I'm investigating options for a career change ... though options are very limited for someone my age, and the types of things that would replace even 2/3 of my income are very difficult to get into, and there's no way they'd take a 57-year-old man into the program.
I'm actually considering something along the lines of EMT, since I'm actually very calm and composed in those types of situations ... have had to deal with a few in my life, where strangely enough I was not the least bit flustered by it. But they don't make that much money. Something along the lines of a medical technician, operating MRI systems or the like ... but those programs are full. Now, more and more modern car mechanics could really benefit from IT skills, and since most cars are half computer now, and Ford has talked about a big shortage, and those jobs are difficult to offshore ... but again they'd be loath to invest time and money into training someone my age, and there's also a lot of physical labor involved, and I'm not sure that I would have the stamina to do it at my age. When I have worked on cars, I'm usually sore for 2-3 days, but then it's possible I could get used to it. Plus, you'd need to take 2-3 years to get trained up in school, and how do you support a family during that time?
Not really sure. I think next steps will likely involve Great Reset and UBI.
You get sore for 2-3 days, then only do that work once every 2-3 days as you get used to it. Your body will adapt to a great extent, you just need to keep the weight lifted relatively low at your age, and stay in a habit of doing whatever other stretches and exercises prevent work related pain/injury, and rest.heal when you need it.
You don't train in a school (pay to learn while earning nothing); you get trained on the job, even if you have to start out volunteering. Getting taught for free or little pay is better than paying to learn. Such a situation may give you flexibility to work for/get taught by a few different businesses, so that you learn a greater variety of ways of doing the job, and are more likely to find the better teacher.
Assuming you learn handyman skills (being able to fix/build just about any common thing), even if you don't get paid much, having the ability to fix things will save you and others money. The amount people get charged for some relatively simple car repair/maintenance these days is crazy, and most mechanics don't know how to fix what broke, they just replace the whole part, and even some unnecessary parts to hope the problem goes away (sometimes referred to as a parts cannon).
You can save yourself or a customer money or increase your profit margin by fixing a broken part, either by figuring it out yourself or by learning from a forum where someone shares their solution. I was told by a mechanic that I need a new turn signal switch or lever, so I just took it apart, and cleaned the switch contacts to fix it for 15min and $0. People have figured out how to replace the batteries in their overpriced tire pressure sensors, or to replace the motor in a sliding door actuator. I saved hundreds on an HVAC repair by using youtube and forums for some education on the unit, then doing the obvious which I should have started with but doubted it was the problem, and just replace 2 components on the circuit board that were corroded. The repair guy would have charged almost $1000 for diagnostic, parts, and repair of the whole control board when only $0.20 of parts needed replacing, and I'm no electronics expert.
Topic: Job listings of shame (Read 3185 times)