feeling frustrated...

GTM88

Come here looking for some advise on what to do, as I'm feeling very low on motivation and everything I'm doing at the moment seems pointless...

I left school after my GCSE's and very nearly finished an apprenticeship in Plumbing, however with 3 months left to go and just my gas work to finish my employer moved me to another college (because the igsisting college was hopless) and true to form they lost all of my work and the new college insisted I would have to retake another year, at the same time my employer changed me from "day works" (domestic works) to building site work.

Being young and totally stupid, having to get up at 5 in the morning and not getting back till 8 at night, then them loosing my work finished it for me and I left. I loved domestic plumbing immensely but the building sites distroyed it for me

So I did another job, left this due to a major injury I suffered while working there and ended up stuck out of work for awhile...

My old man decided I needed help to get back into work so put in a word for me with a client and got me an apprenticeship as a car sprayer, so I did this, finished the apprenticeship got a qualification and did this for another 5/6 years...

During this time I have continued to do plumbing and bathroom fitting because I enjoy it so much... And I have become very good at it (my work seems a lot better than the terrible stuff I find myself putting right that other plumbers have botched together) and I jump at the chance to plumb or do domestic repairs/improvments when someone asks me

Now I'm in a hole... For the last year I have been getting immensely bad chest infections and chest pains. Finally I went to the GP (i knew what was comming) and he has told me to leave paint spraying as it has given me occupational asma, I'm 26 and wwheeze like a 70 year old, this and the automotive trade working for main dealers who are terrible to work for has landed me in a pit, I'm not trained todo anything else other than spray stupid cars and it's slowly killing me

I'm at a witts end now I've applied for so many jobs and the problem is everyone is much more exsperinced than me in this area of work (practical work) and I just don't think employers are at all grasping how good at pluminbing and other practical work I am and I'm not even getting interviews.

There's always some bloke out there who's been doing it for years and that's who's getting every plumbing/tiling/maintenance/kitchen fitting job going...

I'm beyond stressed with it all now and loosing my sleeping patterns and feeling pretty low about it...

My motivation is dried up altogether as well because although I liked plumbing my biggest passion is cars and over the years the job of sprayer has killed this out of me, finally I've reached this point now where I don't have any motivation because I've put it all into cars and it's not what I hoped

I'm out of ideas and can't even get a job in a shop or bar because they all just take people with experience something I don't have, I can't afford to go to uni because I don't have the money to pay todo the acsess the higher education course I would have todo

I'm bust for ideas, I just find it incredibly fustraighting I'm not getting a second look from employers advertising hands on jobs because I've not been doing it as a job for years when in reality I can do the work very well indeed

Ied love to work for myself as a multi skilled tradesman but I can't get enough work. I keep trying to, but end up getting forced back into spraying time and time again, but I can't go back now because my lungs have had enough of it

What should I do?

I wish so badly ied gone traveling and volunteerd building homes/hospitals when I had the chance to when I got compensation for my injury and better my exsperince, but something told me to stick with spraying and get the qualification, now it's no good to me at all.

I can't get the money together to go now because I've slowly sold all my things to try and stay in self employment and my last remaining car is worth nothing

I'm a hard worker, I've been in jobs where 15hr days 6-7 days a week is normal, and I have supervised other repairers and worked for some very high end car dealerships but it all seems to count for naff all now. It's very important to me I'm successful and I do well in my work, I'm 26 now nearly 27 and more than anything I feel I've failed and I should have my life sorted and be earning good money by now and be comfortable. When infact I'm right back at stage one

pinkshoes

You could start by trying to build your own plumbing business.

Reputation is everything, so a few local jobs done well will get you more work.

You could:
Advertise in your local facebook group,
Build your own facebook group, with photos of work you have done
Get a website made
Offer reasonable rates until you are established.

Don't give up! With a little bit of determination, you can do whatever you like!

vintagebrighton

If you decide an Access course followed by Uni is the way to go you can apply for a 24+ learning loan. They're for level 3/4 qualifications so may even be suitable for plumbing qualification if you can find one. Is there anything stopping you now from travelling or helping in other countries? Might be a way forward. Which part of the country are you in?

TBagpuss

Have you spoken to a local college to see whether there are any plumbing courses which you could do so that you had recent qualifications?

I do think it is worth trying to keep on with establishing yourself as a self employed plumber - what steps have you taken to build that business? You may find that it is worth focussing on small, local advertising - in parish magazines, flyers in local shops, a facebook page and so on.

Do you have your own website? Do your ads include your e-mail address and do you respond promptly and professionally to enquiries?

What are your personal circumstances? Check whether you would be eligible for any benefits while you try to build your business - of course you will need to declare any income but you may be able to claim things such as housing or council tax benefit while you do so.

Whereabouts are you in the country? Around here you can't get a skilled trades person for love or money - my general handyman has told me he is booked solid until the end of November. It may be that it would be worth you looking at moving, or alternatively consider whether the lack of work is more because you are not marketing yourself effectively rather than because there is not enough work.

National_Careers_Service

Hi GTM88, sorry to hear about your situation.

It sounds like you’ve got lots of good experience plumbing and fitting bathrooms, which is great. It sounds like the difficulty is in getting employers to take you seriously.

As a starting point I wondered whether it might be possible to build a portfolio out of the work that you have done for friends and family to show the range of experience that you have. To do this it would be a case of taking photos of work, describing the work that you’ve done and maybe including the details of past clients so employers could get in touch if they felt the need. This might help employers to take you a bit more seriously if you haven’t done this already.

The other thing that it’s worth exploring is whether your CV (if you’re using one) is selling your skills and experience to potential employers. If you’d like you could take a look at some of the CV advice on our website to help you to tweak your CV. You could also give one of our careers advisers a call so you can send in your CV for some feedback. It’s all a free service. Our number is 0800 100 900 or if you’re calling from a mobile, I’d suggest booking a call back from our website to avoid paying any charges from your mobile network. We could also refer you to a careers adviser in your local area for a chat over the phone about your situation.

With regards to finding jobs or employers I wondered as to what extent you’d been contacting them on a speculative basis. If you’re not doing this already I’d suggest approaching as many plumbers and bathroom fitters as you can find in your area to see if there may be anyone willing to give you a chance. Try the Yellow Pages or Google to find details of plumbers or bathroom fitters so you can approach them to see if they would be willing to take you on.

It’s sometimes a good idea to offer to do a trial day to help them see that you know what you’re doing. It also gives them a chance to see if they get on with you. If they do this could be another reason for them to consider employing you.

As mentioned by Pinkshoes the alternative if you have the tools and transport, would be to try building up your own bathroom fitting or plumbing business. Other than actual gas work, there are no requirements for you to be certified and if you are competent and do good work this could be a good way to get into the industry. Pinkshoes gives a few good tips with regards to using social media to help you to promote your services. Social media could also help you to promote your services if you were looking to work as a multi skilled tradesman. Are you comfortable using social media?

As a final pointer I also thought it’d be worthwhile including our Plumbing job profile for some further information. In it you can find info about the qualifications that you could pursue at college. There are also some links in the opportunities section that may help you with finding vacancies in your area.

I hope you find this information helpful and that we and the other users of the MSE forum can be a source of support.

Good luck

Leo