need some career advice lol

daveeeeee

daveeeeee

Ex. Club Member
ok A-levels arent working out for me and i need some options. i've been thinking about going to college next year or take an apprenticeship but am unsure what to go for, i'm thinking car mechanics as its somthing i no i will enjoy doing. just wondering if anyone here has done or is doing an apprenticeship and how their finding it? any advice on what i shoud do will be appreciated.

cheers :)
 
Manual jobs such as Plumbing, builder or electrician seem to be very well paid jobs and a good alternative option to mechanics :)

Not sure how you get into the apprenticeships side of things though, but i'm sure someone can help you there
 
daveeeeee said:
ok A-levels arent working out for me and i need some options. i've been thinking about going to college next year or take an apprenticeship but am unsure what to go for, i'm thinking car mechanics as its somthing i no i will enjoy doing. just wondering if anyone here has done or is doing an apprenticeship and how their finding it? any advice on what i shoud do will be appreciated.

cheers :)
Click to expand...

HONEST opinion!

do as arnold says.

stay away from car mechanics if you want money!

i loved cars, always have!

but as soon as i went into the trade i hated it!

lost all passion for personal cars!

not that good paid, and a trade such as electrician or plumbing is endless! and EVERYONE is gonna require them soon because of regulation on work with them, were as 1/3 of the population can do general repair and maintanance on their cars!

if you get into it and push yourself to go self employed etc as plumber and/or electrician, call out charges alone can see you getting the same wages as you would a month as a mechanic, in just 1 week.

Wayne
 
if you want to become a mechanic then best bet is an apprenticeship, you can make quite a tidy living if you become a good MOT tester. I know quite a few people who are earning a very comfortable wage of this. If you want to do a course in motor vehicle repair then i can advise it but only if you want to go onto to university and study something else (engineering etc) otherwise is pretty useless.

My best mate is an everyday mechanic and although he doesnt earn vast amounts he is very happy with what he does and loves going to work in the morning and still tinkers with his mates/gf cars at the weekend. It varies person to person.

Only thing is about an apprenticeship is that most places only want to take on very young people i.e. fresh out of school. Its quite difficult to get one when your getting older.
 
why aren't a-levels working out?

have you thought of doing a more hands on based course for an approach to a career.

GNVQ advanced in an engineering subject can be a great stepping stone to a good amount of interesting / well paid options.

2 years "in school" though, but will give you a good stepping stone.
 
I'd hand on my heart say stay away from Cars and Computers.

Go in for one of the "lost" trades like plumbing, carpentry etc. Lots of money to be made there
 
I am also considering an apprenticeship, I was going to do plumbing until a mate told me about air-con, there's more money in it at the moment. There are too many mechanics about. If I were you I'd look at plumbing/ electrics/ air-con cos that's where you can charge what you want.
 
no, don't go for plumbing etc, every man and his dog is wanting to become a plumber, sparkie etc, just like they did with computers, the market will be flooded soon, imo.

go niche, make cash :)
 
Air con will go as long as computers will, these computers and operators need to be kept cool. Air con won't be replaced in our lifetime.
 
your interested in mechanics but there no money in cars so how about
aircraft engineering? - seriously, i few years ago i did some work experiance at norwich airport with KLM enginnering. I was considering doing the aircraftengineering aprentership after my A levels but got exepted on a automotive design course at coventry uni. A-levels dont mean much in the long run, i got accepted on my course with a fairly rubbish selection of a-levels. (u's and e's)

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/~kuweb/undergraduate/courses/2008/aircraftengineering/index-er.html
 
im on a Motorsport Engineering course at Castle combe run by Lackham College. as good as it sounds its quite rubbish though, i'd have prefered something more hands on its 75% theory!
 
I wouldn't say computing is something to avoid either. There's a definite skills shortage still. If i could do things differently, i'd probably get experience as a software developer. Depending on experience and your projects, you can earn some serious money. My mate's on about 100k for doing this.
 
Gas Engineer are a very good trade to have. If your any good and become CORGI registered then you'll make upwards of 26,000 a year - which ain't a bad wage!

We're taking on new starts (apprentices) and they are on a mim wage of 20,000. Now, considering you get a van and a very good pension then that an option to think about.

For 1 year in college - its a small time to spend for a lifetime of good money.
 
Computing aint bad. But you have to put the work in, CCNA/P, MSCA/E isnt easy stuff, but you can pull in upwards of 30k with any of these given the correct opportunity. Just go into whatever you like. I personally didnt like A-levels. I went onto an AVCE, passed that, straight into uni which i have now completed into a foundation degree. I'll be looking at topping that into a full degree sometime in the next 3 or 4 years.

However i would agree that electriction, plumber etc isnt a bad trade to go into. There's good and bad in all jobs. I personally love my job as system admin, its a really good laugh!
 
Plumbing is a good thing to get into. Plumbing is not an easy thing like the average person thinks it is. There are a lot of things to know. BS-EN12056:2 is the bible of drainage installation and design. I'm a trainee drainage design engineer and currently at college doing a HNC In building services engineering. It's a very tough course, but covers a lot of theory in Heating Design, Air conditioning, Refrigeration, Fluid Dynamics etc.
 
on this note, has any one seen the EDGE.co.uk tv add?

the one were the dad and son are in a fiesta dad teaching a rather "matt lucas" lookalike son to drive.

but ramming buses and making him drive down one way streets the wrong way into traffic etc

whole idea as in parents leading kids down the wrong path etc!


i found that SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO funny!!

if you not seen it

look out for it!

i bet you let of a little dribbkle in your pants when you see it.

decided to be clever and add it for those that havent seen it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvnfm5R50aU
 
cheers for the advice guys

micra_pete said:
why aren't a-levels working out?
Click to expand...

well i'm bogged down doing 3-4 hours a night on my subjects and for the past 6 months i've been thinkig "where am i going with this" i have taken a good honest look at myself and i know i wont be able to do an office job with piles of paper work etc the problem is that i really hate doing them! and because of this i just cant push myself to do it. at first i thought it was just stress causing it and it will go but now i'm just always thinking "this just is not for me" i want to do uni but was thinking i could go to college and do something more hands on and that i will enjoy and then if i want i could apply for uni in the future as a mature student maybe.
 
Dave, you sounding exactly like what i was saying last year!!!!
i am uni studying "higher national diploma in computer technology" and last year i was contemplating quitting as i wanted more money and found it boring! i have been studing computers for the last 7 years!!! and uni was really a re-cap!!!! so thought im wasting money here on tution fees etc!!!

so i decided to apply for a few computer jobs!!! admin, techy, programmer, software!!! 20cv's sent out to local companies and applied for aload of jobs!!!! not one offered me an interview!!! couldnt believe it!

now the above may sound like im stupid, but im far from it!!! i curently have three jobs and still doing uni!!! lots of qualifiactions with good grades!!! however what was causing the "judgement" for failed job appliactions was the fact that i was applying for jobs where compnaies look for a HND etc!!! so after realising i wouldnt progress to a sutiable career i am sticking with uni and working it around my three jobs!!!!

all the best mate!!!
 
Mat.T said:
your interested in mechanics but there no money in cars so how about
aircraft engineering? - seriously, i few years ago i did some work experiance at norwich airport with KLM enginnering. I was considering doing the aircraftengineering aprentership after my A levels but got exepted on a automotive design course at coventry uni. A-levels dont mean much in the long run, i got accepted on my course with a fairly rubbish selection of a-levels. (u's and e's)

http://www.kingston.ac.uk/~kuweb/undergraduate/courses/2008/aircraftengineering/index-er.html
Click to expand...

just been looking into this and seems very interesting, was thinking i could go to college next year do just the one science as-level and a short course in car mechanics then go onto uni to do somthing like this, with the a-levels i have now i'll have enough points to get in. just need the science. :)
 

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