Retraining: Office/Marketing to Outdoors/Technical

Nothing useful to add other than to wish you luck. 

It's no fun being a resentful and bitter office worker counting down the days to retirement. (4 years and 8 days)

Posted by: Steve

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Nothing useful to add other than to wish you luck. 

It's no fun being a resentful and bitter office worker counting down the days to retirement. (4 years and 8 days)

Thank you!

Not necessarily expecting many relatable experiences but I've been moaning about my job to folk for years now and it's time to do something about it whilst I still have (relative) youth on my side.

It's just hard to think what to do apart from a broad kind of nebulous idea. I've never been particularly career focused but I have had jobs that I've loved...unfortunately this isn't one!

Good luck. I'd love to do the same (though maybe different target jobs) but feel locked in the IT wage and flexibility (children) my current role offers. Find myself bored and unmotivated though.

Posted by: nixie

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Good luck. I'd love to do the same (though maybe different target jobs) but feel locked in the IT wage and flexibility (children) my current role offers. Find myself bored and unmotivated though.

Thank you! It does feel a bit irresponsible to me even, as I get paid well and the office is like 5 minutes ride from my house and I am very "comfortable". I even have 4 day weeks! But it's getting to the point where none of that stuff feels worth it anymore and I am not finding meaning in it - and Sundays are generally spent dreading Monday. 

I am sure I will find something even if it doesn't match the above, just need to claw out the motivation and get over the mental hurdle of making a change!

While I can't offer much advice in relation to retraining, I'm 46 and have always worked in property, focussing on acquiring land for infrastructure - a few years ago after 15+ years of trying managed a sideways move from telecoms into renewables (basically stay away from BT is my advice). while its kind of the same job, different industries can be a closed shop if you don't have experience in that specific world - which is daft.

The renewables and the power network world is booming at the moment and there are from what I can see a lot of grad and apprenticeship opportunities, but they are pretty competitive, my current firm takes on 2-3 a year and has a lot of applicants. But if that appeals go for it, the pay is OK and its a cheap way to get qualifications. Maturity and experience working is a skill that grads don't often have, so it's worth playing on that for sure.

Getting a foot in the door is the main thing, but once you're in it's a lot easier to move jobs. You could play to your strengths and experience in archeology to get a way in, give it a year or two and try a sideways move, look at companies like Dalcour Maclaren who do end to end infrastructure work. They have plenty of field based things or roles where you can be out part of the time looking at access rights, landowner liaison, all a bit desk based but to an extent you can chose when you want to hide from the cold and the rain 😀 .

Location is also key, if you want to be doing a hands on site tech job, being near or moving closer to developments be that new pylon routes or a wind farm etc. would make sense. I'm in south Wiltshire and there isn't a lot happening (ever) around here, so for work I need to travel to offices like Bristol, Reading, London plus some home working.

Have a look at whether geotechnical work is interesting to you

What I can say from experience is that you 100% can change careers, because I did it aged 44, from IT to Joinery. If you want to, you can, and will.

My suggestion would be to find contacts in the area you want to work in and develop opportunities from there, I found a joiner and worked with them for a while to learn.

I'm still learning almost every day though it's much less of an intense learning curve now. It did take a lot of my energy, physical and emotional, to learn a new trade and go self employed, leaving little energy for other things (family, biking) but now I'm comfortable in the work (and loving it compared to back to back meetings office work stress death) I've got tons of energy for everything else even after hard physical days on my feet.

I also took a hefty pay drop but was surprised how much I didn't miss it and I love Mondays now.

Best of luck - go get it done.

Realistically with me being 35, do I stand a chance against a bunch of keen 17 year olds?

Yes. Yes you do. Age is not a barrier. You will cost more but you bring more to the table. 

Network rail and local councils and laege contractors do asset stuff.

I personally have done over 300 scour assessments of Scottish network rail bridges. That involves walking about scotland looking at bridges. I am doing specific technical stuff with them so largely office based with a few jollies.

How about Surveying?

I can chat to you about various bits if you like. Done an apprenticeship degree, taken people through college apprenticeships etc. 

All I can say is 35 isn't really old, you have a bit of life experience and if you're prepared to accept that you are starting again pretty much at the bottom there's no reason not to give it a go.

@crankslave - thank you for that information! Sounds reassuring. The apprenticeships offered up by Dalcour MacLaren are something I have actually seen before and may look further into, apparently mature applicants are considered case-by-case.

A mixture of desk based and field based with occasional travel/site work would actually be ideal (despite what I have said I have probably softened up over the past 6 or 7 years), as well as something to do with working with the land / environment / elements in some kind of way. But I know that's possibly a little bit Goldilocks in thinking with my background. 

As you can see I am still very much in the narrowing it down stage, without much thought on the details! Just a broad idea of what would motivate me most.

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@imnotamused - thanks for the reassurance! That is very encouraging and I believe I would feel the same. Once I zero in on exactly what route I'd like to go down I think I will be able to dedicate a lot of myself to it for a long time. Biking etc will have to suffer a bit medium-term...but I always preferred the feeling of physical tiredness from being up and about at work, compared to the lethargy that this current job gives me. I just frankly don't care, don't know enough, and don't care to learn anything else about social media analytics, influencers, or marketing campaigns haha. 

I was a much fitter and faster cyclist when I was an archaeologist actually - and many weeks were spent horsing clay out of a waterlogged ditch with a shovel.

Posted by: Josh

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Realistically with me being 35, do I stand a chance against a bunch of keen 17 year olds?

Yes. Yes you do. Age is not a barrier. You will cost more but you bring more to the table. 

Network rail and local councils and laege contractors do asset stuff.

 

I personally have done over 300 scour assessments of Scottish network rail bridges. That involves walking about scotland looking at bridges. I am doing specific technical stuff with them so largely office based with a few jollies.

How about Surveying?

I can chat to you about various bits if you like. Done an apprenticeship degree, taken people through college apprenticeships etc. 

Something like that sounds ideal, or in that kind of rough area anyway. My favourite archaeology jobs were actually rare ones where we would be doing walkover site visits on powerlines pre-construction - liaising with contractors and ecologists and devising strategies for routing and further mitigation. 

As I say - I could work towards archaeological consultancy and have a decent chance at doing a lot of that work, but I just feel I don't have the same passion that's required for the particular subject matter - which is key in archaeology. Also every contractor couldn't wait to see the back of us and you had to earn their trust early! I always made sure I had my Dewalt workie trousers and a hoodie on instead of the usual combat trousers just to not get pigeonholed and frankly a bit mistreated compared to the other contractors haha. 

Surveying is something I have a basic level of experience in - at least in an archaeological sense. I've done a lot of site surveying and dabbled in historic building surveys. It's something that's in my mental conversation and I have found a few certifications out there. 

If you did have some time to chat over the coming weeks that would be very much appreciated. This line of thinking all still feels quite fresh to me and to be honest I do struggle with making sense of the available options. 

I am currently a year into a three year course to change career at the age of 45, loving it so far, so it's definitely possible at 35. There are a few older ones on the course and whilst we may be a little slower at the academic stuff we have all smashed our placements, primarily just by turning up on time and showing interest/doing some work which apparently is becoming a rarity in a lot of the current students.

If you go down the route of applying for the apprentice positions then pushing that side of things and the ability to not spend all day on your phone would I think be seen as a big bonus. 

@ads678 you are out and about inspecting assets aren't you?

Also @jamiemcf

Posted by: Josh

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@ads678 you are out and about inspecting assets aren't you?

Also @jamiemcf

Not any more mate, but that was good work. Basically walking along river banks all day inputting data into the EA asset management system on an iPad. Did public safety risk assessments and cataloguing of assets also. I work with Internal Drainage Boards now out of the Doncaster office, but only go there once a week, otherwise at home or on site.

Don't really get to do any engineering design work anymore, which is a bit rubbish but the IDB stuff is good and there's plenty to do.

Forestry sector is also busy and Scotland has the bulk of it.

Various graduate/new entrant schemes and Masters courses as a route into it. 

Your work experience shows that you're good at developing new skills, which should be a plus point.

Your archeology could be a good selling point as a secondary role. I expect there will be contractors who are frustrated by the delays resulting from archeological work and would be keen to have somebody in house who was able to make authoritative comment on whether the delays are necessary. For example, is the archeology on that site genuinely significant or are the archeologists trying to keep themselves in work?

Also worth noting whether the industry you're looking at is interested in qualifications or ability. My son left the police and went into telecoms, starting at the bottom, and now has senior technical role.

A combination of those thoughts might work - start with archeology as your expert role and run it parallel with getting experience in surveying or geotechnical investigation, etc, perhaps with some part time study.

At 30, I moved abroad and changed industry --aerospace ->automotive. I started at the bottom on interim/contractor contracts. I was lucky that just after I joined, the rest of the group left! I had to learn quickly to keep the projects on track. 7 years later, I'm developing new cars and will co-chair a conference in my field. 

Looking at the new hires who joined after me, generally the new graduates take a couple of years to settle and understand how to collaborate with the rest of the business. The older hires tend to adapt quicker. Your working experience and how you communicate is your advantage.  

I have two mates that started working as linesmen on the electricity network in their 30s with no prior experience (both had agricultural backgrounds).

They both love it. One has progressed into management, the other still on the tools and tops up the salary by picking up overtime assisting in storm hit areas.

Basically walking along river banks all day inputting data into the EA asset management system on an iPad.

Oh i'm familiar with that bloody ipad.

Does my nut in.

Sorry. Just picked up this thread. 

We do structures examination, mainly on the railway with a side serving of highways structures. As a company we work nationwide, from Wick to the south coast examining retaining walls, culverts bridges and viaducts. Our site to office ratio is roughly 50:50. Site work involves ground work mewps and rope access. 

We're always on the hunt for trainees, all training provided. 

Alternatively,if you want to get out and stay out. Consider getting IRATA and GWO certs and embrace the life of an abseiler.