How did you get into this game?

[tamz]

Summer holidays, 15 years old, sat my o levels and booked in for going back and getting more education and being the 1st one ever in the family to go to uni.
Living on 10 bob (50p) a week pocket money then my best mate got a job and had £18 wages less a fiver to his ma for digs and i thought fk this i need a job.
Walked into the local plumber yard one morning on the way to the paper shop to buy the Hotspur and said any joabz going here.
"You'll need to speak te the boss" i was told
And where is he
In the office ower there
So i went over and asked him and had my one and only interview in my life.
Whits yer name? Tam eh! Are you Tams laddie. Aye. I kent yer granda te. Gid famlie. Tell ye whit, be here before 8 on Monday and we'll see how it goes.

Worst move i ever made lol

 

[tomplumb83]

Did you learn from that mistake?

 

[Ray Stafford]

Met and married a Pompey lass in London, but couldn't afford to live there, so moved to Pompey with her. Worked for a while in various jobs and government make-work schemes, but when the last of them ran out, I placed an advert in what used to be called "sits vac" - or "situations vacant" to you modern types - advertising my services.

I reckoned that the one thing any employer looking to hire would do first would be to read last weeks job adverts to see what wages were being offered, how adverts were worded etc.

I got a couple of responses from the usual low-life, commission only jobs in financial services or double glazing. Then I came home one day and Mrs S said "This weird bloke called. Says his name is Mick Williams, he wants you to call him back."

That was 1986, and I was 24 years old.

With good behaviour, I might get out before I draw my pension.

 

[tamz]

Did you learn from that mistake?

I'm still learning but have never gotten over it.
Its great how one move or conversation can alter the rest of your life.

 

[plumben]

Since I was about 10 I've been working on and off on jobs with my uncle and granddad (whilst he was alive) summer holidays working for a bit of cash
When it came to the end of school everyone was looking forwards to sitting around and not having to go to school, 2 days after finishing I started full time working for my uncle, doing plumbing/heating and all other building works, 5 years later here I am today, SE for just coming up to one year, still living at home, got my own van more tools than I need and this lovely beast

 

[tamz]

Nice bike 🙂 I've got my licence but never really been on one apart from the odd blast on my bros Kawa
A couple of years ago in my mid life crisis and with money to spend i was going to buy a Street Triple but the wife thought i would kill myself so we bought a caravan lol.
Not much difference lol

 

[plumben]

Nice bike 🙂 I've got my licence but never really been on one apart from the odd blast on my bros Kawa
A couple of years ago in my mid life crisis and with money to spend i was going to buy a Street Triple but the wife thought i would kill myself so we bought a caravan lol.
Not much difference lol

Killing your self just slowly on the inside then instead of fast and quick 😉
Had had a 2 year gap after getting my licence, biggest mistake I made, can't get enough of being out on the bike, I was going to get a street triple but then I seen this

 

[tamz]

Lol thats about right.
I can still get a wee run out on my bros ninja any time i like tho

 

[ShaunCorbs]

same as ben tbh o minus the building works 😀

got told i was working in the school holidays to keep out of the way and thats it tbh, soon as i finished my gcse (close to o levels for you old sods) i was working and in collage and thats been it ever since

 

[tamz]

O levels were allegedly harder tho i managed to poss 8, A,s and B,s despite never having a jotter since i was 13. Jotters and books weren't cool so i fkd them off.
English, Arithmetic, Maths, German, History, Geography, Chemistry and Physics. Lot of good that lot done me lol
I had a good memory and my ma had a sore slap 😉

 

[bassmonster]

ma had a sore slap 😉

The good ol' days. The fear of my dads' wide hand span used to keep me on track and out of trouble

 

[Dotty]

I got A's in maths, English, physics and metalwork.

Left school and started with a small engineering company repairing lathes and milling machines in schools, colleges and so on, then joined BT as a maintenance engineer in their building services division. Dad was a plumber and I always helped him at weekends so I copped most of the plumbing jobs at work.

Left BT 14 years ago, set up on my own, then moved to NI 11 years ago.

The rest is history.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

O levels were allegedly harder tho i managed to poss 8, A,s and B,s despite never having a jotter since i was 13. Jotters and books weren't cool so i fkd them off.
English, Arithmetic, Maths, German, History, Geography, Chemistry and Physics. Lot of good that lot done me lol
I had a good memory and my ma had a sore slap 😉

😀 left or right?

maths, chem and tech thats it lol

 

[tamz]

Right.
i had one of those nervous twitches when stood in front of her and she would say "don't jouk, if i'm going to hit you you'll feel it before ye know it hit ye".
Aye she was quick and i was a battered wean but deserved every skelp i got.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Was in the last year in school in 89/90 knew i needed to get a job sharpish so spent the first few months of my last year deciding which route. Wanted either merchant navy , landscape gardener at first but noticed my mates dad was a plumber and always had a nice car and house . So started sending letters out to local plumbing firms. Wasn't to many around like it is now so had a phone call from a plumber that knew my granddad.

Started working in the easter hols to see if i would be any good it went from their got paid 40 quid a week cash lol. Left him halfway through apprenticeship tho as he was a proper scumbag and health safety nightmare.

 

[AMW]

Went to work with my grandad during half terms and school holiday from the age of 10, then in my last year of school he got one of his former apprentices to take me on as an apprentice worked there 7 years then worked for another of grandads apprentices for 4 years before going SE.

 

[Riley]

Came straight outta school did all my plumbing training with a friend of the family, did half an apprenticeship then like an idiot decided I'd rather run pubs for the next 5 years. So i did. When I wanted to start playing rugby again and pub work and free weekends were not doable so I jacked in. I then drove a desk in an admin office for 6 years. Utterly hated the job but I had my weekends. Couldn't carry on in a job I detested so I looked up some old plumbing friends I had and eased in with them. They taught me loads and got me through my gas. I then went solo and the rest as they say is history.

 

[Masood]

Like a few of you lads, used to work with my old man from as far back as I can remember so I learned plumbing, electrics, carpentry, basic plastering etc. as a kid. None of the theory at all, but I could bend pipe and solder a neat joint whilst I was still in junior school. We used socket formers and pulled bends because he was too tight to use many fittings LOL...

Did A-levels, went to Uni. Various jobs after that, mainly motorbike mechanics and computer-related work. Fell into a proper IT role and became very good at it. Ended up in senior roles at various tier-1 investment banks. Grew to hate it - when I was in lower roles, in the server room or configuring routers, I loved it. But the better you are, the more you're promoted away from what you're good at. Hated being in an office so when the credit crunch hit, I grabbed the redundancy package and ran.

Did 3 years unpaid as a sort of part-time adult apprentice whilst driving buses to pay the bills, got my NVQ 2 and gas studying part-time and set up on my own. Just coming to the end of my 6189 L3, also part time...

 

[Stanios]

Like a few of you lads, used to work with my old man from as far back as I can remember so I learned plumbing, electrics, carpentry, basic plastering etc. as a kid. None of the theory at all, but I could bend pipe and solder a neat joint whilst I was still in junior school. We used socket formers and pulled bends because he was too tight to use many fittings LOL...

Did A-levels, went to Uni. Various jobs after that, mainly motorbike mechanics and computer-related work. Fell into a proper IT role and became very good at it. Ended up in senior roles at various tier-1 investment banks. Grew to hate it - when I was in lower roles, in the server room or configuring routers, I loved it. But the better you are, the more you're promoted away from what you're good at. Hated being in an office so when the credit crunch hit, I grabbed the redundancy package and ran.

Did 3 years unpaid as a sort of part-time adult apprentice whilst driving buses to pay the bills, got my NVQ 2 and gas studying part-time and set up on my own. Just coming to the end of my 6189 L3, also part time...

From rags to riches twice over eh?

 

[Leo21]

I left school with fa. Got a job as a fork lift driver. But my dad had a word, "come and learn with me and if you don't like it, do,something else" the rest is history.
Been SE 18 years now.