your gainful employment ?

[top drive]

What you all do for a day/night job ?

Currently i work in oil and gas(not through choice i might add) and keep hearing the immortal words " be lucky you still have a job" as they cut my benifits and wages and up my time away from home ..... .

ive just done 3 months solid away and been asked to go away again to another country in about 10 days time for another month + other things going on behind the scenes that make it bad for my mental and physical health.

Told them to stick that - i have a holiday booked in october - the only one ive taken from the company all year and have a vacation abroad planned. So ill probably get hauled over the coals when i get home and get the above words again.

Time for a career change but to what...... 10 years a bike mechanic/workshop manager (as well as a degree in mech eng) and 7 years offshore in completions. Serial tinkerer of things and not against retraining !

So inspire me - what do you all do ?

 

[top drive]

career criminal

 

[LeighPing]

career criminal

Good luck with that. I know more than a few.

I've been in and out of uniform for almost 40 years and in 4 years time, it's going in the bin. Once and for all!

 

[derf]

What you all do for a day/night job ?

Currently i work in oil and gas(not through choice i might add) and keep hearing the immortal words " be lucky you still have a job" as they cut my benifits and wages and up my time away from home ..... .

ive just done 3 months solid away and been asked to go away again to another country in about 10 days time for another month + other things going on behind the scenes that make it bad for my mental and physical health.

Told them to stick that - i have a holiday booked in october - the only one ive taken from the company all year and have a vacation abroad planned. So ill probably get hauled over the coals when i get home and get the above words again.

Time for a career change but to what...... 10 years a bike mechanic/workshop manager (as well as a degree in mech eng) and 7 years offshore in completions. Serial tinkerer of things and not against retraining !

So inspire me - what do you all do ?

I work in health care, I always end up wondering why I don't do less, we could all do less I suspect, downscale our lives, usually I suspect its taking care ofa family that stops it, which is a good thing, but I frequently have escapist thoughts about only needing a 50 euro bike, a derelict but functional yacht, and a one or two day a work job, but I suspect that might leave one with an existential vacuum.

 

[top drive]

yeah ive done the whole jump on my bike with a tent come back in 6 months thing. It takes a lot of time to re integrate into a single society after being a nomad.

Which is probably why i get on ok with all my work travel when they dont take the ****.

not sure its a good life choice

 

[Deleted member 4366]

At the age of 49, I packed up my industrial career and trained to be a school teacher. If you have a degree, the training takes one year, but 2/3 of that is actual teaching under rudimentary supervision. Depending on your own nature and characteristics, teaching can be a very rewarding job. You have options to do it part time too. I had a gradual wind down over 10 years to retirement at 60.

With a degree in mech eng, like me, you won't have any trouble teaching maths, science, technology or anything like that. I taught mainly electronics, which actually taught me a lot too.

 

[top drive]

my wife is a teacher.

I wouldnt last 5 minutes. I have nothing but respect for teachers and the hassle they put up with both from SMT and the kids.

 

[LeighPing]

My bro in law is a head of year at some Godforsaken school. If he wasn't a Jock already, I'd have said that teaching turned him to drink.

 

[Nealh]

I was a joiner/carpenter/woodmachinist and all that entails etc from school to final redundancy at 49.5 years that was 4 years ago, coincidently at that very time the mortgage was cleared so I left the trades. I now drive 3.5t sprinter usually Friday to Monday pm till about 10. 30pm. The rest of my time is do as I likey hobby time riding bikes or tinkering with them, looking after my bees and collecting them and occasionally paid chippy work if I want it. I earn a lot less but am happier as I have more free me time.

 

[chris_n]

I don't do any work in the spring, summer,autumn apart from covering delivery drivers holidays for a friend who has a small automotive parts business when I am in the UK. In the winter I am a Ski Instructor. (Used to be an engineer but gave that up 3 years ago)

 

[EddiePJ]

Up until the age of twenty I was employed as an overhead linesman working on 11kva and 33kva. But full time employment was not for me, as I couldn't hack the laziness and apathy that sets in when people become institutionalised, so have spent the last 30 years being self employed.
I've built up numerous companies and done numerous jobs from landscaping, HGV lorry fitting, been a 180 degree back hoe operator, had a small plant hire company, done forestry work, which lead to becoming a chainsaw instructor and weirdly instructing other instructors correct practice, I've restored and sold classic 250gp race bikes with sales around the world, I dabbled with sculpture, but for the most part, I had an oak framing company and would design and construct all manor of buildings. I also have a natural flair for cutting and pitching roofs as well.

My trouble is that I get bored s**tless and the moment that I excel at something and crack it, for my sanity I have to pack it in and move on to the next challenge. If I am not motivated and chasing goal, then I'm just not interested*.

Other than my first job, and the 180 backhoe, everything that I have ever done has been self taught.

One example of turning raw material into a product, all of which is designed and constructed by myself, with minimal outside help.

This is were I get my fun, in designing structural detail, and putting it into practice.

The side door bugs the crap out of me, but I didn't choose it.

I've recently packed it all in, as I'm feeling bored, burnt out and fed up. The hunt is now on for my next challenge, but in the mean time, I'm just jobbing around doing what suits. The money is crap, but that has never been a motivation in my life.


* I'm also kind of at that stage at the moment with ebikes. Each time that I return from Switzerland, I miss the challenge of chasing elevation gain. I need that challenge and competitive drive to keep motivated.

 

[KeithMac]

Funnily enough I'm a Motorcycle Mechanic/ Workshop Manager as well.

A lot has changed over the 19 years I've been in the job, spend as much time on the laptop now as in the toolbox..

 

[SteveRuss]

I'm a lighting technician, or a production electrician, or a lampy, or a theatrical technician. I've never really figured out what I am best described as from that list. I light things, stages and such like.

Someone's got to do it..

 

[SteveRuss]

At the age of 49, I packed up my industrial career and trained to be a school teacher. If you have a degree, the training takes one year, but 2/3 of that is actual teaching under rudimentary supervision. Depending on your own nature and characteristics, teaching can be a very rewarding job. You have options to do it part time too. I had a gradual wind down over 10 years to retirement at 60.

With a degree in mech eng, like me, you won't have any trouble teaching maths, science, technology or anything like that. I taught mainly electronics, which actually taught me a lot too.

You're a science teacher then?

 

[SteveRuss]

been a 180 degree back hoe operator

I've never tried that before but it sounds painful ..

Good show though. I've done a million different jobs but stuck at my one because it kind of fits (most of the time). I always admire people with a large skill set (ooerr missus.. )

Those structures look amazing.

 

[Croxden]

I'm a lighting technician, or a production electrician, or a lampy, or a theatrical technician. I've never really figured out what I am best described as from that list. I light things, stages and such like.

Someone's got to do it..

You could be a gigolo oh light of my life.

 

[anotherkiwi]

A dweeb in the USA who happens to be a billionaire said "people over 35 have no place behind a computer" and around about that time I stopped getting hired as an IT consultant, web programmer, front end, back end, side window, the lot...

Now I have an ordinary job which earns me enough to live in paradise a.k.a. the Basque Country. And I have four months a year unemployment benefit because when the tourist season is over there is no work here. Oh they are looking for experienced internet people, they are short on those, but not ones that are too experienced and over 35...

 

[damian]

I work in software development and support. A could of years ago I felt I was going to have a heart attack or some sort of breakdown.
Told my boss I was leaving and going to teach Taekwondo full time. He asked me to go part time.
Now I work 8am to 12.30 pm at that job. I teach after school clubs four days a week and classes for evenings plus weekends.
Earn feck all at it but I've no mortgage and it makes me happy.

The software company has been bought over. I can redundancy coming...

Sent from my E2303 using Tapatalk

 

[tillson]

I've never changed job or employer for more money. I've always pursued jobs that are either fun or interesting. In fact my last three job moves have been for less pay.

Debt has always been something which I avoid and I have managed to stay mortgage free for most of my life now owning three houses. I have never owned a car less than three years old and usually drive them until they fall to pieces before replacing them.

My employers have financed all of my education 5 years full time at university studying Mechanicsl Engineering, PhD research and most recently a 12 month course to gain a teaching and assessing qualification.

Being debt free has saved me thousands which I have invested in a diverse range of things and it is my intention to retire next year on my 55th birthday and to never work again.

My job pension guarantees me 66% of my final salary which is index linked. Not having to pay further pension contributions or Nstional Insurance, I reckon net pay will be at least 80% of my current level.

Once retired, I intend to sell a house, stop investing and buy and do whatever I like.

Of course, this would turn out to have been a bad strategy if I am diagnosed with a terminal illness anytime in the next 20 years, but life is a gamble.

I've worked in aviation all of my life. First of all deliberately breaking things to see what would happen and latterly hoping that the things I broke in my younger years won't break whilst I'm now using them.

 

[tillson]

Up until the age of twenty I was employed as an overhead linesman working on 11kva and 33kva. But full time employment was not for me, as I couldn't hack the laziness and apathy that sets in when people become institutionalised, so have spent the last 30 years being self employed.
I've built up numerous companies and done numerous jobs from landscaping, HGV lorry fitting, been a 180 degree back hoe operator, had a small plant hire company, done forestry work, which lead to becoming a chainsaw instructor and weirdly instructing other instructors correct practice, I've restored and sold classic 250gp race bikes with sales around the world, I dabbled with sculpture, but for the most part, I had an oak framing company and would design and construct all manor of buildings. I also have a natural flair for cutting and pitching roofs as well.

My trouble is that I get bored s**tless and the moment that I excel at something and crack it, for my sanity I have to pack it in and move on to the next challenge. If I am not motivated and chasing goal, then I'm just not interested*.

Other than my first job, and the 180 backhoe, everything that I have ever done has been self taught.

One example of turning raw material into a product, all of which is designed and constructed by myself, with minimal outside help.

This is were I get my fun, in designing structural detail, and putting it into practice.

The side door bugs the crap out of me, but I didn't choose it.

I've recently packed it all in, as I'm feeling bored, burnt out and fed up. The hunt is now on for my next challenge, but in the mean time, I'm just jobbing around doing what suits. The money is crap, but that has never been a motivation in my life.


* I'm also kind of at that stage at the moment with ebikes. Each time that I return from Switzerland, I miss the challenge of chasing elevation gain. I need that challenge and competitive drive to keep motivated.

That's very impressive, even more so when I consider that your skill are, to a large extent, self taught.