Had an email today congratulating me on 30 years of service, got me wondering about what others do and how long have they been doing it. Briefly me; Left school at 16 wanting to be a car mechanic, got jobs in 3 different garages and hated it. Did various other jobs then decided to go to college, and did Electronics, C&G then ONC. Ended up getting a 2 month contract job, which became a permanent job 18 months later and here I am. Working for a company that engineers safety systems for the oil and gas industry.
Currently the GM of a clinical waste firm. Fell in to it. It’s not exactly what I thought I’d be doing when I was in school I have a very varied background. Started off automotive due to the family motorsport involvement. Realised that it should remain a hobby pretty swiftly and jumped in to IT. I then got in to IT networks and somehow fell in to general management That’s the brief version anyway haha
Trained as an electrical engineer. Stuck it for a few years then bailed out to go ride motorbikes as a despatch rider in and out of London. Money was good circumstances changed ended up back in the building game for a few years. Then went van driving as it suited my lifestyle. Gave that up to semi retire at the age of 50 and now I am a part time track instructor at the Nurburgring and Spa francorchamps, going round and round in all sorts of cars. Basic hatchback right thru all and everything else upto latest model supercars.
Since leaving school I did a range of things initially trying my hand all manner of stuff, then some 20 years ago or so ended up at the beginning of my career within print I suppose. Started out working with CAD / GIS systems and plotters, then with the same firm moved to the wide format (big print basically) graphics market which for me was far more interesting. Moved to a few other companies with some of them having done a head hunt, HP, Xerox for a while, usual career jumps to progress. Now made a director at a fantastic company which again I o joined as they needed someone with knowledge of larger digital printers and software. Joined them nearly 7 years ago and was made director 3 years ago. We specialise in garment manufacturer, garment decoration and supplying the bigger production textile print equipment to companies who own various brands themselves, or they manufacturer on behalf of a brand or under license. So nutshell, big digital print and digitally produced printed fabrics & textiles
I started working Saturdays in a newsagents at 13 Bought my own paper round for a mobile home site Worked in a solicitors for a year when I left school and passed my driving test wanting to be a van driver Worked in the motor trade for 10 years in various roles loved my role at Nissan got to drive my first fast car Nissan bluebird turbo visiting body shops and ordering body parts for accident repair nissans. After that I worked full time in a chip shop then became a mum and I now work in retail so far 21 years in various roles over that time
just the one. i fill it full of vat, squish it down a lil and send it of to HMRC (whitehall) every three months.
hung around workshops on quarrys since i was about 8 helping out where i could on the big stuff. got offered a collage appreticeship on heavy deisels. i foolishly took one at a local garage. made redundant in my third year (fuck thatcher) spent a year on the chain gang (man power service) turning disued rail tracks (fuck the torys and beeching) into cycle paths. goodjob tbh. loved it. then off to collage for a year doing electronic engineering where i jacked after a year cos i was fed up being skint. i was offered a place at a collage in bristol doing motorcycle engineering, which involved building and testing bikes at a couple of tracks down that way. i didnt qualify for a grant so i couldnt afford that. then back to the trade. now i collect money to subsidise the priorites of another contry.
I left school at 16 and went to a thing called the Engineering Industry Training Board (EITB) as a Tech Dip., then on to Sheffield Polytechnic doing a HND in Mech. and Production engineering (with microprocessor applications). I had to leave ‘cos my mom died and Dad said we needed another income. Got a job at a scalpel manufacturer, a machine setter working on ‘automatic edge grinders’. Fast forward six years to 1991, we had a life changing motorcycle accident, I fractured my neck, my wife broke her back, I recovered, my wife became wheelchair dependent. I tried to return to work, but couldn’t do shifts and the other machine setters weren’t prepared to cover them, so I retired, February 10, 1992.
worked for my dad in a village shop when i left school until he passed did a delivery job for a while until i was wiped out by a car driver on way to work (arm messed up no longer able to do heavy lifting) sort of fell into working with kids excluded from school teaching motor vehicle mechanics basic engineering etc for 15 years latest was storeman for an import company dealing with Mercedes cars for 3 and half years till this year put on furlough then no work and employer opted out of furlough but still on books with no work (hah zero hours contract lol)
When I was about 14 years of age I used to find the bits between the Tv programs more interesting than the programs themselves. Went to the local 6th form college in Peterborough, nobody had the faintest clue how to get into Advertising and actively discouraged me. By hook or by crook I got into Trent Poly Nottingham, now Nottingham Trent University, great city. My local council refused to give me a grant until I made it to the 3rd year of the course so I worked in a Pea and Green Bean freezing factory each summer to pay my way. When I told the tutors I wanted to go into advertising I might as well have said I wanted to be a male prostitute, the look of horror was hilarious. They taught me nothing about advertising but I got a grounding in design. After college I went down to the big bad city and got a job with a Design Group that was supposed to be famous. Turned out to be faded glory and more like working in a library. I hated it and they hated me. Got fired, best thing that could have happened. Heard about a job going in an advertising agency, not doing what I wanted but at least I would be on the inside. It was the agency that did the Cadbury’s Smash Martians commercial, the Honey Monster and more. Got the job, did that, did an evening course on advertising and did evening work as well. My mates couldn’t believe I was working 12 hrs a day and more for no extra money. That agency is where I learnt what it was all about. I wanted to progress so I had to leave the first agency. I put together samples of my work and pretty soon discovered I had a talent for distilling things down and communicating with other folk. I mailed the samples every day for a week to the other top six agencies in London. I didn’t have a telephone of any sorts but I got a telegram from Saatchi and Saatchi saying come and see them immediately. The rest as they say is history. I’ve just added it up, I worked for eight advertising agencies then went into directing Tv commercials until the crash of 2008 when it all stopped. I then went into property redevelopment and never went back to the advertising. Now all I want to do is finish extending my own house, sell it and retire properly. I’d like to ride motorbikes as much as possible, sail boats as much as possible and have as much sex as possible. It’s not happening.
YTS from school doing btec national business studies Building labourer as I couldn’t live on £27 per week as it cost me £15 just to get to work Retail work loads of roles for first career 2nd career Corp sales for insurance and warranties to motor trade, followed by insurance products Corp sales genrnally to mainly banks and finance sector 3rd career project and programme management, from insurance products delivery to telematics and connected car to IT, including couple of years at interim PM 4th career now due to health and IR35 killing my business value as IT manager in continuity and service management
