Career hindsight - What would you have done?
Discussion
caelite said:
I'm 24, I wouldn't have spent as much time fannying about, done wage slave work for several years after school, went to college and changed courses twice. One of the changes I like to think I could blame on bad advice, the other was all me. Hitting that stage in life that it feels like my idleness is having me left behind somewhat, wish I had focused myself sooner. Still not 100% sure on what I'm doing going forward.
You sound like me, I'm 48 now and still don't know. Just bounced from boring job to boring job with no clear idea what I ever wanted. It's a bit bloody late for me now and I'll just keep ploughing on until I can retire, whenever that happens. Work to live, I'm beyond caring too much now.Sparkzz said:
Dentist.
Biggest regret.
I see several posters suggesting dentist. Yet the profession has one of the highest suicide rates. Isn't this a case of thinking it's greener on the other side?Biggest regret.
I've done work experience with a dentist before I decided it wasn't the career for me. It seemed incredibly lonely (in community work anyway - I'm sure hospital is different). It's not exactly an exciting career is it? I can think of good reasons to want to be a dentist though: get to meet lots of people and have relationships, stable and secure career (arguable - it's not as easy as it was), highly skilled dexterous work with your hands, respectable.
I wish I had started self employment earlier. Although now almost 10 years old my business started as a side thing and slowly built up which was good in a way as it provided a near risk free (although it din't feel like it at the time) leap from employed to self employed. Organic growth is no bad thing in a business too.
I fell into the trap of having a too well paid job. Back when the Mrs was working full time and before 3 kids came along we had a great lifestyle with 3 holidays a year couple of nice motors. It was only really when the wife's earnings went down that I first really thought about doing something to bring more in. When you are in comfortable employment I think it's easy to get the blinkers on and settle into complacency. Fine for some but it wasn't for me.
As a bit of background just to show people that there is more than one way to skin a cat my route to PBD status was slightly odd:
Out of school I landed a sweet number going to college full time but paid £100 a week by a large engineering firm. They closed 11 months into my first year and I was on the scrapheap at 17
Went into a plumbing apprenticeship - hated it. Lasted a year.
Call centre - job was a bit meh but lots of totty couple of memorable stationary cupboard incidents all good
The most interesting job I had was next - I landed a job at an internet startup this is back in 2000 just after the .com bubble. Great experience and worked with some inspirational people one of whom is my best pal today
Made a random jump then into work as a field engineer. This was good experience got to see how the other half lived working in some mega houses learnt a lot about dealing with people from all walks of life. Family business appalling at dealing with their staff taught me a lot about what not to do in a business.
5 years ago made the full time jump to my current and 4th career selling cars and associated parts.
5th career looks like we are getting into commercial property so there's always something coming up to keep things interesting.
I fell into the trap of having a too well paid job. Back when the Mrs was working full time and before 3 kids came along we had a great lifestyle with 3 holidays a year couple of nice motors. It was only really when the wife's earnings went down that I first really thought about doing something to bring more in. When you are in comfortable employment I think it's easy to get the blinkers on and settle into complacency. Fine for some but it wasn't for me.
As a bit of background just to show people that there is more than one way to skin a cat my route to PBD status was slightly odd:
Out of school I landed a sweet number going to college full time but paid £100 a week by a large engineering firm. They closed 11 months into my first year and I was on the scrapheap at 17
Went into a plumbing apprenticeship - hated it. Lasted a year.
Call centre - job was a bit meh but lots of totty couple of memorable stationary cupboard incidents all good
The most interesting job I had was next - I landed a job at an internet startup this is back in 2000 just after the .com bubble. Great experience and worked with some inspirational people one of whom is my best pal today
Made a random jump then into work as a field engineer. This was good experience got to see how the other half lived working in some mega houses learnt a lot about dealing with people from all walks of life. Family business appalling at dealing with their staff taught me a lot about what not to do in a business.
5 years ago made the full time jump to my current and 4th career selling cars and associated parts.
5th career looks like we are getting into commercial property so there's always something coming up to keep things interesting.
johnwilliams77 said:
Interesting FP - how have they worked in terms of income/lifestyle compared to being a well paid wage slave?
Well the 9 to 5 life is OK I guess. At the moment I work 6 days a week (plans to introduce a weekday off but this is very hard!) The field engineer job was a reasonable amount of hours plus awfully remunerated callout which used to grate so like anything the more you are paid the bigger chunk of your life you have to give up. Income wise it can be eye opening to see what's possible away from the world of PAYE.
At the moment I probably do at least 50 hours a week this has reduced a bit from 60 ish but the work varies so some days you can be rushing about like a mad man doing 12 plus hours other days it's a bit more relaxed. A lot of what I do doesn't really feel like "work" so it's all good.
The biggest lifestyle change for us really has been that my Mrs didn't have to return to work after having our twins.Had we still been in our old PAYE jobs things would have been tight. Probably wouldn't have had a car to post about on here for sure! So that combined with it giving me a bit of freedom to indulge my passion for cars it's been a good thing.
One thing I would add is that money is not the be and end all. It's the thrill of the success of your business or career I think that is the healthy bit or doing something you love doing and if you end up being remunerated well for it that's a bonus.
I hated the field engineer job in the end and when I think back to the frustration it caused and the sad state of one or two of the older stuck in a rut people I worked with I'm very happy to have had the balls to get out of it!
fridaypassion said:
johnwilliams77 said:
Interesting FP - how have they worked in terms of income/lifestyle compared to being a well paid wage slave?
Well the 9 to 5 life is OK I guess. At the moment I work 6 days a week (plans to introduce a weekday off but this is very hard!) The field engineer job was a reasonable amount of hours plus awfully remunerated callout which used to grate so like anything the more you are paid the bigger chunk of your life you have to give up. Income wise it can be eye opening to see what's possible away from the world of PAYE.
At the moment I probably do at least 50 hours a week this has reduced a bit from 60 ish but the work varies so some days you can be rushing about like a mad man doing 12 plus hours other days it's a bit more relaxed. A lot of what I do doesn't really feel like "work" so it's all good.
The biggest lifestyle change for us really has been that my Mrs didn't have to return to work after having our twins.Had we still been in our old PAYE jobs things would have been tight. Probably wouldn't have had a car to post about on here for sure! So that combined with it giving me a bit of freedom to indulge my passion for cars it's been a good thing.
One thing I would add is that money is not the be and end all. It's the thrill of the success of your business or career I think that is the healthy bit or doing something you love doing and if you end up being remunerated well for it that's a bonus.
I hated the field engineer job in the end and when I think back to the frustration it caused and the sad state of one or two of the older stuck in a rut people I worked with I'm very happy to have had the balls to get out of it!
I'm at a crossroads in my career. I fell into a well paid IT job at the age of 17 and progressed to become a Network Manager at the age of 21 years old. Unfortunately, I became settled. The wage was good and I've stayed mainly due to the people around me. However almost 12 years later, I'm thinking it's time to move on!
My workplace is growing in size and I've been offered to interview for a IT Services Manager type role, overseeing IT across multiple sites. It seems like a natural progression, although the pay increase is almost non-existent. Coupled with the fact that I'm 'technically' still stuck at the same site ... for a few days each week ... it doesn't sound like much fun!
I feel this is the time to move on, but it's a scary leap. I'm also considering perhaps a change from IT to, well, something else. I've started a limited company, which has been trading for the last month, but it's very much a side project at the moment. No dividend payouts yet! :P
Fortunately, we have low overheads. No mortgage at present (previous house sold, living in a flat owned by parents until we find a nicely-sized cottage) and no children.
I'm thinking New Year, new job - whatever that might be.
My workplace is growing in size and I've been offered to interview for a IT Services Manager type role, overseeing IT across multiple sites. It seems like a natural progression, although the pay increase is almost non-existent. Coupled with the fact that I'm 'technically' still stuck at the same site ... for a few days each week ... it doesn't sound like much fun!
I feel this is the time to move on, but it's a scary leap. I'm also considering perhaps a change from IT to, well, something else. I've started a limited company, which has been trading for the last month, but it's very much a side project at the moment. No dividend payouts yet! :P
Fortunately, we have low overheads. No mortgage at present (previous house sold, living in a flat owned by parents until we find a nicely-sized cottage) and no children.
I'm thinking New Year, new job - whatever that might be.
Edited by Ikemi on Tuesday 11th December 15:43
Nthing starting a low capex business as early as possible, even if it fails, the learnings you can apply to the next business. It doesn't have to be electric cars, or at odds with your passions. You can play around with sub contracting in your industry, just learning the ropes.
Or if you do need a salary for now, pay attention to how your employer's run things, and look for niche opportunities that your employers are neglecting.
Wages are declining globally, and I do think I'll be nudging my kids to be independent and entrepreneurially minded, no matter what path their interest takes them.
Or if you do need a salary for now, pay attention to how your employer's run things, and look for niche opportunities that your employers are neglecting.
Wages are declining globally, and I do think I'll be nudging my kids to be independent and entrepreneurially minded, no matter what path their interest takes them.
jonah35 said:
Should have been a club rep at 18
Then been a club rep manager with a Jeep Wrangler somewhere like magaluf
Then been a barman or something there and never looked back
A simple flat and jeep
Great social life
Job done
You're only thinking about the shaggin. Be honest now. Then been a club rep manager with a Jeep Wrangler somewhere like magaluf
Then been a barman or something there and never looked back
A simple flat and jeep
Great social life
Job done
You would end up some sad old letch trying to live the life long past your sell by date, ending up in a crap one bed flat in some half repossessed block of flats in Spain, with skin like leather, a melanoma or two and the feint whiff of desperation.
You're welcome.
. 
Ikemi said:
An interesting read! How did you start though? Did you start with one or two cars? Did you plan the venture (found a gap in the market), or did you just 'fall' into it?
I did kind of fall into it. I spotted a gap in the market for certain parts and that's how it got off the ground. Because I working full time in addition to running the business at first I was able to reinvest all of the money we made. Never spent a penny of it for a good 2-3 years maybe a bit more actually. That enabled us to keep building the stock of cars up gradually. 5 years ago I got a pretty big parts order from a supplier (over 20k) this gave me the courage to jump ship from the old job finally. I think I had about 50k of stock at that time and 30k of orders on the books so I had waited and waited for the right time. Jumping into the unknown "hoping" something will work is imho for the movies. I've always been a bit of a get up and go type and had tried a few other things before settling on this. I had some success running a car club just prior to the current business and have invested in properties along the way too. Without being delusional I always knew I was destined to at least be self employed as I had double the drive of anyone else I know it was just finding the right conduit for it. Once you find the "thing" it just becomes about exploiting it for it's full benefits. I'm still a minnow in the car industry but I am pretty rare in that I'm not born to rich parents and I have done it all myself which I'm pretty proud of as unsurprisingly it's not easy. The standard business model in our industry is that Daddy sets you going with a 100k float to keep you out of mischief!
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