Would you do it all over again?

Sort of following on from the post below about is it worth going self employed.

Say you were 16 again, or whenever you started, and you knew what you did now, would you still go into this trade?

I would be a plumber he he ... Joking aside, I do still enjoy my job and the challenges it has

Im only 24 and

Personally .... nope dont think i would. Id do what i wanted when i was 17... and wouldnt have come home from tenerife lol (scuba diving guide/training instructor and boat handler)

But i do love it now though

looking back i can't see that I'd want to do anything differently work wise, i feel i had a good apprenticeship with a good variety of work and then went from there to work for another company earning more for less hours and only 5 Min's from home.

Wouldn't change it for the world (unless I had the chance to become a male gigolo)

I would do the same. IF, and it's a big IF, you could still find an apprenticeship.

I left school at 16 straight into an apprenticeship, earning money straight away while training. Perfect option, worked out well for me.

Today, university and student debt is what most people are pushed into, which to me just looks plain crazy, 4 years of learning while building up debt doesn't sound a clever plan to start your life.

So yes, IF you can find an apprenticeship, go for it, but they are much harder to find than when I left school.

I wouldn't do it again knowing what I know now. Part p has C***** things up in a major way. When I was an apprentice and for years afterwards I was an electrician, and a good one, one of an elite group to some extent I suppose. Now there are 'electricians' everywhere who haven't got a clue and should have stuck to their desk job. I know a lot of them are qualified and do a proper and safe job but a lot have not got the many years of practical experience so I'm now just another electrician who, on paper, is less qualified than a lot of 'electricians' who struggle with anything more than changing a socket.

Hi,

When i was a teenager, I was always tinkering with bicycles, and then motorcycles.

I dearly wanted to go into the motor trade but my dad talked me out of it.....

"You need to become an apprentice at the leccy board, you will earn big money and do nothing all day"ROTFWL

the route did work out well as i got the best training and got paid too....as a previous poster says it is very difficult to go that route these days.

would i change anything? i dunno. i could always swallow information and pass exams at will so i guess i could have become a doctor or solicitor, but i would not have had as much fun and ended up here right

What a good question !! But would I change anything ?? I left school at 15 into a 6 year apprenticeship . Money was poor at the start but my Dad told me to stick it out , his thinking was that having a trade will always see you through. Well 200 years down the line hes proved to be right. Even in hard times I've managed to earn a crust.

Looking back, lets see, someone mentioned university ,well no, I struggled with C& Gs TBH. Could have been a chippy, plumber, heating eng, no , I think sparks was the right choice. I've worked in an office doing estimating and supervising, learnt a lot about that side of the trade, but was always happier to be out on site TBH.

The years of site experience gave me a massive advantage and I learned that a lot of the highly qualified consultants (Elect) ,although being a wizz at design and calcs. etc came a very poor second to a good sparks, regarding practical problems .

Regrets , I've had a few, but then again , too few to mention, blimey I should have been a songwriter .

As regards work my regret is that I didn't take the plunge into being self employed earlier . Younger and more energetic !! My mate feels the same , he did the same job as me at another firm for years, we both feel we spent years earning other people's fortunes !!!

I 've been self employed for about 16 years now and would'nt change it , OK I spend extra hours quoting or invoicing but I'm only upstairs in my own house. Not a big deal.

After about 100 years you actually become a sparks, its what you are , who you are, difficult to explain, perhaps others might comment, you can't imagine doing anything else. I know it would be wonderful to be the world's greatest eye surgeon and give someone back their sight, or to have the skills to save a child's life but that was never going to happen .

Like a lot of others I feel the Part P scam was an un-nesessary imposition. Like many others ,and for years I have been registered with the JIB as an approved electrician but of course that doesn't count any more and doesn't cost

I wouldn't do it again knowing what I know now. Part p has C***** things up in a major way. When I was an apprentice and for years afterwards I was an electrician, and a good one, one of an elite group to some extent I suppose. Now there are 'electricians' everywhere who haven't got a clue and should have stuck to their desk job. I know a lot of them are qualified and do a proper and safe job but a lot have not got the many years of practical experience so I'm now just another electrician who, on paper, is less qualified than a lot of 'electricians' who struggle with anything more than changing a socket.

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out of interest what makes for an elite sparky? gold screw drivers?

out of interest what makes for an elite sparky? gold screw drivers?

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:coat

I'm only 22, finnished school at 16 with good results, wasn't sure what to do, kind of wanted to be a pilot but that was more of a dream. So i went to the sixth form that was linked to the school. I could pass exams easy without revising etc, but after 6months at sixth form I was thinking, this is so boring! I don't want to be sat at a desk learning for the next 6years and I deffinatley didn't want a job that involves being any where near a desk, or going to the same place day in day out. I liked variety.

So after a stint of being really unwell for a month I had plenty of time to think about it. I always wanted to earn good money. My dad is very well off and inside you always want to earn as much as him, not that it really matters, he's a very good self employed builder. I was very practical always messing with cars and occassionally working with my dad to earn extra cash.

It came accross my mind to become a builder, work with him and take over the firm, it would have probably made me a lot richer but I wanted my own thing. I didn't want the handout I wanted to do it myself, to see if I could do it. So i set about to become an electrician, something that is practical yet takes a bit of know-how.

Had 4 great years as an apprentice. The firm I work for is bigish with 50+ men, and you learn so much from them. Some have been and gone self employed, some are old enough to be your grandad and have been to allsorts of places. Some are just plain stupid, and you know how not to end up like them.

So here we are upto now, 2 years out of an apprenticeship, a few months from being self employed and I wouldn't change it for the world. I still have a lot to learn, but yet I still have enough knowledge to be more than competant at my job.

If I was to do it again, my only regret would to have done more private work earlier on. Although I'm sure when I'm old and grey I'll be happier that I went out boozing in that time instead.

I would start in the trade again but got out of the trade 20 years ago and into contract commissioning, service tech etc, was much easier work, more varied and interesting and money a bit better. Got made redundant 7 years ago and on the advice of a friend (MD of local contractor) who would keep me busy (lasted 6 months!) I came back, its cost me a fortune so cant just jump ship but I would with just a small shove, been regretting it ever since.

How come its cost you a fortune , Tooold ? Have you been ripped off. Just decline if its private.

out of interest what makes for an elite sparky? gold screw drivers?

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Yeah, I was waiting for that! What I meant was, if you were an electrician (and I mean electrician, not a kitchen fitter with a neon screwdriver) then you'd have done an apprenticeship or become an electrician because you wanted to be one. You had a trade, and you worked hard for it.

IMO the sudden influx of quick fix sparkies has devalued that.

which puts me and many other members here as 'elite' sparky's

Patch - you can have title of Elite Vet

Perhaps elite isn't the right word, but you get what I mean, probably.

Perhaps elite isn't the right word, but you get what I mean, probably.

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i know exactly what you mean.

there are those who have done a full apprenticeship, or a proper college course (like Admin), and then there are those who have done a 'know it all in 5 day' course

And by which I'm not knocking those who have managed to fast track through a bit of training and are still keen on learning and understand what it's all about. But there's also a lot of people about who have done a fast track course and still haven't got a clue, but are NIC DI's (coming back to kitchen fitters again!).

And by which I'm not knocking those who have managed to fast track through a bit of training and are still keen on learning and understand what it's all about. But there's also a lot of people about who have done a fast track course and still haven't got a clue, but are NIC DI's (coming back to kitchen fitters again!).

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Which is very important.

But that could apply to anyone, sadly qualified electricians as well (Speaking from experience).

Don