Considering a career change

[RedFury]

I'm getting fed up with my job in general. I've pretty much topped out in pay, topped out in performance, topped out in position. Frankly, I've topped out

Then I hear on talk radio, a guy proclaiming that his profession starts out at what I'm making/hr! No previous experience necessary, and top pay is half as much again what the starting pay is!

The Job? An Electrician! Now, I'm no Electrician, but I sure as heck can spell Electrician, and I sure as hell like the idea of making a lot more money, having a career tree to climb, and be able to extend my services to wherever I may end up in life.

vs.

Painting hardwood floors, and damn good at it. Don't sand, don't install, just mop on the stink I'm dead ended, and there isn't a calling for recoaters anywhere I go -at least not making the money I do where I am now.

Besides that, I'd finally have a job that didn't ruin my clothes! Sure, the may get a little dirty, perhaps once and a while I may get a nice black pattern from a stray arch... but no home made slippers ( poly on socks ), or built in knee pads ( poly on jeans ), or built in smock ( poly on shirt ), or paint on bandages ( poly on skin ), or...you get the idea.

Granted, the working conditions may not be as nice as I have recoating ( air conditioning in some homes, heat in all of them ), but I think it would be a worthwhile trade-off to not making enough money to get what I want in life, and feeling like I have no where to go.

Another positive....at least in my perception....NO IDIOTS! Can't be completely brainless if you are working with Electricity. I'm sure there are a few morons with their Bozone layers floating around their heads in any industry. I'm imagining that this one would weed them out a little thinner than most.

So, here's my deal. I want to know from all our resident Electricians-beit commercial, military, or residential- what they think of their jobs, their Unions, their benefits, their pay, their coworkers, and lastly, their working conditions.

Basically, do you guys like your job?

I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about this too. Thanks.

[pickel]

If you're good at finishing wood, why not branch out into kitchen cabinets and hard wood furniture. Maybe you could hook up with an unfinished furniture store and get some their customers' business. Re finishing instruments, like pianos and guitars as well as rifle stocks, etc. I refinished my own MI and it didn't come out too bad. Deversify, that's the name of the game !!!! Good Luck.

[Knothead]

Hi, Red!

Ya know, you really hit a nerve there. A man just can't stop at a given spot; and when you've "topped out", as you put it, then it's definitely time to move on. You're, what, 30? 32? Man, you're right at the parabola, so if doing poly on floors has you floored, then...yeah. Time to pull the pin.

Being an Electrician is a great career choice too...there will NEVER be a lack of demand for them!

You must be aware that there is always a trade-off, though... you may not have those "home-made slippers" anymore, but you WILL crawl through dusty attics and encounter some weird critters (I come from a Plumbing background) but the good news is, you DO develop immunity to spider venom!

I say go for it, buddy! At the very least, the fumes are better!

[Prexaspes]

Painting sucks. I've never met a painter who like his job. I'd imagine refinishing floors is probably the same.

That and the crap you breathe in ruins your lungs and can damage other parts of your body, too.

If you think you can get into something better, by all means do it!

[Pexster]

Knot, that brings back some memories for me. Due to my activity in ham radio, I obtained gainful employment as a TV repair apprentice/antenna installer back in the late '60s - early '70s. Being a short teenager, I was always assigned the task of crawling through attics in Vista or Escondido in the middle of summer. What fun! And I hate spiders!

[RedFury]

S-S-S-Spiders?! They're just the small ones right? Not the hairy beastly things that take down small birds and children?!

<shudders violently> I HATE SPIDERS! and Centipedes! <shudders...goosebumps >

Hmmm, maybe poly isn't so bad..

I'd consider finishing furniture, etc...but I have NO place to do it. I'd love to start my own business, but I have no knowledge of where to start, where to find the resources to do it, or..what the heck to do for a living!

I'd consider Car sales if it weren't such a shady biz. I just can't rip people off like that....my Job Etiquette Gene is too strong.

I guess the important thing for me to do is to start looking. Heck, I didn't even know about the biz I'm in currently until I answered an ad....and now look at me- top shelf worker in my field with a well above par reputation for the kind of work I do.

Damn this sucks. I don't want to recoat anymore, but I make damn good money, I'm good at what I do, I have a nice retirement deal going ( 100% matching ), but I'm freaking out about work and my stress levels are visibly up ( ask my wife ).

But....starting over is hard, and what if I hate my new job even more than the one I'm in. I'm too much of a conservative to take risks like this, but I'm enough of a liberal to know that sometimes in life you have to take a risk and jump into the unknown ( like this job )...

Does someone just want to come over and be me for a couple of months and then I'll come back and take my place after you've figured this out for me

Mmmmm...fumes good....relaxing.....

OOO! Headache! Where's my wire strippers!

[Prexaspes]

I'd trade places with you in a heartbeat to help you out, but I don't think you'd want to do what I'll be doing for the next couple of months.

Your happiness that is riding on this decision! I'm sure with your excellence and expertise in the poly field, you'd be able to go back to it if all else fails. Or even do it part time, if need be, while you try to make other things happen in your life.

Don't confine yourself to a situation before you've even tried! I'm sure you'll excel at whatever you put your mind to!


And stop sniffing those damn fumes!

[daveleau]

I hated the job I had before the AF. But, if I hadn't been there, I'd never had found Sysopt and then followed everyone here to TechIMO (I spent 30 hours of my 40 hour work week browsing) and the way I met my wife may have been prolonged or not happened. So, I don't look back at it with too much disdain. I am so glad I am out of it now though. I was a lab tech working on genetics in hormone secreting cells. And I killed a ton of rats. The last count before I left was that I'd killed over 15,000 rats with my bare hands for our experiments. I absolutely hated it. Now, I'm in the USAF flying the B-52 and I love it. I'll be done training in december and I make more than 2x what I made working directly with my college degree (biology).

My only advice would be to try to not paint yourself into a corner (pun intended). Don't give up something good for something that might be, if you aren't pretty sure it is going to provide you with what you need to get by. Maybe if you could go to school at night and do floors during the day. Then look for a job and once you get one quit the floors. I don't know if you have a family to care for, but that would be my first concern. By all means, make the move if you feel it is right (and it sounds like you do). Just make sure you do it in a way that you won't be hurting financially.

I wish you all the best!
Dave

[RedFury]

Thanks Dave. I've considered all that you've said already, and I won't make a move from my current job until I have a new job to go to right away ( I'll give my 2 weeks notice to my current boss outta respect ).

Yeah, I've got a couple of mouths to feed, so I am more cautious changing jobs than I would have been if the wife was the only one I needed to keep an eye on

Flying a B52...how cool

[Scott Tiger]

The only useful thing I have to add is that if you're really going thinking of going into the field of an electrician do whatever you can do work in commercial buildings rather than residential. I'm sure someone will say I'm wrong to suggest it but that's something I think you should really consider. There's a big difference between the two jobs (commercial vs. residential).