New Career Ideas??

electrician (pretty boring work mentally)

i am an industrial electrician/tech and i can guarantee you that it involves more energy mentally then a mechanic. automation is where its at and if you enjoy a mental challenge plus the ability to work with your hands then look no further. if your good the oppurtunites are endle$$.

elevator technition- huge requirement and no heavy work. word on the street is that these days the guys are makin about 55 and hour.

elevator technition- huge requirement and no heavy work. word on the street is that these days the guys are makin about 55 and hour.

Huh?? The ex's father did that and helluva a lot of heavy lifting. He was always moving steel plate weights around for balancing etc. Had arms and shoulders like an ox.

Schoenrock
When I think electrician, I think wiring houses, which is very mindless. Other than the odd 1 out of 100 cars, being a mechanic is pretty mindless and boring so no argument there. I do alot of wiring efi engines in old hotrods for a few shops on the side and doing that kind of work is definately the mind challenge I enjoy but I dont really charge anything so kind of hard to make a living at it.
What exactly do you work on and what training?

Electrician, it's going to be hard on your back too.

Someone mentioned elevators….are you kidding? You start out being the rail bitch, brutally physical work.

Lurch, can you get WCB to retrain you? An instructors job would be right up your alley, why waste all the knowledge you've gained so far by doing a complete career change?

Schoenrock
What exactly do you work on and what training?

my background is mainly in precision motion control(cnc machines, robots, etc) and automation integration but i'll also be hands on with all the mechanical as well.
with your background i'd send your resume out to some of the larger cnc service shops, they will be interested in you for sure and they will train you.
if you can think clearly in stressful situations and enjoy complex and intensive troubleshooting go for it.

You mentioned an instructor position. You could do well at BCIT with your experience. Easy on the back and good pay. Plus you get to challenge others and teach a whole new generation of mechanics.

The other option is definitely to look into retraining and see if you could find something else that you could become passionate about. A job sucks unless you love it. Sometimes we get handed a chance to make a career change. Might be worth investigating as well.

It's tough to drop a career that you've known for so long. I'm happy to say that I made that choice and it paid off for me. Your mileage may vary.

Have you considered other jobs along the lines of what you used to do? Since you've been a mechanic maybe the parts department or even front line customer service? I'm sure your experience would come in handy in either case.