Career change for someone without a degree?

[GamesNGains]

Hi all,

Hoping for some advice on what to look for. Im currently working an office based sales job working 8.30-5.30 mon-fri and one in three saturdays. Gross is £28k a year. I've done similar roles for the past 12 years and although gradually I have improved my work life balance (less saturdays, slightly less hours), I feel like its a dead end. I dont want to be doing this at 50/60 years old.

I'm happy to work in the evenings or do coursework to work towards something, I have a good grasp of computer usage. I have a keen interest in cars, bikes, computers, and working out.

Honestly I think I'd be happy to have a look at anything really, I'm sure theres plenty of things that I've never thought of but would be willing to trial.

 

[slinxy]

One of my work colleagues and I was discussing career changes.. I did say to him that he may want to consider a job at his mates garage as a mechanic.. as a kid he worked for Halfords, he does all the servicing and repairs on his own cars and does do the odd bits and bob for his mate out of interest.

He said that he was discussing it with his mate.. and the car mechanic role is likely to go the way of the dodo. Cars are getting more electronic, parts from manufacturers are harder to source. so in future; like with computers unless you work for a major vendors, hands on repairing them will be limited.

It may come a time where we don’t even buy cars, just lease them out for a period of time then swap it for a lease on a newer car… if anything goes wrong just give the whole car back for another. Half of my team are in some sort of car lease scheme with work..

Just depends how young you are and if you will retire before or after the need for a car mechanic.

 

[throwaway4372]

Plumber / electrician

There's a bunch of stuff that's on the up:
EV chargers
Air con
Heat pumps
Solar panels

If you can learn something like that you can prolly do it for ages.

 

[Tram]

Hi all,

Hoping for some advice on what to look for. Im currently working an office based sales job working 8.30-5.30 mon-fri and one in three saturdays. Gross is £28k a year. I've done similar roles for the past 12 years and although gradually I have improved my work life balance (less saturdays, slightly less hours), I feel like its a dead end. I dont want to be doing this at 50/60 years old.

I'm happy to work in the evenings or do coursework to work towards something, I have a good grasp of computer usage. I have a keen interest in cars, bikes, computers, and working out.

Honestly I think I'd be happy to have a look at anything really, I'm sure theres plenty of things that I've never thought of but would be willing to trial.

Go for apprenticeship.

 

[adidan]

Plumber / electrician

There's a bunch of stuff that's on the up:
EV chargers
Air con
Heat pumps
Solar panels

If you can learn something like that you can prolly do it for ages.

Second this.

All the sparkies and plumbers I've known seem to be away on holiday every other week and drive lovely cars

Plus you're more in control of your work life considering the demand there is for them.

 

[Nasher]

Most people in my field (IT) don't have a degree as it's a waste of time. But it's a bad industry to be getting in to now.

One of my work colleagues and I was discussing career changes.. I did say to him that he may want to consider a job at his mates garage as a mechanic.. as a kid he worked for Halfords, he does all the servicing and repairs on his own cars and does do the odd bits and bob for his mate out of interest.

He said that he was discussing it with his mate.. and the car mechanic role is likely to go the way of the dodo. Cars are getting more electronic, parts from manufacturers are harder to source. so in future; like with computers unless you work for a major vendors, hands on repairing them will be limited.

It may come a time where we don’t even buy cars, just lease them out for a period of time then swap it for a lease on a newer car… if anything goes wrong just give the whole car back for another. Half of my team are in some sort of car lease scheme with work..

Just depends how young you are and if you will retire before or after the need for a car mechanic.

Mechanics are busier now than they ever were. The basics aren't going to change. Most of them have no idea how to do the advaned stuff (like work inside an engine) anyway.

Things like bodywork repair and painting are always in high demand. But afaik there is no formal training for this, you just need to be good.

 

[Quartz]

Honestly I think I'd be happy to have a look at anything really, I'm sure theres plenty of things that I've never thought of but would be willing to trial.

Have you looked into management? Read some books and take some City & Guilds / NVQs.

 

[malachi]

One of my work colleagues and I was discussing career changes.. I did say to him that he may want to consider a job at his mates garage as a mechanic.. as a kid he worked for Halfords, he does all the servicing and repairs on his own cars and does do the odd bits and bob for his mate out of interest.

He said that he was discussing it with his mate.. and the car mechanic role is likely to go the way of the dodo. Cars are getting more electronic, parts from manufacturers are harder to source. so in future; like with computers unless you work for a major vendors, hands on repairing them will be limited.

It may come a time where we don’t even buy cars, just lease them out for a period of time then swap it for a lease on a newer car… if anything goes wrong just give the whole car back for another. Half of my team are in some sort of car lease scheme with work..

Just depends how young you are and if you will retire before or after the need for a car mechanic.

This true, my old car mechanic has hung up his tools now.

He had been a car mechanic for decades, had zero qualifications cant read or write. With everything going electronic its getting more expensive and harder to repair cars.

Less and less people would bring their cars in to get repaired. They had to go to the car manufacture instead. Resulting in his garage shutting down.

 

[Camalot]

Failities Management is something I would look into, they are going to be in demand throughout the next few years.

 

[Lopéz]

I've "career changed" quite a few times.

Retail
Sales
Customer Service
Account Management
Learning & Development
General HR
Project Implementation
Software Consultant
Team Lead
Solution Architect
Global IT
Now back doing project implementation mostly.

I never really sat down and thought "I'm going to change my career", I just see things I think sound interesting and that I could apply transferable skills to, or (this happens a lot) someone taps me on the shoulder and says "You'd be good at X have you considered doing this that and the other" when there's an internal opportunity floating about.