Change in career.

[Magic]

Firstly I apologise if I am posting this in the wrong forum, but it did include a kind of "Hot Topics" description in the preamble, and by the look of some of the lockers on boats I have crewed on, confusion is accepted/expected from newbies.

Okay to the point, 30, IT, Bored, fed up, hacked off, I mean really hacked off, and I am looking to embark on a career change (Professional Skipper/Waiter).

I could tell you about my thoughts on the subject, my ideas, my plans, my dreams, the lottery win to come, but I won't! Instead I will put it in really simple terms and politely solicit feedback.

I am 30, an IT Something (You know we make up job titles) in London and am ready for a career change. At present I am busy making lists of things to consider, potential roles I could could take on, roles I can realistically perform, if I have the money, and repeatedly asking if this is this a sane thing to do?

Now I turn to you! Has anybody been brave enough to do this? What questions am I not asking myself? What questions should I be asking myself? What is there after private health care?

Seriously I would really really appreaciate your views, opinions, and comments!

Mark
/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[adrianm]

Having just given up a very lucrative career as an IT director in London I know what you're going through.

I'm in the process of building my own boat which I will get MCA certified so I can use it for corporate charters (once I've finished my yachtmaster with commercial endorsement).

This might generate enough money to live on but if it doesn't I will have all the boat fit-out skills that I'm learning to fall back on as well.

With the money I've got tucked away in the bank and with a bit of belt tightening I'm sure I'll be all right. If not there must be other things to do and I'd kick myself in 10 years time if I hadn't taken the chance.

My own view is that life is too short not to take chances to make yourself happy. If you can keep a roof over your head and feed yourself what else do you need?

 

[DJE]

Plumber. nm

.

 

[Cornishman]

I did it 30 years ago, and for a while I was madly happy as manager of a fleet of five large (up to 75 feet) cruising yachts and regularly sailing as skipper of them. I discovered at the end of the second season that I was subsidising other people's sailing holidays by living on my own saved capital, the pay was so poor. I don't think it has improved much these days - you are supposed to do the job for love of it.
I found other employment as an instructor and in charge of sailing yachts for a MN college for 11 years until I retired.
Yes, carpe diem I believe is the saying, but keep a careful eye on your personal finances because it is all too easy to have them fritter away without you even noticing it until it is too late. You are too busy enjoying your new found lifestyle

 

[powerskipper]

There are jobs , it can pay more to be a class 4 skipper. [expensive ticket to get ] A YM down the med on a private or charter boat can be OK pay wise [sometime] but vet them as much as they vet you. Its hard work but a good life, but not always well payed,
If you can teach , instructing can be another option, some places want this ticket as a min requirement.

Remember that a lot of it is season work, unless you are prepared to change continents.
You can get to the stage you live out of a kit bag. some time bedding down in a cramped crew cabin or a 5 * hotel, You have to be flexible.

 

[cozy]

Better to regret the things you did rather than the things you didn't do. Besides, if your heart isn't in your current career, sooner or later that will show through.

 

[mikebees]

Stick with your career.
If it's not difficult it's not worth doing.
Sailing is ok for weekends and holidays but littered with so called 'skippers' and sailing off into the blue wannabees. They are 10 a penny and nearly always pathetic failures that can't face the challenges of the modern world.

 

[webcraft]

Re: the challenges of the modern world

Like . . .

. . . going somewhere you don't want to be and doing stuff you don't want to do with people you wouldn't give the time of day to outside of work . . .

. . . making money making stuff, selling stuff or providing services that people don't really need and can't really afford

. . . engaging in unnecessary planet-damaging activities and consoling your nagging conscience with the thought that you are in fact being a grown up and facing up to the challenges of the modern world'

Nah.

We all have choices, but a lot of us do not have the guts to make them.

Run away to sea, young man. If you don't you will regret it. You can always go back to work later, maybe not IT but perhaps something useful . . .

- Nick

(So-called skipper and pathetic wannabe)

 

[Nich39Nige]

Mike,

I'm 52 and have thrown in the towel, last day today. I'm now my own man for the first time in 30 years. I have enough to live for the rest of my life outside the consumer society. Nervous ...yes but excited as well.
I've a well found boat and an excellent crew (my wife and every now and again my son.

My father told me when I left home and was a bit of a "freak" that the only way out of society was through it. Well now I'm through it and looking forward to being a New Age Traveller, albeit a rather well off one. It's a fine feeling not being a wage slave anymore.

You spend a long time dead!

 

[adrianm]

Re: Modern world?

If the modern world means working 60 hours a week just 'cos everyone else does, fighting endless red tape, never seeing the kids and putting up with graduates who couldn't pass an old style "O" level then you can keep it.

Personally I think having the guts to realise that one doesn't need to be a wage slave just to be able to buy a load of c***p that no-one needs doesn't make one a failure.

 

[DeeGee]

You asked for replies from those who have done the career change... ok you got some. I changed my career twice (not for sailing), and found that life after a time got to be just as much a hassle as doing the previous thing.

I suggest you would do best doing the thing you know best - IT. 'BEND' what you are doing to fit your temperament and feelgood factor. If it is the hours that are getting to you, then change your hours, if neccy by changing jobs... same for if it is travel, location, people you work with, the project you are on, the technology you use. Maybe even, get your job moved in the direction of somewhere else you want to be, by working for, say, a marine allied job... or summat like.

If you change to full-time sailing job, it COULD just be that you will kill the passion for your hobby with the grind factor of whatever you end up doing - for odds are that it will be a grind.

IMHO, of course....

 

[Danny_Labrador]

I don’t know if this helps….... but … be wary of taking a career in pursuit that you love… If it doesn’t work out you will loose the passion and resent the activity as the reason for your downfall.

Getting out of the rat race is laudable… If only we all could do this,.... successfully!

Good luck to you!

Remember… Life is like a sh2T sandwich……… the more bread you have, the better it tastes!

 

[snowleopard]

I dipped a toe in the water by buying a small charter fleet and running it through an agent. As others have said, I was subsidising other peoples's holidays. In the end I decided to stick with a good earner then stop working and sail for my own pleasure.

Yachting for a living means having to sail regardless of whether you want to and can rapidly become a chore. I spent all my time doing rush maintenance jobs on my boats and rarely had time to sail one.

I rode the IT contract wave for 7 years during which I built a boat and at the end of the period, just as IR35 killed the industry, chucked it in and went sailing.

My advice is to stick with what pays the dosh and stop when you've enough cash to live on.

 

[Stemar]

Two little stories

No 1.

There was once a girl who had a talent for ballet. Everyone said she was brilliant and could be a star. One day a famous dancer who now ran the top ballet school in the country came to her town and auditioned her. SHe gave everything she had to that audition and danced as she never had before. When she'd finished,she asked "What do you think? Have I got what it takes? The dancer looked at her and said, "No."

Shattered, she gave up dancing, worked in the local supermarket, got married and had a couple of kids. Twenty years later, the teacher came to her town again. The woman met him and told her story then asked "How could you be so sure that I didn't have what it takes in such a short time?" He replied, "Oh, I hardly looked at your dancing. I say that to everyone."

She was flabberghasted - and furious. "How could you be so callous? I lived for danciing. You've ruined my life!" "No, he said, I was right. If you had what it takes you wouldn't have listened to me."

No 2.

There was once an amateur photographer. Photography wasn't just a hobby, it was his whole life and he took the most beautiful pictures. Eventually he turned professional and was soon in demand, having a successful career.

Some years later, he retired and sold all his cameras. He never took another photograph in his life.


Only you know which one applies....

But whichever, don't look back.

 

[craigbalsillie]

I'm 35 and also in I.T.
I too have often felt that I would love to jack it all in and take up sailing as a career and hobby.

I've read all the other replies to this questions and I agree with a few of the points.

Particularly the chap (or chapess) who suggested that it may be better to change job so that the things that really jar you off about your current job no longer apply.

I plan to take that advice and keep the hobby / career seperate for a while.

Although, I wonder if I might be a bit more fussy when I take my next job and wait till I find a job with a company that has marine industry ties..

That might be a way to see if tying a career and hobby is really for me..

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

My father ran a chandlery for 30 years........ he pretty much gave up sailing..... his view was that he was in and around boats all day, and didn't want to be for his leisure time...... It took 10 years for him to develop this attitude... his view..... NEVER mix work and pleasure.... only now that he is retired am I tempting him back on board....

Magic,

I can sympathise though..... I often think/dream/fantasise about complete career changes.... but it never seems to be financially possible..... my experience is that the only people who are completely happy with their work are those that have little or no life outside of work....our fix.... we have completely built our plans around retiring at 50... selling the house and buying a much smaller one, buying a 50 footer, and then clearing off around the world...... it makes the daily slog a little more bearable having a goal.... 12 1/2 years to go!

 

[Evadne]

I think there is a trend developing here. I was told by someone who had made that mistake, never to turn your hobby/passion into your career, because then you won't have a hobby. I'm not sure I fully agree with it, or that it would ever apply to sailing, but would you want to go to the sort of Lifestyle PowerSkipper is describing?

I'm lucky enough to have a job I enjoy, for the most part. A lot of people don't. For most wage earners in the Western world, work is what you spend most of your waking hours doing. You need to work in order to live, have a house, go sailing at weekends etc., but if you enjoy your work then you're enjoying most of your waking hours. Enjoyable jobs are invariably less well paid than the less enjoyable ones, but make sure it pays the rent.

 

[RupertW]

I'd say go for it - but be realistic about what sort of life you'll have.

I took 2002 off work to get the YM so I had a paper qualification and see whether I could make it as a delivery skipper. It worked out pretty much as I hoped - I spent a lot of the year sailing and learnt loads about how to sail in different and often much simpler ways. I spent 3 months in the Caribbean and had frost covered waterproofs in the Channel, and I had enough "First Mate" positions to be offered paying skippering roles if I agreed to stick with it. Skippering pay is great if you are single and happy to spend a lot of the year at sea and kip down with friends/girlfriends whilst waiting for the next trip. Otherwise it's pretty limiting.

I was happy to get back to London and a much fuller and rounder life, with a little boat to sail evenings and weekends and a charter or two somewhere hot each year. I don't work in IT any more, but I'm even getting a hankering for that again, so who knows.

 

[doris]

When I got the chance to take big chunks of time off work in the city I got all the usual tickets, YM Ocean Power and sail, commercial etc, so that I could take out lots of other peeps boats and get paid for it. I soon learnt that without significant outside financial rescources it would not be fun. Great way of learning about all sorts of boats but staying with a decent earning capabilty makes a lot more sense. If you are good at it move jobs, go to NZ, think laterally, whatever, but to chuck it all now could well make it v. difficult to get back into wealth generation in a few years time. The joy of being skint wears off pretty quickly. Best of luck.

 

[Magic]

WOW what a response

Okay wow what a nice bunch of people!

Being in IT you kind of get the YUK feeling about message boards but I must say, I have received some great feedback (or is that to OFFICE?).

The negative to start with was met with "Hey don't **ss on my dreams" but after some reviewing I thought [to myself] "Hey listen numb nuts they are giving what you asked for - there opinion! Why are you getting fed up?"

I have had lots of responses, emails, and PM's and need a day or two to digest. I will respond to all and I have even more questions so please don't let this go dead!

Big thanks to Gerald, I will reply to you PM and email I promise! I just need some digestion time!!