career change

[bradnie]

Hi,Need some suggestions please.
I have 15 years of aircraft maintenance experience as a mechanic,from radials to medium size commuters and am thinking of changing my profession.Any suggestions as to what is out there for someone with my experience.Thanx

[Golden Rivet]

aren't we all ? If only a job as a postman would pay more .....

Happy hunting

[Perrin]

I know an ex A&C who now works for the AA repairing broken down flash cars and he loves it. Me I took early retirement after
44 years on Aircraft most of it great (forget the ATP years at Gla,
so be careful as it would be hard to get back if you lic went.

[Kanga767]

I'm in exactly the same position - 15 years busting my butt on regionals, just made it in the big league and got ditched after a restructure.

I'm considering studying Law, and going back and concentrating on Aviation Law or Psychology and getting involved in Human factors in accidents and incidents.

I've heard, (in all seriousness), of blokes in a similar position going and working on fairground equipment. It pays good wages, requires same attention to detail, as you can imagine, and is far less stressful. Apparently, big fun parks just love ex-aviation mechanics.

K

[jobsworth]

The railway is the business to get into, big bucks, easy work and nobody knows what they are doing. I dont miss the aeroplanes at all.:ok:

[Genghis the Engineer]

Or put a suit on and use your no doubt considerable experience on the design, testing, approval and certification side. There are too few people with real hands on experience this side of the fence although you'll probably find it hard getting into this sort of work initially - you'll have to persuade potential employers that your experience is worth at-least as much as the more normal academic qualifications (it is, although doubtless whilst you'll be injecting some useful experience, you'll find yourself absorbing theory, maths, etc. that "the others" will be very good at). It's a satisfying line of work getting aeroplanes right that will be out there hopefully doing a job well for the next 20-30 years.

G

[rwm]

How about a piano player in a whore house.

[Orbs]

I recently saw some Rail engineer positions on http://www.aviationjobsearch.com which seemed to offer a lot more money than we can expect! Maybe worth a try.....

[eng123]

I would advise you to keep at it.Several years ago I felt the same and ended up trying my hand at one or two things after being made redundant but the bottom line is that you just can't make the money.
An un-licenced fella can expect to earn at least 25K-30K in the right job and if you make the effort to get the licence's and approvals afterward's [even if you have to invest a few thousand pounds of your own money in a type course] then earnings of 45-50K are not unreasonable.
This sort of money is just not available to an inexperienced person trying a new career unless you are very lucky.It's alright to take an enjoyable new job that pays poorly,but at the end of the day it's the readies in the bank that counts.Good Luck and don't give up.

[RichyRich]

Interesting thread. I'm considering a career change away from software (No, don't stop reading yet...), stumbled across this forum. What chance of starting out in aero engineering in my late 30's? How did you guys get started (I assume a lot earlier in life)?

[Golden Rivet]

RWM

Is there much demand for piano players in whore houses ?

Where would these jobs be advertised ?

GR :ok:

[Genghis the Engineer]

RR - Aero Engineering is a narrow term to describe a lot of different jobs. Would you care to be more specific about what sort of work you're interested in and I'm sure one of us can give you some steers.

G

[allthatglitters]

Must start having piano lessons.

[Toolkit]

....Hi
I have connections with staff working on private yatch in the south of France....
I think you 'll have to go for a "Class 4 license" as a yatch engineer...then you can get a decent job...but you'll have to consider changing of "Boss" every year/2years....many staff agencies in Antibes....
The pay is "off shore" but don't expect to be back home every night.
Anyway one of my collegues that was an engineer for 20 yrs now
owns a Casino in Dakar (Senegal)....
Good luck.

[Bubblecard]

I got off aircraft after 15 years, and can tell you there are lots of things out there that don't involve oil under the fingernails (unless you really like that kind of thing).
I got into system safety analysis, simply by knowing what an aircraft system was. A rigger friend of mine quit at the same time, spent a few months collecting licenses, then chucked it all in. He now does change control for IT companies.
Rather than focus on the primary technical skills, you'd be surprised how easy it is to talk up the operational environment that we all worked in.
Sure, they're not the most riveting (see what I did there?) jobs in the world, but the pay is surprisingly good, and when you get old it's nice to sit in a warm office. Oh yes, and have clean fingernails.

[Genghis the Engineer]

The only person I've ever met who thought working standards in aviation were low used to design Nuclear Reactors for a living.

We are very employable, us aeroplane gingerbeers, because of our technical skills but at-least as much because we can prove a safety and quality obsession that goes down very well in the non aviation technical world.

Mind you, I'm impressed that bubblecard found an IT company that knows what change control is. Mrs Genghis programmes IBM mainframes and her tales of working standards in some parts of the IT industry (especially the financial services bits) make my hair stand on end (or at least consider keeping my life savings in an old sock under the bed.

G

[STC]

I made the transition from AME (Canada) to design and certification. Although I like my job it was a long hard struggle to lose the prejudices I gained as an AME and become proficient.

We are presently looking for more people to come on board in the same way but are having very little luck.

As mentioned, very few engineers have preactical experience on real aircraft. An experienced mechanic is an ideal candidate for design and certification.

[Banana Airlines]

STC

What kind of prejudices did you gain as an AME?
Maybe I could work on mine.

[snickers]

Shame to hear I am not the only one with these career change thoughts, wasn't there a time when it used to be fun? I know of a couple of guys who have left to become corgi gas fitters, earning a very similar amount to us (if not more). Oh, and no shift work, with a free van thrown in!

[Toolkit]

Yep , I often apply for the Job of Operation duty officer in order to end up as an oustation mgr...they say that an engineer is too rare so they don t allow our people to change....we can do any job in an airline but no one wants to do ours...

[mattp]

Far be it for me to blow our trumpet, but we've got loads of jobs for aviation engineers.

Go to aviationjobsearch.com. There's 11 different engineering categories for the industry for you to choose from. There's about 700 aerospace engineering jobs at any time. From LAEs to planning to avionics etc etc.

I'll put the trumpet down now.

On a different note...
I heard an engineer lost an arm yesterday working on a Ryanair aircraft. Is that right?

Matt
aviationjobsearch.com

[Genghis the Engineer]

I hope that you paid for that advert?

G

[Blacksheep]

I was looking for another job recently - my old one disappeared from under me (as they do). I put my CV with aviationjobsearch.com and sent off applications to a number of their advertisers. I didn't get a single reply. Blow the trumpet by all means mattp, but do try to learn a tune first...

**************************
Through difficulties to the cinema

[Genghis the Engineer]

Interesting point Blacksheep. A couple of years ago I placed an advert there for an airworthiness Engineer - ran it for 8 weeks or so without a single application. A (ludicrously expensive) 2-line ad in Flight got me about half a dozen applications, and I got another dozen via a free advert through the jobcentre (UK government placement agency). Eventually filled it through personal contacts anyway - still wonder why I bothered paying for any advertising at-all !

For the record, I was incredibly impressed with the Job Centre - I've never had the misfortune to be the other side of the counter but as an employer I thought the (free!) service was stunning.

G

[teawhite1]

Bloimey,

Thought I'd read on in this thread but wish I hadn't. I was a Flight Engineer for some 15 yrs total, on the C130 and A300 B4 before enforced redundancy last year.

Now considering there is more chance of getting a Lottery win than a F/E offer, I was considering trying to get some ground engineer licences to get back into the aviation industry.
Anyone got any constructive advise?

By the way, the grass is always greener.....I was a piano player in a *****house for 2 years. Knackered my eyesight, but blagged it for my Class 1 medical.

[TURIN]

Best advice is.....

DON'T DO IT!!!

But if you really must then www.airmech.co.uk should give you all the advice you need. Not necessarily good advice, but it is free!

Good luck :ok:

[rwm]

I buddy of mine went to Shannon before he even had a licence not that long ago, and said they were hurting for people. Said they paid well, and the benifits were good. Havn't heard from him in a couple of months, but you could give them a ring.

[Jango]

One of the interesting things to come from this discussion is how it is still so difficult in th UK to make a career change. In the North America and Australia it seems more acceptable for folks to swap jobs after 5, 10, 15 yrs and companies seem to be more open to take peopel on from different backgrounds.

In UK the attitude is considerbaly more conservative.....archaic?

So did anyone figure out which whore house needs a piano player next? Do you have to work a week in hand?

[Genghis the Engineer]

Interesting point there Jango.

I suggest that (if you are right, and I think you probably are) it comes down to two things:-

(1) There's a serious social stigma in the UK to not being gainfully employed for a period of time, this even applying to prolonged periods of study any time after about the age of 22.

(2) The training and education industry in Britain (with the obvious exception of flying training, which is a bit of an oddball in that respect) is not geared up to part-time or self-monitored learning of new skills with the exceptions of...

(a) Further training within an existing career.

(b) Poorly paid semi-skilled work such as the bottom end of catering, or relatively menial computing jobs.


Arguably both are a problem for UK PLC.

G

[rwm]

I've had to leave my country to find employment in my field. I thought about retraining, but I had a family to suport, and no savings to fall on. She has spent all the cash I have sent her, and now wants a divorce because I don't earn enough. Still no work at home, and can't afford to retrain. I should have stayed a piano player. Benifits were good.

[JAFCon]

An old mate of mine gave up working on A/C and went up into the North Sea Working on Underwater ROVs, Better Pay and a lot less grief, A VERY HAPPY MAN