Contemplating Career Change

[Slowpoke Slim]

It depends on how badly you want to do it, how much you're willing to give up, and if the change is being forced upon you or not.

I've started over from scratch 3 times in my life. Each time I felt I was "forced" into the change by external pressures.

When I first got out of the service I had a "trade" and experience in electronics. I got into electronic manufacturing and worked for a couple of different companies as either a test technician or repair technician. Those industries all disappeared and went to China. I'd say within less than 5 years, the entire electronic manufacturing industry was gone. I started off working for the big companies, GE (bought by Honeywell), Digital (belly up), Motorola, Sperry (which was bought by Honeywell). Then, as they progressively shut down factories in the US (AZ), I started going to smaller and smaller companies. One trick ponies that had one, maybe two products they sold. Too specialized to weather the changes. And they were either being eaten by competition, or they just couldn't weather the economic ups and downs.

I went back to college and started working part time again in sporting goods retail while I was in school. Was really enjoying my part time job, and who I did it for, so I went "all in" and worked my way up to retail management. Big box sporting goods store chain manager. I actually liked the job. That company was run into the ground, stopped paying their bills, and the owner sold it all off just before it came crashing down. He had opened up a new line of credit with every store he opened, but never paid any of them off. Just used the new credit to operate on as long as possible.

Went into "service related" industry. Started working for a utility company. Was going great, started at bottom as a field tech trainee and worked up. Good pay, great benefits, was well treated by company and supervisors. They boasted "no layoffs" in history of company. Cool. Then the housing market crashed, and AZ was one of the hardest hit in country. Folks weren't paying their mortgages, so they sure weren't paying their utility bills. My job became disconnecting services to houses full time. Company was suffering, started laying off. Each time, it got closer to "me" in seniority. Knew it was only matter of time, and there were NO JOBS anywhere in AZ.

Wife was also facing eminent layoff at the county (engineer). No one paying their mortgages meant they also weren't paying their property taxes. County (Maricopa) was going broke.

Heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio on the way home from work one day saying that they had more open jobs going unfilled in North Dakota than they had folks to fill them. Jokingly told my wife to apply for something up there, and if she got it, we'd go.

She got one. They offered her the job over the phone, during the interview. We loaded up what would fit in a single U-Haul truck and moved up here sight unseen. Neither of us had ever set foot in the state before.

Now I have a specialized job that won't be going away, working on life safety equipment. Can't say I "love" the job, but it's high demand and good pay. I won't have to worry about being laid off, as there are darn few of us up here that do this, and what companies are up here would snatch us up in a second if we needed to move over.

If I had my choice, I'd still be working at Sperry, like my dad did, and retire there after 30-40 years, just like he did. I didn't quit my job, the whole industry quit me.

 

[Frankenkubota]

This is the truth. We didn't have a spare dime growing up. Paper route at 13 and haven't stopped working since. I think i've had ever rotten job you can think of, probably not.

I went to school and Eventually I had my own little rep co. Straight commish! If you have your own deal goin you better be ready for lean times.

Really the thing that stands out is......I called one of my long time friendly customers to tell him I'd had enough, shutting things down. He hired me to cover the west coast. Sweetheart deal cause I didn't want the job in the first place. Straight salary, no commission!

Here's what stands out. Every other week I got this big check in the mail, regardless of what I did. There were times nothin got sold, I got this big check anyway. Called salary. And these strange things called holidays and vacation.

After a few years I got sick of the job but.......kinda miss that big check.

Also, if you plan on having a partner or employees, good luck, keep a lawyer on retainer.

 

[dodge man]

I’ve got a brother in law that became an electrician later in life, probably in his early 50’s. He worked in a factory since he was 18 and when it closed he had a chance to get training for free. He took advantage of it and eventually owned his own business. I think when he first started as an electrician he had to travel some for work but eventually he was able to work local. I think the pay was good and if he worked enough hours he got benefits.

 

[MossRoad]

...

I am middle life, wife and kids and a very good job....

Define middle life, does your wife work, and how old are the kids?

It might help with the free advice.

 

[RSKY]

This is what is called a First World Problem.

I worked at a job I mostly hated, supervisor in a union factory, with a lot of constant conflict involved for thirty seven years. The upside was that I made very good money for our area and was able to provide for my family better than most. I wasn't able to buy Porsches for my daughters but I did buy each of them a Mazda AFTER they earned scholarships. Those scholarships, a good 401K, and living below my means with a wife that worked in a job SHE enjoyed enabled me to quit work at 57 and enjoy life. I have been places and done things that I could not have done if I were still working at 67.

One of my wife's cousins did as you are proposing. He started his own electrical contracting business with himself as the only employee. He added his son, then a couple more helpers. He did this for several years but is now working in a factory doing production work because the insurance costs just got too high to enable him to make any money. His wife retired but he is still working in his sixties. There are a lot of my fellow employees at my last factory job who did not plan for their retirement. They are now school bus drivers, school custodians, etc. trying to earn a state pension so they will have more than Social Security to live on during their retirement. You must think of that also.

What I am trying to say is if you stay in the soul crushing office, live well below your income, put money back, and plan ahead you can retire before age 60 and enjoy life. You might be able to do the same if you change careers but you will probably not be able to retire early.

Hope I haven't confused you too much.

RSKY

 

[ovrszd]

I've been retired 9 years. I worked every day to get to that first retirement day. I have zero regrets. I ate a lot of garbage. Work for tomorrow. Too late to work for today.

 

[MoKelly]

Define middle life, does your wife work, and how old are the kids?

It might help with the free advice.

My definition of middle life is 60!!!!

MoKelly

 

[EddieWalker]

I went through something similar. I had a good union job that didn't require much effort or thought. Pay was good, benefits where good and after awhile, I had enough seniority that I was able to do what I wanted. Over time, I really started to hate where I lived. The SF East Bay was always crowded, but the congestion got worse every year and I started to have road rage. Minor in hindsight, but I felt it building in me. All my vacations where about getting as far away from there as I could. I would go somewhere twice a year, and if I wasn't doing a project, I would go somewhere on the weekends. I also noticed that when somebody retired, they died rather quickly. This was very common and I later learned that the Union factored this into their retirement package. Most only live 3 years after retiring.

So I got the idea to find another place to live and start over without any particular skills or education. The big push came when I realized that the housing market was going to collapse. If I sold then, I could walk away with enough cash to buy a house in other areas of the country for cash and never have a mortgage again. This would allow me to work at Walmart if I had to, and not have to worry about starving. That was my actual thought at the time!!

The move was harder then I expected. All my plans failed or I abandoned them. Nothing worked as I had hoped it would, but after each setback, I tried something different and eventually I started to build up a client base as a Handyman/Home Remodeler. The first couple of years I was charging $10 an hour. Then I would give myself a $5 raise and the jobs kept happening. Then a $10 raise and I still go jobs. Every year, I increased what I charged, and I got more and more clients. Facebook came along and I realized how important it was to put myself out there and "friend" as many people as possible.

The most important thing when being self employed and working Residential, is getting the next job. I've never had a day that I didn't have a job to go to, so I'm very fortunate there. I have been on jobs where I didn't have anything booked for the next week and I didn't have enough cash to pay the bills due at the end of the month. That's happened a few times, but then the phone rings and it all works out. Fortunately my home was payed for and that was never an issue. If I had a home mortgage, I'm not sure I could of handled the stress of being self employed.

I'm currently booked up for most of the year with a dozen big jobs and probably another dozen smalls that I get to when I have some extra time. I usually get a couple calls every week from people wanting to hire me and I'm able to pick the jobs that interest me and pass on the ones that I don't want to do. Money is good and I don't have any worries there. My wife finished her PhD awhile ago and she is doing good too, so that removes more stress. Her job provides us with our medical coverage, which is through the State of Texas, and considered exceptional, which also leads to less stress. I haven't paid for advertising in over 15 years. All of my jobs are repeats, or friends of clients. Word of mouth, reminded by pictures of projects that I've done that I post of FB works very good for me.

If you decide to walk away from a secure job, be sure that you can adjust to finding that niche and building up a client base to generate income. There are a lot of Groups on FB that focus on the Trades. I'm not in one about Electricians, but I am in several Tile, Framing, Sheetrock and Finish Carpentry Groups. In all of the Groups, the main topic is always about how to make money and what to charge for what you do. This is very difficult to figure out before you start a job. Everyone wants to know how much before they agree to hire you, and if you get it wrong, you work for free, or they find somebody else. There are a lot of other people out there to chose from, and your goal is always to be the highest paid guy, that is actually working every day. A funny story. I was installing doors inside a house and the painter asked me what I was charging per door. I told him my price and he laughed at me. He said he charges twice that amount. I thought I was doing good at my price at $100 a door, which included installing door knobs and trim. About a week later, I run into that painter and he asks me if I have any work for him, or know of anybody looking for somebody. He doesn't have any jobs booked up and nobody is calling him. He wasn't a great painter, and I was hired to fix what he did poorly, so I told him that I didn't have anything for him.

When I meet a client, I talk to them in person at their home, to find out what they are wanting. That face to face meeting is when I get hired. They wait until they get my bid, but they have told me that the meeting is when they knew they wanted to hire me over the others. A lot of the time, my bid is higher then the other contractors, but it's in a format that they appreciate. People will pay more for peace of mind and trusting you to do a good job. This also goes back to FB and how it sells you. Post happy stuff on there and avoid politics, or partying, or anything that might reflect negatively on you, and they develop a trust with you that makes them comfortable being in their homes. Fortunately for me, that simple, easy to do approach to FB has been my biggest marketing tool for getting jobs. Hopefully my competition will never figure this out !!!

I sometimes wonder if I would do it all over again if I went back in time. Guys I worked with are now starting to retire. They are living in a place that I don't even want to visit, struggling to survive, and a lot of them are angry at life and playing the blame game. Others have moved away and they seem a lot happier. If I was to do it over again, I would probably do some things differently, but I would have left that job sooner. In hindsight, I wasn't enjoying life back then, I was just surviving and escaping. Instead of going on vacation twice a year, and road trips on the weekends, I like where I live and I rarely go anywhere. I've been on half a dozen vacations in the last 15 years and don't have any plans at this time to go on another vacation. If something interests me, then I'll go there, but for now, I'm content and happy just where I am. And that is what made it all worth doing.

 

[zzvyb6]

With companies folding, merging and sending jobs to China, your management position could be short lived. But, consider that a large fraction of our population now can't change a lightbulb, either incandescent or LED. Our NextDoor Form is loaded with folks asking where to find a "Handyman". They don't care what it costs, "just fix the porch handrail, assemble the lawn furniture, and reattach a piece of siding" are the ones already posted today !

 

[ovrszd]

My definition of middle life is 60!!!!

MoKelly

It's the new 40!!!