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Let your next career move come to you.

If you could do a simple manual job

For your current salary, say road sweeping,  would you?

Me. Yes

I could do all sorts of things to use my brain.  The best thing about it would be the time to think and listen to audio books and podcasts. 

 

I would love to drive tractors and combine harvesters for a living. It's like meditating.

Problem is, I wouldn't want to do that unless I had enough money to choose not to do it once I inevitably got bored. 

Basically, I aspire to be like Forrest Gump.

Working outdoors in bad weather wouldn't bother me.

The best job I ever had was putting up conservatories during summers at university. The weather was nice and the pay was good.

You had to use your brain and it wasn't easy, but since I was doing a structural engineering degree, it wasn't too demanding. The company owner put me on the most tricky jobs which was a great education in itself.

He offered me a full time job, but I was moving on to other things back then.

I would like to be a gardener. Every gardener we have had has been lazy af, smoked weed the whole way through the job and charged like a wounded bull. Sounds ideal. 

People who can start and finish their job before they go home (hair dressers, taxi drivers, etc.) report way more job satisfaction than people like us who never stop thinking about their work.

 

I’d rather do something manual, but skilled; in another life I’d have been a wooden boat builder/repairer 

I spent a couple of winters doing 2 or 3 days of chainsaw work for 3 months and that was fun but would get old after a while 

This is one reason why I don't want to send my kids to a private school. If you didn't end up doing a professional job, you would be made to feel like a loser, but in reality a lot of manual workers are way happier than professionals, as long as it's skilled manual work.

Being a tradesman in my home town often looks a lot better than being a lawyer in London. Ofc the grass is always greener.

I was seriously considering jacking work in and becoming a postie (don’t need the money so much now) but they’ve made loads of redundancies haven’t they? 

I would have loved to have done 6 months with every team in my old firm as part of the training contract, e.g. having a four year long TC.  If you don't like something, you get to move on in 6 months.  If you discover you like something different then great.  Loads of cross transferable skills and a base level understanding about everything. Would have been a great opportunity. 

Know it is impractical in reality, but it would have been a great experience. 

best job I've had was putting bits of metal into machines to be stamped or laser cut BUT I wouldn't have wanted to do that long term because you couldn't do it with headphones in and you would fook your back in the long term. Everyone I worked with was a temp. Enjoyed it tho and the pay was surprisingly decent, much more than I'd have made working in Smiths.

I know a man who runs a company making metal widgets.  He employs a guy who has spent decades shovelling metal into a machine and resisting all offers of training to being able to do something else and of promotion because he knows what he's doing, can do it without thinking and is perfectly happy with the level of responsibility.

Terry tractor driving for harvest is reasonably skilled and relatively dangerous.  Every now then the hydraulics on the trailer fail and it comes crashing down on the driver.

I know a public school boy who runs his own little garden centre and another who runs a smokery and another with a building business. There are plenty of them out there but they tend not to say anything about because people who weren't privately educated will assume they have a drug problem or similar because they aren't highly paid City professionals.

@Sails - I grew up in a rural area, and know someone who got run over by a tractor trailer when 'roguing' potatoes, shattering his femur. 'elf and safety wasn't a paramount concern.

I also used to do broccoli harvesting in summer. The tractor drivers were invariably care-free happy old guys. My tan at the end of summer was spectacular.

Best job I ever had was teaching sailing - driving around all day in a Boston Whaler teaching kids how to do something fun. No real prospects, and it’s all health and safety and safeguarding nowadays, but it was great back in the day.

The shearers that visited us charged £45 - they were here half a day - there were two of them and they brought their own equipment.  I couldnt quite work out how they made ends meet at the time

The guy building our stone wall is a former professional. He is a super intelligent funny guy. Its quite a lonely job - he listens to podcasts all day and stops for a chat with everyone. He loves his job and his work is amazing. 

We had scaffolders here today - these people are seriously strong. I dont think i have the vocabulary to be a scaffolder. 

A lot of my none law existence is manual work. I really enjoy it. I don't get clerg's comment (no offence m8) above - moaning about the gym being closed but also being not interested in passive things that make you fitter and stronger. 

I still do the odd day working as a mate for corporate sailing days.  Those are fun if you get a good group and decent weather but would get a bit repetitive doing it all summer long.

I did enough corporate days for the Challenge tbf tbf; but teaching 8 - 11 years olds, out on their own from the second lesson, and seeing them click and ‘get it’ at some point was great.  plus co-workers in bikinis, natch

I do the occasional bit of ‘tree surgery’ in the grounds of Principle Towers but I couldn’t do it full time I’d be limbless or dead. I am physically reckless.

That's what I like about the corporate guests who are interested and work it out and start understanding.  Don't like the ones who think it's basically a cruise and that you are there to do everything for them.

Indeed sails I posted something about scaffolders in the summer when I was required to “supervise “ them on my rents place whilst they took it down and then moved it to the back of the house.

they have reputations of being feral , lazy Coke and piss heads. There were 3 of them. They didn’t stop , barely speaking to each other as they tossed and threw longons over 3 floors , big heavy collars and clips all in unison . Not a hard hat in sight. I saw them stop twice for a couple of tokes on a spliff in about 6 hours . Was pretty impressive to watch them. Done by 2 and in the pub until 6 getting hammered and coked up before they start again the next day !

They wear harnesses but never attach them to anything.

The laziness reputation comes from getting the f*ckers to take stuff down. They're all keen to put stuff up and charge you for it but if you want them to take it down and they haven't got another job to take it to you'll find yourself acting as a free storage yard with all manner excuses every time they fail to turn up and take it down as promised.  Builder has to work with them again so won't upset them so I ended up having to read them the riot act.

Always liked the idea of being a long distance lorry driver - I have a romantic image of enjoying the freedom and peace and quiet with just one simple aim.

I would of course hate it, particularly as I hate driving.

Golf or cricket groundsman sounds promising.

Ebit the threat of litigation over a couple of hundred grand and tying them in paperwork so they couldn't get out to do any scaffolding had them round the following Monday to take it down.

I'd like to have been an engine driver in the days of steam.  B*stard hard work and unsocial hours but a real craft.

I've done builders labouring, but it gets less appealing as one gets older. Even owning a bookshop is a lot of hard work if that Wigtown chap is to be believed - lifting tons of books from purchases.

I know someone who did the lyme Regis 1year boat-building course which was hard work and stank of resin. Then he set up repairing boats.

Scaffolders are all nuts, but roofers are the real dodgy characters. At least you know where you stand with concrete cows (pref upwind...)

My bro in law has the ideal life.

he trained in hospitality and so is a good cook. But for twenty years he had a garden maintenance business, just him, plus his father helped out in the summer. Lives in utterly beautiful Clune valley on Lancs Cumbria border. Busy all spring, summer and autumn. Lovely holidays in the winter. He would pop home for lunch, freely visit his parents who also lived in the area, ideal life.

then it dwindled, but at the same time as he masterminded the digging up of his village for broadband cabling, was a real barn raising project, he co-ordinated all the works plus got his hands dirty, and he now works for the company who were behind it, he visits rural communities and gets out in the fields telling them what needs to be done, first hand advice etc. Works throughout the vu,  more important then ever now.

I am blessed with fabulous in laws.

 

I was a painter and decorator with a mate for a couple of months after finishing a contract job, it was surprisingly fulfilling.   You meet some interesting characters too, both co-workers and clients. 

No law firm has ever been lost with all hands going round cape horn

Rum/sodomy/the lash are all optional and generally take place after hours

6 minute units are much easier to work with than pieces of eight

No, but I do do that kind of thing every day if I can for an hour or more - garden work or whatever.I have taken more loads of stuff to the council tip in the pandemic than any other resident in my London borough for example - that was mostly tree branches. I cleared the attic and shed at the house my son completed on last Friday over the last few days too although I still have quite a bit to clear in that garden shortly including 20 paving slabs which will certainly be going to test my muscle strength.

Hi Badders! How are you?

I think manual labour when young is a doddle. Of more senior years it needs to have been something you've done for a lifetime or it hurts.

That and the inevitable hangovers hurt more

Easiest job I ever had was train cleaning. 

Got sacked for failing a drugs test, which I regretted when I ended up back in the packhouse. 

Anyway, I'd do that job for my current wage. Packhouse, less so. 

A long time ago on my work experience in a bank I used a machine that you put the cheque in, typed in the amount, and it printed it on them in that funny font they have the bottom and whizzed it off somewhere. It was awesome. Because I liked it, I did the work too quickly and so to punish me they put me on to setting up standing orders which were a bunch of forms they’d just chucked in a drawer :(

merko there were some amazing sailing moments - the sunsets or flickering moonlights in the pacific or the dolphins alongside you for a few hours or even a whale... absolute peace and quiet with nothing over the horizon for over 60-70 miles

And going over mariana trench....

I’d love to do manual work.  I worked outside in my home country doing agricultural work (nice climate).  I loved it.  So much better than paper shuffler/docs blozza.

My brother is a greenkeeper at a top golf club. He absolutely loves it and I'm not surprised. Jobs like law/accounting need to be well-paid otherwise no fooker would put themselves through it. 

I had a job stacking beer bottles onto a pallet one summer. You got paid per pallet. It was absolutely soul-destroying and mind-numbing and I quit after two weeks. Then again I feel similar when doing doc review. 

Also worked in 'spoons during Uni. In huge contrast, that was quite fun. Would absolutely work in a bar/pub if that could pay the bills. 

I think the issue is not manual/paper based work, but rather whether it's repetitive/non-repetitive. 

During school and Uni holidays did a bit of caddying at the local posh courses for visiting tourists or wealthy societies. On a nice summer’s day you could get 2 jobs, so earn some decent wedge.

Would all depend on your player, but some gave some fantastic tips. Often would buy lunch for you at the halfway hut.

Best job I ever had in terms of money earned per hours worked was as a temp porter at a hotel in Switzerland. Usually only had to take a few cases up to the rooms for guest (and there were good trolleys and service lifts available) for which I received a relatively generous wage plus some quite astonishingly good tips from some of those guests. 

I was dish washer in a ski resort.

 

Totally menial unglamorous work which I loved.

 

No client contact. Got to ski all day. Get drunk at night (and usually before doing my evening shift). Loose women.

 

I have a plan to become a bicycle courier for six months at some point.

I did something similar in the winter of my gap year. The 'loose women' recruitment promise was the one that sealed the deal for me and it certainly proved to be the case in practice. 

Not too sure about becoming a cycle courier now tho'. From what I gather, the industry has suffered big time during lockdown and may never come back properly. 

I would hate to be a farmer, having to get out there in all weathers. My father, son of a farmer, has a "Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today?" philosophy embedded in him and regards getting up at 7.30am as an outrageously long lie in. That is no way to live in my book.

I would quite like a job editing estate agents' adverts. Even in Country Life the occasional rogue "principle" slips through the net.

Gwen they get up early in the winter to avoid working in the dark in the afternoon which makes a lot of sense.  What is mental these days is that if you own or rent a combine you need to work it so hard to cover the cost that you're running from early morning until the small hours of the following morning seven days a week.  Quite normal these days to fall asleep in the summer to the sound of a combine rumbling round the valley.

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