Too old to start a trade?

[malakaix]

Long story short;

I quit school in Year 11 to study Electrotechnology (Computer Maintenance) at TAFE (college program in Australia); i finished the course but decided i don't want to work in the I.T industry.. between the ages of 17-24 i have spent my time working dead end jobs that i could easily quit here and there and using the money i saved to travel the world.

Now sitting half-way across the world.. working part-time in a hostel in a former soviet country at almost 25, and losing a relationship due to my lack of direction and structure; the reality has hit me in the face that i need to sort my life out and organize guaranteed,stable and well-paid work if i am to be anywhere in the next 5 years. So i've been seriously considering an electrical apprenticeship, but at my age is that even a possibility? I would be competing for the position against younger people who could be paid less and probably more easily trained.

I may have a certification in Electrotechnology specializing in computer maintenance, but that was from 2006.. i don't remember a thing.

I still don't know what i really want to do, but i'm running out of time.. and with this, at least i have a trade to fall back onto if i decide to pursue higher education later in my life. I should of done this earlier, but i was young and more interested in drugs, sex, partying and traveling.

Am i too old to start? I did a couple of days work experience when i was 18.. i remember hating it, but i was stuck with a hair-trigger temper Kiwi that exploded into fits of rage at the slightest notion of something been done incorrectly..

 

[Jerry Atrick]

No you're not too old. You have a lifetime worth of travelling, experience, and living under your belt that most people your age never get to do. In that sense, don't be so hard on yourself for being a 24 year old. You are still very young. I went to grad school in my thirties and was the oldest student in my cohort. I thought my age would somehow hinder my performance but I was wrong. If anything I was just a little bit older and wiser than the people in their early twenties who had never traveled abroad or lived on the streets or done any of the things I'd done. You'll do fine.

 

[Tude]

You're never too old, you just have to want to do it!

 

[Aethos]

Tradesman from Canada here (Steam-/Pipefitter). As someone that started when I was 25, you're definitely not too old to begin. I currently work with everyone from 22 year old journeymen to 45 year old first-year apprentices. Just a matter of when people decided to get into it. Personalities run the gamut from laid back to high stress depending on where and who you work with, so try not to let your bad experience shape too much thought, it changes from job to job, and even week to week within the same job.

Give it a shot. I went to school for Computer Science, and got an internship and then job before I realized that I feel too young to sit in an office, hating the situation all day. It's been a couple years, and I've never been more happy. I worked in labour jobs to pay for school, and always enjoyed them, it just didn't occur to me for whatever reason to pursue the Trades until I was deeply unhappy with another job.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, I know around where I am has a big push for Temp Foreign Workers (currently in Oilsands in Alberta), so I with/around people from all over (UK, Australia, Asia, South America), so if you decide to get qualified and use your job to travel the world there is a chance we'll wind up working together one day .