Recently I've begun to feel unwanted and unneeded and it's starting to get to me now! I've always worked in one way or another even during my bouts of mental illness I've always done SOMETHING, now it's getting harder to find work, I don't want to work stacking shelves in a supermarket it isn't me. I've always worked in the electrical field, or security or something close, now it seems that I either don't have the right qualifications, or the right experience, or something really stupid. I applied for a job as a call handler with all 3 of the emergency services, and got nowhere! I didn't get anywhere with the fire service because although I had experience I wasn't able to give examples of where I'd used my skills, well how could I? When I was a volunteer with the service we were constantly told about data protection and confidentiality, so I couldn't really mention things on my job application could I. There was nothing going with the ambulance service, full stop. The police was a farce, I got through the initial part of the application then came online tests which I failed miserably, well I would wouldn't I considering all the questions were related to shop work, apparently they use an external agency for recruitment, work that one out, still it explains a lot, like how when I rang the police regarding an incident the call handler hadn't got a clue! I've been involved with the emergency services for ages, either as a volunteer or through helping at road accidents and such like, I can talk to people and know how to deal with emergencies, yet all this counts for nothing, I can't get a job. One of the services, I won't mention which, declined to offer me a job on interesting grounds, on one hand they felt I had fantastic potential and was quite capable of doing the job, but on the other I lacked experience. While they were not prepared to employ me, they did say I was quite welcome to come onboard in the same job as a volunteer, after 12 months I could apply for a job and I'd have proven experience, work that out, basically they want someone to work for a year for nothing. Volunteering is fine, I've done it and I will always give my time to help someone less fortunate, but it doesn't pay the bills.I'm really starting to feel unwanted/un-needed recently and it isn't good for my mental health, perhaps it's my age (55) but I'm really struggling to understand how I can go from a productive member of society to being on the scrap heap!
Hang in there Phil! I really feel your pain. I have had a similar experience, but in a different field. Publishing. Ten years ago the entire publishing industry went belly up. Small publishers bit the dust, big ones ate smaller ones, layoffs were astounding. Newspapers, magazines and such all are going digital. If you can't swing to Flash, HTML, advanced coding languages, and competition from Asian workers who underprice you at every turn then you are simply redundant as the Brits would say. It was hell. I went from being a much in demand graphic designer, editor and publisher to the unemployment office. Ran that dry and tried to adapt to another career in Cannabis. Worked as a dispensary manager and found the greed, backdoor illegal activities and ego-tripping 'cannapreneurs' to be the most dishonest, self-centered and uneducated group I ever worked with. I got out of that fairly swiftly as I was concerned for my own legal safety. We did manage to hang on to the HipForums through all this however. Now we have new challenges. Especially in the USA. There is NO affordable housing anywhere decent to live in the USA. Not only is there not ENOUGH housing, it is overpriced to the max. One can move to Mexico and survive. Costs are lower than the USA, but there are visa requirements, and Spanish speaking is really essential, even if simply basic. But you can't work here, you have to have a plan. I am sure many others here are going through this, or have already. I'd like to hear how some have dealt with this trauma. I think it is worse than losing a job, it's as traumatic as having to move house, or losing a loved one.
Phil if you are a qualified electrician there are plenty of jobs going . Whilst nearly everyone is going through a lean period the building industry is still doing Okay and keeping this country propped up at the moment . I recommend that you join LinkedIn and start searching for opportunities in your area . Just keep trying and don't give up
I can relate to your dilemma. I was forced to give up a life long career as an automotive technician after a series of back surgeries. I was no longer able to do that type of work on a full time basis. I actually found work at a local Dollar General store. If you're not familiar with it, its a chain of small retail stores that sell a little bit of everything. When I first started working there, I found it depressing. I thought, "Is this what my life has come to?" But my attitude towards the job changed. I got to know a lot of the people in town, and I found it very rewarding to be able to help these people out in any way that I could. I also took a lot of pride in my work. Stupid stuff like stocking shelves and keeping everything neat and orderly became very rewarding too. Granted the money sucked, and I hated the company itself, but I began to love my job. While it didn't fill the void in my wallet very well, it filled a huge void in my life. My feeling of self worth returned. The point I am trying to make here is you have to think outside of the box. It doesn't necessarily have to be retail work. And the skills you have learned throughout your life will never go to waste. But you're certainly not too old to learn something new, and you may find life experiences are going to help you when you try something completely different. And you might just find it rewarding too...as I have done. Good luck!!
I hate the bullying making this family feel alone! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle phoned fan linked to Twitter TROLL | Daily Mail Online
I've been made redundant 3 times. The last time was for 6 months and it was hard. I've never been out of work for more than a week or 2. So as time went on I thought I was on the scrapheap. But like pic mentions some time it's looking in odd places. I found work in a care home its minimum wage and long hours. But I found a new belonging and lase of life.. Helping those who can't help themselves. You will find something it might not be electronic wise but you will. As I say of you want to pm. Feel free.
Cheers everyone, I think I've got to try and re-asses things, the big problem with the electrics lately seems to be qualifications, whilst I have the city and guilds these are not NVQ'S, now although they are a higher qualification than the NVQ, it seems all employers are interested in was people with the lesser qualification (NVQ), indeed I actually had some cheeky sod trying to tell me I wasn't qualified without the NVQ! I think the big part of my problem is that I've always done jobs that require some intelligence and I can't be arsed re-training at my age then getting the old, 'sorry mate we want someone younger' bit. I don't do well in roles that don't challenge me, I get very bored if I am not having my brain taxed somewhat, I will no dount come across something at some point, I have to keep telling myself that, it's just when. The other thing is the investment made so far, I've invested literally thousands of pounds in tools and equipment, a lot of it can be used in other work, but it has to be manual work.I wouldn't be happy with all that kit just lying there unused and you don't get anywhere near what it's worth when you come to sell it, people want a meter costing the best part of a thousand pound for less than fifty quid, I'd rather destroy it all than give it away.
@wilsjane might have some sage advice for this fellow. Things are different in the UK it seems! But I certainly hope you don't go about feeling useless, that's not the case. You have lots to offer!
Always supposing that your thread isn't an attempt to garner sympathy, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt ... most of the rest of the world have felt the same way at one time or another dude. My advice ... stop feeling sorry for yourself ... try harder and banish all negative thoughts.
I know 2 guys who are just like that Dax. I earlier suggested pairing the two up in a PM so that they can learn this from viewing each other. They will either always have a negative answer to the others heart warming advice or they will both be too negative and may even find happiness with each other.
What a mess. I have been in a similar situation several times over the years. Perhaps it will make you feel better, or at least laugh, when I mention a few examples. Electrical engineering is probably the worst. I started at the age of 7, when my late father was the chief electrical engineer of the ministry of works (part of the UK government) Until he died a few years later, I was working with him whenever I was not at school. Among my adventures, I wired the first offices in the UK with fluorescent lighting, constructed the first pedestrian crossing, replacing the yellow wooden ball with a glass sphere containing a flashing light, worked on live tracks (630 volts DC) on the London underground and sat at control desk during the commissioning of the reactors at a nuclear power station. The list is endless, but no one batted an eyelid. During my years in the film industry, I designed the electrical installation for 3 major theaters, designed the countries only electrode heating system (based on a design for a munitions factory in WW2 and I was chartered as an electrical engineer. Some years later, I spent 12 years designing and commissioning equipment at Heathrow airport. When electricity supplies were privatized, I was employed by N-Power to look after their metering, but it was a complete nightmare. None of my staff had a clue about 3 phase, its rotation, Importance of checking it correctly where lifts escalators, fans or pumps were running at 415 volts, or how to obtain a 240 volt supply by creating a grounded starpoint connection at the substation. When we needed to use current transformers for metering supplies above 75kva, I had to go and install them myself. Today, since I do not have dozens of pieces of paper, it is technically illegal for me to wire a plug. The situation is crazy. Have you considered a part 'P' qualification. Along with your City and Guilds, it should satisfy most companies. Probably your REAL problem is that due to all the covid uncertainty, although companies go through the motions of interviewing staff, they are happy when they cannot fill the role, allowing them to take on someone at minimum age on a zero hours contract. Another possibility, would be to go to a very large company, where you could work without all the paperwork, because their would be a supervisor to monitor and sign off your work. In reality, after a few weeks, this would be a few times a month over a coffee or a beer. You could also consider an office position, where you are designing and laying out installations, while sizing cabling, bus bars and metering layout, along with computer server cabling. The telecoms industry itself has less regulation, so that is another possibility, particularly if you have fiber optics experience, small fingers and good eyesight. At some point, I will tell you about why London Ambulance kicked me out after 2 years. You will probably find it unbelievable, but I am sure that it will make you laugh. I need to head off now, but hopefully I have at least reassured you that you are far from alone with your job hunting problems.
@wilsjane I had a thought you would come up with a great answer for this one. Same field, same experiences. Thank you!
my approach to this, and i know its probably not for everybody, is that there are many things that can be enjoyed, accomplished and provide a real sufficient and self contained sense of gratification, that totally don't depend on feeling wanted or needed. i've been told this is a wrong approach for humans, but i've been told a lot of things i've come to question, and i can only say, it is what has worked for me.
The problem with part P is it is not an electrical qualification, it is actually just there to say that you can sign domestic jobs off to satisfy the local council. On the subject of qualifications however, you mention creating a star point to obtain 240V from a 415 supply, very interesting because that actually shows the lack of teaching today. Speak to a lot of new 'electricians' and an oft heard comment is, 'I don't understand 3 phase' well if you don't understand it you've no business calling yourself a spark! Lets say you get called to a domestic property that has large voltage spikes, or even worse 415V at the service head, now you should know why that occurs, I do, but if you don't understand 3 phase what chance have you got? I've lost count of the number of premises I've been out to that have allegedly been tested and a nice inspection certificate issued, only to discover that the premises has no earth, in one case correcting that fault involved the electricity board digging up almost a 1/4 mile of road, the fault actually affected about 30 properties. I was called to another job, the customer had had an electrician out but wasn't confident in his abilities (it transpired it was actually a lad I'd gone to school with), and he was registered with the NIC, the supply to the premises was looped out of the property next door, quite common on older terraced houses and was a TNS supply. The earth loop value was in excess of 200 ohms, now as you'll doubtless be aware, the value given by the DNO for a TNS is 0.80 ohms (0.35 for TNCS) now the correct course of action in this case is to inform the DNO, it's their problem and usually indicates a cable fault, not this guy however, he promptly drives in an earth rod and fits an upfront RCD, which incidentally was the wrong type! Not only did he endanger the occupants of this property, but also the property next door, I rang the DNO who attended and corrected the fault free of charge, unlike the previous guy who'd charged them for work that did not need doing. The amount of equipment I own is pretty comprehensive, from basic multimeters, current clamps, current clamps for multicore cables, phase rotation testers, loop testers, rcd testers, insulation testers, power quality analysers, the list is endless, at one trade event a salesman from a well known test meter company asked what I did for a living as, 'you can't be a normal spark with that amount of kit', now to me, that's just basic kit that any decent spark would own, granted it isn't cheap kit, but you need it to do a proper job. You may find it hard to believe but there are special centres today that teach you how to terminate MICC(pyro) cable, they don't teach it in colleges as it is old fashioned and has been replaced by FP200, yeah, tell that to filling stations, oil refinaries and chemical plants. Like you I started off on the big stuff, I served my time in a steel works, not long after coming out of my time I was made redundant and found myself working for a big company on a massive building conversion, I installed miles of pyro and was given the job of installing the mains and sub mains, a very large busbar chamber in the basement, with those huge switchfuse units (I can't remember the make) where you pulled out the handle about 18 inches, they had like a red snooker ball on the end and made a hell of a bang when the went in. The armoureds to the sub boards were in the region of 250sq mm, then their was all the section boards, it was a beautiful job, in fact about 10 years ago I actually took my wife to the building for an event and was able to show her my work, yes a lot of it is still there. I struggle to understand where the industry is going, in my day a spark was expected to not only deal with the 'ordinary' stuff, but also fire alarms, intruder alarms and emergency lighting, together with anything else we had thrown at us, nowadays they have all been hived off as being 'specialised'. I've worked in telecoms, both for BT and VM, I've wired data, access control and lots of comms stuff, at my last firm I knew more than the electrical contracts manager, I'd suspected that from the outset but it was confirmed on one job when he'd specified a feeder cable that was half the size needed according to my calculations, tbh I knew just by looking at the job it was wrong, when I pointed this out to him his reply was, 'oh right, well just put in whatever you think it needs', after that he used to pass all the calculations over to me, in essence I was doing his job for him but he was getting the big bucks. I think it's time I just accepted that times are changing and perhaps I'll have to look for something else, I think a lot of companies these days are scared of employing someone better qualified than they are.
