31M. I want a new career. Suggestions very welcome.

davomcdave

If you want to earn more than the average salary that is going to take some sort of effort on your part. In general, to earn more than average there needs to be something restricting the number of people that can do the job otherwise every barman and checkout chick would change jobs and push wages down.

So what keeps people out of a job and wages up? I reckon you can split it into 2 broad groups: other people can't do it or don't want to do it.

In the former group are:
- Trades
- Professions
- Artisans and sportsmen

In the latter group are things like:
- Sewer workers
- Miners/rig workers
- Night workers

So take your pick. If you don't want to take a long time attaining a skill you can sell then your alternative is realistically doing stuff other people don't want to do.

CeaseAllMotorFunctions

davomcdave wrote: »

If you want to earn more than the average salary that is going to take some sort of effort on your part. In general, to earn more than average there needs to be something restricting the number of people that can do the job otherwise every barman and checkout chick would change jobs and push wages down.

So what keeps people out of a job and wages up? I reckon you can split it into 2 broad groups: other people can't do it or don't want to do it.

In the former group are:
- Trades
- Professions
- Artisans and sportsmen

In the latter group are things like:
- Sewer workers
- Miners/rig workers
- Night workers

So take your pick. If you don't want to take a long time attaining a skill you can sell then your alternative is realistically doing stuff other people don't want to do.

Perhaps those "unpleasent" or less popular jobs are what I should be looking at. By "rig workers" I assume you mean working on an oil rig? I was actually quite interested in doing something like that at one point but there never seem to be an vacancies for anything lower/entry level.

Thanks for your reply.

CeaseAllMotorFunctions

theoretica wrote: »

Things with a well defined career path to a high salary are mostly hard to get onto the path. Airline pilots have extremely expensive training, and doctors need lots of training and competition for university places.

How about lorry driver?

I wouldn't rule it out, but I'd need to look into earnings potential - I'm sure someone else mentioned something similar on this or another thread (sorry, it's 1.30am and I've had a few drinks..).

davomcdave

CeaseAllMotorFunctions wrote: »

Perhaps those "unpleasent" or less popular jobs are what I should be looking at. By "rig workers" I assume you mean working on an oil rig? I was actually quite interested in doing something like that at one point but there never seem to be an vacancies for anything lower/entry level.

Thanks for your reply.

I do mean people that work on an oil rig. These are all sorts of people, not just engineers.

bugslet

CeaseAllMotorFunctions wrote: »

I wouldn't rule it out, but I'd need to look into earnings potential - I'm sure someone else mentioned something similar on this or another thread (sorry, it's 1.30am and I've had a few drinks..).

Talking about lorry driving in your area, you should get a job reasonably easily. Newbies often struggle and its accepted that generally you work for people that pay the lower wage scale. 30 k is not unreasonable in a couple of years. You'd have to look around, or toddle over to the newbies section on Trucknet forum.

You could get very lucky like a couple of mine did - New passes, topping 40k on a mix of UK and Euro work. But that is rare.

Cost about 3k to qualify and if you go to a trainer and just do nothing but, you could qualify in a few weeks.

I would suggest though it's something you have to want to do, so give it some serious thought if it's on your maybe list. Personally I love the industry and the people that work in it, but maybe I'm a glutton for punishment!:o

getmore4less

CeaseAllMotorFunctions wrote: »

Unfortunately my only passions are what I described in my original post - watching films, watching sport, eating at restaurants and writing a blog I don't get paid for. I don't really have any other interests.

Those are just passive every day things most people would not even consider passions/hobbies.
A real passion/hobby would be doing stuff, making movies/photographer, playing a sport, cooking.

What aspects of your current job(s) do you like.
What transferable skills have you gained in the last 12 years.
What do you do with your holidays/weekends.

How have you got to where you are now?

jobbingmusician

Open University law degree?