New Year, New Career ????

[Blake]

Well it's a new year again, I'm trying to stop smoking and make more of an effort to talk to the wife 😛

Seriously though, is anyone else considering getting out of the plumbing/gas game and trying something else?

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with this game and over the last year I've probably swung more into the negative than plus. Obviously the recession has not helped and I had way too many quiet days last summer which drove me around the bend, but with the VAT increase due and no obvious change noted, I wonder what next year will be like?

I think I have also become despondent with some of the customers I have come across over the last few months also. The usual who want everything for nothing, those that don't like to pay on time etc. Plus constantly coming across cowboys who seem to get away with it, have no morals and are probably earning more than me!

I have a degree and a diploma in Engineering so I wonder if I need to make use of these more. I just wonder if life would be less stressful having a job with more of a routine, regular salary, pension, paid holidays etc

Or would I just end up missing being my own boss???? Decisions decisions???

All I know is that I'm not really earning a decent living considering all the stresses that go with being self employed.

Or, I guess I could get the wife pregnant, be a house husband when she goes back to work 🙂

So, anyone else considering a change or am I the only one?

 

[tipintim]

Your not on your own Darryl. I have been self employed for 17 years, and 2010 was the most
dissapointing year ive had. I have days where i want to get out of the system too.

What gets my back up is people fiddling, having their rent paid and income support, then do cash jobs for a fraction
of what I charge. I am thinking whos write and whos wronge.

Got to keep going tho, I think.
I wonder what 2011 will have in store, and how many more companies will go to the wall. (2 went on me last year, didnt lose any money,just lost the regular source of work from them)

Anyway, Good Luck

 

[kirkgas]

Your not on your own Darryl. I have been self employed for 17 years, and 2010 was the most
dissapointing year ive had. I have days where i want to get out of the system too.

What gets my back up is people fiddling, having their rent paid and income support, then do cash jobs for a fraction
of what I charge. I am thinking whos write and whos wronge.

Got to keep going tho, I think.
I wonder what 2011 will have in store, and how many more companies will go to the wall. (2 went on me last year, didnt lose any money,just lost the regular source of work from them)

Anyway, Good Luck

if you know for certain that someone is claiming benefit and working, then report them, it is your duty, they are stealing OUR money and YOUR income so why keep quiet?

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

i think 2011 is going to be very difficult for everyone the vat going up is going to be a killer

 

[fuzzy]

i dont realy like plumbing its just the only thing i ever learned!!1

 

[quality]

I felt like yourself in 1997

So I bit the bullet employed and couple of well skilled blokes , spent and lost an amazing amount of money but 13 years later all has come very good

we have work pending august on the book 2010 was ok 2011 is looking brill

cheer up ,get out to work its gonna be good this year

 

[Blake]

LOL quality, I'm not miserable mate! I'm just wondering if I was alone in thinking of getting out the game 🙂

 

[robinwatson]

Hey, Bronzino - so you were serious about getting out, then! My wife's about to finish a degree in GIS (Geographical Information Systems). Once she gets her first megabucks international directorship, I'm hoping to fill in time between plumbing jobs/training by being a house-husband, and looking after our 3-week old (loved up). Come on babe - climb that greasy pole!

 

[quality]

LOL quality, I'm not miserable mate! I'm just wondering if I was alone in thinking of getting out the game 🙂

From you input you appear to know your stuff chin up chap this is a good trade

just soldier on

 

[Blake]

to Robinwatson


3 weeks, congratulations mate! It's like you said in your other post, the grass always seems greener I guess. I'm 35 next birthday and I still don't feel like I've found what I'm meant to be doing in life 🙂 Just looking at some job sites now to see what is out there.

I think a lot of it depends on area also to be honest, how many plumbers/gas engineers are in your area, how affluent the area is will also dictate what you can charge.

I'll always have plumbing to go back to, as you will have Graphic Design. So worst case scenario, just go back to what you were doing before hey.

Good luck whatever you choose to do 🙂

 

[SafeGasInstall]

never step back,we all have bad days but hey Darryl never look down and always be positive !!!

It can be done ,there is always a job around the corner from every one is just time and waiting it will come ,it has to come !

There is lots of plumbers , there is lots of gas man out there but i think the one that win are the one that care and are reasonable !

I am going on my own for now and will try my luck ,which i am backing up with polite ,reliable,and honest service !!!

Just time will show us all ,and will put us in the right direction in live !!!

 

[kirkgas]

with the amount of slagging that career changers into gas get on here, then surely any of us in our trade cant consider changing and joining someone else's trade during the recession as that will be taking food from their table and that is seen as such a despicable thing to do to people who have sat their ACS, (remember most of us have joined the gas industry at some time as most of us wont be time served gas engineers)

 

[Blake]

Not planning on joining another trade, far from it.

 

[Dannypipe]

Not planning on joining another trade, far from it.

I gathered that you fancy a go at something outside of the building trade.

Why not, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I certainly don't see myself doing this forever. My wife is 30 and is just embarking on becoming a teacher. It will take 5 years. I worked for someone the other month who was 31 and was in there first year at becoming a doctor!!

I love the idea of a career change one day, though I'll never quit plumbing 100%, I still love it too much.

Go for it mate, if you hate it, go back on the tools.

 

[fuzzy]

i dont particularly like the building trade, its a means to an end. youl struggle to get the same money doing something else, at least for a while, if your serious you have 2 options, carry on and restudy or jumop ship and work for less while the climb the ladder. good luck

 

[GQuigley67]

I'm studying or a HNC in Construction at the moment which could get me into uni to study on building controls or quantity surveying or architecture etc....something to fall back on who knows maybe even move to australia n go to uni there

 

[Blackcatgas]

Well it's a new year again, I'm trying to stop smoking and make more of an effort to talk to the wife 😛

Seriously though, is anyone else considering getting out of the plumbing/gas game and trying something else?

I seem to have a love/hate relationship with this game and over the last year I've probably swung more into the negative than plus. Obviously the recession has not helped and I had way too many quiet days last summer which drove me around the bend, but with the VAT increase due and no obvious change noted, I wonder what next year will be like?

I think I have also become despondent with some of the customers I have come across over the last few months also. The usual who want everything for nothing, those that don't like to pay on time etc. Plus constantly coming across cowboys who seem to get away with it, have no morals and are probably earning more than me!

I have a degree and a diploma in Engineering so I wonder if I need to make use of these more. I just wonder if life would be less stressful having a job with more of a routine, regular salary, pension, paid holidays etc

Or would I just end up missing being my own boss???? Decisions decisions???

All I know is that I'm not really earning a decent living considering all the stresses that go with being self employed.

Or, I guess I could get the wife pregnant, be a house husband when she goes back to work 🙂

So, anyone else considering a change or am I the only one?

What you have just written pretty much sums up my situation and my life, we are also similiar ages and live in the same city.
I try not to slag off the people on here after a career change into plumbing, but I get sick of trying to explain to them that being a self employed plumber is not easy, id love them to walk in my shoes for a month then see how many still want to be a plumber.

I too would love to get out of plumbing but dont really know what else Id rather do/how to make the change.

 

[obseen16]

ive never once hated this trade enough to want to leave it completely, although i was considering getting a part time job doing something so totally simple with no real responsibility just to earn some cash without the stress part. i was thinking of a factory shift or working at that envirophone place, not because i like phones but because id be one step closer to finding that WONGA guy so i could give him a slap for being so annoying hahahahaha.

cant believe they put him on another advert.