christoph
25-09-2010, 10:43 PM
Hi all,
Here's my situation.
I'm 29 years old, qualified in civil engineering with 3 years of highway design for local government. Government are laying a lot of people off so I've been trying to think of something else I could do.
I've thought long and hard about a career that I really want to do, and I can't think of anything that is realistically achievable (helicopter pilot, premiership footballer etc lol).
What does really excite me though is running my own business. I've had experience of this in the past and would love to do it again.
I got thinking about what businesses I could start. To cut a long story short, Air con has always interested me and there dont seem to be many of them around, plenty of work going etc, so why not give it a try?
I've been doing some research and it seems very difficult for an older newbie to get involved. Here's the problem...
1) You need to get qualified. I live in Norwich, the closest college I can find that does the NVQ/apprenticeship is Nottingham (6 hour round trip?).
2) Even if there was a college here in Norwich that did it, I doubt any employers would be taking people on older guys like me during the recession.
3) I'm 29, I have a mortgage (but luckily no wife or kids!), I've already been a student, I have a foundation degree in civil engineering, and I think this can easily be converted into 'construction', so I dont want to be a full time student (or full time apprentice earning £80/week).
The only possible way I can think to make this work is to do one of the (10 day) short courses to get the F-gas and pipe braising quals then offer to work for a local company for 1-2 days/week for little or no wage, allowing me to still earn enough to pay the mortgage through my current job for the other 3-4days (current employer ok with this), whilst gaining valuable hands on experience.
So, what are your thoughts on this?
How many years of experience do you need in the industry before you can go self employed?
Am I being naive? I've been thinking about this for about 3 months, usually my crack pot schemes only last about 5 days.
Thanks for listening.
Chris
Here's my situation.
I'm 29 years old, qualified in civil engineering with 3 years of highway design for local government. Government are laying a lot of people off so I've been trying to think of something else I could do.
I've thought long and hard about a career that I really want to do, and I can't think of anything that is realistically achievable (helicopter pilot, premiership footballer etc lol).
What does really excite me though is running my own business. I've had experience of this in the past and would love to do it again.
I got thinking about what businesses I could start. To cut a long story short, Air con has always interested me and there dont seem to be many of them around, plenty of work going etc, so why not give it a try?
I've been doing some research and it seems very difficult for an older newbie to get involved. Here's the problem...
1) You need to get qualified. I live in Norwich, the closest college I can find that does the NVQ/apprenticeship is Nottingham (6 hour round trip?).
2) Even if there was a college here in Norwich that did it, I doubt any employers would be taking people on older guys like me during the recession.
3) I'm 29, I have a mortgage (but luckily no wife or kids!), I've already been a student, I have a foundation degree in civil engineering, and I think this can easily be converted into 'construction', so I dont want to be a full time student (or full time apprentice earning £80/week).
The only possible way I can think to make this work is to do one of the (10 day) short courses to get the F-gas and pipe braising quals then offer to work for a local company for 1-2 days/week for little or no wage, allowing me to still earn enough to pay the mortgage through my current job for the other 3-4days (current employer ok with this), whilst gaining valuable hands on experience.
So, what are your thoughts on this?
How many years of experience do you need in the industry before you can go self employed?
Am I being naive? I've been thinking about this for about 3 months, usually my crack pot schemes only last about 5 days.
Thanks for listening.
Chris