We will I go next?

opinionated3

Hi all. Looking for some advice. I work in aviation and it's looking highly likely that I will lose my job in the next two months. My mind has already turned to what I should do in the future. I'm in my early 40s and have worked in the same job for the last 24 years. I really don't know where to turn. I'm assuming i will get a reasonable redundancy package so I'm wondering could I use some of that to train on something that would eventually secure some decent employment down the line.
I'm not 100% certain if I want to work in a factory again, but probably would if they were a good employer. I love driving, and have explored the idea of obtaining a HGV licence, but people have told me that it's low pay for long hours and pretty unrewarding, which was disappointing to hear.
Should I be looking at courses, and if so which ones? Any advice is welcome.

whampiri

opinionated3 wrote: »

Hi all. Looking for some advice. I work in aviation and it's looking highly likely that I will lose my job in the next two months. My mind has already turned to what I should do in the future. I'm in my early 40s and have worked in the same job for the last 24 years. I really don't know where to turn. I'm assuming i will get a reasonable redundancy package so I'm wondering could I use some of that to train on something that would eventually secure some decent employment down the line.
I'm not 100% certain if I want to work in a factory again, but probably would if they were a good employer. I love driving, and have explored the idea of obtaining a HGV licence, but people have told me that it's low pay for long hours and pretty unrewarding, which was disappointing to hear.
Should I be looking at courses, and if so which ones? Any advice is welcome.

Should you lose your job, take a breath and try relax. It's easy to jump into something in a panic. I don't know your financial situation but if you don't need the money, take your time and have a think on what it is that you might like to do. At the moment you're doing this under pressure.

Hgv drivers have long hours but can be paid well depending on where you work. As a pilot you're probably used to long hours but a hgv driver works on their own 99% of the time so you'd have to be comfortable with your own company.

Is there something out there that you've wanted to try? Well this is your chance. The other option is to apply to other airlines. It's very likely that pilots will be needed again in future and you could examine the option of just trying to wait this downturn out.

You'll get a million suggestions and opinions from everyone but at the end of the day, only you know if you'll enjoy any particular role.

opinionated3

Thanks for your reply. I should have been more specific in my first post, I'm not a pilot, I work in MRO. Industry is being decimated and the writing is on the wall for us.
Financially my wife and I have a mortgage to pay, but I would get most of this paid off through a redundancy.
I still have the Truck driving in my head, as I would prefer to work "on my own" so to speak. But I'm totally lost tbh. I don't even know if there are growth industries I should be targeting, as this pandemic seems to have affected everything with the exception maybe of pharma and health. It's been a long time since I completed a CV or sat down for an interview as you can imagine!! I'm a bit old school in the sense that I don't want to let my family down by being seen to be the unemployed guy down the road.....I would dearly love to eventually obtain a job that I really enjoy but I'm totally unsure where to even start.

Obviously things are pretty grim at the moment but do you think you're 100% done in aviation? You say you're in your early 40s, you've a lot of years left to work and a ton of experience, if things come back to something closer to normality in a year or two would you continue your current line of work? People are going to want to travel again.

opinionated3

Yusuf Massive Bobsled wrote: »

Obviously things are pretty grim at the moment but do you think you're 100% done in aviation? You say you're in your early 40s, you've a lot of years left to work and a ton of experience, if things come back to something closer to normality in a year or two would you continue your current line of work? People are going to want to travel again.

I do believe aviation will return in a big way in the coming years, the problem will be that the recovery could be some way off yet, and companies won't survive in the excessive down time. Customers are already swapping engines out, rather than simply getting them overhauled which would be the norm. Cost cutting is everywhere and MRO could take s long time to recover.

1hnr79jr65

If you have engineering/mechanical/electrical qualifications then you could get a job working in pharma production fairly handy, pharma always looking for folks with those skills.

However if you wanted to satisfy your desire to drive trucks, those same skills could be put to use working for companies that provide refrigerated units for trucks, construction of farm or building machines as options that you may want to gravitate towards.

Make It Real

I know its hard time right now, but you sound a bit panicked to me, opinionated3. Understandably when nobody's travelling and more and your job may be at risk.

Would it be an idea to step back a bit and take it a bit slower? These are big life decisions and you don't want to be rushing them. If you are still in a job and would have a mortgage buffer from redundancy, is taking a bit more time over this going to be a disaster?

I think a big, wide look at what you "really enjoy" (your words) might give you a starting point. Look much wider, open minded and crazy than you have to date - you might find something there. Make a list, explore, research, see what various careers would give you (or not).

Once you're a bit clearer on that, you can reintroduce reality - what your skills are, retraining needed, prospects, make compromises etc.

You'll likely be living with this decision for 20-25 years remember!

Hope this helps.

OMM 0000

HGV is not a bad stop gap. There are always jobs for HGV drivers, and the money isn't "bad".

Doing some googling I can see the salary is around 30k - 40k per year. Not great but not bad.

It's hard to give advice on this so instead I'll tell you what I would do.

My main priority would be continuing having an income while I sort this all out, so HGV driver would definitely work for me. I would want to learn a skill which is transferable. Am I right in thinking you're a mechanic? Perhaps there are opportunities for HGV mechanics too. Or working in a factory taking care of the machines. But long term I don't think these are great opportunities, so I'd try to do a part-time course. Maybe something in management so I have a transferable skill.