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I'm desperately seeking an apprenticeship in electrical or data Melb


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Hey everyone..

I am 31 years old and getting married in February.

I have been working as a self employed cleaner for 10 years and really would like to career change. My business is seasonal and I need income security.

However being of mature aged I am finding it difficult to find an employer. There's absolutely nothing wrong with me.. I am keen and ready for hard work.

Does any know an electrical contactor in east Melbourne who can employ me?

Interst is.. electrical, data electrical and air conditioning.

Please pm me with details.

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Scott,

age is irrelevant. I started my trade as an electrician a little late myself and did not commence my engineering degree until well into my 30's.

Good luck with the job search.

Regards,

George

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Hi Scott - good luck in your search...

From an employer perspective, there's nothing below that helps your chances -  and worse, stuff that doesn't help.

 

Social media (like this site) plays a part in employment choices these days, and all employment agencies and potential employers will search for you on social media to see if you have "silly stuff" online (Facebook etc), but also stuff elsewhere like your post.

 

These days I'm not directly involved with hiring staff, but I have a lot of experience on both sides of an interview table.

 

First thing - well done for having a crack at expanding your potential employer base by posting on SNA - cheers!

 

But (all the rest is not as positive, but may assist):

  • potential employers only care about how you can help them (and that's fair enough)....any application (including your thread) needs to focus on what you can provide to any potential employer
  • getting married in February tells an employer you need holidays when you've only just started
  • wanting a career change is fine, and your current job being seasonal is a good motivator for you, but an employer won't care much (again, how by employing you, will it help them)
  • you'd like work in electrical/data/air conditioning, but have no experience - where's the upside for the employer?
  • you'd like work in East Melbourne - sounds like you won't travel/don't have a car/maybe can't drive for some reason?
  • never ever have typos - check and re-check - "contactor", "Interst", "being of mature aged"- I do work in an industry where good doco skills are critical to what I do. Maybe less so in your target market, but typos are red flags to me.
  • IME applications/CVs etc only get you to the next step - an interview. The interview is the critical bit - don't provide an easy reason (like typos), to reject you from an interview.  
  • careful with words like desperately - your thread is basically a job application on SNA - would you use that word in a job application? 

If you treat what you wrote below as a job application to SNA members, think about "what's in it for them?"

 

Hey everyone..

I am 31 years old and getting married in February.

I have been working as a self employed cleaner for 10 years and really would like to career change. My business is seasonal and I need income security.

However being of mature aged I am finding it difficult to find an employer. There's absolutely nothing wrong with me.. I am keen and ready for hard work.

Does any know an electrical contactor in east Melbourne who can employ me?

Interst is.. electrical, data electrical and air conditioning.

Please pm me with details.

 

If you like, I'm happy to provide additional guidance via PM.

 

cheers

Mike

 

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Its really hard with out prier experience.

 

Ive known a few mature aged electrical apprentices, all were either mates or related to the trades man.

 

There is no shortage of kids coming out of prevocational coarses looking for an apprenticeship in electrical......why not its a bludge job, I wanted to be a sparky, but mum said I had to stay at school and get a real job. ;)

 

Id go canvasing different companies, face to face may give you and advantage over an email or phone call.

 

How are you going to survive on apprentice wages for 4 years?

 

Try the army.

Edited by awty
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Thanks.

I dont normally notice spelling mistakes as im deslexic and really rely heavily on predictive text.

Motivation is what I was expressing in this post.

But I see now that a honeymoon time off is a negative so I will be careful.

Travel is not an issue unless I'm paying for the fuel. Yes this is a negative but I am smart. No use working a job if im wasting money to do it.

I posted here because I would enjoy working with someone who also does home theater installs.

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I did my apprenticeship in my late 20's in a furniture trade. 4 years later I was working at a city trade school but teaching in this trade is very lacking in security and the good old days for trade teachers are long gone I suspect. Unfortunately I specialise in a dying trade which I usually enjoy but it's not very secure and I too think of re training....again. I'm in my 40's so I better get a wriggle on :)

 

Occasionally I wish I'd done a plumbing or sparky apprenticeship. All you need is a vehicle and tools, trade license etc and you have relatively low overheads and better income. Furniture trades need to rent largish work space, pay bills on space, need expensive machinery that requires maintenance not to mention a vehicle for carting all your tools and work to and from site. You have to work hard for the money and are competing against cheaper imports.

 

At some companies I've worked for I know highly skilled makers who are earning only $23 an hour even though they have years of experience both here and in Europe. The majority of their work is high end and goes into houses in comfortable areas like Toorak etc.

 

I say good on you for recognising a change is needed but make sure it is definitely what you want to do and be prepared to work for it. Like most older students I had to do extra jobs to supplement my low wage at the time. Some very good points from almikel there.Think of the bosses perspective. Also look into government assistance for the boss as that will be a sweetener to potential employers when you approach them. And accept you will get the shiit jobs for at least the first year. Most employers would probably agree it takes 2 years sometimes more before an apprentice starts making them money.

 

Best of luck to you and keep at it if that's where you want to go. Nearly all my jobs didn't exist until I researched the company and contacted them. Plenty of "not hiring atm" but I persisted.

 

Cheers Legs11

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Occasionally I wish I'd done a plumbing or sparky apprenticeship. All you need is a vehicle and tools, trade license etc and you have relatively low overheads and better income. Furniture trades need to rent largish work space, pay bills on space, need expensive machinery that requires maintenance not to mention a vehicle for carting all your tools and work to and from site. You have to work hard for the money and are competing against cheaper imports.

 

 

 

Cost $million to properly set up a Smash repair business these days.....and Insurance companies will dictate......stay away IMO...

 

 

Tase.

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Sad to hear in the past seven years so much has changed in the industry. And not for the positives where quality doesn't mean a thing it's all about saving a dollar for the insurance MOB.

Quality does not mean a thing in many industries.

The prime example is the Consumer Electronics industry

Colour TV's came with a standard 3 year warranty plus an extra 2 years on the tube when they were introduced into Australia in 1975

40 years later the standard warranty is 1 year

Progress?

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@scott  Just a point about your history of self employment. Strange as it may seem, many employers don't like to employ people who have been self employed. Especially if there is a long history of self employment. They see you as being too independent and perhaps not a team player. Too likely to want to do it your way. I believe that intelligent employers would see self employment as a positive, but alas, many don't.

 

Good luck with the search, mate.

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  • 5 weeks later...
Try someone like Tech2home, you will need to be a contractor and have your own vehicle and tools. I used to be a supervisor with them when they first started and they used to use ex Harvey Norman salesman with zero experience with any form of physical labour and they slowly learnt on then job, they usually gave them easy jobs first like setting up a pvr or just a TV than more complex such as home theatre, speaker mounting etc.

Also Electroboard would be worth a try, a large national commercial AV installers where you can start as a labourer pulling cables in and work your way up. 

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