Considering a career change, but not sure what to...

[Sammo123]

Evening,

I’ve been in my current role for just over four years. I’m an assistant manager / workshop controller for a main dealer in Surrey. Although I’m good at what I do I must admit that I’m slowly starting to lose interest in the role and have started getting the morning dread of going to work. There’s nowhere for me to progress to within the business currently and to be honest I wouldn’t want my boss’ job even if it was offered to me!

Apart from a couple of short spells in other industries I’ve always worked within the Motor industry and have a pretty good knowledge of most aspects of it. That being said, I would love to get out of the Motor industry if possible!

Now here’s where the problem lies. I’m currently on £28k a year plus bonus which is near the higher end of what a workshop controller would get paid in most places and looking around at other jobs I think I’d struggle to get that sort of wage elsewhere. I’m not really qualified to do anything although I have a decent skill set from my previous and current roles which to some extent could be adapted into other professions.

So far I’ve looked into becoming a trainee Openreach engineer, trainee Sky engineer and a postman. Annoyingly the postman jobs all seem to be part time which wouldn’t be any good and reading online about the engineer roles the management for both are pretty poor and apparently nobody likes working for either company (how true that is I don’t really know).

If anyone could offer any assistance or make any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated. I’m sure I’ve missed out some vital information so tell me if I have an I’ll add it in.

Cheers

[StevieBee]

Much depends on what motivates you. Money? Meaningful work? Prospects?

Probably all of the above.

I tend to think that moving careers within a narrow band of what you do at the moment often yields a happier future rather than a complete change. So if money is your thing, look at selling the cars rather than fixing them.

Or fix planes! Or trains. Or drive the trains or fly the planes (the latter of which can be done but requires some hefty financial outlay up front!)

If you do want a complete change then educating yourself in the fields that interest you might be a good start. Rather than look for jobs - look at what courses / post-grad stuff is available. That process alone might spur you towards a certain path.

HTH

[Vaud]

Teaching? Some good funding available for the training period at the moment.

Nursing?

Accountancy? Study part time - people always need accountants.

Local university - always have large estate management teams (and need good managers)

Start your own business - look locally (facebook town/village groups - what are people always asking for?)

Good reliable tradesmen often seem to be in demand and my local electrician, plumber and joiner make way more than £30k - and all are turning down work.

Dog walking seems to command a reasonable premium.

[Sammo123]

Vaud said:

Teaching? Some good funding available for the training period at the moment.

Nursing?

Accountancy? Study part time - people always need accountants.

Local university - always have large estate management teams (and need good managers)

Start your own business - look locally (facebook town/village groups - what are people always asking for?)

Good reliable tradesmen often seem to be in demand and my local electrician, plumber and joiner make way more than £30k - and all are turning down work.

Dog walking seems to command a reasonable premium.

I’ve always loved the idea of starting my own business. When I was an apprentice mechanic I always said I wanted to own my own garage, although these days it’s not something I’d fancy doing (unless that garage happened to run a BTCC team ) due to the way cars are going.

Another business I’d enjoy having would be a model/remote controlled car shop (think Beatties or Modelzone), however there’s lots of online companies that are just that and I don’t think a bricks and mortar shop would survive these days.

[cat with a hat]

First try to think about your strengths and weaknesses.
What you enjoy and what you dislike.

E. G. I hate sitting at a desk all day. I hate interacting with people. I'm a perfectionist. I'm very organised. Im good at dealing with uncertainty. I need a job with security as I have a family etc. I would be happy to travel. Etc

Makes it much easier to suggest roles

[Trailhead]

Night classes before moving roles may yield higher starting pay, depending on the role....

[Vaud]

Sammo123 said:

I’ve always loved the idea of starting my own business. When I was an apprentice mechanic I always said I wanted to own my own garage, although these days it’s not something I’d fancy doing (unless that garage happened to run a BTCC team ) due to the way cars are going.

Another business I’d enjoy having would be a model/remote controlled car shop (think Beatties or Modelzone), however there’s lots of online companies that are just that and I don’t think a bricks and mortar shop would survive these days.

Modelsport does very well as an online and a physical shop, in fact they recently moved to bigger premises. But I have no idea how profitable they are - it must be a volume business.

[Sammo123]

cat with a hat said:

First try to think about your strengths and weaknesses.
What you enjoy and what you dislike.

E. G. I hate sitting at a desk all day. I hate interacting with people. I'm a perfectionist. I'm very organised. Im good at dealing with uncertainty. I need a job with security as I have a family etc. I would be happy to travel. Etc

Makes it much easier to suggest roles

That actually sounds kind of similar to me. I currently sit at a desk all day. From 7am to 6pm. Only getting up to go to the toilet. I eat my lunch as I work so that I don’t have to stop what I’m doing. I don’t enjoy it!

I don’t mind interacting with the other staff (although the technicians can act like children a lot of the time which gets tiresome very quickly!) but I’m not very enthusiastic if I have to talk to customers these days. I guess a few years of having to deal with complaints etc has removed my enthusiasm for that part of the job.

I’m pretty well organised the majority of the time. I run a workshop with ten technicians (of varying ability) and manage to push through approx. 65-70 hours of work every day without too much drama.

I don’t like uncertainty. I need to know what’s happening and what’s likely to happen!

I need a job with security. I have a young daughter and my girlfriend has slightly older twin boys. Due to my family I am unable to relocate and realistically I wouldn’t want to be working miles and miles away from home. I currently work within walking distance of home which is great but I realise this is a rare thing.

Don’t know if any of that helps

[Sammo123]

Vaud said:

Modelsport does very well as an online and a physical shop, in fact they recently moved to bigger premises. But I have no idea how profitable they are - it must be a volume business.

Until very recently I had Mick Charles Models just up the road from me. They had been there for donkeys years but apart from an extremely basic website (just information, no online sales) they did all their selling over the counter. That’s probably why they’re no more. That’s the sort of company I’d love to own but it’s not the most secure business model I’d imagine.

[Vaud]

Sammo123 said:

Until very recently I had Mick Charles Models just up the road from me. They had been there for donkeys years but apart from an extremely basic website (just information, no online sales) they did all their selling over the counter. That’s probably why they’re no more. That’s the sort of company I’d love to own but it’s not the most secure business model I’d imagine.

It's highly exposed to the likes of Amazon.

[Sammo123]

Vaud said:

It's highly exposed to the likes of Amazon.

Annoyingly that seems to be the case with most things these days.

[Vaud]

Sammo123 said:

Annoyingly that seems to be the case with most things these days.

Anything transactional and physical is. Pick services that cannot be displaced.

[Jerry Can]

if you are able to still turn a spanner, then places like the London Underground, or British rail are in dire need of technicians to keep the rolling stock running, Failing that anything with a generator might also be a good start. As it is out of the motor industry it'll pay at least what you are on and more likely a lot more.

You could try and work in other aspects of the motor industry, Aftersales consultancy that kind of thing.

[hotchy]

Going by my dog hairdresser, they must make decent money (does off my two dogs alone) Drives a car I couldnt afford anyway, the mobile guys also got a cracking car parked next to the van.

[Sa Calobra]

Change careers. I held off for ten years due to the money I was earning.

It made the eventual drop difficult but I loved the move. It's more me, more natural and I wish I'd done it sooner.

Do it OP.

[83HP]

Sa Calobra said:

Change careers. I held off for ten years due to the money I was earning.

It made the eventual drop difficult but I loved the move. It's more me, more natural and I wish I'd done it sooner.

Do it OP.

What was your previous career and what are you doing now?

[jerrytf]

Sammo123 said:

Evening,

I’ve been in my current role for just over four years. I’m an assistant manager / workshop controller for a main dealer in Surrey. Although I’m good at what I do I must admit that I’m slowly starting to lose interest in the role and have started getting the morning dread of going to work. There’s nowhere for me to progress to within the business currently and to be honest I wouldn’t want my boss’ job even if it was offered to me! ...

If you've been an assistant manager and controller at a dealership you likely have direct or closely related experience with sales, and recruiters often like that background because the sales side carries over well to other industries, banks and mortgage companies for example they can really go for a retail background, so you could feasibly move into for example retail banking and you've got managerial experience as well so working up to branch manager again is possible and you'd likely make considerably more. Also get good with numbers, things like psychometric tests even free ones at https://www.wikijob.co.uk/aptitude-tests-home, might just help, anyway dealership to retail banking with a career path is possible, and again just any aspects of your current roles related to sales and management, plenty of people will be interested in them they carry over to all sorts hope this helps.

Edited by jerrytf on Monday 8th April 20:10

Edited by jerrytf on Monday 8th April 20:10