Career change advice

cpony said:
Pick a career you enjoy. I have never had a regular pay check in my life and my career isn't a high paying one. It's more about what you do with the money you make than how much you actually make. Semi retired at 55. I work to stay out of the house and have space from the wife which includes going fishing with her blessing.

Biggest thing was to mange any DEBT. If you need to carry debt, pay it off as quickly as possible. Now more than ever with interest rates staring to climb. Most on here did not go through the late 70's and 80's. They know what I'm talking about.
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You're way older than 55
 
I'll chime in as a hvac guy. I've been in the trade for the last 15 years ( rig pig before that). Not sure if that's what your interested in but I'll give you the low down. It's a large industry with many different fields to work in. My specialty is large commercial buildings and controls. But there is residential, ice rinks, industrial, grocery stores and probably others and usually guys stick to one type. After 15 years I would safely say I know about 5-10% of the trade...

If your interested you better like working in the elements. Think roof tops in plus 40°C in the summer and -40°C in the winter in the north or AB or the pouring rain on our coast. Also you better be fit because every repair requires you to haul countless 50lbs bottles of refrigerant, nitrogen, recovery units and acetylene onto the roof as well. Hope you like long hours? When stuff breaks in a supermarket or a industrial application your not going home till its fixed... if residential is more your thing I hope you like attics and crawl spaces cause you'll be spending lots of time in there.

It's a good job and the pay is good if all those other things sound like fun to you.
 
Careful chasing the pension, choose your organization second to your profession, and retirement third. Yes included it in your calculation but I used to try an polish off almost a whole Chilean bottles of wine 1.5L I think? I had government and then corporate pension and was on my way to an early grave. My dads doctor in courtenay just died due to what sounded like a heart attack at 40. I agree keep your spending low and join a profession that acts like one.

I can’t believe how low Electrical contractors bid, there aren’t enough people to do the work! Raise prices and pay good wages! I know it’s not easy but Plumbing and HVAC have it figured out. Side tracked, get back on meeting people for coffee and interviewing them and their companies. It’s a workers market right now, thanks to industry, not government as much as some politicians and politicians will say it is thanks to them!
 
I'm a contractor. Carpentry background. Stressful job. I see every residential trade and pay them. Tile setters are making serious coin currently. It's hard to find a good setter.
 
wildmanyeah said:
You are not alone lots of people are changing jobs right now.

I actually hope there is a recession, it’s impossible to find people. It’s impossible to find parts, it’s impossible to find contractors
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If you worked during the early 80's you'd be very careful what you wished for. A true recession means you will lose all your toys, your truck, your house, your RRSP's and your wife. Ask me how I know.
 
Foxsea said:
If you worked during the early 80's you'd be very careful what you wished for. A true recession means you will lose all your toys, your truck, your house, your RRSP's and your wife. Ask me how I know.
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Its not something i say lightly but when something simple is a bearing seal can be a challenge to get in a reasonable amount of time, or when employees are asking for a work trucks, a gas card and 20% raise or they walk.

Sure you can say well its great the employees hold all the power this is the way it should be but ultimately those costs get past on and the Employees come back and say its costing me twice as much now to get to work, my mortgage payments gone 300 a month. I need another 20% raise or i'm walking.

On top of that your now hiring people at the same rate as someone that's been in the company for 20 years is making, They see that and WTF man i need some of that cream. People say screw it i need more they leave, the remaining employees are getting burnt out because there now working twice as much as well as trying to train all the new people.

That's fine pass the costs on.

The poor retire that has a 500k nest egg tho who needs to get his driveway fixed or what ever, who could of got it done a couple years about for 10k now no one will show up for less then 30k.

I could see a lot of this coming and though they were clowns for not raising rates, "oh is transitory" "oh its covid" oh its supply chain" "oh its short term" now there going to have to do it in a very harmful way.
 
Corey_lax said:
Trades would be great. Come be a glazier. You’ll start at the high end of your current wage scale. The apprentice schooling is 6 weeks per year and you get EI while in school. Our top guys are making $40+ an hour, phones, benefits, auto allowance, etc.
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who do you work for? my son is just getting into this. loves it !
 
17 ft sea ranger said:
how does one get into being a Glazier.....?
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Every company is probably hiring so it’s pretty easy to start haha. You just have to like heavy lifting and not be afraid of heights. We don’t do high rise work generally so not too high. But five floors up on a boom lift is still high. You don’t need training prior to starting. Kinda learn on the job at the start.
 
wildmanyeah said:
Its not something i say lightly ...

I could see a lot of this coming and though they were clowns for not raising rates, "oh is transitory" "oh its covid" oh its supply chain" "oh its short term" now there going to have to do it in a very harmful way.
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There are 2 things that terrify economists: hyper-inflation and deflation. Functioning economies are fragile. The devil they know is inflation. It can be "controlled", kept in check for extended periods. Deflation, once under way, causes economies to collapse quickly. Your million dollar home drops to $700? $600?, $500,000? Millions are underwater, unemployed and soon destitute. That is to be avoided at all costs.

So central bankers are always engaged in a balancing act: keep inflation within an "acceptable" range of 2-3%. We are beyond that because of years of low rates and then Covid stimulations. Increasing interest rates usually slows inflation but that cannot be allowed to make the fragile economy stall. That would create very unhappy voters and political disruption.

So they talk it up, bump rates a bit and wait to see the responses. In the end, money costs nothing to print, no-one forecloses on sovereign nations and inflation is the lesser of the evils. After all, anyone with a house is now a millionaire! And who doesn't like that?

Can't find a seal for my boat trailer or get my driveway patched? True first world problems.
 
Sheet Metal workers are doing good as well. J/M are now over 42 and soon to be over 47 plus benfits in 2 more years. Steady work in the big cities. city. Hard to make that money banging tin in the small towns though.
 
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