service.  I retrained as a Cabinet Maker and have made a living as a self employed Designer/Maker and taught at College and School levels.  

    If you want to change jobs put some quality time in to thinking about alternatives that interest you.  My change at 40 was forced on me but it wasn't the first time.  When I left School I trained as an Engineer.  Two years in to my Apprenticeship I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  I was in my early 20's.  I had real problems trying to decide what was going to be better.  So I made a list of things that I definitely didn't want to do and went from there.  That helped narrow the field.

    Good luck with your search.  It's your future...You shape it.
    No Darling....I've had that ages.
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  • You only have one life so go for it, personally have made quite a few changes in life and career usually down to my love life!
    I would suggest first deciding what you'd like to do then working out how but don't let fear of starving put you off. 
    If your serious about the handyman bit why not volounteer for a bit alongside your own job, I'm sure there will be charities who would be only too glad to have someone come along and swing a hammer.
    www.maltingsaudio.co.uk
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  • underdogunderdog Frets: 8334
    edited April 2018
    You only have one life so go for it, personally have made quite a few changes in life and career usually down to my love life!
    I would suggest first deciding what you'd like to do then working out how but don't let fear of starving put you off. 
    If your serious about the handyman bit why not volounteer for a bit alongside your own job, I'm sure there will be charities who would be only too glad to have someone come along and swing a hammer.

    That's probably the best advice. No matter what you want to be as long as it's not an impossibility like Britain's first blind RAF pilot or something, then work out a way to achieve it. 

    The chunk of your life you spend working is huge, best do what you can to try and enjoy it.
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  • BloodEagleBloodEagle Frets: 5320
    edited April 2018
    I completely changed direction aged 36, up until then I had been employed in some pretty well paid but (to me at least) pretty boring IT jobs. I quit and started my own business doing what I had been doing as a hobby for years. It was pretty scary and I had to take a really big pay cut at first, but that didn’t matter as I was a lot happier. The prospect of staying in my old job was not a happy one - just stagnating in an office with the same group of deeply uninteresting people, I didn’t want to look back on my life and realise I’d sleepwalked through a good portion of it sat behind a desk, so I did something about it. In my experience people who succeed in such endeavours are the people who actually do them rather than talk about them. If you are serious OP, get a plan together, save up as much money as you can for a safety barrier, and get moving because life is short 
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10356
    I started out as a labourer, then a painter and decorator, then general builder, then started a PC building company, then went into the recording studio business, then started a dedicated electronics repair company and finally kind of semi retired ...... as in I do a lot of gigs, a bit of teaching, build some of my inventions and do a small amount of electronic repairs every week and that's enough to pay the bills. 

    Everytime I changed direction I did so by moving to job B while still doing job A until B was making as much as A if you see what I mean. 
    I never borrowed any money to start any business, even when building the studio, changing direction is less risky if you don't borrow to do so. 


    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • brooombrooom Frets: 1170
    I'd definitely like to do the same. I work in IT, but lately I find it rather uninteresting. The prospect of changing is daunting to me, for several reasons. Job security/safety, not knowing whether I'd be good at what I'd really like to do or if I'd like it as much as I've idealized it, pressure from family/friends. All those things come into play, with that said, I very much respect and admire those of you who took it in your hands to do such a change. Maybe one day, who knows.
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  • Tone71Tone71 Frets: 619
    edited April 2018
    I was a carpenter until mid thirties then had to pack it up due to allergic asthma (among other things, thank you Blair) , MDF and ply was a nightmare. Taught in a college for a while and then ended up in Civils, retrained in construction management with all the associated courses and now work contracting.

    Its not perfect but once the mortgage is paid then it`ll be time to do something fun, maybe go back to property maintenance.

    When I was growing up my father who was a bricklayer always said "get a trade, no-one can ever take that away from you" never a truer word spoken and despite being off the tools for 10 years when I do some work its like riding a bike.
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  • hywelghywelg Frets: 4302
    I had a supreme change of direction in 1993 when I was 39. I used to be a Mining Engineer working for British Coal and I am now a specialist glazier making stained glass windows. I had an interest in this prior to being made redundant so it wasn't completely new to me. I could have carried on in Mining but decided that I wanted a better quality of life and working for yourself certainly is.

    However, if you don't know what you want to do I'd suggest doing some classes if you can find anything suitable to get you a head start. Plastering, carpentry, bricklaying, basic plumbing, furniture restoration, glazing, none of it is complicated but a little knowledge and skill will get you quite a bit of work. A mate of mine did basic plumbing as an evening class and now does stuff for himself that he would have had to pay someone to do before. Best start doing some work for people you know and who will be forgiving, don't undercharge, as you will struggle to increase your rates if you get a reputation as 'cheap as chips'.

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  • IamnobodyIamnobody Frets: 6887
    I’m slightly older and have asked myself similar. For me it boils down to two factors...

    What are the risks?

    Do you have dependants?

    The risks for me would be:

    Not earning enough money (in the short term) to meet current commitments. Losing my pension, and no guarantee I’d be an happier at the end of it all.

    I have two dependants - I’m happy to work for their future in a (relatively) stable position, even if I don’t get the job satisfaction I’d ideally crave.

    As someone else suggested - see if you can get into another type of work alongside your current job and it would help make your mind up and make the transition easier if you do decide to go for it. Good luck whatever you decide.
    Previously known as stevebrum
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  • TeetonetalTeetonetal Frets: 7801
    I've been through a few big changes. Started as a night fill manager for tesco which was horrible, 1 year of that, then became self employed musician / teacher for 5 years after completing the GIT degree course also worked for Kent music school at this time. Burnt out trying to make ends meet. Trained as a ski instructor for John Nike. 1 year of that on top of my mudic led to wanting to do a ski season. Had an accident, broke both wrists and decided I'd had enough of guitar. Became a ski rep for crystal, then swiss travel then Inghams. Economic crash in 2009 made me worry about my job.Did an open uni degree in history and German which opened doors and looked in Zurich for something to keep me there. Got position in current company in 2011 at 33 and have worked my way up a couple of promotions.

    Repping was by far and away my best job. Lived in the mountains, loads of free time in the day. But low pay and minimal security. I did it about 5 years which was pretty good going. But by the end I was broke with no real future.

    However, now I have a really challenging office job, that has taken me to LA and Singapore. It draws on my educator and training skills, requires my German degree has decent hours, decent wage... can play music, teach, mountain bike and ski as a hobby. 

    I've decided after all that that there are 4 things that are important. Work needs to be challenging but achievable (ie in your skill set), leave you enough free time to enjoy life, not encroach regularly into your private life and pay well enough so that you don't have money worries.

    My current role hits all 4 of those things and whilst it's an office job, making shareholders money - ive never really been happier.
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