[Closed] If you were made redundant, what would you retrain as?

Well do you want to be self employed or work for someone else. Do you want to do something practical or mental. Do you need an income or an interesting pastime / hobby. I'd like to restore / build race engines and cars.

You could be a Quantity Surveyor but I don't think you could handle the adrenaline.

You could be a Quantity Surveyor but I don’t think you could handle the adrenalinepussy

Dead wrong.

The man's an expert on flaps.

@dantsw13

If it's not too personal, whilst I'm sure terms will be really really bad for Pilots post-covid (speaking as a former Banker who needed a job post-Credit Crunch) wouldn't they still be better than being an Electrician or Train Driving.

My Mate is a train driver, very Unionised environment which means seniority rules supreme, it was more then a decade before he wasn't getting the worst shifts and worse routes and even though it's considered well-paying, he's only* on £40k a year, which is roughly half what I've been lead the believe Commercial Pilots get? I was paying a Electrician £120 a day, that's only* £32k a year.

I'd retrain as a lottery winner.

Gigolo.

Pimp

As percy says guy knows his flaps

I'd look at a trade that you didn't need to keep current in so you could dip in and out of or even go and do agency work for in case your piloting took off again.

Contemporary dancer stroke welder.

Anyway, given another go.

One of my relatives works for the Police in fraud and financial investigation. She's a former Detective but left, rejoined as a Civilian and is an Officer again now.

I've no interest in being in Uniform or walking the streets or anything, but I'd enjoy investigating financial crime more so anything to do with Unexpected Wealth Orders. I think my combined background in financial underwriting and cyber security would at least give me a clue.

Biscuit Tester

A retired person

Guinness tester

Don't be an electrician, unless is a specialised part of the trade. Too many 6 week sparks working for peanuts have killed it as a decent career

Undertaker.....too soon ?

I'm an electrician, but work on the roads, which is decent money with your own business (but can be very unsociable - work away from home and nights)

If I were to change, I'd have a crack at throwing some pastic tat on a pick-up truck. Buy with delivery miles, lift kit, arches, chunky wheels, lightbar, sell for £3k profit. It's a valid market

I’m in a very similar situation, except we’re looking at more like 35% cuts.

And I’m wondering the same! No bright ideas yet. Mostly hoping I get to fly again at some distant future time.

Undertaker…..too soon ?

Dead end job

Undertaker…..too soon ?

I know loads, they're actually pretty nice places to work. I get to visit loads of different workplaces and industries, I would put them near the top to staff satisfaction.

Don't fall into the obvious trap of thinking they're all making a fortune at the moment, they're not. There is ALWAYS a waiting list for funerals, it might only be a week or two in normal times, and three weeks now, but because they can only offer Simple Funerals they've got fleets of cars they're not using, drivers with nothing to drive and undertakers who can't dress bodies etc. By and large they're sealed in Coffins in what they were wearing when they passed and it's sealed. Burials are 4 bearers and a Director. Cremations are less.

Im being let go next month.

F*** knows.

Tempted to spunk whats in the bank on tiawanese bike parts and do a superstar/hunt/nukeproof. Worst case Id just be flogging anodized stems at bike jumbles till its gone.

Notwithstanding job availability,

I quite fancy being an airline pilot 🙂

PJay - all (most) airlines have seniority systems and longevity pay, with new joiners on worse scales. If my company made me redundant, and rehired me back after 2 years I would Go from a captain on 100k to an FO on 45-50k(not exact figures, but they are comparatively accurate.). Plus psychologically I’m not sure I want to go back.

Add in the fact there are likely to be a huge amount of unemployed pilots, plus every young trainee pilot will be without a job and £120,000 of training debt to pay off, airlines won’t be offering decent terms.

Don’t be an electrician, unless is a specialised part of the trade. Too many 6 week sparks working for peanuts have killed it as a decent career

Having retrained as an electrician I’d sort of agree with this, it takes time to build up your reputation, especially with other trades, which is where I get most of my work* (I don’t advertise all word of mouth). In short it’s not easy, and you really won’t know half as much as you think until you’ve got at least a couple of years under your belt

*actually I have also specialised in event power, its frightening how many clueless folk are doing it, I mean really clueless, I’ve got a good company who’ll pay me a proper skilled rate, most won’t instead paying numpties. I work big events, festivals, sporting events, outside broadcasts.... so yea, I’m doing well for work at the moment 😭

How do you know there’s an airline pilot on the forum....they’ll tell you first.

Bicycle mechanic, hgv driver, train driving is very competitive to get on the trainee courses, you can’t buy a train licence unlike piloting.

Pimp, drug delivery pilot, used to be circa £30k per trip Colombia to Miami.

I'd retrain as a teacher. Easy work, loads of holidays and a union that fights for your right to be lazy.

I'm not sure I would retrain. I would likely do some different things and have worked abroad more and moved to Scotland sooner. I enjoy it and am fair to middling at this outdoor learning thing.

The only bit I don't like is the lack of money.

However nothing could pay me enough to be QS, flaps and adrenaline and all...

I’d retrain as a teacher. Easy work, loads of holidays and a union that fights for your right to be lazy.

Ahahahahahhahahhahaha.
You've spent a week or more in a classroom before you say that, yeah?

A retired person

To be fair wasn't my best move, too many people not at work just now to enjoy it.

Definitely not a plumber as my plumbing always leaks!!

I had a crack at plumbing in my mid-thirties when NHS analyst/developer contract work dried up for me.

Did one job.

Whilst in a crawl space I decided my various biking injuries were too much and I was already too old. ****ed it off and eventually returned to the glowing screen.

I'd have gone for carpentry/cabinet making as an ideal, but figured plumbing was easier to launch a career from. And it would have taken me years to get any good at it as I'm a bit of a slow learner with manual/DIY stuff.

I've got an NVQ in plumbing, though and what I learnt comes in handy from time to time.

Also:don't become a postman. Worst time of my life, that - genuinely came close to 'going postal'!

Now in the NHS for real, although fixed-term and it seems to be a surprisingly safe place to be. But I do have some quite in demand skills - I can use Excel, don't you know!! 🙄

However nothing could pay me enough to be QS, flaps and adrenaline and all…

I didn't choose the skux life, the skux life chose me.

fluffer

I don’t see any way back into the industry, as new entrant terms are pretty woeful,

The airline industry has been cyclical for as long as I've known it, laying off pilots during the downturns. But those £100k captain jobs have always come back and they've struggled to recruit experienced crew in the boom times. Even at easyJet (don't know anyone who works at Ryanair). Of course this is a big recession.

Me, my plan B was physical therapy. That hasn't gone well.

The WW2 list of reserved occupations should have some recession proof jobs on.

but I’d enjoy investigating financial crime more so anything to do with Unexpected Wealth Orders.

Christ no, under resourced, under payed, paperwork coming out of your ears, the opposition’s got more cash eurgh!!!

If we can have any job I’m going for Master of a commercial ship, not a trawler or anything shonky - proper cabin and ward room please. I’m not man enough for QS - many are called, etc

I’d retrain as a teacher. Easy work, loads of holidays and a union that fights for your right to be lazy.

I don't think you know what a teacher does.

Binners

Ninja or stuntman, maybe a ninja stuntman

I don’t think you know what a teacher does.

Well currently not a lot 😉

Although was it the Daily Mail that was suggesting sending them over 'the top' on the front line into direct line of the enemy machine guns on their front page; so maybe not such a great move....

Got a strong possibility of it happening once the furlough scheme ends so have been giving it a bit of thought recently. On the list so far:

Bike mechanic. Loved my time working in bike shops when I was a teen, could do a much better job now than then.
MOT tester. Don't know why but I just have a fascination with making sure cars are roadworthy to the extent that my boss gets me to check the work vans with a once-over for stuff before going to the workshop. Amazing how often I'd pick up stuff that the workshop missed but the MOT centre would fail them on (separate businesses for company reasons to stop them inventing work).
Long distance trucker. I have a pretty strong sense of wanderlust that means working in an office environment really doesn't suit me. I like my current life on the road so it's a natural extension of that. Wouldn't do supermarket deliveries though.
Forestry Commission Ranger. Purely because I love trees!

Sure to think of others over the next few weeks.

Also:don’t become a postman. Worst time of my life, that – genuinely came close to ‘going postal’!

I only know two posties, our regular one who always seems pretty happy about, and does seem to enjoy it. And wife’s dad did for years before he retired, he was pretty happy in his work too.

@dantsw13 I hope things work out for you, and anyone else in the industry. Turns out my job is pretty boring when there’s no pilots to talk to, we need at least some of you start flying again. The future isn’t looking great for ATCOS either at the moment.

To infinity and beyond
https://orbex.breathehr.com/recruitment/vacancies/12519

Phil - are NATS looking at redundancies too? When things ramp up we will nreed ATCO's yesterday!!

Assassin.

I’ll do James Dyson and Boris Johnson for free then start charging

Commercial drone pilot?

Loads of new applications mean that business will boom. But it will be cut throat as barriers to entry are relatively low (compared to ATPL).

But a far better bet than aviation in the longer term.

Other thought I have is building / selling home offices / fancy sheds. There is likely to be a permanent shift in WFH, so reckon this too will be a growth area. And can see big companies bunging employees WFH grants if they start to close their offices. Kerching.

Well currently not a lot 😉

I think you are mistaken. Many of them are working very hard - either in "childcare hubs" or doing on-line learning with absolutely zero training in it. I'm not saying my kids teachers are doing an amazing job of it all, but I think they are doing a lot better at it than I would do flying a jumbo.