O/T Changing careers in your mid 30's/building cars

Sorry for the off topic subject, but just wondering how many Hambers out there have changed or attempted to change careers in their mid to late 30's or even older? I have been stuck in the same miserable job (insurance adjuster) for nearly 20 years. I recently quit due to not being able to take another day. I want to build cars, paint, or just do anything in a hot rod shop or restoration shop. I am finding it to be very difficult. I have done lots of stuff on my own cars, but lack the experience that most shops are looking for. Any advice out there? Or just share your story of changing careers later in life. Thanks.

 

good for you! working with your hands is certainly a satisfying and frustrating way to make a living...

 

I would suggest doing something for a living rather than your hobby. I worked on cars during the day and I found it hard to come home to work on some more cars. I ended up getting my Airframe and Powerplant License and now work on aircraft during the day and hot rods at night. I'm sure it can be done but it took it's toll on me. Just my .02.....

 

Good luck to 'ya man... I live in a fuckin' little box 9 hours a day without even a view outside (but I'll steal a pool-Jeep and take a "field trip" to "check out a site"... Really that means I want to spend all day drivin' around listenin' to my MP3 player), so I feel for you, 27 and been doin' it for 3-1/2 years. I make good money and have benefits and all that jazz, unfortunately I'm the only one responsible in my kid's life so I can't gamble on changing jobs, so I drag myself there every day. Gotta do what you gotta do, but if I didn't have responsibilites I'd be gone doin' something that DOESN'T require staring at 3 computer monitors all day long. Good luck!

 

KJSR has some good advice. People use to say how cool it must be to build hot rods for a living and for the most part it's been true but I did take a great hobby and turn it into a job! Never had time for my own car... had to make the bills with customer work. After 8 hrs on them never wanted to stay late and work on mine. For years all my customers had cool cars, I didn't.
Career change isn't a bad idea if you hated your job and can afford the change, starting over is tough.

 

Thanks for the advice, and I can certainly see your point. I guess I have felt that I never get tired of the cars. I was a field inspector, so I drove around and inspected wrecked cars all day, and then spent all night doing paperwork. I had to deal with lots of body shops, and many different insurance companies. I was around cars all day long, and still wanted to work on old cars in my time off. I guess the difference is that I was dealing with mostly newer cars? I guess I just really cannot think of anything else to do? Wish I didn't have to worry about it, but a wife and daughter need me to have a job.....

 

I changed careers at 33, if you could call working in a smelter a career...
Went to trade school, which was actually fun because I was old enough to understand just how much I needed to do well at it. Now, at 39, it looks like I'll be changing careers again. As of right now I'll be working out of my garage, cars, toys, furniture, whatever strikes my fancy and gets a buck.

My pops changed jobs right up to this last one, I think he got it when he was 57! He wasn't a job hopper by choice, it was just bad luck and company shutdowns.

It's all in your attitude, keep a good one about where you're going and what you want and it will show to others, especially those who are hiring With a good attitude, sooner or later, someone will look past your inexperience and see your enthusiasm. For what it's worth, I found that employers were LOOKING for guys in their 30's: young enough to expend the resources to train, but old enough to be past most of the b.s. stages of their lives!

 

What about estimator or service writer to start? Or some management capacity in a dealership body shop.
Any of those should be regular work hours and then go home and leave it untill starting time the next day.
Most of the guy I know personally who build rods or customs for a living and have a shop that primarily does that work got into it because people were always after their personal cars right after they finished them and started asking them to work on their vehicles. A couple of others were crash repair body men who over the years moved to doing more custom work and less and then no crash repairs.

The main thing is that a guy deserves la job that doesn't keep him stressed out. I went for a job that I loved except that my immediate boss felt that managing was keeping the guys who worked for him stressed out. I had a Costco size bottle of liquid Malox sitting next to the phone and the other guys at work gaged how I would be to deal with by where the Malox was sitting. I went from that to fixing broken farm equipment and welding on shit trucks in the middle of the winter on a 1500 cow dairy farm but no malox after two weeks. With the job I have now it is three minutes of stress a few times a week and lots of hours of relative boredom but it feels pretty good and I am ready to do things when I get home from work.

I went through four distinct career changes before I got the one now that I intend to retire from in four or five years. Or semi retire as a coworker did last year and work two days a week and play the rest.

 

turned 47 in April and will tell you that this is the 7th dealership i've worked for, starting with Ford-New Holland, then Massey Ferguson, the John Deere, Volkswagen, Mazda, Suzuki, and now Audi. in between those i worked for Advance Auto, Fisher Auto, AutoZone, Parks Auto Parts, and a three-store chain in Lockhart Florida. i've done CNC Machine work, millwork, and managed a warehouse for B&W. i learned how to weld on my own, and the Navy taught me how to keep supplies moving. and i'm relatively sure i missed another half dozen jobs in there. trouble i have is, that once i find a job that i both like and am good at, it fades away..... and the ones i'm good at and HATE, i get pissed and walk away from.
(farm and turf equipment dealerships are usually small and busy as hell, and the customers are ten times worse than at a CAR dealership because they depend on their stuff for a living, not just to drive!)
truth is, i'm right there with you; i'm getting to hate the body shop guys and the insurance reps because one is always crying poormouth and trying to cheap his way through a repair job. already had to "fire" a body shop for ordering a repair job and sending it back... wonder if the customer's insurance company paid off on THAT job?

 

Well, I have done my time at body shops. I have both managed and been an estimator. Very high stress. Actually, one of the highest stress body shop jobs was at a Ford Dealer. I just cannot work in the insurance and body shop industry any more. Just spent a little time in the hospital for stress and stomach issues that are pretty much directly related to the job. Well, thank you all for the advice and for sharing your stories, it is appreciated. It is time I do something I enjoy and will lower the stress level.

 

My past experence tells me that it is easier to get a job if you already have one. There are a lot of entry level jobs that have little stress, and little future, but provide money to pay the bills. If your serious about changing careers, get something to pay the bills and start towards your future career part time until you get to the point you make enough to do it full time. Sometimes working part time at something reviels that it is something you really do not like. Sometimes trying things out eliminate posibilities, and save you all the issues of doing something you thought was going to be great but turned out not to be.

There is a lot of stress building cars for others, deadlines, unforseen problems, deadbeat customers, parts on backorder, its a long list. If your looking for a low stress job, think you may want to keep looking. The lowest stress job I ever had was putting parts on a belt that went into a furnace. The furnace only heated things so fast, all I had to do was keep up. Same parts, same furnace, same number of parts every day all week long. At the end of the week thay gave me a decent paycheck. Gene

 

I've changed careers several times and once turned a hobby into a business. I got out of the business because it turned too high stress and now don't enjoy that hobby any more.

My shop has become a refuge from my job stress. But the only time something I don't own sits in my shop, a friend came in with it.

 

Being around cars and wrenching on them is two different things. Unless you work in a high end shop that calls the shots, not so much the customer, dealing with consumers is a pain. Trying to peice their "high quality automobile" back together at the lowest cost is pretty normal and results in loss of money on your end due to their crap. It sure seems like there are other jobs out there that would satisfy during the day and allow you to enjoy your time away from work as well. Not to say that being a wrench wouldn't work out for you....it just didn't for me

 

I'm turning 31 this summer and I've thought about this issue a lot. I worked 7 years at a desk and for the last few years I've worked odd jobs at strange hours thanks to a divorce and trying to raise my kids. I miss my old 9 to 5 but I have a desire to get into the car business too. I've made up my mind and am taking some classes at the local community college to get a feel for different areas of auto body and metal working. I can see find out what I really enjoy and get some real advice on what to expect in the real world job wise. I figure it is win-win. I'll make time for it and if I do not enjoy it or it does not fit me I'm not comitted to a new career but I'm better at my hobby.

HOWEVER - I used to think a lot like a lot of people who are getting older and fear that starting over in a new field means starting at the bottom. I now say screw it. If it makes sense you should do it.

 

My Work rules; Most of them I leared by not having them to start with. Came up with them along the way, would follow them if I could do it over. I'm 72.

A lot of people want security in their job. I learned that is is short sighted to imagine you can be secure in a job until you are secure with yourself.

My first job was in the Air Force. Good job, hard to quit, so I stuck it out for 21 years. That was a mistake. Should have got out after 6 and got a job I could quit when I got tired of it.

The best job I ever had, I quit because I got bored, thought I was smarter than the boss. Realized later that I was correct! Also realized that I had held on to it longer than I should have, mostly in fear that I would regret quitting. Probably a hangover from the first 21 years?

In hindsight, I haven't regretted quitting it because the next one was just as good, pay was more, and my horizons broadened, more doors opened. I have burned a few bridges behind me, and never needed to go back, although a couple of times I was tempted. Lucky for me, the bridge had been burned. A free spirit(after that military piece) I worked for a couple of companies that had Union, never joined, never cared to donate part of my pay to somebody so they could tell me how to make decisions. I always felt smart enough to make my own decisions. Saw too many incompetent workers being protected by their union handlers, with their system dragging the self starters down to the lowest common denominator. Consequently, I stayed away from that environment by choice from then on.

Without lamenting the next job, and the next, or the next, I'll simply say that I don't measure a man's success by how much money he made or the size of his house, it's by how satisfied he is with the lot he drew in life. For sure, no doubt, I would never work at a job I didn't like.

Then again, I don't regret the longest job, the 21 year one, because that probably taught me some things about how to live with myself, how to suceed at making the right choices later on.

In a nutshell, go with your gut feeling. If you are wrong, change again. The only things that are consistent anyhow, are the changes.

 

i know how you feel.... i also spent 20 years in a business that at the end i couldn't hardly stand walking in the door each morning. i left to be on my own and building cars at 40...but now at 56 i've been offered a decent job with benefits and i'm seriously considering taking it. i guess everything gets old after a while...and the idea of not having to crawl under cars, no busted knuckles , no weld spatter down my shirt and not having to beat money out of people has an appeal

 

the way i always look at it is your job is WHAT you do best and your hobby is what you WANT to do best. Some people get lucky and can combine the two, but most of us follow the path that supports a family. The kids and dog might not know what you do at work, but can get real excited about the build in the garage.

 

Sometimes folks work on cars after hours, and that can turn into a biz.

For you to get a job at a shop, making $_ an hour, in this economy, does not make sense to me. I would think the hot rod biz is down right now.

I've been a recruiter/ headhunter for exactly 20 years, and while it would be neat to do something else I would not be able to sustain our lifestyle with a big change right now.

 

At the age of 55 i lost my job as a Chev. Service manager after 28 plus years at the same dealer. I started there as a mechanic then progressed to body repair and paint and finally ser. mgr. At 55 no one wants you so after a lot of prayer and soul searching I started my own auto repair business. I've worked at it for 13 plus years and finally phasing into retirement I've made a good living off of my business, but think what if I had started it 20 years earlier. I could have had a bigger garage and another employee or two doing the heavy work which would have saved my back pain now. I say start out on your own when your in your mid 30's . Treat your customers as you would like to be treated and offer a fair price for your work and you will succeed ! Just had some great news Chevrolet is shutting down the dealer I worked for, and now the shoe is on the other foot , I feel soooooo bad for the owner.

 

ask Ryan, or read his posts about it. This whole site and community is the result of his career change.

 

I am looking for a career change myself i worked in a factory building heavy equipment for three yeras in a union only to be laid off.So then on to Caterpillar to run engine dyno's but working under a contract company for 10 months and when things started looking bad at cat the contract company found anything they could to get rid of us and screw us.So now i have been off since january with no unemployment and scrapping to get by and can't find a job because no one is hiring.All i want is to go to work doing something i would like! Like running parts at a speed shop or something that has to do with hotrods i am sick of working jobs because thats all there is and thats what everyone else is doing! I'm tired of following the herd i want to do something for once that makes me happy!

 

I agree completely. The majority of our days are spent working. I do not want to continue doing a job that makes me miserable. Money is nice, but it is not everything. I am going to find a job that I like doing and hopefully it will pay the bills.

 

Rust Monkey and I talk about this all the time! Unfortunately the "grass is always greener" saying is 100% true!

20 years ago when I was a mechanical designer doing AutoCAD and working for "the man" during the day, I also used to do the junkyarding, swap meet, parts cars, buying, selling, & trading at night & on weekends, and dreamed of doing it full time. When I got laid off from the day job we took the parts business full time and sold new parts, cars, and had a lot of fun and made the mortgage payment. BUT I was also working 60+ hours a week and had a LOT on my head all the time with babysitting suppliers, waiting for the UPS truck, paying bills, dealing with whiny customers, etc. I had a LOT </ST1of fun, but a lot of headaches too!

Later when I went to work for a big shop in the midwest that did new & used parts / engines / chassis work / race car work, etc. I NEVER had the time or the motivation to work on my own cars & trucks at home and really didn’t even want to talk about cars & trucks all that much after hours. When you WORK at a car show or a specialty salvage yard like I did, it takes all of the fun out of crawling around cars, talking about how to fix this or that problem, what parts interchange on your car or truck... Pretty soon, I just wanted another job working for "the man".

When I moved back east and got another mechanical design job doing AutoCAD for "the man" again, I found myself sitting here dreaming about being able to start my own business again and to leave all of this behind... Do you see a pattern here?

I'm the eternal optimist, but you also need to read my reply on the under pricing at flea markets thread about the BS that the “full time” shops have to put up with that the guy who is working out of his garage doesn't have to put up with. (The EPA, state, local & federal taxes, fees, permits, insurance, “hazardous waste” disposal, etc…)

My $0.02 is to start doing some mechanical or electrical work, upholstery installation, transmission rebuilding, or something like that out of your garage for some pocket $$$ to support your interests. MUCH less overhead and worries. Especially if you’re trying to support a family, children, etc. If the “sideline” work gets overwhelming, then think a little harder about quitting the full time day job. If it doesn’t get overwhelming, then you’ll be thankful to still have “the man’s” paycheck coming in.

Again, just my $0.02! Good luck!!!<O</O

 

Thanks for chiming in! You have some great advice. You are correct about change. I had felt trapped by the job and the need to make the money I was making. Many people (including friends) measure your success by how much you make. The reality is that my wife and I could get by on less money. I was working so much (14-16 hour days, plus many weekends) that we did not have time to enjoy the money I was making anyways.

 

Please don't think of my post above as being negative. My wife is usually the "practical" one in the house who thinks of all of the stuff like this. If you find a niche and can make it work, GO FOR IT!

I agree 1,000% - Money ISN'T everything!!! My wife lost her job over a year ago and hasn't been able to find anything, and I never would have thought that we'd be able to keep on going on one salary, but somehow it all works out, and here we are! We've learned how to be happy with the things that we have and to just sit tight until things get better.

Again... best of luck!!! I hope that I read about you in R&C some day and how amazingly sucessful your business has become. And it'll be on account of your being honest and how fairly you treated all of your customers regardless of how much or how little that they had to spend with you.

 

Listen to this guy...

 

There's some great advise and life lessons in this thread. Listen to what these guys are saying.
I'm 54 and have been where most of you have been also. All my life I wanted to work as an Artist. Design cars. I never had a mentor to guide me or give me advise. My parents divorced when I was 10. That screw's up things sometimes.
I'd done all kinds of odd jobs and blue collar work(over 25 jobs) until I was in my early 30's. I had been in shipping and receiving for 5 years at a pretty good company. Good money, benefits. It was hard work and I hated being there a lot of the time. I built shipping crates and that part I liked. I kept telling myself I gotta get out of here. I don't want to be doing this when I'm 60.
Events influenced me to go to drafting school. Autocad
One of the best things I ever did. While it's not the Artist dream job(like Norwell or Tuck) it's not bad. Pay's pretty good. A really good company. Small. I'm not an engineer or in management so stress is pretty low except everybodies in a hurry for drawings and my supervisor is a crabby bastard. Attitude is 90% of everything. I've had some shitty jobs and dick head bosses. I know how bad it can be.
I leave most of the stress at work. Go home at night and work on my car or hang with the family. Do whatever on the weekend.
I still have the dream to be an illustrator on the side. Do stuff like Norwell and Weezner do.
I also love building stuff and being creative. I envy the guys here who have the honed metal working skills. I, like a lot here, want to build my own 4 wheeled vision from the ground up. I've managed to work into a job that lets me do those things.
Like Churchill said " Never, never give up."

 

First read this (Ryan's editorial about switching jobs and following what you love, plus lots of good insight): http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=348191&highlight=know+the+lowrider

Then this (The Case for Working With Your Hands by Matthew Crawford): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?_r=4&ref=magazine&pagewanted=all

Both of those have been inspiring to me. I am almost 27 and starting to realize that I am only going to get older, if I'm going to make a move I might as well do it sooner than later. That said, I have a stable product design job that pays the bills and is relatively entertaining and educational despite any frustrations I might feel about it. My approach is to meet as many people as I can, get myself out there through my work and eventually something is going to happen. When it does, I will be ready to pounce on it. There is no such thing as luck, you have to set things up and then jump on them when the time is right.

I don't think you are going to make squat trying to work in shops. Most of them pay almost nothing, I know I sure couldn't make a living working in someone else's custom shop. I think the only way to really make it is to work for yourself, but that means you need to show people what you've got. Build some cars and get your name out there so people know what you can do.

 

If you take an unskilled job at a shop running parts or something like that, I would assume like that would pay $8-10 an hour.

 

i worked a very busy 4x4 shop for 16 years,i liked the work ,got to travel alot,got to race and got paid to do it.but i lost my passion for anything offroad and was losing my passion for anything with wheels.i changed jobs , got into medical field .now i feel like working on my old car and still do some work for my old job....i turned 40 last march..