Moving from corporate job to a trade (electrician) in my early 40's

[t6_tom]

Hi, been ages since I have posted here but I know there is a good community with lots of people in trades here.

In short I have worked my whole life in a corporate job, a technical one, analytics so lots of computer programming, along with some maths and business strategy. I have for a long time had a feeling I don't want to work behind a desk, instead do something much more practical and I would like to be my own boss. The more DIY I have done around my house the stronger this feeling gets. From both mechanical and DIY work I have done, and the feedback I have been given is that it's as good as paying an average "professional" in the field to do the same task. I am acutely aware there is a huge difference between working for yourself at your own pace and having to actually make money from what you are doing.

My end goal is retraining as an electrician and setting up my own small company and spending the rest of my working days doing that. Potentially with the option of keeping a part time or contracting type role going on the corporate side as a backup until I am settled.

I have been doing a fair bit of online reading and phoning companies and the picture is positive (I realise they are trying to sell me a course) I'm in a position to self fund getting an electricians gold card (NVQ level 3) so was hoping to skip some the apprenticeship route and get qualified and earning more quickly.

Some questions

• Is doing this without an apprenticeship a mistake, can I learn enough in term of real experience from the courses to set up on my own?
• Is NVQ level 3 enough
• Would it be better to get qualified and work for a company for a few years to gain experience
• I have no experience running a business, i'm realistic that mistakes will be made and i'm going to learn painful lessons but am I starting too late in life to make this work?

I deliberately haven't mentioned money, i have a good but not amazing salary at the moment and I realise that I probably wont get back to this money, however my understanding around the surrey area is that if i'm self employed I should be able to get close enough to make it work.

Many thanks for any advice in advance.

 

[Pauly]

I run a sparky firm and if im being totally honest i would think long and hard about this and be sure its what you really want to do, the problem is you can get qualified and setup etc etc but you are starting from nothing and theres a lot of stuff required, i would say you will spend the first couple years investing in kit to get you fully operational, i think you will find quickly that you get going then if you want to explore this avenue or that avenue then it costs, again and again

You want to get into EVs then you need to retrain
You want to get into solar you need certain registrations (MCS)
You want to get into data then you need different kit/testers
You want to get into fire then you different qualifications
The list goes on
You take bigger jobs you need bigger/better insurance etc etc then comes employees and more vans and more issues

 

[Pauly]

I've just reread my post and its sounds a bit doom and gloom and that was not my intention, if its your passion and your sure then go for it

Lets go real world advice
If you skip an apprenticeship then you are going to lack hands on experience, there are plenty of places that offer short courses for X number of weeks and you come out the other side with the qualifications to make you a sparky on paper but if you lack real world experience and have never had someone showing you how things work or ways to deal with issues etc then i think life will be harder

Honestly i would approach some local companies and see if you can get some experience, the way things are taught in colleges are not the way things are done in RL and experience is key in my opinion, try some local small firms before or after you are qualified and see if you can get some time with them even if its a few days here and there and you may need to take a hit financially but i think its worth it !

 

[t6_tom]

Hi Pauly,

Thanks this is super useful and very grounding (no pun intended) advice. I am sure that I want to explore something more hands on (edit and the nature of the sparky job really appeals) Its got to happen soon or its never going to happen for me.

Within my current career I have found that as you say who things are taught are often not applied in real life, and that real life experience when correctly applied is the best way forward. Also having a varied experience with lots of companies has taught me a huge amount, something I would miss by starting on my own too early.

My caution with going the apprenticeship route was getting stuck on a large scheme doing all the rubbish jobs, on a low wage and learning really slowly.

I really like what you say about finding some small local firms to get work experience with before / while/ after training. I hadn't thought about approaching a firm outside an apprenticeship.

Thanks

 

[Pauly]

Im not saying an apprenticeship is the way forwards ! TBH for an adult learner they are just a huge unnecessary expense but on the flip side doing a 5 week course that qualifies you on paper does not make you a sparky, i think the balance lies somewhere in between and that could be either before or after getting qualified (or both) spending some time with experienced people who are willing to help you learn

 

[t6_tom]

Im not saying an apprenticeship is the way forwards ! TBH for an adult learner they are just a huge unnecessary expense but on the flip side doing a 5 week course that qualifies you on paper does not make you a sparky, i think the balance lies somewhere in between and that could be either before or after getting qualified (or both) spending some time with experienced people who are willing to help you learn

Cheers, this is really useful advice. Will be making some calls locally to see what I can get.

 

[Stay Frosty]

I went back to sparkying in my twilight years up until 3 years ago after 15 years out of the trade running our own small fast food outlet from the start of the noughties.
The only time I ever actually got ahead in my working life was the money trousered in those 15 years while frying chicken.
In all fairness as an electrician subbing in the early 90s was reasonably well paid but earning £31k as a 715 for 1991 was a high point that was never eclipsed and the £100 a day later as a 1995 715 subby was pretty much what an 8 HR day paid PAYE in 2015 twenty years later... utter shite.
Anyway aged 64 now I am still a little bitter that being an electrician these days can mean so many things when applied to the trade almost like the situation where a car detailer is seen as being on a par with being a car mechanic.
Back on course though and as Pauly has indicated the amount of hoops to jump through and kit you're prepared to buy to pursue this idea should help focus your aim a bit ie sitework or house bashing but as an average PAYE bread and butter employed spark my last employer had put me through the 18th edition regs course, an IPAF and PASMA course, CSCS plus DBI reference card to work in local authority sites, I had my gold approved ticket as I had originally trained as a JIB apprentice, all this crap just to earn less than a night shift worker in a local Sainsbury's warehouse, he was on £21 per hour to my £13:50 in 2019.
It is an age thing I guess but I finished up working with a decent 19yr old apprentice who had never worked with pyro or metal conduit, never made off a 300mm2 armoured gland or same sized cell pack joint, hadn't installed a nurse call system or addressable fire alarm system, worked in a steelworks or cement plant but whose top line before stoppages was £90 per week less than mine on a 40 hour week... just sayin'

 

[JDC]

Theres loads of different aspects to electrics, it's not everyone's cup of tea. I've done machine build, panel builds, social housing, rewired kitchens and houses, tested all sorts of property and now doing utilities. There's so many different avenues to consider and possibly try. I'd suggest you get as much experience as you can with a company who's work is what you want to do. I'm moving over to industrial EV to gain a new experience and I'm neatly 50!!! As the saying goes, every day's a school day.

 

[Salty Spuds]

I’m 4 years retired from running my own business. I started out as a NCB electrical apprentice, qualified & then the mines closed. Fate/accident, call it what you will, found me in the water “treatment industry” I.e. sewage. I carved a niche & stayed there & it served me well. I’ve done installation work & found it soul destroying, running out cables/terminating/testing is (imho) mind numbing. Where I found my calling was fault finding, process control, a bit of PLC programming. You can train a monkey to put up cable tray, pull cables, terminate etc. but the interesting stuff is getting things to work & problem solving imho.
I’d build on the skills you already have in IT, and find yourself a niche that’s well paid & under represented. If you can follow a control panel/logic/process flow, drawing and tie them altogether in your head, you can make a tidy living.
All imho & no disrespect to cable monkeys.

 

[t6_tom]

Stay Frosty - completely understand what your are saying on this, this actually happens a lot in the corporate world as well, often the only real difference between the good and bad people is the a few % difference handed out in bonuses at the end of the year and a few % difference in salary. One of the key drivers for me would be working for myself and keeping the profit, having looked around at the salaries on offer for qualified electricians in my area I can see that working for a larger companies doesn't bridge the gap to what I am used to. Sitework and house bashing are not something I want to do long or even medium term, happy to gain some experience doing it short term though. But defo want to get into something that takes a bit of thinking and problem solving.

JDC - the ev charging angle is an interesting one, and something I was thinking about already. I can see (along with lots of others) that this is going to be a huge growth area over the next few years, I may be wrong but I could see a space for a smaller local business to operate without huge overheads doing this and undercutting bigger players. I can also see that it could get very repetitive so I would need to mix it with something else. Might be a dumb question but is machine build putting large machines together onsite?

Salty - you make some interesting points, fault finding and process control, programming. I'm assuming that it takes a fair bit of experience to get good enough to do this?

Thanks for the responses!

 

[nomislotsirb]

I ran a business for 15 years, and a year ago returned to being an employee, and have regained my evenings and weekends as a result.

I can't see being self-employed and trying to maintain a part-tine position in a corporate role being practicable. You will constantly be receiving phonically on you 'non-working days'.

As others have said, setting up a business isn't cheap, so the suggestion of working for someone else first isn't a bad idea; both to gain invaluable experience and business know-how, but this may offer the opportunity to work part-time in a corporate role to maintain a good stable income.

If you don't at least try, you'll always have the niggling feeling, but the above is probably the most less risky solution before committing significant expense and retaining some contact into your current industry.

 

[Crazymind]

Man, I read you need a change of Life. Go for it. Dreams are rare goods and Life is too short.
You ll fail badly at the beginning but being a smart guy you’ll be successful at some point.
Good luck the God of T6 be with you.

 

[Insert Coin]

I ran a business for 15 years, and a year ago returned to being an employee, and have regained my evenings and weekends as a result.

I can't see being self-employed and trying to maintain a part-tine position in a corporate role being practicable. You will constantly be receiving phonically on you 'non-working days'.

As others have said, setting up a business isn't cheap, so the suggestion of working for someone else first isn't a bad idea; both to gain invaluable experience and business know-how, but this may offer the opportunity to work part-time in a corporate role to maintain a good stable income.

If you don't at least try, you'll always have the niggling feeling, but what the above is probably the most less risky solution before committing significant expense and retaining some contact into your current industry.

Good advice, I left the family business which was 70+ hours a week, evenings, weekends, call outs etc

I now do a 9-5, earn a fraction of my previous salary, but I love my new job and fortunately the money doesn’t matter to me.

I never saw my kids, nearly got divorced, fell out with all my family and had a constant black cloud in my head, think Michael Douglas - Falling Down.

Now my mental health is 100%, marriage great, love my kids and appreciate time with them.

You have to do what makes you happy (and pays the bills), running your own business or going self-employed doesn’t guarantee that.

 

[JDC]

@t6_tom house bashing and site work hasnt been my thing either. Machine and panel build was factory based but involved a lot of electronics and programming, that's what you could potentially look at. Gain experience in that type of position and with your IT background you may be able transfer some of your programming skills and develop from there. Could be an outsource or consultancy services.

 

[Stay Frosty]

@Salty Spuds Ironically one of the first places I worked as an apprentice in 1976 was at the Billing sewage works here in Northampton where they were expanding the site ready for all the new London overspill housing that was planned. Despite that long hot summer I really enjoyed the work involved, with the new 8 screw house being probably the hub of a lot of the technical stuff, as a 17yr old apprentice I had my own dumper truck and generator and went round connecting the various sluice gates at the flumes and the motors on the areation tanks, with the sunshine and smell it was like being at the seaside... well, a 70s seaside that is!

 

[Mick]

I went from being a well qualified, time served telephone engineer in the Army to an IT consultant/project manager roles which was the making of me. Troubleshooting became my thing in big IT companies, HP, ATOS, Siemens etc long list. I need to look at an issue, trace it back to multiple root causes and get it sorted. I’ll bet you’ve already been doing that in spades.

With your IT background and age experience that comes with a premium you actually have. @Salty Spuds nailed it. The move into the fault finding/commissioning/ trouble shooting is IMHO a natural step for someone who has experience.
You show an interest in Evs. I have solar, a home battery and an EV. The guys who fitted it all had the Electrical engineerings skills to fit them systems: it is all integrated these days. However the IT part of it involving cloud, apps, Firmware, dongles, wireless, data transmission fault finding, SW config were equally a skill they had to have, was a major part of their skill set or had to be able to call on it. Move that over to major electrical engineering in large factories, railways, highways etc etc and the list is endless.

in short your IT skills are a premium in the industry and utilising it as a sparky should be a major consideration.

 

[jimc91]

Really interesting question/debate; Over the last 6 or 7 years I have been "helping" my electrician mate when he's under the cosh; mainly first and second fix on either high end houses in Kent or schemes of flats - every building contractor wants things done yesterday so to maintain the flow of contracts you have to be ready to jump when they say.
Like you I am proficient with power tools so he's able to set me tasks such as boxing out or running cables then checks my work as we go. I've seen a number of apprentices in my time taken on by him, they tend not to last especially when the penny drops its a long slog at collage (some have to get a maths and english qualification first) to qualify and its bloody cold on site in the winter. Recently he had a lad helping him who's "qualified" but its clear he lacks the onsite experience which @Pauly refers to, he's now picking it up but compared to one of my mates unqualified apprentices who probably has 8 years or so onsite experience he's miles behind knowing those tricks in the trade that experience brings.
I'm 58 now and try my hardest to avoid helping as its hard work and a long day and very samey. The one thing I have noticed is how the "experts" in AV and data seems to make better money, we runs all the cat5's / coax cables etc then these guys turn up and supply and connect the specialist equipment so I guess its back to that niche area others have spoken about; CCTV/burglar alarms?

 

[Stay Frosty]

Any of us older members feel openly hostile regarding the talk of forcing early retirees back to work when 60 yrs old seems to be the point where having burned the candles at both ends catches up.
On an even gloomier note my younger brother the metallurgist and international jet set trouble shooter for a local branch of a US engineering company building motor generator sets just made it to 60 before checking out with bladder cancer after a series of stress related conditions over the years.

 

[tonybb66]

I was in IT for 30 years, got paid off in 2017, had a bit of timer off then started my own handyman business as always been practical. Took my private pension at 55, I really enjoy my job, like the freedom etc etc BUT you don't stop when you finish work, get home... note down details of jobs done, reply to texts, anwerphone msgs, emails, Whatsapp, FB msgr, phone customers to arrange jobs, work out quotes, research and buy materials for jobs, look at shiny new tools to buy etc etc, before you know it that's a couple of hours gone then you have all the normal life admin to do and you even end up doing biz stuff at the weekends. I'd go for it but just need to know it is a lot more than a 9-5 job. good luck

 

[Salty Spuds]

Any of us older members feel openly hostile regarding the talk of forcing early retirees back to work when 60 yrs old seems to be the point where having burned the candles at both ends catches up.
On an even gloomier note my younger brother the metallurgist and international jet set trouble shooter for a local branch of a US engineering company building motor generator sets just made it to 60 before checking out with bladder cancer after a series of stress related conditions over the years.

I’m 59, retired at 55, there’s no way on gods earth am I going back on the tools. My missus retired as a deputy headteacher & still does the odd day here & there, as she enjoys it & can pick and choose. I’ve seen too many people work until they literally dropped. We have our T6 Camper & boat, and I’m going to kick the arse out of the next 15-20years. After that, they can do what they want with me.