Help suggest to me a suitable career...
Discussion
I'll try and keep this as concise as possible.
I have:
A BEng in Automotive Engineering (graduated in 2002);
A PGCE in secondary maths education.
Since graduating, I have worked for 5 years in the motor trade (1 year as a sales administrator at a Mercedes-Benz dealership and 4 years as a salesperson, selling MG Rover, Volkswagen and latterly Chevrolet/Buick/GMC in Canada).
I would happily work in upper management in the motor trade but don't have any experience at this level and you normally reach this level by starting as a salesperson with an excellent sales record and working your way up. I have a mortgage, two children under 2 and a wife to support, so going back to being a salesperson is too high risk for me. Plus the hours are very long, which isn't ideal with a young family. I think the divorce rate for people working in the motor trade is above average!
I would like to work for the manufacturer, training sales staff in the new product and I think this would combine my engineering, teaching and sales experience really well. I don't know how to get a job like this though. I wrote to the product training manager at Chevrolet/Buick/GMC as I had his details but he never replied to me.
I have also worked as a Maths teacher in English secondary schools for a total of 5 years (in 2 schools). I found this job rewarding and every day is different. The holidays are also very good! However, the workload was crazy and I found it very difficult to find a good work-life balance during term time. For this reason, I had no aspirations to be a head of department or go into upper management in this environment. I also have the ridiculous scenario that I would have to re-train full-time for 2 years to be a teacher in Canada, which isn't an option!
I am currently working as a trainee Engineer for a company that manufactures farming equipment. I sit at a desk for 8 hours per day designing stuff on CAD. I've been working there for almost a year and my plan is to stay there for long enough to get a Professional engineering qualification (3 years), so that I can at least feel that I have achieved something. I can't see myself staying much beyond that though, as I don't find the work very interesting and it's only a small family-owned company (the two Professional engineers that I work under are both partners), so I can't see them paying me more to do the same job that I am doing now.
I would love to work on product design and development for a car manufacturer (and would consider coming back to the UK for the right job) but I'm not sure how interested they would be in someone in their late 30s with no work experience as an automotive engineer. I never worked in the industry before, as all the jobs that I interviewed for after graduating were ideally looking for someone with experience (which I didn't have)!
I would like a job that pays at least 30000 pounds per year with scope to earn more in the long-term. I would also like something that has some day-to-day variety and involves some travel (not necessarily international but not working in the same office every day). I also can't afford to go back into full-time education, so it would need to be something that is suitable to my experience or that I can learn on the job.
Any suggestions?
I have:
A BEng in Automotive Engineering (graduated in 2002);
A PGCE in secondary maths education.
Since graduating, I have worked for 5 years in the motor trade (1 year as a sales administrator at a Mercedes-Benz dealership and 4 years as a salesperson, selling MG Rover, Volkswagen and latterly Chevrolet/Buick/GMC in Canada).
I would happily work in upper management in the motor trade but don't have any experience at this level and you normally reach this level by starting as a salesperson with an excellent sales record and working your way up. I have a mortgage, two children under 2 and a wife to support, so going back to being a salesperson is too high risk for me. Plus the hours are very long, which isn't ideal with a young family. I think the divorce rate for people working in the motor trade is above average!
I would like to work for the manufacturer, training sales staff in the new product and I think this would combine my engineering, teaching and sales experience really well. I don't know how to get a job like this though. I wrote to the product training manager at Chevrolet/Buick/GMC as I had his details but he never replied to me.
I have also worked as a Maths teacher in English secondary schools for a total of 5 years (in 2 schools). I found this job rewarding and every day is different. The holidays are also very good! However, the workload was crazy and I found it very difficult to find a good work-life balance during term time. For this reason, I had no aspirations to be a head of department or go into upper management in this environment. I also have the ridiculous scenario that I would have to re-train full-time for 2 years to be a teacher in Canada, which isn't an option!
I am currently working as a trainee Engineer for a company that manufactures farming equipment. I sit at a desk for 8 hours per day designing stuff on CAD. I've been working there for almost a year and my plan is to stay there for long enough to get a Professional engineering qualification (3 years), so that I can at least feel that I have achieved something. I can't see myself staying much beyond that though, as I don't find the work very interesting and it's only a small family-owned company (the two Professional engineers that I work under are both partners), so I can't see them paying me more to do the same job that I am doing now.
I would love to work on product design and development for a car manufacturer (and would consider coming back to the UK for the right job) but I'm not sure how interested they would be in someone in their late 30s with no work experience as an automotive engineer. I never worked in the industry before, as all the jobs that I interviewed for after graduating were ideally looking for someone with experience (which I didn't have)!
I would like a job that pays at least 30000 pounds per year with scope to earn more in the long-term. I would also like something that has some day-to-day variety and involves some travel (not necessarily international but not working in the same office every day). I also can't afford to go back into full-time education, so it would need to be something that is suitable to my experience or that I can learn on the job.
Any suggestions?
I don't have any direct experience of the automotive industry but surely you could make your recent engineering experience relevant to a role.
Seems like Jaguar Land Rover are hiring lots at the moment - have a look at positions there. I'm sure lots of agencies are working with them too.
Certainly lots of scope to live in decent place thats not too expensive and commute there.
Seems like Jaguar Land Rover are hiring lots at the moment - have a look at positions there. I'm sure lots of agencies are working with them too.
Certainly lots of scope to live in decent place thats not too expensive and commute there.
jonnydm said:
I don't have any direct experience of the automotive industry but surely you could make your recent engineering experience relevant to a role.
Seems like Jaguar Land Rover are hiring lots at the moment - have a look at positions there. I'm sure lots of agencies are working with them too.
Certainly lots of scope to live in decent place thats not too expensive and commute there.
Thanks for the heads up. JLR is a company that I would definitely be interested in working for and I have a couple of friends who currently work there, so will make some enquiries. Where are the best publications/websites to look for jobs? I think I will still do my 3 years to become a Professional Engineer in Canada though (I think this is the Canadian equivalent of a Chartered Engineer). I'm not sure if this is recognised in the UK but surely that and the four years experience will increase my earning potential and make it easier for me to find an engineering position in the UK. I don't want to upend my family again at the moment, only to be working in a menial job or on job seeker's allowance in the UK!Seems like Jaguar Land Rover are hiring lots at the moment - have a look at positions there. I'm sure lots of agencies are working with them too.
Certainly lots of scope to live in decent place thats not too expensive and commute there.
Any more suggestions for suitable alternative careers that would lend themselves to my experience?
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