Too old to change careers and enter a trade?

[NetWareHead]

Pretty much the question. When is it too old to change careers and enter a trade? Some facts about me:

-Been in IT for 15+ years and getting tired of it. The money is fine and I can live comfortably. I just find myself getting bored dealing with this line of work. I'm getting kinda burned out myself, with the constant need to stay on top of new tech and recertifying every few years. Expensive and time consuming. I'm concerned about the future of IT, outsourcing etc... Im concerned because servers/systems that I manage, I'm under increased pressure to cut costs; virtualizing systems and running in a cloud are attractive. The backups are taken care of, UPS, generator are provided, as well as peering with many internet providers. Hard for a brick and mortar office to compete and have all of those amenities. All of which might spell out a decreased workload for me. And a trend which which has been well underway for quite some time now. I find it increasingly difficult to go to work and sit at a desk, indoors breathing HVAC air under florescent lighting. I grew up working with my hands and the trades appeal to me. I feel myself getting fat and lazy working a sedentary job.

-I just turned 37 years old, no family and about to get married. Fiance works as a realtor with a background in finance, was a licensed CPA a few years ago but didn't get recertified as she didn't like the career path (basically burned out by too many tax seasons).

-Considering either electrical or plumbing trade. For fun I downloaded the entire UPC (Uniform Plumbing Code), NFPA 54 for fuel gas and NFPA 70 for electrical work and read them. Not going to call myself an expert by any means but they were interesting, eye opening and the topics did not confuse me. And they kept my interest so much that I was able to read all of that and not be bored.

-I had a ton of electrical and plumbing work done on my newest property and I was fortunate enough to find an electrician and plumber that let me ask a crap-ton of questions and let me assist in any way possible. So in a way I can say that my education started. I developed a tremendous amount of respect for these guys, the fine work they did and part of me wanted to do the same thing. I can respect a hard day's work, it feels different than completing a report sitting behind a desk. I go into the basement and look at the plumbing and research why the plumber did this vs that? E.g. why use a tee vs a y fitting? Where is it appropriate to tie a lav into the stack? How will it be vented? I take these curiosities to google and read up on theory. Same with my electrical system or the boiler newly installed.

-My age. Is 37 too old to be going into a trade that can be hard on the body? I'm in pretty good shape. No medical issues, I feel like I still have decent energy and I can put in a hard weekend's work of yard work. Just a good sleep, maybe some ibuprofen and I'm ready for the next day. I'm no stranger to working with my hands. Callused hands don't bother me. Getting shocked with electricity, while undesirable, doesn't frighten me. Needing to deal with nasty jobs a plumber will see that relate to sewer and drainage doesn't gross me out either.

-The career change seems like it would be hard. You need to apprentice for 4 years and have hundreds of hours of class time and thousands of hours of on the job training. Most of the guys I know doing this work during the day time for a master tradesman and go to night classes. The drop in income would be the hardest pill to swallow. As well as the loss or unknown change in health insurance.

-In my state (NH), there is a shortage of plumbers/electricians. There are only a couple hundred of apprentices in the state whereas 10 years ago it was over a thousand a year. Also, the age of most tradesmen is late 40 to 50s. One guy took a license renewal; in his late 30s and was the youngest guy i the class. There is just not enough new blood coming into these trades. I feel this might be a good time to get in and take advantage of the shortage. Also, I'm attracted to the fact this type of work cannot be outsourced

-Where to after? Join a union and work commercial? Start my own business once becoming a master tradesman and go that route? Work as a journeyman for a few years?

Any comments/advice are appreciated...

 

[lxskllr]

I don't think you're /too/ old, but you're getting there. It takes a lot of hustle to make a lot of money in the trades. If that's *really* what you want, go for it, but if it were me, I'm look into a manual labor hobby that can make you some money, and possibly give you an out if IT gets unbearable.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I turned 37 a few months ago, I am In IT and I am out of shape. I know that doing that kind of work in my shape wouldn't be good, but if I were in semi decent shape, I wouldn't feel too old to change careers.
I know people in their 50s and 60s who do some pretty physical work and they do the work ok.

You are more likely to injure yourself the older you get.
Your injuries will heal slower or not as completely the older you get.
You likely will wind up with chronic pain later in life if you do physical work for long term.

If you are willing to live with those 3 things, then I can't see any "showstoppers."

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The carpet repair guy we had out last month said he spend 10 years as a DBA before saying "screw this" and changing careers.

Do what makes you happy.

It is possible to do construction/trades work and not ruin your body. You just have to be careful and go a little slower than the 22 year olds. If you can "make up for it" by being fastidious, your bosses will probably not complain. Or you become an independent contractor and nobody tells you how to work as long as you make your deadlines.

 

[deadlyapp]

I think one of the big issues you'll run into is a period of financial instability as you go through trade school and apprenticeship, which as you get older is much harder to bear unless you have no kids/major financial obligations/etc.

Thankfully I'd say the trades are one of the few things where ageism isn't a big thing - the older you are the more experience you're expected to be. But you will be essentially competing with low paid young apprentices for some time.

 

[bruceb]

Electrician is the better choice. With plumbing there are some tricks to venting and draining properly. And sometimes, it is very dirty work. Electrical is much cleaner work, and if you stay in the residential side 110/220V it is rather easy. It starts getting complicated when you move up to electrical for office and factories, where it may come in to transformers at around 7kv and then gets stepped down to 110/208/440V to go to various sub distribution panels. Motor control circuits and conduit work also come into play at this stage. You would need to learn how to read the blue prints and how to computer wire and circuit breaker sizes for regular and inductive loads.

 

[NetWareHead]

Electrician is the better choice. With plumbing there are some tricks to venting and draining properly. And sometimes, it is very dirty work. Electrical is much cleaner work, and if you stay in the residential side 110/220V it is rather easy. It starts getting complicated when you move up to electrical for office and factories, where it may come in to transformers at around 7kv and then gets stepped down to 110/208/440V to go to various sub distribution panels. Motor control circuits and conduit work also come into play at this stage. You would need to learn how to read the blue prints and how to computer wire and circuit breaker sizes for regular and inductive loads.

I was thinking that electrician would be the easier job vs plumber; but plumbers get paid more.

And of those 2 trades categories, one can decide whether to go into residential or commercial work, each with its pros and cons. My plumber is a service plumber and always has work. Everyone gets a drain clog, wants to upgrade new kitchen/bathroom fixtures, or has a heating system that goes clunk at the most inopportune time. I get the feeling there is always a demand for service residential work. Commercial work perhaps might pay more but it seems to ride the ups and downs of the economy more.

 

[BoomerD]

Too old to change? Nope...but, getting into an apprenticeship at your age might be almost impossible...unless you (a) know someone in the local union who can help, or (b) find a company who's willing to hire you and train you.
Something else to consider is "stationary engineer." Helluva good job. Those big buildings don't maintain themselves...boilers, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, sometimes even a bit of carpentry...

http://www.iuoe.org/jobs/stationary-engineer

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/production/stationary-engineers-and-boiler-operators.htm

 

[lxskllr]

Everyone gets a drain clog, wants to upgrade new kitchen/bathroom fixtures, or has a heating system that goes clunk at the most inopportune time.

They also get sewage backed up in the basement at 2am, and you're the hero on call. Of all the trades, plumber is just about the bottom of my list.

 

[bruceb]

Which is why I mentioned that the plumber's job can be dirtier. But if you get a sewage backup, quite often a special company is called in to clean it up and a special drain cleaning company to unclog the main drain line to the sewer or septic system.

 

[ultimatebob]

At the age of 40, I'm not sure if I'd want to go back going into crawlspaces and running cables for a living. I didn't enjoy getting all dusty from that shit when I was 20.

 

[NetWareHead]

They also get sewage backed up in the basement at 2am, and you're the hero on call. Of all the trades, plumber is just about the bottom of my list.

If its sewage backing up the way you wrote, that is a job for a sewer maintenance company. Guys who will snake a line out to the street or water-jet it. When I think of a service plumber unclogging something, its almost always a sink, pulling a toilet or snaking a line inside the house. Of course there is bound to be some overlap

 

[Ruptga]

If you get into electrical and HVAC you could use some of your IT knowledge to set up fancy home automation systems for people with too much money. I don't know how long it would take to get there, but I know those guys often make a lot.

 

[ImpulsE69]

At the age of 40, I'm not sure if I'd want to go back going into crawlspaces and running cables for a living. I didn't enjoy getting all dusty from that shit when I was 20.

Same.

 

[skull]

its been done by quite a few people but it will be rough. I'll be 32 in 2 weeks and in a month I'll have been in the trades for 15 years. Its rough I notice it more already. When I was young it was hard because I was stupid and didn't have the strength. Now I have the knowledge and the strength but everything hurts more. I was installing an air handler in a tight attic today. Its hot, itchy and being cramped really makes stuff hurt. Not fun luckily where I live its mostly basements so I don't have to do that too often.

You sound like a smart guy and you know computers. I say go for industrial controls, its half electric half computers. Theres a big shortage of guys there, it pays great and the work won't be as hard. Its what I'd do if I ever went back to school.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The issue is the requirement of being certified. Otherwise, you could probably just start your own handyman type business, do smaller jobs, and maybe grow from there. But really it's not that easy because of all the requirements to be able to legally do most jobs.

It's crossed my mind to do electrical and plumbing on the side,but just looking into what it takes to be certified is quite daunting. It's something you pretty much have to have set as a goal from the beginning so your schooling revolves around it, so as apprenticeship etc.

I feel the same way as you about IT/tech though. Seems job security is just not there anymore. With trades it requires boots on the ground, and there will always be a need for physical construction labour. At least until prefab takes over.... but I think it will be a while. Even current prefab tech is only really for the structural components.

 

[Ajay]

I was thinking that electrician would be the easier job vs plumber; but plumbers get paid more.

And of those 2 trades categories, one can decide whether to go into residential or commercial work, each with its pros and cons. My plumber is a service plumber and always has work. Everyone gets a drain clog, wants to upgrade new kitchen/bathroom fixtures, or has a heating system that goes clunk at the most inopportune time. I get the feeling there is always a demand for service residential work. Commercial work perhaps might pay more but it seems to ride the ups and downs of the economy more.

I'm in NH and have a friend who's a super at a large operation (plumbing, electrical, HVAC). They have young guys making really good money in HVAC ($100k+, and didn't spend six years in school like me). I'll try to remember to ask what the outlook is for the various trades over the next couple of days - pm me if I forget. Good luck!