5punk

righty-o, here goes nothing:

i'm 27, i'm an armourer, and i'm in the RAF, recognised qualifications include a Not Very Qualified lvl3 in aircraft engineering, a gcse science double award (physics C and chemistry C), and a business studies Gcse. all other subjects i took, i ended up with a D or worse. i'm also a trained engineer, but with no recognised qualifications behind me .

I'm scared as hell of ending up on the dole, so i'm gonna need a new job at some point. Timescale isnt so bad, at worst i have 2 years to get qualifications behind me, at best 5 years (if i got my tapes, i'd have another 12 years to go, but that only happens in my worst nightmares).

IIRC theres a few bods on here who've managed to escape from her majestys pleasure and could give me some pointers, but i'm looking for advice in general. I wouldnt mind a hands on engineering job, but i'm not going back to a shity job on piecework. anyone have any ideas?

I hear McDonalds are recruiting

Dog Pants wrote:I hear McDonalds are recruiting

Pfft stole it right from my mouth. I love the science double award thing, it sounds awesome but in actual fact its just saying 'i couldn't be arsed with french'. But then, who could.

From my experience of this god foresaken world its not what you learn, its where you have worked. Joe bloggs and his half son have a GCSE in business studies and i still wouldn't hire them to run my company (if i had one). You need to compare the duties and qualities of what you are doing in the horses and compare them to real world jobs.
For instance the aircraft engineering bit. Fair enough you wont find a company that will hire you for doing that, but if its you vs joe bloggs and his passion for cars in a spot for being a mechanic then... Yeah.

Drunken babble concluded: Find what you are good at, and milk it for every penny.

.

amblin wrote:
Ha, I got double A in GCSE science

I got a double A at the Spar.

Try the arrse link to that job seeking forum thing?

Ha! Well I got 2 A-stars in my dual-award science, and an A-star in french too!

If you want to keep doing manual type hands-on work, then I'd second what amblin said and suggest plumbing or electrician. Theres such a general demand for them that you can make an absolute mint if you want too. A plumber I know very rarely answers his house phone and screens all calls through his answering machine. His reason is "it'll just be another fucker wanting me to come out and do some work".

As friz mentioned, www.arsse.co.uk is a useful resource. After they have got bored of ripping you for being a crab there is a wealth of knowledge on there.

Other than that, I would suggest you make sure you have a solid job sorted before you get out. I completely fucked off my resettlement, which in hindsight was a mistake (I was lucky that the Army had paid a fortune to train me in something not many people do), however there are loads of options you can get out of it. Again, plumbers have a licence to print money. I have a friend who started from scratch at 27, he now works for himself and doesn't have enough hours in the day.

Having been in the horses always looks good on a CV as most potential employers realise that it suggests you know what an honest days work means (if only they knew the truth). More civvy quals in anything can't hurt, whilst you probably know you field better than most 'fresh out of school' types, it won't mean anything if you don't have a crisp certificate you prove it, unfortunately.

Just make sure you milk the RAF for every course and qual you can before you tell them you are signing off.

Speaking of courses and qualifications, I take it you know about Learning Credits and Advanced Learning Credits? Well worth using - work pay for 80% of your qualification and you can do it in their time. Winner. I did my ECDL on a one-week intensive (not that intense really) course and the RAF paid for £180 out of the £220, so it ended up costing me £40 and a piss easy week off work.

I know a few people who fucked off to live in Australia - skillz such as yours are in high demand over there.

From what they tell me it is an extremely nice place to live as well.

Roman Totale wrote:I know a few people who fucked off to live in Australia - skillz such as yours are in high demand over there.

From what they tell me it is an extremely nice place to live as well.

I'd love that. I've never heard anyone come back from Aus and say 'Well that was a load of old arse!', but I know plenty of people that are sick of Blighty and the stupid government decisions that are made here.

Also, don't know how close to what you do this is, but I know they'll be looking for a lot of aircraft techs on the SAR flights soon when it goes civvy. With your background I'd say you'd stand a better chance than most.

Dog Pants wrote: With your background I'd say you'd stand a better chance than most.

Then again, he is ginger...

Roman Totale wrote:
Then again, he is ginger...

Leave that off your CV Anham

Dog Pants wrote:I've never heard anyone come back from Aus and say 'Well that was a load of old arse!'

I'd be shit-scared of the spiders from what visitors have told me. Whereas your average brit spider will scuttle obligingly away when you wave something in its general direction - aussie ones tend to attack what you're poking it with, or jump up at you.

its www.arrse.co.uk not arsse

Peter Armstrong wrote:its www.arrse.co.uk not arsse

Noooooooooo, I got spell checked by Peter

If you fancy moving overseas Anham, check the relevant country's immigration website. I know the Aussies and Kiwi's are almost always recruiting Brit service personnel, and it's much easier to do if you are still serving. I have a mate who transferred to the New Zealand army and he is absolutely loving it; better quality of life, great place to live and no shitty tours to shitty wars.