Ok guys ( and gals) here's the deal: Minor hiccup along lifes little path has left me somewhat(!) disgruntled with my choice of profession. I have spent my entire adult (by legal definition only) life in an occupation that I really, REALLY dislike. Here I am just across the 40 threshold and this little hiccup in my personal life forces me to take a somewhat deeper look at what exactly I am doing with my life. I HATE my career choice and I feel like I am just generally STUCK. You all know the deal- wife, kids, mortgage, etc, and I find myself doing the dreaded 50 hours+ at a job I cannot stand. So I guess the question is this: How do you change direction at this point in life and how do I turn 20+ years of aviation experience into something I actually enjoy? I have been a "hobbyist" for years but never ventured into anything auto related for "work". Aviation has been a double edged sword in that it has always paid the bills and it has taught me some great sheetmetal fab skills, but I hate aircraft. Even more, I hate most aircraft people. Probably a personal character flaw on my part on the last comment. So what do you think? Do I keep pluggin away at the ole aircraft factory so it pays the bills and just up the depression meds? Or do I chuck it all , and go empty trash and sweep up at a hot rod shop just to get some experience? Sorry I think this can officially be cl***ified as a rant......... *rant off*
This is an interesting thread along the same lines that just resurfaced after a couple of years... http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=32088 why do you hate aircraft?
Sounds like you need a project. Figuring out what isn't too overwhelming is the hard part. Only you know what you can handle. Even then most people get in over their head at first. Use those skills to build something you'd enjoy. Perhaps if you don't want or have the means of starting a project, what about finding a niche and making some auto parts? You might be able to make custom dashes, windshield frames, various trim pieces. I'm just thinking of all kinds of aluminum aircraft inspired parts. Do it on the side.
How much longer do you have to work to be vested in a pension? If it is not to much longer hang in there, in 20 or so years you will be glad you did. meanwhile start working on things you can use your skills for that are sellable. Many of the street rod suppliers started thier companys that way, do not quit the day job until you have a sure source of income. Lastly you can hang in there and try to make your job better, at***ude goes a long way. Good Luck
Thanks for the ideas guys- I have often thought of what I can fab out of aluminum/ and ***anium that would work in the auto field...My fab skills are pretty established, even though I have been in Management for a few years. as far as being vested- I have less than a year to go at the current place to be vested. I already have one retirement coming from my McDonnell Douglas/ Boeing days..... I have also thought ( albeit briefly) about starting a small rust repair shop. You know- just do patch panels ( correctly) on the stuff that most body shops won't touch... as far as why I hate aircraft- it has more to do with the fact that I can never own/ enjoy the stuff I build. I have spent most of my life working on defense aircraft ( F/A 18's F-22's etc.) that the common man will never be able to own. When I have worked in the private sector, the people who own such aircraft are generally too arrogant to even have a discussion with.
...."Do I keep pluggin away at the ole aircraft factory so it pays the bills and just up the depression meds? Or do I chuck it all , and go empty trash and sweep up at a hot rod shop just to get some experience? "... There's your first problem. Why would you want to get experience just to work for someone else and be disatisfied with them too? Use your skills to expand your horizons for yourself. Build a hot rod and sell it. Do hotrod body repair on the side if sheetmetal is your skill. Or do whatever you think you want to do but do it on the side with making it a career as your goal. Eventually you'll have more work than you know what to do with and wish you had more time for yourself and family. I started late in construction. There's nothing like construction for having NO job security. Everyday you go to work you're working your way out of a job. I got tired of depending on someone else to find work for me so I found my own. Now I'm a one man remodeling crew. I started by doing a kitchen remodel and I built the cabinets in my garage. So I not only did the kitchen work but sold them a set of cabinets too...I didn't have cabinet making experience, but that didn't mean I didn't have the skill. As an example, aside from other projects, I've done 4 jobs in one culdesac. Three of the jobs have been about 9 months of work each The other houses, including the ones I've already worked on are bugging me for doing more. Some days I wonder why I do it. But when they're finished, I can stand back and be proud of what I've done. Having the phone ringing for more work when everyone else is begging for work helps too.
Keep your day job...the bussiness you describe you want to get into is twice as hard and 3 times as frustrating ....plus you would have to WAIT a good deal of time-....to get established enough to draw in steady work..not an overnite transition if you will.... its not an easy deal and many tend to minimalize the efforts involved...] too many TV shows about hotrod building I suppose] Remember.....its just work [like what you are already doing, friend]but without benefits!
Everybody, I know is well, born to race forced to work, or born to party forced to work, or born to fish forced to work or ................
I ***ume with the wife, kids and mortgage, the old paycheck is stretched pretty thin. I was 30 when I finally got a new career. I went from $150 an hour down to $25 an hour. I was never happier, however, I was single with no bills. Now I've been doing my job for 25 years and had enough. I got 4 more years to retire. I'd retire this year but I still have a mortgage. My only relief are my cars. To get by at work, I just remember that I'm working to support my hobby, then it doesn't seem so bad. Hang in there and good luck.....
Look at it this way. You have 25 or 30 years left of work ***uming you are in good health. No one retires today with a pension at 60 unless you are a cop, teacher, fireman, government cog, etc. If you are thinking of a new career, you have to ask what makes you happy? What do you like to do and can you make any money at it? Everyone hates their job. It is called work, not fun. You are never too old to start a new career path. I went to law school at 30 and have never been happier. It takes a while to find what you like. Do it now, while you are young!!
Hook up with a race car team of the type that you like, they can always use a good sheetmetal man, and in the imortal words of Steve McQueen: "Racing is life, everything else is just waiting"
I hit 59 in a few weeks time, and I'm in the process of making a major change in my life. I shifted from many years of retail (menswear shop) management to real estate sales 3 years ago, and I've decided I'm standing for local council at the elections next year! If I can make a change approaching 60, you certainly should be able to make a change at your age, tell you what I wish I was as young as you are again! Cheers, Glen.
I dont think it's mid-life crisis, i think its a natural reaction any sane person gets from doing the same things over and over again... On one hand people thrive to be in a predictable pattern-- and then they go crazy once they're in it for some years. It takes a lot of freedom inside to have the guts to drop that pattern and change it. I think about that a lot, but i dont have those guts right now. Instead im in my pattern, and time flies. I think this is about as common as life, liberty and the american way... -scott noteboom
Some great advice on here already. My own personal experience was that I used the skills I aquired at my job and started doing similiar stuff for myself. In my case I was/am a toy designer and while working as such, started manufacturing my own "toy" like products to sell . I did both for 5 years and then when things started to grow and the numbers made sense, I quit and started doign my own stuff fulltime. My situation is a little different though, I have a house and a mortgage, a great understanding wife, but no kids. That last element I think has to weigh in real heavy. You really gotta do whats right by them first, but that's not to say a change won't work out for everyone. I'd do some side jobs and see where it goes...Good Luck.
I have over 40 years in the automotive business at the Dealer level, even though I've been in management for the past 20 years, I have to say I tolerate it and always wish I had done something else with my life. My hot rods are my "stress relief" and unlike alot of others I have NO desire to build hot rods for anyone else. I still have probably ten years before I can retire (this occupation offers NO pensions, etc.) and I can truthfully say.......I want NO PART of any kind of retail business when I finally hang it up. I must say, my job has made me a handsome living all these years in spite of all the blood pressure medication I'm forced to take these days.
I think you might find this fellow's book helpful. I have. And good luck, you are asking the right questions. http://www.amazon.com/Your-Lifes-Wo...4151225?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184858530&sr=1-2
I'm pretty much on the same boat you are 45 and ready to start all over again....why couse' I hate what I do .....rather take three *** whippings then go to work in the morning.....taking the proper steps do this but I wont/cant quit my job till' I have steady pay check comparable to what I bring home today......soon I tell you ...very soon
Good advice, Thats a lot to weigh in. Changing courses mid-life WITH a family is definately something you are goona have to come to a conclusion on by doing a ton of thinking and some planning. Its like trying to back out of the rabbit hole after going soo far down it. We all have a story on here, hell, even I do, I hit my "getting tired of it" streak and started my own shop when I was 26.. Pretty young age to start a shop all on your own, but I do gotta say, even with all the up's and down's of my shop... Believe me, there has been times I was eating ramen noodles and had just enough money to pay my help and that was it, that I REALLY wanted to throw in the towel and go back to work for someone.. But didnt, and still to this day glad that I didnt. Owning your own shop I think no matter what you make, is no picnic. But it is rewarding! I think a few guys said it here too, IF you like it as a hobby, DONT make it a job, you will end up hating it most likely. I dont hate machining, I have always liked what I do. BUT...the sanity I get from doing my line of work is that I DO get to be creative and make some off the wall stuff... I dont make "widgets" like a good percentage of machine shops do.. You know, the typical "we need 2800 of these by next week small **** plug thingys" That will burn ya out in a machine shop! That kind of work will put your brain to sleep with the fishes.(well, it would me anyway) All in all, you have a lot on your plate to think about for sure, and yep grab some info that could help you make a good decision.. books, small business mags and such..... Mine was actually fairly easy when I did it.. I had no kids, and had a fiancee that was supportive. Makes all the difference in the world! Lain
Maybe not in CA but if a person plans properly for their future it can happen very easily. You can't rely on a pension or social security nowdays but what you can rely on is your own early planning and investing. I do not plan on working at my job, or any paying job, at the age of 60. Crews, you really need to talk to your wife and make a "plan". All of us can say go for it, etc ,BUT only the two of you know how finanically secure or not secure you are and that really will make the difference whether you can "afford" to risk a change at this point. The wife, kids and mortage do come before your job satisfaction.....in my opinion.
Crews, I can relate to you as I spent my whole life in the Aviation industry. I started as an A&P mechanic for a major airline, held several maintenance management positions, went to the FAA and am a retired Air Carrier Inspector. Old cars are great and fun to mess with but Aviation paid my bills and allowed me and my family to live a fairly comfortable life style. I know where your coming from about disliking aircraft as I could care less if I never saw another one. It must be great to earn a living doing something you love to do. Hang in there and don't jump from the frying pan into the fire.
Geez is everybody having a "mid-life, i don't know what I'm going to do with my life, I'm not fulfilled, Oprah" melt down.... In the last 2 years I got devoriced, laidoff, remarried and changed carrers. Something I learned durning all this. What I do for work is not who I am. It's what I do to afford the life I have. I have a plan to be in Kauai in 10 years building custom homes and raising my daughter in a simpler place. It's going to take a lot of work and sacrafice but it's my dream. Now I have to work for it.
I faced this sort of delema many years ago. I went from high school to colllege (co-op engineering at General Motors) and into a REALLY boring, frustrating job.It's not pleasant working for people who think your trying to take thier job when in reality you wouldn't want their job for twice what they were making. So, in the middle of the winter, in Michigan I "failed to show up for work"one day because I'd finally figured out that I can do anything I set my mind to (a product of coming from some very tenacious, hard working ancestors) and went to work doing high steel (ironworker) making a little over twice what that "secure" GM job paid. About 3 years later (well into a apprentice program) and with cars backed up in the driveway that needed attention I again "failed to show up for work". This time it was the start of a very sucessful auto repair business and working on race cars on the side. This morphed into a high performance engine building business that drove me nuts trying to keep up with the latest "trick of the week" and a very demanding clientele that wouldn't take 2nd place even though 1st place had way more money to spend. During this period I started building engines for Howe Racing Enterprises, an oval track ch***is manufacturer. This is where I found my "true love", metal fabrication. While doing engines for Howe , Ed Howe, the owner, related to me that he was having a very difficult time keeping up with the orders for his ch***is products, especially roll cages. On a whim I asked if he had enough work to put food on my table at home. His reply was "I don't know ,but I know this is more profitable than engine building". The rest is history as they say. I bought a Mig welder, a tubing bender, a mill, and a couple of cutoff saws lowered my head and charged into subcontracting the building of ch***is/ suspension components. The next 15 years were just a blur as my shop went through a high of 3,000 feet of roll cage tubing a week and more 30# spools of welding wire and CO2/Argon than I care to remember. During this time I also build several Drag cars, hot rods and pro Street cars for outside customers. As they say "all good things must come to an end" and on July 13, 1988 while at a neighbors industrial building, a newly installed 16X20 insulated overhead door came loose and collapsed on me. The next 3 1/2 years were spent in the hospital and 7 brain operations followed by a year stay in rehab to learn how to walk, dress, feed myself and write my name. Now retired , with the exception of an occasional job repairing/ building hot rods, I have most of the equipment from my building days, a 40'X80" 2 story shop and a few projects to keep me busy. And as I've said many times "life is good". Frank
I appreciate everyone's repsonse. I guess my big heartburn is that I know a few guys who actually ENJOY what they do for a living... It seems like it wouldn't be so bad working 60-80 hours a week if you actually LIKED what the hell you were doing.... I have ventured out into the world of "own your own business" before and while it was definately more work, I enjoyed it 10x's more than what I do now. I gave it up becase while I was having the time of my life- it didn't work for the wife and family. Looking back ( with 20/20 vision of course) I think we gave up too quick. I should have truied harder to adapt it to the family. I am not saying owning a hot rod shop is the answer- it's just that I love cars ( like everyone who reads this) and I have always tried to find a way to mix my career and my hobby. Maybe that is sacriligeous to some ( kinda like having your wife hang out with your girlfriend) but I have always wanted the two to be one... ( yeah even on the whole wife/ girlfriend thing) I have a couple of ideas to work with... I am sure I can put my sheetmetal skills to work somewhere, somehow....
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