Skilled Trade Career Change

A few years ago I was abruptly laid off when the car dealer I worked at as an auto mechanic closed. My wife of 10 years had recently received a promotion so I found a temporary job working at the grocery store at night and returned to school.

I went to a local community college and trained to be an electrician. Given my experience working with automotive electrical systems and the continual need for electrical system servicing this seemed like a good fit for me.

The school I chose admitted me into a special program where half of my time spent was working with a local electrical services company. They provided real-world training working alongside an experienced electrician as well as considered people in the program to work for the company as they were experiencing unusually heavy retirement numbers.

After a year of training I was hired onto the company as a journeyman electrician. I was already making more than I did as a car mechanic after a single year of school.

Given my experiences the advice I would give is to look at what you learned and evaluate what other careers would make use of this experience. Use your evaluation to find a school, company or program that gives you real-world skills in your newly chosen career.