Need a new career. Suggestions? | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Need a new career. Suggestions?

Relax said:
Fixed that for you, which is pretty true of a lot of getting into most trades and professions when you already have a job that you need to pay the bills.
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I agree that some on-the-job training should be required. The obstinance and digging in the heels that xxx hours are required regardless of any proven competence or previous life experience seems to be more driven by special interests than ensuring that qualified people come out the back end of the program.
 
Relax said:
Fixed that for you, which is pretty true of a lot of getting into most trades and professions when you already have a job that you need to pay the bills.
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You’re 100% correct.

I can’t afford to be an apprentice now for X years.

Maybe if I didn’t have a house, kids, and financial obligations.
 
GreyGhost said:
I agree that some on-the-job training should be required. The obstinance and digging in the heels that xxx hours are required regardless of any proven competence or previous life experience seems to be more driven by special interests than ensuring that qualified people come out the back end of the program.
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I knew a guy once that did his apprenticeship and when it was time to get the license…his boss / manager / mentor / whatever refused to sign off on his hours toward the trade.

He didn’t want to lose a good worker. I don’t know how it all ended up in the end as we lost touch.
 
The hours could be to cover the lowest common denominator dumbass. It is more likely they are a barrier to entry that helps keep the wages high, if it was not there the pay would be less and we would not be discussing switching to a trade...

Does it really take a full year (first year) to learn how to get coffee, sweep the floors, carry the tools and pick-up after the journeymen? /s
 
mimico_polak said:
I knew a guy once that did his apprenticeship and when it was time to get the license…his boss / manager / mentor / whatever refused to sign off on his hours toward the trade.

He didn’t want to lose a good worker. I don’t know how it all ended up in the end as we lost touch.
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That is one of the special interests. Gov't is one wanting to keep control (and manipulated by other special interests). Colleges/unions are a part of machine too. They generate a lot of money with students sitting through classes. If students could pass a competency test to be exempted from certain classes/hours, the money being leeched from students would dry up a lot.
 
backmarkerducati said:
The hours could be to cover the lowest common denominator dumbass. It is more likely they are a barrier to entry that helps keep the wages high, if it was not there the pay would be less and we would not be discussing switching to a trade...

Does it really take a full year (first year) to learn how to get coffee, sweep the floors, carry the tools and pick-up after the journeymen? /s
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Hours also helps businesses profit (and some of that may flow down to ticketed employees). If you have a rockstar apprentice they can outperform an average journeyman but you are required to pay them 50% of the journeyman rate. Lots of winners on the backs of the apprentice.
 
Hey OP, it all depends on your financial situation and your interests. One of my friend did Engineering at school worked for 15 years at a CPU foundry and after the pandemic decided to change course to become a couples councilor. Few guys dropped off the IT scene and opened up Arts and craft studio and stuff like that. All of them were financially secure and just wanted to try something else or do something they're passionate about.

Another friend left the country, went back to south India and opened a business doing very well for himself.

Since most advise here were telling you to look into sales as you're coming from the marketing side of things, I won't do the same. From my short time in the world and with the anecdotal experience of seeing my friends and employees:
My observation is that some people need to be defined by their work and others sees their work as a means to an end. I think I fall on the latter as I don't really care what I do as long as it pays the bills and I'm not causing any harm to others. So with that, ask yourself if you're looking for the ends or the means and then chart your course from there.

If you want to do some research and find out where the economy is heading as far as Canada is concerned with it's labour market, this is a good guide:

The Daily — Jobs in Canada: Navigating changing local labour markets

In recent years, employment growth has been strongest in health care and social assistance; construction; and professional, scientific and technical services. This is reflected in the jobs that Canadians do, and, at the time of the census in May 2021, there were 485,000 doctors and nurses...
www150.statcan.gc.ca www150.statcan.gc.ca

Good luck, I'm sure you'll figure it out.
 
GreyGhost said:
Hours also helps businesses profit (and some of that may flow down to ticketed employees). If you have a rockstar apprentice they can outperform an average journeyman but you are required to pay them 50% of the journeyman rate. Lots of winners on the backs of the apprentice.
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As a rule, we don't make money on new "green" employee's for at least the first year and probably longer. They are slow at everything and it takes time away from productive workers to train them.
Having said that, we are all "green" when we start out in trades.
 
Some trades are so much harder to be a rock star . Mechanical trades like plumbing and electrical follow a code and there is some problem solving but most times an HVAC install is about being clean and neat , installing to spec.
I think welding in a custom shop not production and millwork woodworking are some of the hardest and underrated , thus underpaid in my opinion . Turning a blue print into a custom ebony sofa with a super gloss finish is art . And it’s not hidden like the drain pipes .


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crankcall said:
Some trades are so much harder to be a rock star . Mechanical trades like plumbing and electrical follow a code and there is some problem solving but most times an HVAC install is about being clean and neat , installing to spec.
I think welding in a custom shop not production and millwork woodworking are some of the hardest and underrated , thus underpaid in my opinion . Turning a blue print into a custom ebony sofa with a super gloss finish is art . And it’s not hidden like the drain pipes .


Sent from my iPhone using GTAMotorcycle.com
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The lower pay is in part that "papers" are generally not required for those two trades (but can be in some corner cases). So the barrier to entry is learning the skillset not an arbitrary 8000 hours of time to get a "red seal" added to that. One difference in my travels... if you are top notch with years (maybe decades) of proven well respected experience you can make good coin at both, but those "red seal" required trades will make more on average.

There are exceptions both ways but many trades that do not have the "red seal" requirement to work in them pay lower than those that do. It comes back to the ~8000 hours used as a tool to keep wages high.... not the only purpose of it but it has a big impact.
 
backmarkerducati said:
The lower pay is in part that "papers" are generally not required for those two trades (but can be in some corner cases). So the barrier to entry is learning the skillset not an arbitrary 8000 hours of time to get a "red seal" added to that. One difference in my travels... if you are top notch with years (maybe decades) of proven well respected experience you can make good coin at both, but those "red seal" required trades will make more on average.

There are exceptions both ways but many trades that do not have the "red seal" requirement to work in them pay lower than those that do. It comes back to the ~8000 hours used as a tool to keep wages high.... not the only purpose of it but it has a big impact.
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My buddy is a painter with 20+ years of experience. I went to university, he started the trade after high school…ask us who’s more successful and financially set. Mind you he’s got more headaches.

Biggest problem with his trade ‘every guy that loses his job and can hold a paintbrush is now my competition. I love them. I price a job, customer says XYZ can do it way cheaper. He does a garbage job, and my second quote is 30-50% more to fix his mess ups.’

I understand the requirements for certifications 100% and agree more trades should require them simply to keep the fly by night operators at bay.

I would 100% go into the trades if I could do it all over again. Hell doing this reno with my dad makes me want to start my side gig.

If appears I'm not as dumb as I thought when it comes to this work.
 
mimico_polak said:
I knew a guy once that did his apprenticeship and when it was time to get the license…his boss / manager / mentor / whatever refused to sign off on his hours toward the trade.

He didn’t want to lose a good worker. I don’t know how it all ended up in the end as we lost touch.
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He lost a good worker...
 
When your apprenticing you keep ALL your time cards / pay stubs/ cheque stubs , so when the shop your in, shuts in the middle of the night, you move on or get fired , you have your paper trail.
Im most trades after xx hours you spend 2-6 wks at trade school , a couple times throughout the apprentiship , so the trade your registered in can also help you out with a trail. There has always been the dick manager that wants to keep somebody at level x so they dont pay at level y , or loose a guy. They usually loose the guy.

I've never had more fun, learned more or been as satified in my work as when I spent a decade in the autobody business. I've also never felt healthier, drank less, or made way more money than getting out of the autobody business.
 
Maniac said:
airline pilot
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I wouldnt. I know a bunch of pilots. They do not recommend. Some are not letting their kids follow the path. Long hard slog at the beginning of your career, most money concentrated at top of seniority pile, miss a lot of family things as when you are at work, you are well and truly gone for days at a time.

As for their kids. If we cant get automated planes working where every obstacle is known and more than 1000' away, how the hell are we pretending that automated driving on public roads is a thing? Good chance that the roles of pilots and number needed will decrease substantially in our kids lifetime (and maybe ours).
 
GreyGhost said:
I wouldnt. I know a bunch of pilots. They do not recommend. Some are not letting their kids follow the path. Long hard slog at the beginning of your career, most money concentrated at top of seniority pile, miss a lot of family things as when you are at work, you are well and truly gone for days at a time.
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But you get a nice office view though.

As for their kids. If we cant get automated planes working where every obstacle is known and more than 1000' away, how the hell are we pretending that automated driving on public roads is a thing? Good chance that the roles of pilots and number needed will decrease substantially in our kids lifetime (and maybe ours).
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I would not bet on that. Planes are automated enough to fly on their own already, but pilots are there to supervise in case automation will go wrong.
 
Maniac said:
But you get a nice office view though.


I would not bet on that. Planes are automated enough to fly on their own already, but pilots are there to supervise in case automation will go wrong.
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I get that and we may not get to no pilots but three or more pilots on long haul to always have two on may phase out. That is a lot of money going to an employee that rarely (like almost never) has to touch anything. And that's with current automation. I would assume they are constantly trying to improve (and they are probably 20 years behind cars as all aviation puts care before speed).
 
I don't care much for my day job so I try to have hobbies. It's tough to ignore doing something for 35-40 hours a week that you're not passionate about, but I see it as giving me money to do something that makes me happy when I'm off the clock. I don't look for any fulfilmint in my job. There was a time I did, but I'm beyond that now.
 
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