Hi drivers! I’m a 34 year old guy from Manchester. Always been in the IT game, worked my way up the career ladder to a Network Engineer, earning £55k… but I’m miserable, depressed, hate my career. I’ve moved and moved to try and find somewhere I’m happy, but eventually I end up right back where I were. Hating my career. Fell completely out of love with IT. Not interested in it whatsoever.
I’ve always wanted to be a driver. I attempted my class 2 back somewhere around 2013, failed twice on two silly little reasons.
But feel it’s time to try again and get out!
I’m preparing for a pay cut initially. If I do get my license, (don’t want to run before I can walk) but I would like to get as many certs as possible HAIB/ADR, and take on the crap jobs to get the pay up.
Can’t wait to get driving and finally do something I love! Driving!
Any tips or advice?
I know there will be some experienced guys who would advise against this career move! But it’s a fresh start for me!
I’ve no kids, settled with a girlfriend of 7 years in a house we have a mortgage on! Think some long haul trips would be fine for me!
Absolutely and most definitely…and there is a bloody good reason for that.
When I was a young lad I was the keenest wide eyed lad you could wish to meet.
(Too) Many years of experience have knocked that right out of me.
In those days it was a much different job, definirtely more freedom which was part of the attraction.
No way in hell I’d be starting off today, the job has changed beyond recognition, and it must be bloody awful to be the new boy at it today.
Try a job on a van with a car licence as a taster until you get it out of your system.
Good advice…take it or leave it.
Sorry to hear that you are hating your career so much.
As Rob said, I would recommend a van driving job to begin with, even if just on weekends. This will give you a taster of what you can expect (with less traffic) and you’ll save £3k or whatever it costs nowadays if it’s not for you.
I am perhaps a little bit more positive about the job than Rob (I’m 34 myself so I have to be ) but he’s right.
You’d be hard pushed to get anywhere near 55k without a lot of luck and even then you’d most likely be working silly hours, so it’d be a permanent pay cut (per hour) as opposed to a temporary one.
After dreaming of a job driving lorries from a young age (thanks to my father taking me to work with him!), I quit an office job of 11 years to take up driving back at the end of 2023 after doing class 1 work on an ad-hoc basis for a couple of years, with some brewery van experience before that helping to pay for my Class 2 and Class 1 training. My office job paid half of what yours does, so my decision was probably easier, but I still did the van work along with the ad-hoc Class 1 work to make sure it was a switch I was happy to make.
I am now working for 2 agencies around 2/3 days per week total and doing 2 days childcare (3 year old boy) and am earning an amount that works for me at the moment.
I will say that there are very few permanent jobs advertised on Indeed that I am seeing with the hourly rate I’m getting from either agency, but I am in South Wales so rates are lower than most of the UK.
So all in all, I’d say go for it if it’s something you want to do, but maybe take it gradually with van work to start with, and don’t expect the privileges, or the salary that your current job provides.
Just guessing here
IT worker hours worked for week 39
Driver nearer to 60 hours
IT Starting times 8.00 to 09.00
Driver depending could be anytime
IT wages 55k
Driver nearly same for over 60 hours
That’s the tip of the iceberg but if you need to get it out of your system then go do it.
The extra certs don’t increase the wages that much, its more about the choice of work you want
As long as you can go back to IT then go for it and see for yourself
) but he’s right.