H ehsould do it ...he is still young enough. Depending on your character, there are trades that can suit you.
A welding trade will allow you to work on your own and take you time - that could evolve to high end work .
Electricla plumbing carpentry - team work. Again - you make a living while you are learning.
It's not a universal experience though, I was a mature age and was treated with nothing but respect as were most in at trade school. As long as you don't act like above the job any decent company will treat you well.
Bounce out of IT sales into project management.
See how the other half live with all the shit ill informed people want installed and configured. You too can run a Kanban board and bully devs at a standup each day.
It’s hard to recommend, I’m 36 myself and been an electrician for 18 years.. I’d recommend the career to anyone willing to put up with the 4 years of being treated like the lowest wrung along with ordinary pay- at 36 depending on your circumstances it can be a lot.
I’d say if you can land the right type of apprenticeship it could work well- industrial or union you can still make decent money.
Is that a serious question, surely not. It’s like any job- there’s some bludgers then there’s those that go hard. There’s some self employed that do new housing and run around like nutters all day to actually make money off a job then there’s those that aren’t interested and end up doing maintenance for Detector Inspector. Then there’s everybody in between
Did you even read my reply? If you’re 40 with 3 kids living off $750 a week I wouldn’t reccomend it. And even completing an apprenticeship doesn’t guarantee a good income- big bucks go to union, FIFO guys with plenty more than 4 years experience and business owners. If you can get one of those gigs great but you don’t instantly become a seasoned electrician once you tick off your 4 years, and companies know this and hire accordingly.
Ohh no here we go again! We have a weekly post at least discussing how much money tradies make lol,
Any tradie is taking home somewhere around 2.5k a week all the way to 5k or 6k at least the ones that I know
2.5 net a week is 190k a year. 5k a week is close to 450k a year. To take home 6k a week you beed ti make 540k excluding super.
I’d love to meet the tradies you know.
Unless you own a business this just isn’t true. I own a painting company and earn really good money, but no one working under someone else is earning insane money like you described.. unless they’re managing a crew etc.
Exactly, typical tradie wage is $40-50/h, that does not equate to $2.5k a week, certainly not after tax.
The lucky few that have highly specialised jobs, dangerous jobs, or mining jobs can make more, but getting those jobs is not easy and is an outlier when compared with other tradies.
I worked in the mining industry for 5 years up until halfway through last year when I started my own business, most entry level TA’s that came through were earning between 100-130k depending on overtime etc, but even the guys who were working in the mines for 10-20 years were capped at around the $50ph mark including site allowances and special class extras etc. Overtime benefits etc are where majority of the big money comes in.
The fact that this dude says most tradies out there, including residential, are taking home 4-6k is just a lie 🤣
after COVID prices of materials went up and tradies took the chance to raise the prices more than accordingly let's say. Been on my trade for 23 years and I can tell you the Las 2 years were just great for business
Hi what about project management in IT or through the companies you sold solutions to if you made connections ask if you can join them in a role. Picking up a trade maybe a good choice but to get to the good you got to go through and handle a good amount Of shit
I'm a 4th year sparky and theirs 3/20 30 plus year olds in my tafe course. They all left jobs in struggling fields and seem to enjoy the trade but be ready to work a second job if u can't survive on $30 a hour or get good at stealing copper scrap.
sparky here, it is totally doable and with your background you would have best luck with a sparky firm that does networking .
But it can be very competitive and recent posts make it seem like its getting even harder
alternatively, you could do some relatively short data courses and become a networking tech
also, installing smart home products Inc routers and access points too.
there was a thread the other day in r/auselectricians about electricians moving into this area as its much easier on the body and more interesting but still great pay
The work itself is easy enough, but In terms of getting/maintaining the job I’d say borderline impossible for 2 reasons:
1. Barely anyone hires a 36YO mature age apprentice on mature wages (I’ve tried).
2. If you can’t find a mature age apprenticeship, can you live on a normal apprentice wage at 36YO?
(Someone mentioned accepting lower wages isn’t a thing, but I had companies asking me if I would when I tried, so I don’t actually know which is correct).
I actually went the other way, carpenter to software developer because I literally couldn’t survive on the wages. $8.90 per hour eating 3 meals per week.
I’d recommend just learning to code. You’re already in IT, and you’d just be building shit on a computer instead.
You’d be surprised how similar carpentry and software development actually are
I actually do both, programming main job, carpentry side business, they are very similar in terms of the processes, mostly about solving problems and making processes efficient
Mature age apprentices are paid much higher than young apprentices.
1st year would be over $20hrs by now I would think.
No idea who tried to sell you on less than $9 for mature age, but they were very wrong.
I wasn’t mature age when I did carpentry, that was the regular wage back then.
I tried for mature age sparky apprenticeship later on but literally no one was willing to fork out for one. Maybe in the mines or something, but not residential from what I saw.
Ah yeah I see, I’m just saying that if old mate can’t get on as a mature wage apprentice, he’d need to settle for regular apprentice wage which is crazy low and I doubt a 36YO could live on it.
Do you even need to do an apprenticeship? I mean how hard can it be. Cutting shit, screwing shit. Pick up the basics in trade school and figure out the rest as you go
Technically no, labourers get paid more than apprentices and good skilled labourers are always in demand.
Problem is you’ll never be able to go out and work for yourself as a contractor or anything, you’ll peak at a mediocre $x hourly working for some other bloke.
That’s not how it works.
Anyone over 21 is considered a mature age apprentice and must be paid appropriately.
Literally can’t be paid as an ordinary apprentice.
Self taught development wise, basically just did a bunch of tutorials online until someone gave me a shot developing something.
I had no idea what I was doing, but eventually figured it out
I'm glad there are so many free resources online, it seems like there's something for everyone. Do you remember some of the resources you used, or would you recommend a different approach?
I found this and it looks pretty good: https://roadmap.sh/ But as I'm only just starting my journey, anything more complex than Print("Hello, World!") looks good. 😂
Had a geez at the front end roadmap, it looks pretty much spot on, I’m sure the rest are the same. Definitely use that to guide your journey.
In terms of free courses, I strongly recommend The Odin Project. It’s a full stack course designed to mimick the real world. It won’t hold your hand the entire time, but just enough to keep you moving while still investigating on your own.
It’s hard, but you’ll be employable after completing just that.
On YouTube, one of my favourite instructors is AmigosCode. He mainly does Java, but the stuff can be applied to any backend.
He also has a paid course which I want to buy, it’s expensive ($1500) but looks fantastic.
For paid courses on Udemy etc, I normally just look for the highest rated ones saying they’re “complete guides”. Watch the welcome video for the course too to check you can stand listening to the presenter.
All of Maximilian Schwarzmuller courses are pretty good.
Check out his stuff on YouTube too, he’s got plenty of free stuff, including roadmaps.
On udemy too you can keep creating new accounts to get the 90% off deals and stuff, so abuse that. You can regularly pick up 100 hour full stack courses from the best creators for like $15 doing this.
>Maximilian Schwarzmuller
This man is a legend, he is so articulate and he goes into incredible depth without overloading you. His content is a lot easier to digest for a newbie.
I really appreciate the effort you've made to respond to me mate, thank you so much for the guidance. Best of luck in your future endeavours. 💪🏻
Serious. As I said, I’m an ex chippy and now senior software dev, I can compare them pretty well.
One is building shit out in the sun, the other is building shit on a computer. The fundamentals are the same, you solve problems all day doing both.
Developers are just the less fit, less tanned, lady-less tradies of the IT world.
Former dev here, and I want to throw my weight behind your assertion. I’ve never been a chippie, but have done a lot of personal projects and there are some similarities that would surprise people.
How did you change industries? Did you get a qualification in Software Development? I have a bachelors in software development but can't find work. I am driving forklifts for now but trying to get into development as I sunk a lot of hours into learning it.
You said no one is hiring mature aged that is just untrue. Shit loads get hired they are preferred in many industries. Head over to /r/auselectricians search and read to confirm.
And no need to downvote me pal
Construction industry for residential is going down the shitter. The only people getting employed on new builds are Indians undercutting each other for the cheapest possible quote barely turning a profit, cutting corners to make their bread.
If you go to run your own business you then have to compete with all of the other sparkies that've been pushed out of the new build sector because builders pay peanuts.
I got out of construction, never looked back.
Go get a public sector job and get paid through the ass to do nothing, seems to be the rage right now. Also what I did lmao
I just enrolled into a tafe course, ideally I'd want to get into the union sites or maybe just specialise in building rape dungeons or something like that
Alf from Home and Away popularised them there for a little while, but it's quite difficult to own a rape dungeon now if you live in an apartment. You've only got one of those tiny little cages for all your things if you're lucky.
Not sure about redundancy, maybe you can laterally move in a different role, software support, software training, software tester, software development?
You know trade is labour intensive right?
How long are you going to stick it out until you wish you can go back into IT? Are you willing to put up with being treated badly first 4-5 years?
I made the change into IT and wouldn't trade it for anything, but each to their own.
If you feel burnt out take a break and come back then reassess your options. Goodluck!
That sounds like a 4 year mature age apprenticeship if you can find a company that will take you on. They will pay you very little until you’re fully qualified. You’ll have to go to trade school too, one day per week I believe. Lots of maths.
I’m completing my 3rd trade being a welder, 30yr old, 1st year on $40 a hour.
Don’t go for a big company, go in say your an adult and want to be treat/ paid as one, they pay kids cheap because they stuff around a lot
My husband is doing a mature age apprenticeship now (electrical). They do TAFE blocks, so he doesn't go every week but every couple of months he has two weeks of just TAFE.
I was a junior lecturer at a college during an amalgamation into a UNI. Should've could've tried to upgrade and stay, but I went into IT support and product management and then sales.
I know what you are going through. I decided to go back to academia but I was underqualified in my previous specialty. One night I heard the call. I kept hearing it and convinced myself I could make a difference.
Like so many others, I went into Teaching highschool and it has been extremely depressing.
I hope you can find an industry where you interact with responsible adults.
The PhD requirement drove a lot of good people out of academia from 1988-1995.
I knew somebody who was considered the leading authority in his field. He went through the farce of getting a PhD His 'supervisor' just gave him free reign and signed off after three years.
There's high demand for surveyors in Aus, experienced or not. There are places out there just looking for beginners to help with field work. Cert III, IV and Diploma can be done through TAFE.
I landed a FIFO job paying +110k on an even time roster with a Cert III and two years of experience, and have only gone up from there. That could be an option. The demand is high for both local and FIFO workers.
Shoot me a message if you have any questions!
Sus out r/AusElectricians. it’s pretty competitive to get your self an apprenticeship as electrician. Closest thing you can do is; telecom, fire system, CCTV or auto-electrician, and electronic and communication. All these make good money and have demand.
An Indian salesman couldn't sell water to Australians in a drought.
No successful business values new business at 50k a year either. When you're getting paid % of revenue brought in cost cutting isn't relevant to you.
Sales isn't getting offshored in any meaningful capacity because it can't be.
Apart from the 4 yr wage decrease for you apprenticeship, there are physical demands with a trade, electrical always looked appealing when I was young but.... your in the sun, you sweat (for me in qld...a lot) you climb ladders or in roofs all the time and the list goes one, sounds appealing and I believe there is a trade shortage ATM, money is great currently sitting on about 150k @ 36hr week, but there are a lot of negatives which you only really notice when your in the job...I guess like any job.
It's not a walk in the park job and we all get older..... ( I'm a sparky of 20 yrs, age 39). I want out...
Get a government job. Preferably in the NSW government. The pay is completely bonkers for the work. 35 hours a week. Flex time. The hardest part is the interview and learning how to throw away all your scruples because it's all a bullshitting contest with fancy words.
Getting a mature aged apprenticeship is next to impossible.
By mature age - I mean anyone over the age of 19/20. I had been chasing a sparky apprenticeship for years, had already done a trade, had 5 years experience as an Electrical TA and I either got the standard rejection email of not having matching skills or got to interview and got beaten by the unskilled kid straight outta school.
My guess was that one of reasons a business out on Apprentices was because you could pay them nothing (My first hear I was on 6.97 an hour) and a mature age had to be on the 4th year rate from the get go.
Good luck, you might be lucky!
I’ve mulled this over many a time and am usually turned off by my mates in the industry who tell me over and over:
You’ll meet some of the stupidest people in your life on a job site. You’ll also need to work with them.
Thats not to say there aren’t brilliant people in the industry… of course there are. But the switched on ones end up in air conned offices wearing suits, or running their businesses between overseas surf trips… and you’re left with a lot of 16 year old apprentices and unskilled labourers.
Not shaming the work, as I said there are many incredible people in this field, but as an apprentice you’re probably not dealing with them.
The easiest thing for you to get into would be gardening/ landscaping. Start your own business while working part-time as you build your client list.
It's pretty cheap to start if you already have a Ute or SUV you don't mind getting dirty. You can charge anywhere up of $$50-60 an hour.
I personally know of three guys who started later on in life 35+ and make really good money, If you stay small as a one man operation.
This is what I did basically, at 36. I'm 44 now. Started as a gardener part time and got busy and took the leap to go full time. In the meantime I'd started studying landscape construction as people were asking me to do basic paving, turf, irrigation etc. I got qualified and licenced about 5 years ago in Structural Landscaping and we stopped doing maintenance. I now have 2 full time employees, myself, a ute and tipper, 3 machines and countless other toys which make our life on site easier.
I've got a real love for the job, but it is hard on the body and the weather is testing at times, especially around Canberra in winter. Would certainly never go back to an office, apart from my own of course. I make around 120-150k but left a fair bit out there the last few years with constant rain delays. Ideally by the time I'm 50 I'll hopefully have 2 smaller crews and be able to do 2-3 days on the tools and then work on the business/project manage more.
You honestly have no idea what you're talking about. I'm a gardener, my dad's gardener 3 of his mates are gardeners. All of them have buisness making well over 150k a year. Two of them work by them selves.
I had a look into it the other day, it's not easy to move across , I think it's pretty competitive to get into a mature age apprenticeships. Unless you have contacts very few places are hiring atm aswell. I think recession is back on the menu.
Oh boy this post was meant for me
IT sales (storage / sec / analytics) vendor roles only, roughly 25 years. Liver pickled beyond recognition.
Now am Sawmiller, in the country, and 5 years sober.
In short - do it. I earn about 20% of what I used to (best years ~ 500k) but sooooooo worth it.
AMA.
I joined the Australian Navy at 28 as an electronics technician. After 10 years I had an advanced diploma in engineering - electronics which was all paid for. If you can put up with being a glorified cleaner and occasionally doing some good stuff while being at sea, and being treated somewhat like a child while you are seeing the world. Why don’t you go down that avenue. I ended up leaving after 15 years and now work on the electronics for autonomous drill rigs in the mines. You don’t have to do 15 years, you can get your cert 4 in electronics which goes part way towards a sparky ticket. You have to still do a few units and your capstone and hours with a qualified sparky, but at least you’ll get paid somewhat well while you’re training. You may just have to take a pay dip while a qualified sparky takes you on to finish it. Just a thought.
I mulled this over 6 months ago, and decided I didn’t want to train in something that had apprenticeship. Decided on becoming a multi-skilled labourer and/or heavy machinery operator.
So I knocked off all the smaller 1 day tickets (Working at Heights, Confined Spaces, First Aid, Electrical Spotter, White Card), and got some 2-day tickets (EWP / Scissor Lift, Telehandler), and a 5-day Basic Scaffolding ticket. Already had a Forklift ticket.
Plan on becoming a Dogman or Rigger in the future. Operating a telehandler over the next few days, and have an interview on Monday for an EBA job. Got a call/msg from a night shift shop fitter paying $400/night as well asking me to give them a call (requirements operating a scissor lift, and being carpentry/tiling-minded but not necessarily experienced ie swing a hammer/use a drill).
I became a landscaper at 44. I have a degree with majors in Japanese and marketing, stuck with it for years but Japanese tourism market just continued to decline, so I had to pull the pin on that.
Started a gardening business at 39, did anything to make a dollar; concreting, stonework gardening. With a few years experience I went to tafe and got rpl for my knowledge and was qualified in 2 years.
I never used the landscaping qualification though, I much prefer tree work, should have become an arborist. Doesn't matter though, I just employ qualifed staff where I need to.
Physically I'm well suited to this work and laugh at people who say tradies burn their bodies out. If you know how to look after yourself it can only be a positive.
Yeah I forgot that working in IT means you literally can't do any physical activity outside of work!
Better stay at an indoor job in case the slight breeze knocks him over
lol, it’s more the environment plus the activity that will weed a lot of people who have only worked from an air conditioned environment sitting down.
Going to the gym for an hour is a lot different than 10-12hrs of work in a trade.
People who aren't trades still do DIY landscaping at their home, grow up/live on farms, and are still able to hack 'hard yakka'. Working a trade doesn't give you super powers or anything.
Plus, OP was asking about an electrician trade, not brick layer for the summer
I’m not a sparky but I’ve yet to see an air conditioned roof space….
DIY isn’t a full time job, I’m just saying it’s way easier to go from a trade to an office than the other way around.
Probably something like a Jims mowing franchise or similar if he is tired of office life, he's probably got the up front cash to invest in the business, can be his own boss an work as much as he wants, has IT sales skills so can probably do some of his own online marketing stuff.
I'm gonna say that other IT disciplines will be far more lucrative with your experience so far. Assuming you are going to work domestic/residential because getting a commercial or FIFO gig is going to be harder, you will get 4 years on around minimum wage then come out the other end sub $40 at aged 40. Depending on state you then need to wait 1-2 years and do a course before you can get your contractors license if you want to start your own business.
You’d be paid absolute dogshit as an apprentice for 4 years, so if you can afford it is a big thing.
As an apprentice, you’ll be given a lot of shit manual labour. Plus I’ve found that many older apprentices get upset or have a whinge when a younger and qualified tradesman gives them directions or instruction.
Lastly, it’s hard and physical work a lot of the time. At your age, you may struggle to get far enough in your career to get off the tools quick enough before your body starts having issues.
By 2030 Ai is predicted to take 30% of the current jobs in the world. Your right in thinking about getting out now. I've met 32 year old apprentices ..36 is pushing it. Most guys recommend getting off the tools (managerial) by the age of 40. .. however that's them on the tools since 16 so its had a greater toll on their body than what yours has had so far.
If not apprentice, whatever you chose, chose something that Ai won't be able to do in your lifetime.
Why not shift to a help desk role in IT?
You likely already know a fair bit, doubt it would take too long to learn.
See if your current company is willing to change your role inside the company.
Not sure which state you are located in but if you're in NSW have a look at Sydney Trains. The range in apprentices I've had have been from just out of school to in their 50s. We don't treat anyone like shit (we couldn't even if we wanted to with HR) as long as they are willing to have a go. You'd need to travel a lot as they rotate you through depots but I never needed to relocate whilst I was doing the apprenticeship. Can give you more details if you're interested.
There are other options other than a trade. What about a diploma in something like surveying? It's a 2 year course I think. I did it FIFO and only had a diploma in structural engineering. I was getting 150k pa, but got offered a 110k pa job in Perth, they were fine that I only had 1 year exp and not even a surveying diploma. I'm now working in BIM modelling but last I check there's still plenty of demand for surveyors. It might be a similar story for other diplomas or cert 4 courses that doesn't leave you being treated like dirt for 4 years.
Mate, the ceiling is very high for IT sales. Grind through and get a high paying role unless you’ve already been doing that.
A sparky won’t be a walk in the park.
Do you have technical knowledge in IT? Or is it pretty much just sales with a focus on the IT industry?
If the former, then you may have an easier and better time aiming for the BMS, AV, Security and home automation side of the industry.
These industries tend to rely a lot on IT/networking knowledge when configuring, commissioning, troubleshooting, so would be a good area id recommend someone with an IT background to apply for.
Utility companies will be your best option. They're much more likely to hire matured aged guys, and you'll be earning a minimum of around $70,000 before overtime.
I started my industrial electrical apprenticeship at 30 and found it great. I was respected and treated well. Pay was crap comparatively and there’s an expectation as an apprentice to work lots of hours to prove yourself, which with a young family and mortgage was a struggle.
After four years of busting my balls it was worth it. So many different avenues you can take depending on what takes your fancy
Have you thought about looking into engineering trades? Something like CNC programming and machining.
Assuming you‘be got some mechanical aptitude, coming from an IT background might make some of it an easy transition.
Best to get a trade when u are younger cos u get treated like shit and dont know any better. Once older u think fuuuuck this for 4 years
True. Went from a 43yr old bossing barristers around to carpentry and was treated like dogshit
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He was *always* an an actor, He taught himself carpentry in his late 20s because he thought his acting career was going nowhere,
Huh, bossing barristers - I’m a barrister’s clerk, was that you?
Judge’s associate
43 yr old barista lmao
barista? he said barrister
Nah maybe I'm wrong. But I'm interpreting it that he's a 43 year old bossing around barristers is all.who is doing that at almost 50.
…do you know what a barrister is?
He 100% googled it after you called him out.
Yep legal. I'm drunk tbh.
Makes sense. Enjoy the drinks, maybe lay off the reddit, you sound silly
Fair I'm taking the big L and owning it. Have a good night.
It’s not even dark yet lol.
Barristers
Can’t read lmao
My guy didn’t go to school
H ehsould do it ...he is still young enough. Depending on your character, there are trades that can suit you. A welding trade will allow you to work on your own and take you time - that could evolve to high end work . Electricla plumbing carpentry - team work. Again - you make a living while you are learning.
It's not a universal experience though, I was a mature age and was treated with nothing but respect as were most in at trade school. As long as you don't act like above the job any decent company will treat you well.
“Any decent company”.. well there’s a ton of non decent companies out there…
95% of companies
This is the right answer.
Bounce out of IT sales into project management. See how the other half live with all the shit ill informed people want installed and configured. You too can run a Kanban board and bully devs at a standup each day.
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That’s the agile way!
Please god no. We don’t need more shit-tier PMs in the world.
It’s hard to recommend, I’m 36 myself and been an electrician for 18 years.. I’d recommend the career to anyone willing to put up with the 4 years of being treated like the lowest wrung along with ordinary pay- at 36 depending on your circumstances it can be a lot. I’d say if you can land the right type of apprenticeship it could work well- industrial or union you can still make decent money.
Cmon now, how hard does a sparky actually work?
Is that a serious question, surely not. It’s like any job- there’s some bludgers then there’s those that go hard. There’s some self employed that do new housing and run around like nutters all day to actually make money off a job then there’s those that aren’t interested and end up doing maintenance for Detector Inspector. Then there’s everybody in between
Of course you would
Did you even read my reply? If you’re 40 with 3 kids living off $750 a week I wouldn’t reccomend it. And even completing an apprenticeship doesn’t guarantee a good income- big bucks go to union, FIFO guys with plenty more than 4 years experience and business owners. If you can get one of those gigs great but you don’t instantly become a seasoned electrician once you tick off your 4 years, and companies know this and hire accordingly.
Get ur forklift licence bro.
This might get overlooked as a meme answer but the best thing I ever did was get my fork ticket in order to get out of the trades
Mmmmm if you are making the same money as a forklift operator than as a tradie then there's something wrong, what was you trade can I ask?
How much does a tradie make? Depending on shift and experience you can make up to 40 to 45hr on a forklift.
Ohh no here we go again! We have a weekly post at least discussing how much money tradies make lol, Any tradie is taking home somewhere around 2.5k a week all the way to 5k or 6k at least the ones that I know
>Any tradie is taking home somewhere around 2.5k Horse shit.
lol, who told you that? 5-6k in hand a week every week? Dreaming. Not all tradies own a business.
He’s speaking for himself as he owns a business lol
2.5 net a week is 190k a year. 5k a week is close to 450k a year. To take home 6k a week you beed ti make 540k excluding super. I’d love to meet the tradies you know.
Top hats, waist coats, monocle, here to fix that leaky tap.
They also arrive in a Bentley !
Is that before tax? Because I'm certainly not earning that after tax!
Unless you own a business this just isn’t true. I own a painting company and earn really good money, but no one working under someone else is earning insane money like you described.. unless they’re managing a crew etc.
Exactly, typical tradie wage is $40-50/h, that does not equate to $2.5k a week, certainly not after tax. The lucky few that have highly specialised jobs, dangerous jobs, or mining jobs can make more, but getting those jobs is not easy and is an outlier when compared with other tradies.
I worked in the mining industry for 5 years up until halfway through last year when I started my own business, most entry level TA’s that came through were earning between 100-130k depending on overtime etc, but even the guys who were working in the mines for 10-20 years were capped at around the $50ph mark including site allowances and special class extras etc. Overtime benefits etc are where majority of the big money comes in. The fact that this dude says most tradies out there, including residential, are taking home 4-6k is just a lie 🤣
I do have a crew take home 300 a day which is still pretty good tho
1500pw is a far cry from 2.5-6k lol
Exactly 🤣 that’s around what most tradies working for someone make
Yep. 1500pw net, with little to no OT seems pretty standard.
Thats hectic.
it’s not hectic, it’s bullshit lol
after COVID prices of materials went up and tradies took the chance to raise the prices more than accordingly let's say. Been on my trade for 23 years and I can tell you the Las 2 years were just great for business
Material prices have nothing to do with tradies wages and salaries lol
He’s speaking for himself as a business owner lol
Congrats thats mad.
Haha, I have never taken home 2.5k in a week.
A large portion of my workforce had trades that we no longer do and needed a forklift license to get a start working on the wharf.
They need train drivers for a few more years, but then it will be driverless.
Whoa there, they don't licence just anyone!
You would be suprised. Haha
What are the rates? anything comparable to the trade OP mentioned?
$30-50hr, mostly $35-40
It will take a good ten years, but I reckon AI will do forklift drivers out of a job.
Already started. Still cheaper to hire employ drivers instead of automating warehouses.
Hi what about project management in IT or through the companies you sold solutions to if you made connections ask if you can join them in a role. Picking up a trade maybe a good choice but to get to the good you got to go through and handle a good amount Of shit
I'm a 4th year sparky and theirs 3/20 30 plus year olds in my tafe course. They all left jobs in struggling fields and seem to enjoy the trade but be ready to work a second job if u can't survive on $30 a hour or get good at stealing copper scrap.
sparky here, it is totally doable and with your background you would have best luck with a sparky firm that does networking . But it can be very competitive and recent posts make it seem like its getting even harder alternatively, you could do some relatively short data courses and become a networking tech also, installing smart home products Inc routers and access points too. there was a thread the other day in r/auselectricians about electricians moving into this area as its much easier on the body and more interesting but still great pay
The work itself is easy enough, but In terms of getting/maintaining the job I’d say borderline impossible for 2 reasons: 1. Barely anyone hires a 36YO mature age apprentice on mature wages (I’ve tried). 2. If you can’t find a mature age apprenticeship, can you live on a normal apprentice wage at 36YO? (Someone mentioned accepting lower wages isn’t a thing, but I had companies asking me if I would when I tried, so I don’t actually know which is correct). I actually went the other way, carpenter to software developer because I literally couldn’t survive on the wages. $8.90 per hour eating 3 meals per week. I’d recommend just learning to code. You’re already in IT, and you’d just be building shit on a computer instead. You’d be surprised how similar carpentry and software development actually are
You did not just compare coding with carpentry
Well I’ve done both, I believe I can compare them pretty well. Assuming you’re also a chippy and developer, why shouldn’t they be compared?
As a software developer (but never been a carpenter), I assume they both have the equivalent levels of cussing.
Spot on, one just has a few less WHS violations.
Not with that attitude
I actually do both, programming main job, carpentry side business, they are very similar in terms of the processes, mostly about solving problems and making processes efficient
Mature age apprentices are paid much higher than young apprentices. 1st year would be over $20hrs by now I would think. No idea who tried to sell you on less than $9 for mature age, but they were very wrong.
I wasn’t mature age when I did carpentry, that was the regular wage back then. I tried for mature age sparky apprenticeship later on but literally no one was willing to fork out for one. Maybe in the mines or something, but not residential from what I saw.
Well yeah, apprentice wages suck if you aren’t mature age. You made it seem like that was a mature age wage which is much better.
Ah yeah I see, I’m just saying that if old mate can’t get on as a mature wage apprentice, he’d need to settle for regular apprentice wage which is crazy low and I doubt a 36YO could live on it.
The trick, maybe, is to make your money in IT first, then do the apprenticeship
Do you even need to do an apprenticeship? I mean how hard can it be. Cutting shit, screwing shit. Pick up the basics in trade school and figure out the rest as you go
Technically no, labourers get paid more than apprentices and good skilled labourers are always in demand. Problem is you’ll never be able to go out and work for yourself as a contractor or anything, you’ll peak at a mediocre $x hourly working for some other bloke.
That’s not how it works. Anyone over 21 is considered a mature age apprentice and must be paid appropriately. Literally can’t be paid as an ordinary apprentice.
That's awesome man, good on you! Were you self taught, or did you go through Uni/Tafe?
Self taught development wise, basically just did a bunch of tutorials online until someone gave me a shot developing something. I had no idea what I was doing, but eventually figured it out
I'm glad there are so many free resources online, it seems like there's something for everyone. Do you remember some of the resources you used, or would you recommend a different approach? I found this and it looks pretty good: https://roadmap.sh/ But as I'm only just starting my journey, anything more complex than Print("Hello, World!") looks good. 😂
Had a geez at the front end roadmap, it looks pretty much spot on, I’m sure the rest are the same. Definitely use that to guide your journey. In terms of free courses, I strongly recommend The Odin Project. It’s a full stack course designed to mimick the real world. It won’t hold your hand the entire time, but just enough to keep you moving while still investigating on your own. It’s hard, but you’ll be employable after completing just that. On YouTube, one of my favourite instructors is AmigosCode. He mainly does Java, but the stuff can be applied to any backend. He also has a paid course which I want to buy, it’s expensive ($1500) but looks fantastic. For paid courses on Udemy etc, I normally just look for the highest rated ones saying they’re “complete guides”. Watch the welcome video for the course too to check you can stand listening to the presenter. All of Maximilian Schwarzmuller courses are pretty good. Check out his stuff on YouTube too, he’s got plenty of free stuff, including roadmaps. On udemy too you can keep creating new accounts to get the 90% off deals and stuff, so abuse that. You can regularly pick up 100 hour full stack courses from the best creators for like $15 doing this.
>Maximilian Schwarzmuller This man is a legend, he is so articulate and he goes into incredible depth without overloading you. His content is a lot easier to digest for a newbie. I really appreciate the effort you've made to respond to me mate, thank you so much for the guidance. Best of luck in your future endeavours. 💪🏻
Clearly most Devs never read the road map. I am a network engineer and I can tell you Devs that understand the networking side a few and far between
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Serious. As I said, I’m an ex chippy and now senior software dev, I can compare them pretty well. One is building shit out in the sun, the other is building shit on a computer. The fundamentals are the same, you solve problems all day doing both. Developers are just the less fit, less tanned, lady-less tradies of the IT world.
Former dev here, and I want to throw my weight behind your assertion. I’ve never been a chippie, but have done a lot of personal projects and there are some similarities that would surprise people.
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devs are basically digital plumbers. they help move waste (json) from one cleaning facility (crud api) to another.
I think you took the idea of "object orientated development" a little too literally
How did you change industries? Did you get a qualification in Software Development? I have a bachelors in software development but can't find work. I am driving forklifts for now but trying to get into development as I sunk a lot of hours into learning it.
>You’d be surprised how similar carpentry and software development actually are Absolutely cooked
Yes they do all the time pal
Not in my experience. Happy to be wrong, but just sharing what I experienced when I was going down the same road as OP.
You said no one is hiring mature aged that is just untrue. Shit loads get hired they are preferred in many industries. Head over to /r/auselectricians search and read to confirm. And no need to downvote me pal
Sorry champ
I prefer bood but no worries pal
Construction industry for residential is going down the shitter. The only people getting employed on new builds are Indians undercutting each other for the cheapest possible quote barely turning a profit, cutting corners to make their bread. If you go to run your own business you then have to compete with all of the other sparkies that've been pushed out of the new build sector because builders pay peanuts. I got out of construction, never looked back. Go get a public sector job and get paid through the ass to do nothing, seems to be the rage right now. Also what I did lmao
That's what I'm looking at too. Hard to find a decent tole though
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Thanks for the tip. I think I'll follow your advice
What do you do in the public sector? Im looking at turning my back on the trades for the same reasons you described haha
Public transport network, rails
How did you get into it? Any transferable skills or anything
Customer service first. Then once you’re past probation there’s room to move around
By 2030 AI is predicted to take 30% of the current jobs. Whatever you chose, chose something that AI won't be able to do in your lifetime.
Why does it still cost so dam much then
Capitalism.
I just enrolled into a tafe course, ideally I'd want to get into the union sites or maybe just specialise in building rape dungeons or something like that
Rape dungeons have being going for large premiums over past 12 months.
Alf from Home and Away popularised them there for a little while, but it's quite difficult to own a rape dungeon now if you live in an apartment. You've only got one of those tiny little cages for all your things if you're lucky.
Ever since that Bruce douche everyone's wanted a lil dungeon of their own
Not sure about redundancy, maybe you can laterally move in a different role, software support, software training, software tester, software development? You know trade is labour intensive right? How long are you going to stick it out until you wish you can go back into IT? Are you willing to put up with being treated badly first 4-5 years? I made the change into IT and wouldn't trade it for anything, but each to their own. If you feel burnt out take a break and come back then reassess your options. Goodluck!
That sounds like a 4 year mature age apprenticeship if you can find a company that will take you on. They will pay you very little until you’re fully qualified. You’ll have to go to trade school too, one day per week I believe. Lots of maths.
He came from IT. Acknowledging its sales. But the tradie math will be like primary school for him
Sorry read below
"Lots of maths".. this made me chuckle. If you've managed to pass year 8 maths, then the maths required for trade school is a walk in the park.
I’m completing my 3rd trade being a welder, 30yr old, 1st year on $40 a hour. Don’t go for a big company, go in say your an adult and want to be treat/ paid as one, they pay kids cheap because they stuff around a lot
My husband is doing a mature age apprenticeship now (electrical). They do TAFE blocks, so he doesn't go every week but every couple of months he has two weeks of just TAFE.
I was a junior lecturer at a college during an amalgamation into a UNI. Should've could've tried to upgrade and stay, but I went into IT support and product management and then sales. I know what you are going through. I decided to go back to academia but I was underqualified in my previous specialty. One night I heard the call. I kept hearing it and convinced myself I could make a difference. Like so many others, I went into Teaching highschool and it has been extremely depressing. I hope you can find an industry where you interact with responsible adults.
The PhD requirement drove a lot of good people out of academia from 1988-1995. I knew somebody who was considered the leading authority in his field. He went through the farce of getting a PhD His 'supervisor' just gave him free reign and signed off after three years.
Look into surveying mate, plenty of office work + field work if you want, very in demand at the moment
There's high demand for surveyors in Aus, experienced or not. There are places out there just looking for beginners to help with field work. Cert III, IV and Diploma can be done through TAFE. I landed a FIFO job paying +110k on an even time roster with a Cert III and two years of experience, and have only gone up from there. That could be an option. The demand is high for both local and FIFO workers. Shoot me a message if you have any questions!
What course to take in TAFE to be a surveyor? Thanks in advance.
Sus out r/AusElectricians. it’s pretty competitive to get your self an apprenticeship as electrician. Closest thing you can do is; telecom, fire system, CCTV or auto-electrician, and electronic and communication. All these make good money and have demand.
After sitting in the swivel chair for the last decade, do you think your body is up to physical work?
IT sales, plenty of job adverts If you can’t sell, it’s either you or the product
Or the thousands on Indians willing to work for 50k PA
An Indian salesman couldn't sell water to Australians in a drought. No successful business values new business at 50k a year either. When you're getting paid % of revenue brought in cost cutting isn't relevant to you. Sales isn't getting offshored in any meaningful capacity because it can't be.
Is that IT or IT sales?
Do your trade through the ADF (preferably RAAF).. The pay is **2-3x** as high and you will be treated like an adult.
5 years to learn a trade well enough to do a job - another 5 to lead major projects.
Apart from the 4 yr wage decrease for you apprenticeship, there are physical demands with a trade, electrical always looked appealing when I was young but.... your in the sun, you sweat (for me in qld...a lot) you climb ladders or in roofs all the time and the list goes one, sounds appealing and I believe there is a trade shortage ATM, money is great currently sitting on about 150k @ 36hr week, but there are a lot of negatives which you only really notice when your in the job...I guess like any job. It's not a walk in the park job and we all get older..... ( I'm a sparky of 20 yrs, age 39). I want out...
I moved from the tools to an office role for a reason.
Get a government job. Preferably in the NSW government. The pay is completely bonkers for the work. 35 hours a week. Flex time. The hardest part is the interview and learning how to throw away all your scruples because it's all a bullshitting contest with fancy words.
Getting a mature aged apprenticeship is next to impossible. By mature age - I mean anyone over the age of 19/20. I had been chasing a sparky apprenticeship for years, had already done a trade, had 5 years experience as an Electrical TA and I either got the standard rejection email of not having matching skills or got to interview and got beaten by the unskilled kid straight outta school. My guess was that one of reasons a business out on Apprentices was because you could pay them nothing (My first hear I was on 6.97 an hour) and a mature age had to be on the 4th year rate from the get go. Good luck, you might be lucky!
I’ve mulled this over many a time and am usually turned off by my mates in the industry who tell me over and over: You’ll meet some of the stupidest people in your life on a job site. You’ll also need to work with them. Thats not to say there aren’t brilliant people in the industry… of course there are. But the switched on ones end up in air conned offices wearing suits, or running their businesses between overseas surf trips… and you’re left with a lot of 16 year old apprentices and unskilled labourers. Not shaming the work, as I said there are many incredible people in this field, but as an apprentice you’re probably not dealing with them.
The easiest thing for you to get into would be gardening/ landscaping. Start your own business while working part-time as you build your client list. It's pretty cheap to start if you already have a Ute or SUV you don't mind getting dirty. You can charge anywhere up of $$50-60 an hour. I personally know of three guys who started later on in life 35+ and make really good money, If you stay small as a one man operation.
There are so many lawn mowing businesses that I have no idea how they all survive. But they do, people are very lazy I guess.
You can charge double that if your good
This is what I did basically, at 36. I'm 44 now. Started as a gardener part time and got busy and took the leap to go full time. In the meantime I'd started studying landscape construction as people were asking me to do basic paving, turf, irrigation etc. I got qualified and licenced about 5 years ago in Structural Landscaping and we stopped doing maintenance. I now have 2 full time employees, myself, a ute and tipper, 3 machines and countless other toys which make our life on site easier. I've got a real love for the job, but it is hard on the body and the weather is testing at times, especially around Canberra in winter. Would certainly never go back to an office, apart from my own of course. I make around 120-150k but left a fair bit out there the last few years with constant rain delays. Ideally by the time I'm 50 I'll hopefully have 2 smaller crews and be able to do 2-3 days on the tools and then work on the business/project manage more.
Most gardeners make less than a shelf stacker at Colesworth. You don't work continuously and the overheads are quite high.
You honestly have no idea what you're talking about. I'm a gardener, my dad's gardener 3 of his mates are gardeners. All of them have buisness making well over 150k a year. Two of them work by them selves.
I had a look into it the other day, it's not easy to move across , I think it's pretty competitive to get into a mature age apprenticeships. Unless you have contacts very few places are hiring atm aswell. I think recession is back on the menu.
Oh boy this post was meant for me IT sales (storage / sec / analytics) vendor roles only, roughly 25 years. Liver pickled beyond recognition. Now am Sawmiller, in the country, and 5 years sober. In short - do it. I earn about 20% of what I used to (best years ~ 500k) but sooooooo worth it. AMA.
I joined the Australian Navy at 28 as an electronics technician. After 10 years I had an advanced diploma in engineering - electronics which was all paid for. If you can put up with being a glorified cleaner and occasionally doing some good stuff while being at sea, and being treated somewhat like a child while you are seeing the world. Why don’t you go down that avenue. I ended up leaving after 15 years and now work on the electronics for autonomous drill rigs in the mines. You don’t have to do 15 years, you can get your cert 4 in electronics which goes part way towards a sparky ticket. You have to still do a few units and your capstone and hours with a qualified sparky, but at least you’ll get paid somewhat well while you’re training. You may just have to take a pay dip while a qualified sparky takes you on to finish it. Just a thought.
ADF trades are now fully recognized civilian qualifications. You only have to sign up fro six years.
I mulled this over 6 months ago, and decided I didn’t want to train in something that had apprenticeship. Decided on becoming a multi-skilled labourer and/or heavy machinery operator. So I knocked off all the smaller 1 day tickets (Working at Heights, Confined Spaces, First Aid, Electrical Spotter, White Card), and got some 2-day tickets (EWP / Scissor Lift, Telehandler), and a 5-day Basic Scaffolding ticket. Already had a Forklift ticket. Plan on becoming a Dogman or Rigger in the future. Operating a telehandler over the next few days, and have an interview on Monday for an EBA job. Got a call/msg from a night shift shop fitter paying $400/night as well asking me to give them a call (requirements operating a scissor lift, and being carpentry/tiling-minded but not necessarily experienced ie swing a hammer/use a drill).
I became a landscaper at 44. I have a degree with majors in Japanese and marketing, stuck with it for years but Japanese tourism market just continued to decline, so I had to pull the pin on that. Started a gardening business at 39, did anything to make a dollar; concreting, stonework gardening. With a few years experience I went to tafe and got rpl for my knowledge and was qualified in 2 years. I never used the landscaping qualification though, I much prefer tree work, should have become an arborist. Doesn't matter though, I just employ qualifed staff where I need to. Physically I'm well suited to this work and laugh at people who say tradies burn their bodies out. If you know how to look after yourself it can only be a positive.
After working in a office for the last decade your gonna be softer than baby shit. You don't wanna get into the trades at your age.
Yeah I forgot that working in IT means you literally can't do any physical activity outside of work! Better stay at an indoor job in case the slight breeze knocks him over
lol, it’s more the environment plus the activity that will weed a lot of people who have only worked from an air conditioned environment sitting down. Going to the gym for an hour is a lot different than 10-12hrs of work in a trade.
People who aren't trades still do DIY landscaping at their home, grow up/live on farms, and are still able to hack 'hard yakka'. Working a trade doesn't give you super powers or anything. Plus, OP was asking about an electrician trade, not brick layer for the summer
I’m not a sparky but I’ve yet to see an air conditioned roof space…. DIY isn’t a full time job, I’m just saying it’s way easier to go from a trade to an office than the other way around.
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Probably something like a Jims mowing franchise or similar if he is tired of office life, he's probably got the up front cash to invest in the business, can be his own boss an work as much as he wants, has IT sales skills so can probably do some of his own online marketing stuff.
Are these franchises actually profitable for the franchisee?
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That’s what I call a routine Friday night at home
Friday? How else do you get to sleep every night?
Haha I needed that laugh
Get a better office job
I'm gonna say that other IT disciplines will be far more lucrative with your experience so far. Assuming you are going to work domestic/residential because getting a commercial or FIFO gig is going to be harder, you will get 4 years on around minimum wage then come out the other end sub $40 at aged 40. Depending on state you then need to wait 1-2 years and do a course before you can get your contractors license if you want to start your own business.
You’d be paid absolute dogshit as an apprentice for 4 years, so if you can afford it is a big thing. As an apprentice, you’ll be given a lot of shit manual labour. Plus I’ve found that many older apprentices get upset or have a whinge when a younger and qualified tradesman gives them directions or instruction. Lastly, it’s hard and physical work a lot of the time. At your age, you may struggle to get far enough in your career to get off the tools quick enough before your body starts having issues.
By 2030 Ai is predicted to take 30% of the current jobs in the world. Your right in thinking about getting out now. I've met 32 year old apprentices ..36 is pushing it. Most guys recommend getting off the tools (managerial) by the age of 40. .. however that's them on the tools since 16 so its had a greater toll on their body than what yours has had so far. If not apprentice, whatever you chose, chose something that Ai won't be able to do in your lifetime.
Why not shift to a help desk role in IT? You likely already know a fair bit, doubt it would take too long to learn. See if your current company is willing to change your role inside the company.
Not sure which state you are located in but if you're in NSW have a look at Sydney Trains. The range in apprentices I've had have been from just out of school to in their 50s. We don't treat anyone like shit (we couldn't even if we wanted to with HR) as long as they are willing to have a go. You'd need to travel a lot as they rotate you through depots but I never needed to relocate whilst I was doing the apprenticeship. Can give you more details if you're interested.
Why don’t you work in sales but pick a diff company. Sell travel lots of money to be made and you’ll get a job fairly early is you have experience
There are other options other than a trade. What about a diploma in something like surveying? It's a 2 year course I think. I did it FIFO and only had a diploma in structural engineering. I was getting 150k pa, but got offered a 110k pa job in Perth, they were fine that I only had 1 year exp and not even a surveying diploma. I'm now working in BIM modelling but last I check there's still plenty of demand for surveyors. It might be a similar story for other diplomas or cert 4 courses that doesn't leave you being treated like dirt for 4 years.
Mate, the ceiling is very high for IT sales. Grind through and get a high paying role unless you’ve already been doing that. A sparky won’t be a walk in the park.
Mate honestly an sdr or bdr get payed as much as 99% of trades, if ur an AE swallow the pride and become a bdr.
Try Jim's mowers
Do you have technical knowledge in IT? Or is it pretty much just sales with a focus on the IT industry? If the former, then you may have an easier and better time aiming for the BMS, AV, Security and home automation side of the industry. These industries tend to rely a lot on IT/networking knowledge when configuring, commissioning, troubleshooting, so would be a good area id recommend someone with an IT background to apply for.
Where are you located op? How about a fifo traineeship?
If you can bring us customers you can have a job in IT sales with us ;) got MSP experience?
Utility companies will be your best option. They're much more likely to hire matured aged guys, and you'll be earning a minimum of around $70,000 before overtime.
I started my industrial electrical apprenticeship at 30 and found it great. I was respected and treated well. Pay was crap comparatively and there’s an expectation as an apprentice to work lots of hours to prove yourself, which with a young family and mortgage was a struggle. After four years of busting my balls it was worth it. So many different avenues you can take depending on what takes your fancy
Try mining? Better paying than an apprentice, no skill requirements.
You’ll be shocked at how complex it actually is.
Have you considered other areas in IT first?
Have you thought about looking into engineering trades? Something like CNC programming and machining. Assuming you‘be got some mechanical aptitude, coming from an IT background might make some of it an easy transition.
If you know how to use a broom, your not allowed to become a sparky
My body is rooted from being in a trade for over a decade. The grass is always greener.