What career path would you have trod if….

[chartpolski 23,146]

4 minutes ago, comanche said:

I think you probably prove the saying " The harder you work  the "luckier" you get."

I guess l was "lucky" through circumstances though. 

I stayed-on in 6th form not because l liked school or was particularly  bright   but because l had no idea about what sort of job l wanted.

When the day came to leave I threw myself on the mercy of the Youth Job Centre who told me to go for interviews at a couple of local engineering companies. They sent all the boys to these two companies and the girls were all guided to shop work of nursing.

I didn't fancy it so went to the proper Employment Agency and was offered four interviews in the same morning( those were the days!)

Tesco took one look at me and said all the vacancies were filled. Maybe they didn't  think someone who looked like a roadie for Black Sabbath would look good on the shop floor   because they took on a mate a day later. Then again he was what we called a "Smooth" so smart dress and smelling nice were second nature to him

I was offered all three object jobs on the spot, Halfords, an electric circuit company and a in jewellery workshop.

No contest , the jewellers won hands down. Many happy  and mad years  later redundancy struck. Workmates who stuck with the trade are all richer than me but being a single parent by then l needed something more flexible 

Through casual Landscaping  ,fencing , treework and beating on shoots l kept in the black. The latter led me to a local Keeper's job. Sadly the Shoot closed and l couldn't  progress by moving away to find something similar because of my SP status which relied on having help from two sets of Grandparents.

In hindsight either of the two careers would have kept me happy and just maybe l could've  been a bit more ambitious.  But l don't have any regrets. 

Running a small shoot and going back to casual outdoor labour and doing a few market stalls when l had gathered enough interesting rubbish to sell kept me going until l fell into pest control

Pretty much l've played at work most of my life so have no complaints . Except l really should've  started some private  pension payments  long ago

Reading that makes me think your the type that would have a go at anything to "make a bob or two" !

Yes , you can make your own luck, maybe I did, maybe I got lucky or was in the right place at the right time, but "work ethic" goes a long way !

Cheers.

[paulus 26]

i just sort of wandered through life. At school i wanted to be a game keeper but at that time there was only Sparsholt college that were doing courses, To get on a course you had to have 12 months experience, Well that was never going to happen locally as i was already well known to all the local keepers, So i decided on engineering, now i was shit at on the odd occasion i attended school. But i took the Bennet's mechanical engineering test and the Garage and transport training test and i could not believe it when beat every other person in the school that took the test. This i believe was due to my old man getting me fixing dodgy motors from when i was a toddler. apparently i removed my first mini engine aged eight. Learnt how to fill sills with old carpet and the clag on a bag method of filling holes. Despite coming top in the school i never did get offered an apprentice position, It turned out being the son of grandson of someone was what was really needed. Next i did a stint in the forces, six Years later i was medically discharged. Back then that was it, no help, nothing, I remember the families officer knocking the door or our married quarter and telling us he was taking us to court to reposes the house but only because it was the only way the council would house us, Anyway we ended up homeless and living with the Mrs parents. I went to the job centre and they gave me this green card saying i was registered disabled. No advice f**k all Lol. I saw a job advertised for a Mig welder in a local factory, Blagged it and got the job. Never done any serious welding in my life before that Lol. Went on to become an inspector then got offered a job as a quality engineer  at another factory, then became engineering manager before falling foul of a dispute between directors, Got made redundant, made the wrong choice Lol. ended up as factory manager in a narrow fabric's factory owned by the director i backed, Now i have enough income to only have to work when i want or need something, All the bills are covered and we live an ok life style, Not rich but not poor and trust me i have been both, Hindsight is a wonderful thing but always arrives far to late. 

[South hams hunter 8,921]

9 hours ago, mackem said:

You hadn’t taken the one you did?Or are you perfectly happy in your present industry?

i tried to career-map for my kids,found what there would be a projected shortage of,something that couldn’t be mechanised,and they could expand and flourish in,one took the route one didn’t and went his own way.

Would you have went the path you chose in hindsight?

Went to grammar school and did fairly well; went on to do an apprenticeship in electrical engineering with a mechanical section bit got kicked off 6 weeks before completion. Did some casual factory work before doing door to door sales for a bit and then ended up in a call centre for 7 years. f****d that off for bait collection; been doing it full time 18 months now and love it. Best part is I've not had to miss a single sports day, school play, parents evening etc.

[Aled 474]

I'm from a academic/professionals family (Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Accountants etc) it was a real shock to family members that i was not academic, my teenage years were awful because of this, "what do you mean you don't like exams your supposed to enjoy them".....sadly the vocational options of study, were hidden from me, yes i've got a University degree, but its through a vocational route which i found by accident,  rather than academic!...now where am i going with this. Many of my schoolfriends left school and got apprenticeship  , brickie's, Carpenters, Electricians, etc. if you measure success on money in the bank, They earn a lot more than I do!

[mackem 26,226]

21 minutes ago, Aled said:

Many of my schoolfriends left school and got apprenticeship  , brickie's, Carpenters, Electricians, etc. if you measure success on money in the bank, They earn a lot more than I do!

Would you have gone the trade route in hindsight knowing it was more cash in the long run?

[Qbgrey 4,084]

If I was single a log cabin in the woods, rocking chair, fire on, cut some wood, keep a few meat animals , lurchers, ferrets , Bentley 4x4 smashed up with nobbles on it, dogs sleep in it, oh what a dream lol,  but wife , kids all need stuff, so I’m on the merry go round like all the others lol

[keepdiggin 9,559]

35 minutes ago, Qbgrey said:

If I was single a log cabin in the woods, rocking chair, fire on, cut some wood, keep a few meat animals , lurchers, ferrets , Bentley 4x4 smashed up with nobbles on it, dogs sleep in it, oh what a dream lol,  but wife , kids all need stuff, so I’m on the merry go round like all the others lol

My dad just traded his Range Rover for one of them some motor

Edited November 18, 2023 by keepdiggin

[DIDO.1 22,615]

I didn't try in school but still got half decent results, never went to pick my certificates up and never needed em since. 

Went gamekeeping from school, then into hunt service. A few years farming and eventually working for myself doing pest control. 

Always thinking of changing career, looked into law and started the entry levels but I'm mid forties now and I'd be looking at sixty before I was getting anywhere. Working for myself means I work my own hours, never get up before 8 and can usually go up the shoot or for a pint by 3. 

Always wanted to run a little butchers shop since I was a kid. Keep thinking about buying and selling and little businesses. I did a few deep cleaning jobs and house clearances and collected all sorts so maybe market stalls would of been interesting but I had a deep clean myself not long back, and either ebayed or gave away all my hoards and collections. 

I have loved everything I've done and wouldn't change any of it accept maybe the 18 month joinery apprenticeship I started in my early twenties, I hated that. I've done other bits and pieces in-between and alongside, from getting my hgv to Drystone walling and don't regret learning those skills. 

I feel I need a new challenge but can't give up my business, it isn't hardwork, I know it inside out and makes me a good living. 

Just been asked to consider becoming a director of a grade 2 listed building locally that I already help out with and thought that might be my new challenge, but it would obviously be voluntry and I had a moment of clarity where I thought fck that as I couldn't care if it got knocked down tomorrow really. So guess I'll just keep plodding on considering mad schemes until I get diverted into another path

[jukel123 7,957]

14 hours ago, WILF said:

Another little story, 

I had a lad work for me called Bradley…...well, actually he worked for a lad that worked for me but it amounted to the same thing.

This lad was as thick as shit !!……I don’t mean a little bit divvy, I mean this lad was boarder-line retarded !!

You could have slapped this lad into Eaton, Oxford, Yale and Harvard and given him Albert Einstein as his personal tutor and he would have still took his own eye out with a pencil !

He has progressed and is a dustman now and fair play to him, that’s way more than anyone could have ever expected and probably what he will do until the day he retires…..nothing wrong with that, the world needs dustmen too……point is, you can cry about equal opportunity till the cows come home but some lads are just born to be Bradley ! 

You should see the life Bradley's get in factories. I worked in lots of places where grown men would relentlessly bully retarded or simple people. I worked in a dye works where this bloke who was thick as f**k, was employed to wash dye measuring vessels in a sink. A good number of the guys would throw their dirty vessels in the sink so as to deliberately splash this lad. All f****n day.... splash, splash , splash in his face. He never complained. He did not have a bad bone in his body. His chief persecutor was a bloke not much cleverer than him. And I told him to lay off. He ignored me so I started to make him feel uncomfortable by stepping on his toes and his heels. Stuff which wasnt obvious .  But enough to give him a taste of his own medicine. f**k me if he didn't call in sick one day and said he was frightened to come to work because of me. Twat and a half.

Bradley's other unofficial job was to go the shop with a list for pies and sandwiches. We were sitting having our dinner one day when another weasel threw his pie at Bradley and hit him in the face. He was screaming "I didn't order this". Fragments of the pie hit me and I leapt out of my chair instinctively and shouted " ffs leave him alone ya twat."  The bloke wasn't really annoyed, he was just showing  off  and showing how hard he was( not). tThe bloke who threw the pie creeped and crawled to me from the day on.  Revolting c**t that he was.

Pecking orders in factories are dire. Human beings at their worst.

I tell you what if I was to be marooned on a desert island and had to pick a friend to go with me, I would pick a Bradley every time. Or better still Bradley's sister. At least you know where they are coming from. They have no side/ no badness to them at all.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by jukel123

[mackem 26,226]

37 minutes ago, DIDO.1 said:

 never get up before 8 

My body clock gets me up at 5am and I have a cup of tea in my hand by 5.15 am I can’t imagine being asleep at 8 am.How long did you train to be a matador or was it sporadic as and when?

[jukel123 7,957]

14 hours ago, WILF said:

Another little story, 

I had a lad work for me called Bradley…...well, actually he worked for a lad that worked for me but it amounted to the same thing.

This lad was as thick as shit !!……I don’t mean a little bit divvy, I mean this lad was boarder-line retarded !!

You could have slapped this lad into Eaton, Oxford, Yale and Harvard and given him Albert Einstein as his personal tutor and he would have still took his own eye out with a pencil !

He has progressed and is a dustman now and fair play to him, that’s way more than anyone could have ever expected and probably what he will do until the day he retires…..nothing wrong with that, the world needs dustmen too……point is, you can cry about equal opportunity till the cows come home but some lads are just born to be Bradley ! 

You should see the life Bradley's get in factories. I worked in lots of places where grown men would relentlessly bully retarded or simple people. I worked in a dye works where this bloke who was thick as f**k, was employed to wash dye measuring vessels in a sink. A good number of the guys would throw their dirty vessels in the sink so as to deliberately splash this lad. All f****n day splash, splash , splash in his face. He never complained. He did not have a bad bone in his body. His chief persecutor was a bloke not much cleverer than him. And I told him to lay off. He ignored me so I started to make him feel uncomfortable by stepping on his toes and his heels. Stuff which wasnt obvious . f**k me if he didn't call in sick one day and said he was frightened to come to work because of me. c**t!

Bradley's other unofficial job was to go the shop with a list for pies and sandwiches. We were sitting having our dinner one day when another weasel threw his pie at Bradley and hit him in the face. He was screaming "I didn't order this". Fragments of the pie hit me and I leapt out of my chair instinctively and shouted " ffs leave him alone ya twat."  The bloke wasn't really annoyed he was just showing  off . After that a lot of the lads laid off him and the bloke who threw the pie crept and crawled to me from the day on.

I tell you what if I was to be marooned on a desert island and had to pick a friend to go with me, I would pick a Bradley every time.

 

Edited November 18, 2023 by jukel123

[jukel123 7,957]

1 minute ago, jukel123 said:

You should see the life Bradley's get in factories. I worked in lots of places where grown men would relentlessly bully retarded or simple people. I worked in a dye works where this bloke who was thick as f**k, was employed to wash dye measuring vessels in a sink. A good number of the guys would throw their dirty vessels in the sink so as to deliberately splash this lad. All f****n day splash, splash , splash in his face. He never complained. He did not have a bad bone in his body. His chief persecutor was a bloke not much cleverer than him. And I told him to lay off. He ignored me so I started to make him feel uncomfortable by stepping on his toes and his heels. Stuff which wasnt obvious . f**k me if he didn't call in sick one day and said he was frightened to come to work because of me. c**t!

Bradley's other unofficial job was to go the shop with a list for pies and sandwiches. We were sitting having our dinner one day when another weasel threw his pie at Bradley and hit him in the face. He was screaming "I didn't order this". Fragments of the pie hit me and I leapt out of my chair instinctively and shouted " ffs leave him alone ya twat."  The bloke wasn't really annoyed he was just showing  off . After that a lot of the lads laid off him and the bloke who threw the pie creeper and crawled to me from the day on.

I tell you what if I was to be marooned on a desert island and had to pick a friend to go with me, I would pick a Bradley every time.

 

Sorry double post.

[chartpolski 23,146]

Anyone remember the Remploy Factories, whatever happened to them ?

There was a one next door to a place I worked. They would employ mentally and physically handicapped people, on a very basic wage, doing low level assembly jobs. I thought they were a good idea, it got them involved, a sense of purpose and a bit more money than benefits.

I think those jobs have now been outsourced to the private sector. My local Asda has a young lad and lass, who are quite obviously “not all there”, they don’t seem to do much but stand around, never on the tills or even stacking shelves, but they are very friendly and helpful. I make a point of saying hello to them or asking where something is, even when I know.

It gives them a purpose in life and I guess they’ll get the same wage as the other employees.

One day the young lad was obviously not his usual self, a bit sullen and withdrawn. I asked the staff if anyone had been bullying him as I wouldn’t be very pleased about it. They said no, he sometimes gets like this but soon comes out of it.

Now I know that Asda won’t be employing these people out of the goodness of their hearts, they probably get money from the government or it goes on our grocery bills.

I can handle that, if it gives them a bit of dignity, purpose in life and a decent pay packet !

Cheers.

[jukel123 7,957]

8 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

Anyone remember the Remploy Factories, whatever happened to them ?

There was a one next door to a place I worked. They would employ mentally and physically handicapped people, on a very basic wage, doing low level assembly jobs. I thought they were a good idea, it got them involved, a sense of purpose and a bit more money than benefits.

I think those jobs have now been outsourced to the private sector. My local Asda has a young lad and lass, who are quite obviously “not all there”, they don’t seem to do much but stand around, never on the tills or even stacking shelves, but they are very friendly and helpful. I make a point of saying hello to them or asking where something is, even when I know.

It gives them a purpose in life and I guess they’ll get the same wage as the other employees.

One day the young lad was obviously not his usual self, a bit sullen and withdrawn. I asked the staff if anyone had been bullying him as I wouldn’t be very pleased about it. They said no, he sometimes gets like this but soon comes out of it.

Now I know that Asda won’t be employing these people out of the goodness of their hearts, they probably get money from the government or it goes on our grocery bills.

I can handle that, if it gives them a bit of dignity, purpose in life and a decent pay packet !

Cheers.

I often think when I see the  number of lads aimlessly hanging about city centres that they would be better off in the old Remploy factories. They might be completely hopeless druggies but giving them some sort of purpose doing something positive would be better than life on the streets. I wouldn't mind if they tied attendance at a Remploy factory to receipt of benefits. Does that make me a tory?

[chartpolski 23,146]

1 minute ago, jukel123 said:

I often think when I see the  number of lads aimlessly hanging about city centres that they would be better off in the old Remploy factories. They might be completely hopeless druggies but giving them some sort of purpose doing something positive would be better than life on the streets. I wouldn't mind if they tied attendance at a Remploy factory to receipt of benefits. Does that make me a tory?

“Compassionate Conservative”……..

Cheers.