How do I (28m) transition from dead end minimum wage construction, to finally starting a "career?"

Posted by DescriptionFuture851@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 83 comments

I've worked self employed construction for 7 years now. One day, my dad came home from work whilst I was unemployed and said "you're in tomorrow" and the rest is history.

After leaving school at 16, I studied IT at college for 3 years. I had a few few fast food and factory jobs for a while until I started with my dad and his mate.

I've learned a lot over the years, but the reality is that (1) Life is expensive and I don't get paid enough, and (2) I seriously don't want to stuck in my ways for the rest of my life, knowing that I could things now.

As it currently stands, I still live with my parents, not tied down with a girlfriend or kids, and only have around 14k to my name. It's not a huge amount obviously, but it's also far from skint.

I have a really good relationship with my parents and I'm 99.99% certain they wouldn't mind if I sacked work off for a while and instead focused on a gaining a degree. Honestly, I'm not even sure if someone who's "older" could continue education without the correct grades.

For those who have been in my situation before, what did you do? And more importantly, what are my options going forward?

Thank you.

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BroodLord1962@reddit

So why not train for better paid jobs in construction like electricians or plumbers

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TrueWordsSaidInJest@reddit

£7k for a plumbing course is not money lost, it's an investment. And it's certainly cheaper than 3 years of university

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BellendBuilder@reddit

I agree.

I know a company who guarantee a local company for a work placement so you can build your portfolio for gas and plumbing.

Very good training provider.

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BroodLord1962@reddit

You should be sending this to someone else, not me

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mainukfeed@reddit

there's no direct route, which doesn't involve losing loads of money or being an apprentice (also losing loads of money).

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BroodLord1962@reddit

Yeah that's learning a proper trade/skill, you accept lower wages until you become qualified. It's going to be the same if he takes a job anywhere, he'll start at the bottom

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Decent_Confidence_36@reddit

Is there an option to advance where you are. I’m 31 been at the same company since 16 but started as an apprentice and now project manager.. wasn’t until 29 though I got off the tools and on a decent wage

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BellendBuilder@reddit

He’s being mugged off by the dude him and dad work for. Half CIS half cash in hand

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BigRimeCharlie@reddit

Trade's earn 60-100k a year, what have you been doing for the last seven years bro. You need to specialise, the transition should be easy if you know the basics.

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Rodders_89@reddit

Out of curiosity what trades are earning this amount ?

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Most of us pal. I’m up north in a cheap area compared to the rest of the country and I pay my labourers £17 an hour, which equates to £35k before OT.

Where I live stats show a person needs to make £35k to live “comfortably” and not just getting by as a single entity with no kids so I pay them as such.

All OT is 1.5x and weekends are double.

OT is purely optional and I don’t force it but most choose to do some for the extra cash.

If none of my black hats (supervisors/managers) want to work on a weekend, I’ll rock up myself and just have them loading out ready for the skilled men on Monday.

I’ll then use that “free” time they have on the Monday to teach them a bit.

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BigRimeCharlie@reddit

Honestly all of them. I am however fully established and 40, as are everyone in a trade that I know who are earning that. I'd say that none of us would get out of bed for less than £400pd. I also pay my labourers £180pd. I am down south but not London as I know that factors in. I also don't work more than six hours a day. Be curious and look into it, I struggle to find lads looking to get into it.

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DescriptionFuture851@reddit (OP)

It's half self employed to our actual boss, and half cash in hand, neither of which is particularly good.

I've tried wrapping my head around moving up, but the reality is that it's not really possible. I therefore believe that leaving construction and starting somewhere new from scratch is the best option.

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EyeAlternative1664@reddit

You’re getting scammed. Move away or at least work away. I assume you are either in wales or up north, no builder in London or Essex earns less than 40k a year.

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DescriptionFuture851@reddit (OP)

Yeah I'm from the north east.

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EyeAlternative1664@reddit

I’ve got mates from Grimsby who now live in London, they were shunned for having “gay hair” by their old school friends, but it was a price worth paying to earn a decent wage (both are on 90k+, but not in construction).

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BigRimeCharlie@reddit

To reach good money you'd obviously have to leave where you are and specialise in something. I understand that you think working in an office is going to be better for your long term prospects but that's just not the case any more IMHO. You'll get double working a trade, with the flexibility that comes along with it. I've had lads in their late twenties with no skills whatsoever that I've turned into business owners. You've just gotta be a bit ambitious with it and set some goals.

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BellendBuilder@reddit

100% agree with this. I moved into construction after a somewhat successful security career as I got myself into a bit of bother fighting as a younger man.

Had an absolute baptism of fire working with a Polish team who taught me how to bedroom, bathroom and kitchen fit, and went from there.

Fast forward a decade and I’ve my own business, multiple vans working for me and multiple good contracts with major building companies.

That mindset the gaffer Piotr put into me, along with the time and effort to teach me properly, including the business side, absolutely changed my life for the better, and I love nothing more than paying it forward to the lads and lasses who want to graft.

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ben_jamin_h@reddit

What exactly do you do in construction and where in the country are you?

Minimum wage is £102 a day. That's absolute peanuts in the trade, labourers are on £120 a day with no experience.

I'll be you could earn a lot more money right now doing what you already do. If people are telling you you can't earn more money and that people don't earn good money where you are, who is that exactly? Is it your boss? Because they would tell you exactly that kind of bullshit just so you don't think about leaving for something that pays the going rate.

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Honestly bruv, as I said in my main comment, you shouldn’t be earning anything like minimum wage.

Sounds to me like you need to fuck the company off. Even as a skilled labourer/handyman, depending on your skill set etc you should be making anywhere between £19-£25 and that’s just off a CSCS green card.

Thats minus any formal trade qualifications.

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ahoneybadger3@reddit

If you can sit your class 2 you can earn £40k a year with driving 6 miles a shift not even on public roads.

Easiest job you can ask for.

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CodeBeginning6548@reddit

What job is this specifically please mate. Sounds like my dream job 😅

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ahoneybadger3@reddit

Airline catering. Basically you take the old stuff off planes and push new stuff on. That's it.

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2KCoinsLTD@reddit

Newrest

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QuaintStaircase@reddit

What does that usually work out to annually?

Obviously you have an insane amount of free time where you can't leave the place. Are there any other meaningful restrictions as to what you can/can't do?

Could you for example put yourself through an OU course on the downtime hours?

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ahoneybadger3@reddit

I come out with £2600 a month, that's with 10% pension contributions as that's the employers match.

4 on and 4 off shifts.

We've had people doing fleet management courses on shift so I suppose there's that. It allows you to be the 'fleet manager' of up to 6 companies and they'll pay for you to be one. It has a 46% pass rate so places don't tend to seek their own.

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QuaintStaircase@reddit

Hey that's pretty good, thanks for letting me know!

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OurSeepyD@reddit

Maybe this applies to every job but it might be worth considering longevity here.

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ahoneybadger3@reddit

Yeah I have longevity. I mean so long as people want to go abroad then I'm in a job and that's a given.

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peppermint_aero@reddit

Generally, travel is a safe industry...until something like a pandemic shuts it down. Hopefully we don't have another for a long time!

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ahoneybadger3@reddit

I'd welcome another shut down. I got paid more in those months than otherwise. Furlough was the best thing I think I've had.

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OurSeepyD@reddit

I just mean with automation / self-driving. We've obviously been promised self-driving cars for a long time, but it does feel like it won't be far off.

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ahoneybadger3@reddit

Yeah doubtful on this end. They're going for driver-less buses but to actually get a wagon to load and unload a plane is another matter. You'd have to get the hostesses to clear the aisle for a start.

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Feelincheekyson@reddit

Sounds like a great job to be fair

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Future-Exercise-7433@reddit

This was going to be my advice too. You can use it in so many kinds of jobs too

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BellendBuilder@reddit

What’s your trade bruv? Even as a labourer you shouldn’t be making anything like minimum wage.

To answer your second question you absolutely can get a degree without having A levels etc, just you’ll have to do a foundation level too, and they use your relevant work experience to make up for your lack of academic grades.

I know this as I run a construction company but I’m looking to progress into areas I’m not qualified for, and I actually start my degree in Construction Management in June.

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ConfectionHelpful471@reddit

If OP is working via an agency, then he likely is taking home close to minimum wage if he just a general labourer.

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BellendBuilder@reddit

He’s not he’s working through some clart who is paying him half CIS and half cash in hand. Poor lads being mugged right off.

If he mentions where he lives I could put him onto companies who would put him on a flyer if he wanted it.

Cowboy cunts like where he’s working reyt piss me off, makes the rest of us look bad.

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dantes_b1tch@reddit

Think some of the companies need a good rodgering with that cock rod 3000 😂

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Ain’t that the truth 🤣

Obviously I was out cold when they put everything in but felt everything when taken out 5 days later.

I felt so bad for the nurse as its reyt hurt. Every other second like “oooo u dirty bastard…sorry I mean the pain not you”

Fortunately I’ve known her since my school days so she laughed it off 😅🤣

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dantes_b1tch@reddit

Hahaha am sorry to say your story has put a right smile on my faceafter a shitty day, so thank you 😂

That said, obviously glad things worked out for you too ☺️

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Glad it helped pal ☺️ and me too!

Yeah I’ve known her 25/26 years so first thing I did was message her hubby saying “your Emma was just pulling on my pecker pal”😂😂

He’s laugh reacted and she walks past in a few minutes later like “can you for once in your life just not be a knob” 😂

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ConfectionHelpful471@reddit

In that case fully agree - first step regardless of his long term plan needs to be to get a new job in a different company so he can at least get paid properly and on the books

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ampmz@reddit

You don’t need to do a foundation degree, an Access to HE course is probably a better option. Especially for someone who hasn’t been in education for a while. Changed my life.

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BellendBuilder@reddit

I was talking in terms of what I have to do for my course mate. A foundation year then my full degree.

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highrouleur@reddit

At 28 do you need to do a foundation year now? I started a part time degree with gcses aged 23 (admittedly back at the start of the century)

Did have an entirely unrelated nvq3 but I thought as a mature (over 21) student you could generally get straight onto a degree course?

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Best thing you can do mate is call and ask. Some do offer it minus a foundation but for this specific course it required it.

Different providers do it differently mate.

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woooooooood9@reddit

Respect

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Cheers pal. I’m actually really looking forward to it.

Due to some accidental medical negligence which I reported so the same mistake doesn’t happen again, but I’m not arsed about claiming compensation for as it was a genuine mistake, I had to have major life saving surgery couple of days before NYE last year.

I’d been procrastinating about doing the degree for the last couple of years but it was kind of a light bulb moment of that life’s too short and you never know what’s going to happen, so once I was up and about again, got myself booked straight on.

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woooooooood9@reddit

Good on you pal. Gives me a buzz to hear someones woken up and going after it. I have my own plan to get out of my rut. Glad to hear your on the mend and i truely hope you all the best for the future brother.

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Cheers pal likewise. Very much so!

I felt weirdly calm about it. Was my kids it affected most as once I was out of surgery and they insisted on coming to see me, walked in on me with drainage bags in both kidneys, another one hanging out my nose and the cock rod 3000 installed 😅

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woooooooood9@reddit

Hahahahahahahaha

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Nubian_hurricane7@reddit

Not sure why I read this in my head with a Billy Butcher accent but respect to you!

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BellendBuilder@reddit

Quite funny you say that mate as my missus always sends me insta reels of him saying look babe you’d do that 🤣😅

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RohoTheCat@reddit

Have you considered training to be a site manager, or contracts manager? Maybe trying working for a D&B contractor, learn about being project manager etc

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dgee1985@reddit

Train to be an electrician or a plumber

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EyeAlternative1664@reddit

The trades I’ve had round recently have all been 400 quid a day, I think you need to work for someone else (you say self employed but I bet your taking the wrong contracts).

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Loud-Welder1947@reddit

I went back to college at 27. I did an IT BTEC level 2. I had a bad maths gcse. For some reason I really struggled with it in school, but looking back I just couldn’t focus in school as a teenager in general. So i did this thing called Functional Skills, passed that and then that over rode my maths GCSE and is a C equivalent.

With those completed I then went on to do a Level 3 BTEC. So that was 3 years in total. I also worked part time in an Asda 2 evenings a week and Sundays so I had some spending money, and upped my shifts during term holidays.

When I finished it my college had connections with the local companies and they gave me information on an IT apprenticeship for the Valuation Office Agency in their digital centre. There were level 2 and level 3 options but I started at level 3 because of the previous BTECs.

That was really good as you swapped teams every 2-3 months to learn different parts of the business and you also did multiple different modules for coursework e.g project management, online services, testing and QA etc.

When it finished they only kept 1 on out of the 5 that did it, so I had to do some different temp work for a year but I checked job listings there regularly and another Level 3 came up for Software Development.

I applied for that and got it, was on 28k and got a 3k bonus one Christmas so it’s quite well paid.

Unfortunately 6 months into it covid happened and I ended up redeveloping several anxiety/depression and agoraphobia which I had overcome in my early 20s but it came back 10 x worse than before because of all the lockdowns. I ended up leaving due to that, as well as finding learning coding too hard because I was basically at home and having to learn everything from videos/online courses and it just didn’t work for me. Plus I was so anxious I just couldn’t concentrate and had severe brain fog.

Anyway some of my other colleagues are still there now, I think they’re getting on for nearly 10 years now and a lot are now working up in London. Some are doing back end work, online intranet/rating manuals support, one even got into the IT security side of things.

I’d still be there too but I never recovered from it fully and am now on long term sick.

I can really recommend checking out apprenticeships and as you’re going back to college they should have some good resources for local companies in your area. I suppose you can do further afield too now a lot of companies let you work from home after you’ve trained up.

Good luck with it all. It was one of the best choices I ever made and wish I was still there.

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ruffianrevolution@reddit

Tree work. Arborist courses aren't pricey to get started. There are apprenticeships but building trade has loads in common so you could do a six month course and be working by the end of it.

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Smithy0612@reddit

Have you ever thought about education? I have friends who work in FE and earn good money then do trade work during the holidays .. win win

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doegrey@reddit

There are a lot of trades which can become successful businesses but just cause you’re good at the trade doesn’t mean you know how to run a business.

Have you considered doing a business course and then one day starting your own business?

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Opening-Concert-8016@reddit

Sales. IT sales specifically, get a BDR or SDR. No qualifications needed. Easy to progress of you're willing to put the graft in

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Far_Kaleidoscope_102@reddit

14k is massive savings btw

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DescriptionFuture851@reddit (OP)

It's not bad, but I wouldn't say it's particularly good either.

In all honestly, it's not hard to save money when you live at home, only pay a bit in board, don't date and don't have an expensive social life.

My main hobbies are pool and darts, which are very expensive.

Not drinking or taking drugs also helps.

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Free_Ad7415@reddit

I mean, a plumber recently charged me £1500 for a day’s labour, pretty sure you can make enough money if you do the right jobs and have the right strategy/ business sense/ work ethic/ customer service.

Do you like what you do? Are you good at it? If so then I would persevere with a clear plan so when your hurt yourself or can’t work anymore you can still carry on (eg with others working for you, for example).

If not then you will have transferable skills and there are so many jobs out there I’m sure you’ll find something

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GaryPartsUnknown@reddit

Hospitality is easy to move up in with no starting qualifications. Everywhere is always short staffed and struggles for reliable,full time workers…if you turn up and efficiently do your job you will move up quickly. It’s long, hard hours and you will basically be working the opposite hours than you do now but the brands are realising salaries need to go up so assistant managers are starting at 35+ and managers 38+.
Not fantastic but it is an option that doesn’t require studying and you can realistically reach these roles in a couple of years

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toady89@reddit

I would look at degree apprenticeships, you get to keep some form of income whilst getting your degree paid for and gaining more work experience in a relevent role.

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A_Owl_Doe@reddit

Apprenticeship, study hard, work weekends.

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No-Dinner-3715@reddit

If you work in Civils and have the desire to change you can. I’ve taken loads of blokes off the tools who had drive and ambition and trained them as engineers, who then went on into site management roles.

Find the right firm, show willing they will recognise that and train you and send you to college etc.

I work as a Project Director running £100m plus projects and started work 2 weeks after my 16th birthday. It can be done.

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Both-Anteater3056@reddit

Why not just ask your pps for a pay rise? Sou d like your wage is stemmed due to you living at home still. Without knowing an exact figure your paid it's hard to make a judgement but in a basis labourer say £120-150 cash or £180-£200 on the books. Either way your on a winner.

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srm79@reddit

Do you know what it is you want to do? It's best to start here because, degrees are expensive, and you could be better off doing something vocational, especially as you already have construction experience.

Quantity Surveying (RICS qualification) or Health and Safety (NEBOSH certificates & diplomas) or Project Management (Agile Techniques) are a couple of directions you can explore with your experience.

Or go in a totally different direction but, map your career path first, don't waste your time and money just to have a degree.

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opinionated7onion@reddit

You'd be better off spending the money on tickets and staying in construction.

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EyeAware3519@reddit

You just need to get better jobs. Construction is a very well paid industry.

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Confident_Yak_1411@reddit

It’s actually easier to get into uni as a mature student than it is straight from school.

When I went to uni at 22 I don’t think they even checked my grades, and I got the full help from student finance in terms of grants as mature students don’t have to disclose parents’ income.

Granted this was 15 years ago (gasp) and it wasn’t in medicine/law field etc.

I would say that I’m not sure a degree is worth it unless the job you specifically want requires it.

Instead look at jobs you find interesting and see if you can do the quals in the mean time on your own dime.

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Decent_Confidence_36@reddit

Retraining at 28 won’t be easy at all, being on minimum wage and living with parents is a positive in this situation. My only suggestion would be if you do go uni don’t live in halls with 18 year old.. it’ll be weird, have a 5 year plan then plan each year into a 12 month plan.. all the best to you

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DescriptionFuture851@reddit (OP)

The good news is that I'm a 10 minute bus ride from Durham uni, which is pretty cool.

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No-Salt6819@reddit

Look into degree apprenticeships, earn while you learn. NatWest just opened their apprenticeships scheme https://jobs.natwestgroup.com/pages/apprenticeships

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Capable_Tip7815@reddit

You could move to a different area of construction - transmission network operators have a lot of construction going on right now. Then there's site management/construction management. There's also civil engineering routes. We use civil engineers to design substations etc.

But then it's all about what floats your boat and what you can stand doing for the next 40 years.

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