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Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
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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.
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.
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.
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!
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).
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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'.
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.
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.