Thread: How did you choose a profession/trade when you left school?

Primary school friend of mine's father was an electrical trades school teacher at Essendon Tech. My mate chose to go there so I did too. Later moved to Queensland but that dye was cast. With dads help at grade 11 got an apprenticeship at SEQEB but that all ended in disaster in '85 with the strike. Did electrical work on the tools for a few years but was never what you'd call a skilled tradesman. Drifted around for a bit and somehow found my way to BMS....some 30 years later those electrical skills still help as a project manager.

Retiring next year. Time's a weird thing.....

Worked at the local Cut Price Store on weekends,first job,also in last year of school worked on holidays with the guy next door,Refrigeration mechanic,self employed,bloody wild guy,didnt mind a good punch up,and here is me,still in school,wondering,is this what work is all about?

End of grade 12,applied for the Army,as mechanic, medical records reported migraine headaches,so that was the end of that.

Ended being accepted for two Ref & AC apprenticeships,the old man said take the Govt job which i did.Good training,worked on almost every type of equipment,but they were a lazy bunch,couldnt wait to get out of the place.Spent two yrs in Gladstone with Airco,then back to Brisbane,started with A E Smith & Sons,one of the biggest mechanical services companies in the country.Great lot to work with and for,had a great group of guys that knew what they were doing.Had our own sheetmetal shop,mech plumbers,welders,AC techs,great project managers,estimators,etc.Only thing we subbied out was the electrical,and on occasions BMS.Did the biggest jobs in the state,chilled water reticulation was their main game,and large DX plants,all AC.Had their own BMS guys as well for a while.I did 5 yrs in service,then 5yrs in commisioning.
Then in '91,started working for myself.Stayed small,had 8 guys for a while,then gradually dropped back to just three.
Still have many customers we have had for over 25yrs,including some Govt service contracts,Supply Offer Arrangements,etc.The Govt contracts are the cream on top,good consistent work.We do heaps of other work,cafes,supermarkets,Stadiums,pubs,clubs,Restau rants,on it goes.
We slowly gave AC away,and now virtually only do commercial refrigeration,which has sort of evolved into a specialist field.
Margins are also much higher than AC work.We have no shortage of work,with over 700 cold/freezer rooms that we service,plus ice machines,cabinets,etc,etc.
Both my own sons are back with us,i am almost retired,dont do as much as i used to.But i do still enjoy being out helping on jobs.
SWMBO still helps part time in the office,without her we would never of had the business.
The boys will fully take it over sometime soon,there is not much they cant sort out without my help now,and their partners/wives already do some of the office work.
So hopefully we will be out of it in the not too distant future.

I was always interested in cars & had lots of Dinky Cars. When I was in grade 8 in primary school my father had a steel fabrication business & they had a 1932 Studebaker Ute that was getting past it's use by date & was replaced by a International Ute. The Studebaker was left down the back yard & my brother I would drive it around the yard until the fuel pump broke out of the side of the block. It was time to dismantle it to go to the dump. As the mechanical components (gearbox, diff & engine) were remove, I would pull them apart to see how they worked & put them back together, somehow, I managed to do this without a workshop manual or adult supervision. I wasn't interested is sports once I went to high school, I joined any club that was going (fishing club & motor mechanics club) to get out of sports. once I finished grade 10 the man two houses from us worked at UK Motors a BMC dealer in Brisbane & they were looking for an apprentice motor mechanic. The only problem was the job was on the North side at Chermside & I lived at Darra in the Southwest, this meant a train trip to the Valley then Tram to Chermside taking around 1 1/2hrs each way if I was lucky & things were running on time. I did this for a year & a half until I got my licence & a car & that saved me 1/2hr. After finishing my apprenticeship, I went to work for another BMC dealer that was only 1/2hr from home & stayed there through BMC, Leyland & JRA as well as Daihatsu becoming leading hand after 2 years & service manager 2 years later. After 8 years with them I left taking a job with our family business looking after the fleet of vehicles & servicing & repairing workshop equipment & overhead cranes I also got my electrical Test & Tag licence to be able to test & tag all our electrical equipment. Once we started getting bigger trucks, I took over the role of transport / maintenance manager & doing site work in power substations all over Qld until I retired some 38 years later. Over the last 60 years I have restored many cars all bar one being British, I should have known better than mucking around with British cars.

I grew up on a farm in the Wimmera which we'd had since the 1880s and my dad also worked off-farm as a PMG (i.e., Testra) tech. So naturally, with that background in farming and electronics, I ended up with an Arts degree and various post-grad options. I started a post-graduate degree in Art Museums Management and was working part-time as a curator when I was offered a place to study in my current profession. Have now been doing this for over 25 years and it's taken me all over the world - I've spent long stretches living and studying in Japan and England, but travelled a lot for work while based in those countries so also spent quite a bit of time in Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing and various parts of Europe. Learnt Japanese while living in Tokyo so I went OS monolingual and came back bilingual.

Edit: also boarded in Ballarat .....

Edit: ironically, whilst working at the Uni's employment agency we had a guy come in who was a pipe-line welder doing a big job in the Tanami desert - he'd had issues with multiple apprentices, so thought that a Uni student he could train up might be a better option - might've been a fun job.

Originally Posted by p38arover

I'd be no good as a chef - I hate cooking. In fact, I can't cook, not even eggs as you can see:

Attachment 181133

When I was single, I ate out every night or my landlady cooked for me.

Me too, I can't even boil a steak properly. I also hate cooking, actually even hate eating, if I could take a pill that was equivalent to a roast chicken dinner, etc. I would.

My Dad was well known in the electrical industry so he talked me into becoming an electrician, but those were the days of boom and bust, so I would try to find an apprenticeship, (not using my Dad's influence), for a few months to no avail and then would go back to college for a few months, rinse and repeat, so I ended up with an Assoc Dip Elec Eng. Did an accelerated apprenticeship and qualified with distinction in two years, been an electrician, foreman/supervisor, technician since, but I am getting tired of it, mostly of dealing with silly people, so I'm thinking of retiring early.

Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

but I am getting tired of it, mostly of dealing with silly people, so I'm thinking of retiring early.

Exactly. The silly, the ignorant, the lazy, the psychopaths (building industry seems to attract them) and the crooked. Get me outta here!

My early 1960s 2a 88 started life with the NSW Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission. Currently undergoing a full restoration…

Originally Posted by Xtreme

Pretty close John, It would have been the NSW Water Conservation and Irrigation Commission (WC&IC)

In 1980 my Dad came home with a new device called a “computer”. It was a Sinclair ZX-80 with a massive 1kb of memory. Wow.

Dad said “this is the future” and he was basically correct.

I was 9 and started to learn how to program in BASIC (beginners all symbolic instruction code).

In high school I enrolled in computer classes in year 7, 8, 9 and 10… BUT I never got into any classes as they were too popular and over subscribed.

I went to the Year 10 co-ordinator and expressed my frustrations as I wanted to do computer programming as a job. He said that he couldn’t promise me that I would get into a class, so I quit school on the spot.

Mum and Dad weren’t too happy when I told them that…

For a year I worked in a local milk bar - earning $4 an hour. No sick pay, no holiday pay, no super. Lol - I wonder how that would go today?

Anyway after a year of that I got a job interview at Billy Guyatts (similar to Harvey Norman) “we will trial you for 2 weeks. No pay. If you are any good then we will put you on as a junior in the EDP department”

I got the job - started programming in BASIC at the age of 16 as a profession..

I continued programming in BASIC on a commercial level until about 8 years ago…

I am now an IT manager and have been working in IT for about 35 years.

No official courses or training. All on the job learning or self taught.

I have lived/worked in Hobart, Kalgoorlie, Brisbane, Auckland, Singapore, Malaysia, England (the Cotswalds).

IT used to be a passion - almost an obsession, but now it’s just a job.

Work has taken me places (see above) plus Italy, Germany, UK.

I still dabble in programming but not as much as I used to.

Then I found Land Rovers as a hobby..!