Career Change Advice

Karen23

My brother in law has been a bar man for 19 years , he started as a lounge boy at 15 and is now 34 and senior bar man. He's always worked and never had trouble finding work as he has a great work reputation.

Now he has kids and doesn't want to work nights , weekends , bank holidays etc when everyone else is spending time with their families.

He is working at the moment but wants to go for something with more normal working hours but has no experience at doing anything else.

My question is at 34 is it too late now to start training for something new ? and even if he does train in the day and carry on working at night til he finishes , there's probably a slim chance of even getting another job , is it worth it ?

keeva1995

hi karen
ive worked the last 20 odd years in pubs.know the feeling you working when every one else is off.late nights,bank holidays and so on.would love to retrain and get a normal job(normal i mean monday-friday).but when you have worked in the bar game for so long its hard to get out of it.at the moment in time i dont think it would be a good idea to leave a job and to try and train day time and work evenings would not be easy.bar staff are the worsed in the world to get up early.

NJS007

Karen23 wrote: »

My brother in law has been a bar man for 19 years , he started as a lounge boy at 15 and is now 34 and senior bar man. He's always worked and never had trouble finding work as he has a great work reputation.

Now he has kids and doesn't want to work nights , weekends , bank holidays etc when everyone else is spending time with their families.

He is working at the moment but wants to go for something with more normal working hours but has no experience at doing anything else.

My question is at 34 is it too late now to start training for something new ? and even if he does train in the day and carry on working at night til he finishes , there's probably a slim chance of even getting another job , is it worth it ?

It ours never to late to better yourself and your knowledge.... But it works come down to affordability.... Can he afford to retrain to do something else?

Karen23

Well funds would be pretty limited , bar work is not the best paid job but I think the main problem is he has no idea where to begin. He has only ever done bar work so doesn't know what to go into. He doesn't want to waste money training to be something he cant get a job in.
But I suppose he has the benefit of seeing what careers have vacancies and training for that , if such a thing exists these days.

NJS007

Karen23 wrote: »

Well funds would be pretty limited , bar work is not the best paid job but I think the main problem is he has no idea where to begin. He has only ever done bar work so doesn't know what to go into. He doesn't want to waste money training to be something he cant get a job in.
But I suppose he has the benefit of seeing what careers have vacancies and training for that , if such a thing exists these days.

If there its one thing that I have noticed over the past 24 months, that is that I.T always seen to be hiring....
Maybe get him to look st this area for employment...

Karen23

Thanks for your help , really appreciated.

Bandana boy

I know of a guy with similar circumstances who got a HGV license and moved into truck driving.
he now delivers for a local company in his local area ,has early starts (leaves his house at 4am) but he is home every afternoon and off Sunday and Monday,not sure on the pay differential but if family is first and you can handle the early starts it might fit the bill.
Getting a good salary 9-5 in an office will be difficult in this economy, as he would be up against candidates with degrees and willing to work for less now to gain the experience.

Karen23

Thanks for that , he had actually considered driving but wondered whether he'd be just as bad hours wise , like lots of drivers drive overnight but I'm sure he'd handle the early starts , starting work when he's normally coming home. Suppose its just changing your body clock.

FlashD

If he is looking at returning to education, you should probably post in the education forum also. There is a section for mature and non-traditional students where the posters are always very helpful.

Though he may need to know what he wants to do first before people can start to give advice.

Check it out.

Mr. Loverman

NJS007 wrote: »

I.T always seem to be hiring...

That's because it is very difficult to get people good enough to do the job. It doesn't mean everyone and anyone can get a job in IT.

When I worked in QA we would reject a very large number of applicants because they simply weren't suitable nor good enough, even though they had IT qualifications.

Mr. Loverman

Karen23 wrote: »

My question is at 34 is it too late now to start training for something new ?

Definitely not!

Would something like the open university (open.ac.uk) suit him?

Karen23

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

Definitely not!

Would something like the open university (open.ac.uk) suit him?

He's definitely open to all options once they're worthwhile , nothing is guaranteed so I think anything will be a risk these day.