Altona, January 2021
Happy New Year Marlis!
I hope you survived the social obligations of
Christmas and New Year’s well enough and that you are enjoying some of the nicer
summer weather in the best part of Australia!
I truly feel these holidays should be spaced apart a
bit more, like July and December, but no one has asked my opinion about this yet
and I don’t think they will any time soon… 😊
It’s been another busy two months, with lost of work,
life and school stuff happening, so let’s get started!
Christmas at home
It has been a while since Yumi and I spent the Christmas
holidays at home. We generally go on a diving or adventure trip, but last year
was different in a lot of aspects and travel was proving ‘too hard’ with all
the closures and restrictions. And we also had a foster dog to look after, but
more on that later. Never one to just sit and do nothing, I made a long list of
things to do and got it all done. 😊
I did some school stuff, lots of SES calls, some home improvement,
tried out a few new vegan baking recipes, read a few books, bought some new
work clothes and played a lot of video games. So, I basically did what I always
do, but without going to work…Geez, my life is boring, haha.
We’ve never been a fan of Christmas decoration or
fireworks, so there was no cleaning up or packing away and while the weather
wasn’t great for most days, we still had a good time. We even did a little one-day
road trip down the coast, which is always nice to just drive and chat. This
year, diving is most certainly the preferred option, but we’ll have to see how things
stand around then.
Work
I am getting quite used to being covered in dust and
wood chip all day. I saw a t-shirt that said: “This is not sawdust, it’s man
glitter!” and that’s exactly how I feel most days😊. The end of the year was super busy at work, which
meant that we actually worked all five days of the week. I know, shocking,
right?!
I got into a bit of a funk near the end, because I am still not allowed to do most things, but somewhere during the Christmas break I made my peace with that and now I am much better again. It was just that everything had been cleaned, sorted, burned, organised, fixed and cleaned again and then I ran out of things to do. I am not at my best when I feel like I am not adding value, but now I just relax and think that as long as I do what is asked, that’s good enough. The team all really appreciate what I do, because it makes their lives easier and this week, we finished a day earlier because of what I do, so ha!
The work year has started really well with me doing lots of new things and what feels like ‘real work’. It is still just gluing sticks, filling holes, sanding boards and making simple parts, but that’s also part of the job. Small steps, small steps…
Yumi’s work
Yumi landed another project right before Christmas and
another is about to start, on top of what she’s already been doing. Safe to say
she’s doing really well and decided to just work some more over the Christmas
break. I don’t worry too much because I did the same in my previous work life
and never felt to stressed about it. There’s busy days and not so busy days,
but it all levels out quite well. She seems to be enjoying herself and her clients
love her and her work, so there’s not really anything to complain about. The
training course she started last year continues in the next few weeks, so I
guess that’ll keep her out of trouble 😊.
SES
Things have been flat out with SES as well. Now that
we’re allowed to train on site at our unit again, we’re almost back to normal.
I’ve started the training of 8-10 new recruits and it’s been great fun. It took
us long enough to get organised, as we were supposed to get started in September,
but we’re here now and making heaps of progress. It’s a bit of a talk fest at
the moment, with me doing most of the talking, but that will change from this
week on, where they finally get to do more things and work with the equipment
hands-on. I just want them to have a really good time, because if the start is
good, they generally stick around and this seems like a good bunch, just like
the last group.
We had a ‘weather event’ (what normal people call a storm) come through around Christmas and in one week I attended 20 call outs across 5 days. It’s always good fun, but less so when it’s pouring down rain and there’s trees and branches falling everywhere. Broken roller doors, roof tiles flying off, lots of broken (really big) branches, trees on roads and a few people trapped in flood waters. It’s all in a day’s work. It was good to be out and about this time around, because I missed the previous 2 years due to holidays. We always work really well as a team and the appreciation alone from the community is enough for me.
This weekend and next I’ll be going back to Bunyip, where a lot of properties got damaged in the 2019 fires. We were there last year and that was such a good experience that we offered to help out again. It’s mostly just clearing fallen trees on private properties, but it’s a huge help for these people and a great way for us to get some additional hours on the tools and have some fun. Apparently Channel 7 is coming to do a report, so you might see or have seen me on the news if it makes it to national. We always get a full briefing that feel like your mum giving you marching orders right before you visit the family barbecue. I understand they want SES to look good on TV, but what are they seriously thinking we’ll do on camera?! We’re not total idiots. Well, most of us aren’t haha! Below two pictures of me in my uniform, I am the guy with the chainsaw in the back.
That being said, I just got back from day 1 of the
event after just a few hours with a mild case of heat stress. Those were 3 very
unpleasant hours coming back. Headache and nausea despite drinking heaps and
taking breaks, I must be getting old! It’s a shame really, I was having a
really good time and going through the trees like paper, but all of a sudden, I
wasn’t doing great. As a team we decided that I should go back home and not return
today. It’s the right call to make, but still disappointing as I so looked
forward to it. Ah well, we’ll try again in a week’s time if there’s still work
to be done. It’s not that I need the hours to keep up my skills and
there were still about 25 people with chainsaws left, but it’s just annoying ☹. I am fine now, it
comes and goes quickly. 😊
Tradie school and TAE training
School has been a bit of a mess, but that’s become my
expectation over the past year. A year ago, around this time I started my
pre-apprenticeship training for Carpentry and since then I switched to Cabinet
making in June. We didn’t go to school until October and I missed December due
to work being busy. I didn’t mind that too much really because in November I
missed 2 days because…they had no teacher and 1 because I needed to stay at
work due to others being sick. Long story short; of the 12 half days I could
have had, I had 5.5. But I still managed to get the project done and this is
the end result.
I did most of it in the garage (also known as ‘the
workshop’) on evenings and weekends. With some help from work tools, but mostly
by hand once I cut all the timber on the machines at school. I was quite proud
of the end result, took all the pictures as I went and sent them to my teacher.
I got my marks the next day telling me that I had passed, so that’s project 1
of 6 done! Next up is making a library chair, which is just a fancy timber
chair and I start school again on 1 February, hoping to still finish by April
and then having completed my first year as a Cabbie apprentice.
My TAE (Training and Assessment education) course is
ticking along, despite the mountain of paperwork. Thanks to a change in schedule,
I was able to deliver 3 training sessions to new recruits at SES, fulfilling
the final requirements for part 2 of 3. Now I have only part 3 left, which I hope
to punch out by the end of the month. I did have to redo all the work for this part,
which was not great, but it’s behind me now, so let’s forget about it. There
are a lot of people at my unit who have done this training too and suffered the
same annoyances. They’ve all offered to help out because they remember how
needlessly complicated things got for them too.
Anna the foster dog
Last time I wrote we had just heard we would get our
very first foster dog (Early) and that was a lot of fun and learning for all
three of us. We thought we’d go six weeks without and then early 2021 we’d take
on the next ‘recruit’. But then Yumi got a call asking if we would be willing
to take on Anna over Christmas, so 5 weeks instead of the standard 3. We had
all sorts of travel and trip plans that fell through and had decided to stay
home anyway, so we said yes to number 2!
This is us on the new bench on Christmas Day, with
Anna wearing her very appropriate antlers and out in the park for a picnic with
friends. She was so busy sniffing all the smells she tired herself out, haha.
Anna is one of six dispossessed dogs from a trainer who
lost her license due to malpractice and poor treatment of her animals. She was
very skittish, had some nail and skin issues and judging by the scars on her
body had seen some pretty rough times. She didn’t eat for almost 4 days which
caused her some discomfort and a lot of stress for Yumi. Eventually she got
hungry and/or calm enough to start eating and she ate as much as Early, who was
literally half again as big as her. He was 36 kg, she’s a lot smaller, but
still a big girl at 24kg.
One of our tasks is to try and fatten her up to get to 27, which is going quite well and her coat is much shinier and softer than it was. We have her for one more week before she takes her test and goes up for adoption. She is a very different dog from Early, but equally lovely and she’ll find a new home for life in days, just like him for sure! She’s 4 years old, so very curious, loves chewing on carton boxes and gets super excited when we go for walks. She wants to meet every single person, cat, dog, bird and tree, so you can imagine that walks take a little while. She loves riding in the car and figured out how to walk up and down stairs on day 2, just so she could be with Yumi in her office. She sleeps most of the day, but when she’s not, she’s digging holes in the backyard, burying her toys and catching flies. 😊 I thought it would be fun to just go and run on the beach with her. Big mistake. She pulled me to my knees in no time, resulting in a very unpleasant scrape on my knee that only took the whole holiday to heal. Me and my great ideas, haha.
We’ll be happy to be without for a while as it is a lot of work and maintenance for Yumi mostly. I just vacuum every day and try not to look at our white tile floor to closely…They said black haired greyhounds don’t shed as much hair as white ones. Well, I can tell you that’s 100% NOT true. Just as much, possibly more!
Small stuff
· You’ll be happy to hear I’ve started to take some
vitamins. Because of my vegan diet, I don’t get any B12. Despite feeling
healthy and well, I’ve felt over the past few months that my eyesight started
to go a bit and B12 deficiency might be one of the causes for that. Or I am
just getting older, which is equally possible. I’ll give it a few months and
see how it goes, it won’t hurt me, but at $22 for a bottle of 60 tablets, I’ll
not just take them for the fun of it.
· Family and friends are doing well. My friend Danielle
from the ACT is going to be a mum. I never thought she would, but that just
shows what I know. They’ll do great as parents for sure. Our friends Anna and
Jamie have moved back to Perth, which is sad for me, but great for them. She
never really warmed to Melbourne, like me and always longed to go back. Good
for them! I also met with 2 ex-colleagues from Deakin, who work just 10 minutes
away from where I work and it was really good to see them and catch up.
· Over Christmas we’ve scoped out some of the towns near Torquay to see if we could live there and we probably could but found out that we are in no real hurry. Maybe in a few months we’ll revisit the plans, right now the drive is pleasant enough to make and moving seems like too much hassle
That’s it for this time around, make sure to enjoy summer and stay well. I’ll write again early March 😊
GGilbert
Ps. Below is the piece I wrote early December for my
professional network about what it’s like to be an apprentice for me. I thought
you might like to read it too.
Looking back on 1 year as an apprentice
It’s that time of year where many of us reflect and
look back to take stock of the year gone by. I don’t think anyone will disagree
that 2020 as an experience was solid ‘1/5 stars,
would-not-recommend-where-is-the-skip-button-on-this-thing?!’ nightmare material
for most people.
Thankfully, not so much for me. The trials and
challenges I had this year were almost entirely of my own making. When I
followed through on my career change from consultant to ‘tradie’ late 2019, I
had no real clue what 2020 had in store. I would probably still have made the
same choice, which is more of a testament to how much I had bottomed out than a
reflection of how ‘courageous’ I am.
It’s been a while since I last wrote about my
apprentice experience. And what a rollercoaster ride it’s been! A redirect from
carpentry to cabinetry, one not-so-great job lost, one totally cool job gained
and trade school being postponed so many times that even I lost the plot. I might
have learned a thing or two and found some answers to hard questions along the
way. Disclaimer: this is not your typical LinkedIn
‘look-at-how-totally-awesome-my-everything-is’ kind of write-up, so if that’s
what you’re after, best stop reading now.
Did I make the right choice?
It wasn’t so much a choice as a necessary change. In
that sense it feels right. I feel incredibly fortunate to have landed
with Bombora Furniture in
Torquay doing work that I like, in a beautiful environment, learning from a
team of people who are both skilled and friendly. I have a lot of good and
worthwhile things to look forward to. If my learning curve continues upwards
like it has, I’ll be a skilled tradie in two to three years and will be one step
closer to my ultimate goal of teaching new skills to disadvantaged people in
regional Australia one day.
Would I do it again?
No. If for any weird and unforeseen reason I’d lose
this apprenticeship, I’d likely go back to some kind of advisory work. The persistent
feelings of incompetence, uncertainty, insecurity and being the least skilled
person in the room are at times so overwhelming and almost physically painful
that I sometimes wonder if it’s worth it. Well, at least I’ve learned a lot
about myself, even if most of it is not pleasant or uplifting. And yes, it
won’t kill me, but will it make me stronger? Or just stranger?
If you’re also thinking of changing careers, I highly
recommend that you take as much time as you need to carefully consider all
angles before moving forward. This is a decision you’ll have to make all by
yourself and a path you mostly walk alone. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth
doing ever is.
Here are 7 experiences that I thought worth sharing.
1.
What you did and
who you were quickly becomes irrelevant
Especially early on, I found myself talking a lot
about what I used to do in Change, what I got up to, what work situations and
experiences I had, that sort of thing. After a while I got pretty annoyed with
myself because it’s like talking about your ex to your new girlfriend on the
first, second and third date. I now realise that was just me letting go of a
persona that I created from certain parts of me over the past six years. My
hands can only take instructions from one persona at a time, so it really was
time to retire that version of me. He seemed tired and a bit over it all anyway.
Changing careers allows you to create a new persona of your best parts to bring
to work, if you’re willing to give it time to emerge and don’t just keep
filling it up with who you used to be. Lesson learned: There’s no need to
fast-track the ‘getting to know me’ process, just let them make up their own
mind and judge you by your actions over time.
2.
Prepare to feel
incompetent and insecure most days
I truly love the work I do now, but thoroughly dislike
being an apprentice. I thought I’d have this humble, grateful and open mindset,
that I’d be happy to learn and experience new things, that every day would feel
like I am building towards something. Yeah, nah... I spend most days getting in
my own way, all the while feeling both annoyed, insecure and incompetent
because I am not allowed do certain things, feel like people are watching my
every move, get the simplest things wrong, and don’t understand things as they
were intended when explained. It’s not humbling, it’s humiliating and tells me
my ego is more fragile than I’d like to admit. It sucks. But I chose this, so it’s
up to me to change my response to the situation, not the other way around. Lesson
learned: THIS is probably what people (unwittingly?) really mean when they say
that it’s sooo brave of me to change careers.
3.
Have a story
ready on the ‘why’ of your career change
Lots of people change careers later in life, but the
(crazy) ones doing it voluntarily are still a small minority overall, so you’ll
always be a bit of a curious novelty for others. I am not great at explaining
things on a good day and often end up waving my hands around and making weird
analogies. After 12 months I’ve told the story of my career change ‘why’ so
many times, I now have it down to: “I didn’t like what I was doing as an
organisational consultant anymore, always wanted to work with my hands and
figured I’d give the trades a try. One year later, here I am.” That seems to
satisfy most people and works well enough for job interviews and motivation
letters too.
Lesson 1 learned: having an explainer story saves
time, provides context and makes people relate to your experience. Lesson 2
learned: literally no one has said to me: “But consultancy is such a fun
and fulfilling thing to spend your time and life on!
4.
The money is what
the money is
$45,000, that’s what it is in year 1, about $60,000 in
year 3. That’s it. And it seems about right. You have no skill, no pace, need
help constantly, interrupt the flow of others and really can’t add much value
other than doing some maintenance, simple tasks and cleaning. To put things
into perspective, you’re still getting paid as much a QUALIFIED disability
support worker or junior social worker. Yes, taking a $75-100,000 pay cut takes
some time to adjust to, but it’s certainly possible, depending on what you are
prepared to give up or go without. I have near-zero responsibility for
anything, one (!) 20-minute meeting a week, no deadlines to speak of and a
healthy (be it dusty) workplace with a great view and team, that allows me to
make new mistakes every day to learn from. Is that worth $100,000? It is to me
and fits the choices my partner and I made earlier in life. Lesson
reaffirmed: Some people are so poor, all they have is money.
5.
You’ll learn most
things in reverse
I’ve always liked processes and finding out how things
work. Cabinet making is like LEGO, but with timber. And very sharp tools. And
saw dust. Okay, it’s nothing like LEGO, but the principle is the same. You have
a picture of the end result on the box/drawing and then you figure out the
steps in between to get there from a set of building blocks/timber boards. One
of my jobs is to oil and polish the finished products my colleagues make. This
teaches me to ‘see with my hands’, notice joint types, pick up on ways to create
features, solve problems and read timber (that’s a thing…). Without those
basics, I wouldn’t know what to look for, what to do or where to begin even if
I had the drawings and unlimited time but seeing and ‘finishing’ the end result
at least gives me a frame of reference for what’s possible. Lesson learned:
Sometimes backwards is the only way forward.
6.
Finding an
apprenticeship is the worst part
Tradies are notorious for not showing up on time, not
returning calls, rescheduling and changing plans at the last minute. From the
inside, I now understand that often there are good reasons for these things
happening. But from my previous life, I also know that a 1-line text or 30
second voicemail message makes a big difference in keeping people on-side. Then
again, I’ve met some truly wonderful and inspiring people during my job search.
There are businesses out there who are willing to give a mature age career
changer a go, some even prefer to work with mature agers!
Unfortunately, the job application process is just
like in Change and equally soul crushing in its apparent indifference and
evident opportunism. You can be as philosophical about it as you want but
getting only six replies (all rejections) to 37 applications is not a great experience
for most people. Age discrimination, illegal wage practices, unsafe tasks and
downright dangerous situations, it’s still happening in 2020. I am sure my
experience is not unique and maybe even more positive than for others. Despite
all that application effort, I ended up finding my first job through a LinkedIn
connection and my second through my TAFE-teacher.
Frustratingly, it was the impression I made on my
referrers and their willingness to vouch for me, that made the difference, not
my CV, my motivation or my experience. Understanding that this is how things still
work is just so frustrating. Why even bother to get qualified, right? In the end it still seems to come down to who
and not what you know. Lesson learned: Don’t take it personal, they don’t know
you as a person, stay with it and eventually you’ll find something that fits
well enough. It takes luck, persistence and flexibility, but you’ll get there. Keep
looking for a place that makes you feel valued.
7.
TAFE is not great
(so far)
Teachers going missing, classes getting dropped, wait
times for using equipment, unclear and incomplete instructions, faulty
technology and quite literally the worst back-office administrative processes I
have ever seen. None of this was in the brochure. I should have known what I
was in for and run for the door when during induction one of the course
managers said: “Welcome to the VU family!” COVID messed things up scheduling-wise
and I get that, but you’d think that 6-8 months would be enough to come up with
a plan or at least a clue. No? What’s that? It’s even worse in other places?! I
am not sure that is even possible, but okay… Good thing my teachers are
skilled, friendly and actually good at teaching or it’d just be a paid-for painful
and unpleasant chore.
Lesson learned: The TAFE system is seriously broken
and no amount of social media happy posting can fix that. But it’s the only way
to get qualified, so try to focus on the good bits.
I hope this write-up paints a realistic picture of
what it’s like to be a mature age apprentice for anyone considering that path.
Most days are good, some are great, some are sh*t, such is life. I’ll write
some more later, right now kitchens need building and floors need sweeping!
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