Time to look for a new career

LegacyUser · 16-12-2008 12:36pm #1

I drove trucks for 16 years, but at 40, I am giving up. The long hours, the stress of driving, and back trouble and stomach trouble (no doubt related to the job) have taken their toll.

I have no qualifications. I am very presentable with a good manner. I want to start all over from scratch. Where does a guy my age go to look for a new job, a whole new career? Will anyone talk to me? Is this the wrong time to start looking?

I need something not too stressful, and hopefully shorter hours that I can spend time with my family. A little bit of driving would be ok, but I'll never go back to the 60 hours a week slog, that was beginning to affect my health. Someone suggested buses, no thanks, that's the same thing all over again.

Dardania · 18-12-2008 2:51am

Hi,

At the tender age of 24 I have nowhere near the life experience you must have so apologies if im talking out of turn! its fesh in my mind from getting my first job & talking to my friends doing/trying to do similar that you have to ask yourself: what would you enjoy doing?

Regarding the current climate, would you consider doing some adult education in the field you decide to pursue? That way, employers would view you as having fresh ideas learned in college but with solid life expereince - which can be more beneficial than to them than employing a fresh out of college educated idiot...

What do other truck drivers end up doing? Logistics? Maintenance? Would you consider that?

petethebrick · 18-12-2008 10:17am

In fairness it will be difficult for anyone here to give you good advice as we know nothing about you really. You're never too old to make a fresh start. I think you should do a bit of thinking/research first yourself and then schedule an appointment with a well qualified careers specialist. In my opinion it would be well worth the money.

unreggd · 18-12-2008 3:57pm

petethebrick wrote: »

You're never too old to make a fresh start.

Sums it up for me

Einstein · 18-12-2008 4:14pm

Agree with above comments.

You're NEVER too old to start. I got out of the IT game after ten years. The thing to do is goto something like www.nightcourses.com, find an area you may be interested in and go from there. The fact that you're on the road a lot, also means that possibly courses like this aren't for you, so a distant learning course, where you do the work and send it back to the institution for grading etc, may get you the basic qualification you need to get you into your new career.

The one thing I'll say though, is that it doesn't happen overnight. it took me two years to get out of an industry which bored me senseless, by the time I got the necessary qualificatione etc, but I did it, and I now work for myself, and havn't looked back!

Best of luck.

Sleepy · 18-12-2008 4:54pm

Lorrydriver wrote: »

Someone suggested buses, no thanks, that's the same thing all over again.

Might not be worth dismissing out of hand, the hours would be a lot shorter and it's a heavily unionised profession so I'd wager the working conditions are probably a lot better... could be a good stepping stone while training up on something else via one of the night courses Einstein suggested?

pingpongz · 18-12-2008 5:04pm

Taxi Driver? Choose your own hours...

LegacyUser · 18-12-2008 5:10pm

Many thanks for all the support guys! Taxi driving wouldn't really be family friendly, all those nights, besides I want to get away from driving if I can. I know a few taxi drivers, and they are dying a slow and painful death out there, there's already too many!

Night courses are probably the thing. I have no real idea what to do or what I'd be good at. I'm kind of afraid to invest a year or two doing a course in something that might not suit me, or that might not produce a job at the end, which is why I'd prefer to know first what I'd be getting into. Careers advice is probably what I need. Where might I go to talk to someone good?

dontcallmecrazy · 18-12-2008 5:23pm

im not trying to be smart here, but why not try a similar job but on a smaller scale, such as driving for tesco or supervalue etc. shorter hours... more time to spend with family and to study if thats what you want and maybe even some freebies from the back of the van while your at it!!

paperclip2 · 19-12-2008 4:09pm

Unregistered wrote: »

Many thanks for all the support guys! Taxi driving wouldn't really be family friendly, all those nights, besides I want to get away from driving if I can. I know a few taxi drivers, and they are dying a slow and painful death out there, there's already too many!

Night courses are probably the thing. I have no real idea what to do or what I'd be good at. I'm kind of afraid to invest a year or two doing a course in something that might not suit me, or that might not produce a job at the end, which is why I'd prefer to know first what I'd be getting into. Careers advice is probably what I need. Where might I go to talk to someone good?

I would reccommend you look at the Qualifax website which lists details of most of the courses in the country including a lot of part time ones.
http://www.qualifax.ie

As for career guidance have a look at: http://www.ncge.ie/adult_details.htm on the NCGE website. It has contact details for the National network of 41 Adult Guidance services. Some of them will only provide career guidance to specified target groups but some will work with members of the public. Also all of them have a great deal of information on all educational opportunities in your area as well as details of supports and financial assistance for returning to learning as an adult.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do OP.

amazingemmet · 19-12-2008 5:36pm

If you don't mind some driving I know a few of the courier co's are looking for drivers its about€550 a week and they supply the vechicle. Or have you thought about working in the other side of logistics? Like route planning or the admin side its all fairly basic if you already have experience with it.

boredatwork82 · 19-12-2008 5:46pm

My mother wanted to get back into education/a career, so she went to college and did a 1 year full time foudation course. As part of thos course she did modules in the following, Computers,Business,Accountancy,Electronics,& Personal Communication.
This gave her a gentle start back into the education/not particularly hard and it is designed as a career guidance year where you will have support through out the course and help in deciding further action.
My mother benefitted greatly from it, and after spending 4 more years in college she is now nearly qualified as an accountant.
All this was in Athlone IT, YOu should contact your nearest university/IT's adult education department. They will be more than happy to help and point you in the right direction. As this would be free it would be alot cheaper than a specialist career guidance person. While they are very good, they are also very expensive.
Hope this helps.

eoghanmcdonnell · 19-12-2008 7:50pm

I heard of a guy in the states that was a commercial carpenter until he was 40 and was sick of it so gave it up.

He loved film so he travelled to all the film studios and got work as a props builder and is one of the best props guys in the world now.

I suppose what I'm sas you could mix your driving experience in with one of your favourite things to do, ying ilike music (you could work in hospitality for music festivals, driving stars to the airport)

Just something to think about.

Time to look for a new career

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