Change of career...?

[firefox_2006]

Hello

My job is being made redundant in the next two weeks and I am thinking of trying something different. I have been looking at driver instructor training offered by the AA (link)

Anyone else thought of doing this? or know of someone who has? I am looking at possibly spending at least 1500K - 2K on Microsoft courses just to get entry level (1st Line Support helpdesk) so I think might as well do something that doesn't require constant feeding the pockets of Bill Gates lol Plus I like driving and the thought of being rooted behind a desk doesn't inspire me anymore.

[mthomas08]

I have considered doing this on/off over the years.

Driving instructor isnt a bad idea, population going up, more cars on the road = instructors in demand?
I considered being a mechanic because I actually enjoy cars and pulling them apart and wouldnt be as stressed as I was now with IT. On the other hand instead of Gates getting your cash, another greedy person will.

[nephilim]

my ju jitsu instructor is a driving instructor also, he hates it, but it pays the bills

When you become one you have to be accredited to a driving school for the first 5 years of doing so, and pay them a "fee" for using their name (you choose who you want to be with though), he pays I think £100 a week (5 hours worth of lessons) before he makes anything himself.

Also as a driving instructor, your insurance premiums are much higher as you have learners in YOUR car (approximately £3500+ per year)
You need your car retro fitted with clutch and brake on the passenger side (which will cost roughly £2000)
Driving instructor course is quite expensive itself as well (near £1000 or so, if not more now).

Great that you can choose the hours and days you work, but you have to get a minimum amount of learners per week to pay the fees, insurance, fuel etc. If you want to do it, go for it, but why not do professional driving?

[MK-2]

second what @nephilim says. to make ends meet you may have to be working from 7am til 7pm every day doing lessons for a while. my driving instructor lived on my street so knew him well and he was saying he was going to pack it in soon as he hardly saw his family and ended up working some weekends just to get a bit more cash. plus of course all the other things mentioned (car changed, all the courses, insurance, petrol, servicing)

[AMLightfoot]

You don't need to spend £1500 to be a first line support engineer! If you have experience in IT systems, Windows, AD, etc you could find a job working in IT support for a company who will more than likely pay for you to do your CompTIA and MCPs. It means you'll have to be a phone monkey answering the phone to dumb questions from end users like 'my internet is broken' when they've not plugged in the network cable, and 'my printer is broken' when they've not mapped the correct printer etc etc but it's a step up. If you're already beyond that kind of work you should be looking at 2nd line support in the corporate environment and most often these interviews will involve a technical test appropriate to the job role. In which case your knowledge will be proven without needing to spend horrific amounts.

[AlfaTech]

I've often reconsidered changing career and getting a driving job - because I like driving. I wouldn't be a driving instructor, no way. Bus driver, yes. Taxi driver, yes but I can't 'cos the missus won't let me. I did do a 6 month stint down on the docks driving new cars off ships, but at minimum wage there was no way I could make it work long-term. In the end I gave up and went back into what I'm good at, IT support. I would love some kind of field-support role, anything to get off-site and back on the road again.

[nephilim]

Right a bit more clarification

My jujitsu instructor is self employed...the following are written off as business expenses

£2500 (out of the £3800) on the insurance (about £48 a week)
£50 per week as a fee to the driving school company (£2600)
£1500 for the retrofitting of the car as it is an "essential" modification to your "working area"

However if you smoke, you legally cannot smoke in your car even with all of the signs and such like taken off, simply for the fact that it will be your working area (and it is illegal to smoke in your working area).

You charge roughly £20 a lesson, work 6 hours a day thats £120 a day

Thats £600 a week on a 5 day working week...say you work 52 weeks a year, thats £31200.

Of that, you would only be taxed on £26100 (not including the retrofitting)...you will get £20,110 a year after tax...then you still have the non-tax deductable stuff to take off...

£3900 in non tax deductable payments (remainder of insurance and fee to company)...which leaves you with £16210

Fuel costs (a full tank per week) which is roughly £65 a week (depending on the car)...that is another £3380

that will leave you with £12830

Then add new tires once a year because learners will ruin tires like nobodies business (my JJ instructor goes through 1 set of tires a year because of the curbs getting mounted, scrapped along curbs etc), a decent set of tires will be another £180 or there abouts so thats £12650...then obviously taxing your car (roughly another £250 a year)...so at the end of £31200 you are left with £12400 to call your own...could you live on that?

[AMLightfoot]

And that is assuming you work a full working week. That is also not taking into account loss of revenue from your car being used for 2 hour test windows. And damage repairs. I know a couple of people that tried to run businesses as driving instructors and they have both quit and found other jobs as they could not physically make enough money to live - people just weren't buying enough lesson time. You are also not factoring the costs of travelling from lesson to lesson as your learners will live in very different places and you will lose a lot of time in the day moving between lessons.

[happymeal]

Have you thought about trying to get into teaching IT? Not in the 12-16 school enviroment, but more like teaching apprentices?
Zenos and Baltic Recruitment have a lot of offices where they take in apprentices from 16-21ish and put them through 6-9 month training which covers Helpdesk, Field Tech work, Servers, etc, and pushes them towards the A+, N+, CCNA, etc.
Was considering doing that for a while before I got this job - if you've got the skills it's worth a look?

[X-13]

more like teaching apprentices?

One master, one apprentice.

No more, no less.

>implying IT is like the dark side.



Good luck with whatever you choose @firefox_2006

[firefox_2006]

Thanks for all the supportive and constuctive messages, a lot to think about. Think driving instructor career will go on back burner for a while. Going to keep open mind and try and improve knowledge before definately deciding.