Stepping out of your comfort zone.

[Olly]

FWIW I'm glad you're sticking with your plumbers apprenticeship as well as getting tickets in other things. Surely being a qualified plumber will come in handy if you're in the excavation business?

If you take over the business you'll have the respect of the rest for not only having your tickets but ALSO being a qualified plumber I would think. The only other thing you need to tack onto your 'learn list' is how to actually RUN the business, which I presume your FIL will introduce you to over the coming years. Doing a bit of a business course wouldn't hurt either depending on your skills & knowledge and ability to 'pick it up' from the FIL. You may be a natural at this too and not even need a course.

Sounds like you have a great future - congratulations.

 

[The Fuzz]

If you love doing something then go for it, being happy at work and really enjoying what you're doing makes life so much easier. I can remember being in rubbish jobs and hoping one day I would find something I loved and motivated me...if you find it then take take the opportunity with both hands

 

[AndrewT]

Thanks everyone for the support and motivation! It really has made a difference, and probably one of the reasons I finally pushed myself to take a week off and do the tickets. I have talked to the FIL and I am soon to do a few weekend shifts with him so I can practice digging around live cables and so on. Once I get my HR license then I will be able to start taking the skid steer to work on weekends, so now I am thinking of getting this sooner then originally thought!

In the past I have cut and run. I've done a few jobs already and really haven't had much to show for it because I decided to take myself elsewhere. Which has meant that at 24, I'm only just nearing the end of my apprenticeship. I think to prove to myself I can finish something, I will have to stick with the trade for at least the next 1.5 years.

It's hard to say what I want to do and be 100% sure about it. 1.5 years is a long time, but also in the scheme of things - it's a short time. Funnily enough, just after telling my plumbing boss on friday about how I got the tickets and how I really enjoyed driving the machines, he seems to have given me a pay rise. An extra $100 a week, which I am hoping isn't just a mistake!

Thanks again for the comments, it's really good to see other peoples point of views.

 

[INVSTOR]

I learn a job, I love it and then I get bored with it. There is no doubt that after my plumbing apprenticeship I probably will move onto another career - it's not something I want to do for the rest of my life, thats for sure.

So whether I like it or not, I will complete my plumbing apprenticeship. I've got to stick at it and only 1.5 years left to finish anyway! If I were to follow my heart then I don't know what I would end up doing - I have thought about doing something in finance before, I enjoy numbers and want to help people in some way.

Honestly, I would be pretty happy just to work a job that earnt myself 52k+ a year. I see that amount as enough to save for investments and still enjoy a few finer things like a nice car . Might be a different story when we have kids but hopefully some of our investments will be +ve geared by then...

Hi Andrew, if you like numbers and find you get bored easily, doing a few Management subjects along the way may help to either become a plumbing foreman or run FIL's business in future. Both will be good experience for each other. Becoming a plumbing foreman will be a good step up to running your own business.
Congrats on your tickets!

 

[AndrewT]

Another day, another dollar...Literally! lol.

So I took on board some more advice and decided that while I am doing the final year of my apprenticeship, I might as well start looking at studying another course totally unrelated. I will have quite a few things going on but I've got the determination! So I have enrolled in a course I have always wanted to go back to, since I did actually start it at uni years ago, Bachelor of IT (Computer Science). Will be doing it through Open Uni and I get all the information to start on the 1st of December! To make it even more enticing, the course has minor degrees in Accounting, Economics, Business Management, Logistics and Marketing - of which you choose 2 to take on.

Now it's time to get funds together for HR!