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flyingsausage

From the many posts from different members who are training or wanting to become a spark and use this forum for advise and information.Has the doom and gloom on this forum about the bad state of the industry at this moment put you of the idea a bit?I am wondering this as having an approved card doesn't mean you will have a job these days.
And what do you think about the work,everything seems to be short term and temporay these days?Instead off getting a fulltime job with a company and staying there for years they just employ agency labour now>What are your views on this?
 
HI Flying sausage Whilst i am not a spark i used to do A lot of Pat testing of IT equipment and worked for several years It contracting i can tell you that the IT industry is exactly the way you describe fewer n fewer f/t permy staff more n more contractors hired by agents who take a damm good cut of the daily rate for doing precisely nowt.I have been considering a career change but wonder if i would be getting out of the fire into the furnace..

Any one want an adult trainee in Fife or closeby gimme a shout. lol

cheers 72 van
 
Flying sausage

Im a nearly qualified spark, and the amount of cvs, emails, phone calls i send out a day trying to get my foot in the door is ridiculous. Your spot on, i am getting put off massively. I get told a lot that this is the best time to learn but thats not much consilation when im trying to put food on the table. Im preying the market gets better soon, otherwise ill be looking for another career change!
 
Hi guys,

I recently just finished an intensive course with RF training in birmingham....(and yes i know how damaging people feel this is to the industry etc and im ready to accept the barrage of insults from all the old school sparks out there!) however its the only way i could really get qualified now. Never the less, i work a salary job as a maintenance manager anyway and was offered the job off the back of gaining this sparky qualifications so i suppose that was kinf of fortunate anyway as im earning. I also did my one day PAt course so will be doing a bit of that too (althought i simply cant understand how a living can be made from PAT testing alone!).

But im going at it solo, and it feels as if this is the ONLY way people like me can do it. i stand a cat in hells chance of getting work with a firm, and have no way of gaining any experiance not even as a mate these days because people dont seem to want them. so its a massive catch 22 it seems. due to the nature of the course, 70% of it was just spent with my nose in the regs and barely any practical work was done at all and most of which was not enough to reinforce anything anyway, so im at sqaure one anyway.

i guess my question is, why do people seem so against being self employed and so keen to work for a firm? is it because its garunteed income and safe, or because being self employed is a massive ball ache?!

Cheers chaps
 
I'm in a similar view to tuckerkop81 and wade88 in that I've been doing the courses to try for a career change (wishing I'd realised sooner that I preferred this sort of work) and am beginning to think that the Self Employed method is the only way to get the experience and thus the NVQ3, as no companies seem to want to know.

I think you two have hit the nail nice and centrally on the head.

It is sad to hear of those on this forum who are highly skilled / qualified / have been in the trade for decades and now having trouble finding work.

I blame the financial system for screwing up the whole of the economy and work system for the building trade.

Thankfully I've got a FT job in IT at the moment...!
 
Also doing the courses looking for a career change. Although I read many stories of the difficulty in finding work, I am hoping that by the time I am finished (got a couple more years yet!) there may be more opportunities.

Without having worked as a spark yet I am not too concerned about the potential for short term / temp work. What worries me is that when the time comes for me to gain some experience no one will want to run the risk of employing a "newbie". Same with any industry I guess
 
I am Self Employed, and would never work for anyone else again. It has its ups and downs, but there is plenty of work around. If yu want the work you have to find it, it wont find you or if it does it is very rare.

I have had enough of working for idiots, and other assorted dross who think they can manage, be the boss, and have gotten their head stuck up their bottoms, and don't have a bloody clue

I take on what I want to do. I decide when to work most of the time. If i want a day off i have one. I have a brew when i want, i have a smoke when i want. I book my holidays when i want them. Apart for having to fit around other trades on some jobs i usually work 3 or 4 days a week. It takes time to get established, and there is a lot of competition. I don't want to blow my own trumpet, but i keep busy on my reputation. There are some damn good sparks out there, some better than me, and some worse, and they are scratching around for work, just read some of the older posts. So whatever your background, experience etc, if you come in to the trade as Self Employed in the current climate, you will have some very stiff competition. Self employment can be a ball ache at times, juggling cash flow, keeping books, issuing certs, going out doing quotes, and being in 3 places at once. But the pro's far outweigh the cons, what i earn is for me, and the HMRC, and the wife takes her fair share as well.

Cheers..........howard
 
When you quality there is no magic wand you wil just be doing the same thing in sending out cv's and on the phone to all the companies and agencies,And you will discover they will tell you any old lies to get you to start then when you do you will be wondering ehere all the overtime is that you were told about.
There is also the point that alot a electrical contractors treat their men very poorly and they wonder why it is a revolving door of tradesmen,with every spark getting a start with them looking for something better.
 
Hi, this is my very first thread/post (or whatever you call them), i am hoping to change career, i am 40 yrs old, i paid for my own training, took holidays from work to do the training courses, managed to get qualifications to become a domestic installer back in jan/feb, but what a nightmare trying to get experience. no one seems to work weekends in Torbay or are they willing to give me the time of day, i understand that times are hard, but how on earth is someone like myself will be able to make a start in this trade. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!
 

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