What next?
 

As it seems my time in aviation has been brought to an end, I still have a few good years left in me, I hope. As a B1 what can I use my knowledge and experience in, to put some food on the table?

For the first time since leaving school in 1978 I have no job, no idea where to look next?

A local medical equipment supplies company has been advertising for mechanically-minded staff to manufacture/repair hospital beds, three month contracts. My B1 licence didn't even get me a reply, never mind an interview.
The only consistent source of work seems to be for night warehouse staff at £9.50 - £11.30 an hour. Skilled sheet metal workers might be in with a chance for non-aviation-related vacancies. It's a dire time, all right...

First, there's no easy answer to your question, been there btw when made redundant around the time of 9/11.

Have you considered railway stock maintenance at all ?...it's a well trodden route, and the safety critical background you have is, I'm assured from those I know in the industry, a big plus.

Driving, perhaps ?.....did that for a while and you would be surprised who you meet from other occupations whom you would never have thought you would see driving for a living.

How about gas / central heating engineer, albeit you need to get the quals as well. Again, I know of a couple of former Lic Engs who went down this route.

Thanks for the replies, and for the pointers, will start scouring the Internet, there are a lot in my position at the moment so it's looking tough but will try to keep positive.

https://www.aviationjobsearch.com/

https://www.britishaviationjobs.co.uk/search-jobs

https://www.totaljobs.com/jobs/aviat...79ff3b158850e7

Don't know if this equates to your side of the pond, but here an A&P is considered a unique commodity in a number of non-aviation industries due to the A-Z skill sets required to to obtain it. For example, there is/was a dental equipment mfg'r that offered a job to the top 10% of each A&P class from several community college programs. Or, in the directional drilling industry, they sought A&Ps at one time as they believed that either 10K feet up or 10k feet down required the same mind set. And they all paid much better than the aviation side. If you have a turbine back ground, offshore/onshore power generation is another field we would lose A&Ps to from the old day job as they use either existing aircraft turbine engines or purpose built turbines for the generation side. Have seen quite a few mechanics venture outside of aviation with their skill sets and succeed. Fortunately, I preferred working nights in all types of weather and conditions on helicopters at a decent wage to follow in their foot steps. Regardless maybe look into those non-aviation jobs you had thoughts about in the past and send out a CV. Who knows you may be pleasantly surprised by the replies. Good luck!

Agencies. Non aviation
 

Alter your CV to hydraulic systems,or any other non aviation definedskills.Try Cappo,Fircroft,NES ,Spencer-Ogden and Pmr(pwr??).googling should get all these.Would love to hear how you get on and remember,pukka agencies for overseas jobs Never ask for money up front.In fact say you get an offer in Saudi,then it should include food& accomodation and paid tickets home!!

Had some B1s from our company leave in the last year or so and both went into the UK rail industry [different companies] as they were seen as coming from a good safety related background. Both were were pretty junior B1s so weren't on the top pay scale but both were earning above what they were getting paid as B1s within six months of joining and as the UK Government still seems to be happy to fund all the various train companies to run hundreds of "Ghost trains" every day, they still need to be maintained, as does all the infrastructure, so definitely worth looking at.

I also know a few that have moved over to rail without any obstacles.

Have you given any thought to safety and quality? Short courses for auditing are available.