Woodworking Jobs

[Phil Pascoe]

It’s not impossible, I know someone that worked in Tescos for over 2 decades and decided enough was enough and jacked in his job to do something else. He had an interest in the building trades and whilst it was difficult to find someone to take on a 45+ labourer with absolutely 0 experience, he did find someone to take him on part time and then eventually full time. Pays not great but he is happier for the decision.

:lol: I have a friend who was a self employed builder (a very good one) for three decades before he had two serious heart attacks from the stress of perpetually chasing bad debts. He now drives delivery trucks for Tesco and loves it.

 

[Raymond UK]

I worked for Apple BeNeLux for years, moved to the UK in 2000 and set my own independent Apple service centre up. After so many years I grew tired of it and IT nowadays is so easy 16 year old kids can do it without training.

I build a small shed out of breeze blocks ears ago (intended to house my hottub) and was asked to make a toy box for someone as I accumulated a vast amount of tools that I needed (most I didn't need :mrgreen: ) to build an extension on our house so the shed turned into a small workshop.

It's a small shed but I'm spending at least 5 hours a day in it. At the moment I'm doing 10-11 hours a day with Christmas round the corner and I can't build boxes quick enough.

As someone said earlier, give one of your days up and see how it goes. You'll have to work a lot harder for your money.

IT was great back in the 80's 90's. I've got two kids aged 7 and 10 and I hope they'll get a 'proper' job when they grow up.. :wink:

 

[petermillard]

Steve, I wish you well in your career change. I did it myself when I was 40, with no training or formal qualifications. I had been self-employed for 20 years though, and had no intention of doing anything but going it alone!

I don’t think you’ve mentioned what kind of work you’d like to do, but...

I am just getting to end of kitchen build, including making the cabinets...
oak drawers but cheated and used through dominos...

...sets a few alarm bells ringing. Something as straightforward as kitchen cabinets are almost always better bought in than made, unless you have a large and sophisticated workshop setup with plenty of storage. And if you think using dominos is ‘cheating’ then you may want to reassess current production practices.

All best, Peter

 

[SteveF]

Steve, I wish you well in your career change. I did it myself when I was 40, with no training or formal qualifications. I had been self-employed for 20 years though, and had no intention of doing anything but going it alone!

I don’t think you’ve mentioned what kind of work you’d like to do, but...

I am just getting to end of kitchen build, including making the cabinets...
oak drawers but cheated and used through dominos...

...sets a few alarm bells ringing. Something as straightforward as kitchen cabinets are almost always better bought in than made, unless you have a large and sophisticated workshop setup with plenty of storage. And if you think using dominos is ‘cheating’ then you may want to reassess current production practices.

All best, Peter

Hi Peter
yes I could have bought the cabinets in but I had the luxury of a ripped out kitchen and kept a few of the old cabinets to push around whilst I replaced 1 at a time
tracksaw \ tablesaw makes light work of building cabinets and the boss could have bespoke sizes
I guess the domino has changed a lot of working practises, just seemed a bit wrong when going to the effort \ expense of oak drawers

Steve

 

[Suffolkboy]

Not sure if logistically it is possible in your area, but what about joining a boat building company, here in Norfolk they offer some of the best on job training which can be applied to all manner of wood working jobs. Some specialist skills available to learn and usually high quality work to learn from.

This is exactly what I thought. Maybe take on some minor repairs, paint and varnish work etc to get your foot in the door.

You can still do cabinet making/joinery etc, narrowboats, yachts etc have kitchens and the like.

 

[Suffolkboy]

your nearest boatyard will most likely be laying up boats for the winter now, ask them if they need anyone to do any scrubbing, antifouling etc, grubbing about inser boats in the dung weather is rubbish but it's a start, see if they'll let you take on some small woodworking tasks and let their confidence and your experience grow. Maybe give them the benefit of your IT experience in return? Help them with their office work, invoicing, advertising etc?

 

[Bodgers]

After so many years I grew tired of it and IT nowadays is so easy 16 year old kids can do it without training.

How I laughed when I read this.

There is IT and there is IT.

I have been a programmer for the last 18 years working mostly in c# .net, biztalk on integration projects and LOB systems.

I haven't seen many 16 year olds that can get close to doing the job. Easy doesn't define it.

It is interesting when I read posts like this about people leaving jobs in IT for woodworking. I put it down to the types of IT jobs they are in. I did programming at Uni as it actually gives you a sense that you are creating and building something. A lot of jobs in IT seem not to provide that. And that's why you end up in this situation.

I wouldn't really call flogging and supporting Mac's real IT.

 

[thetyreman]

One thing I've learnt from being self employed myself is it can be stressful, you need to control your cashflow, income can be very up and down, so something to bear in mind, having savings is a good idea before you start for the months that pay less, ideally though you won't struggle and things will go smoothly but that's rarely how it works out.

 

[doctor Bob]

Well I managed to do it, terrible life choices meant I'd messed everything up at 32. Lost a decent career and much more.
Started again wheeling a trolly around a woodwork factory, 20 odd years later I have my own woodworking company, reasonably sucessful business with makers working for me.

Give it a go, knock on doors, see what happens.