Hello All,

for a while now I have been thinking quite seriously about giving up my 
IT job, and retraining as a Painter & Decorator. I enjoy it, and think 
my work is of a reasonably good standard, and think it could be much 
more rewarding that what I do at the moment.

What training is out there for me? I have had a look at the local 
college, but it is all aimed at school leavers with day release. I don't 
mean to be patronising, but I think I could learn faster than a school 
leaver, and would need to get up and running quicky.

I guess you don't actually need any formal training, but I would like to 
have something just to make sure I have the theory as well as the 
practice, and to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

Any Ideas?

Cheers

Mike

On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 16:33:49 GMT, Mike Hibbert
 wrote:


>Hello All,
>
>for a while now I have been thinking quite seriously about giving up my 
>IT job, and retraining as a Painter & Decorator. I enjoy it, and think 
>my work is of a reasonably good standard, and think it could be much 
>more rewarding that what I do at the moment.
>
>What training is out there for me? I have had a look at the local 
>college, but it is all aimed at school leavers with day release. I don't 
>mean to be patronising, but I think I could learn faster than a school 
>leaver, and would need to get up and running quicky.
>
>I guess you don't actually need any formal training, but I would like to 
>have something just to make sure I have the theory as well as the 
>practice, and to make sure I'm doing it correctly.
>
>Any Ideas?
>
>Cheers
>
>Mike


I am also in IT, and also intend to leave it.

I am building my own house as alearning project. On bits I have
little/no skill I get in a profesional who is prepared to have me work
with them, so I learn as well as do all the donkey work for them.

It may be good training to work for somebody else for a month or two.

Rick

Mike Hibbert wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> for a while now I have been thinking quite seriously about giving up my
> IT job, and retraining as a Painter & Decorator. I enjoy it, and think
> my work is of a reasonably good standard, and think it could be much
> more rewarding that what I do at the moment.
>
> What training is out there for me? I have had a look at the local
> college, but it is all aimed at school leavers with day release. I don't
> mean to be patronising, but I think I could learn faster than a school
> leaver, and would need to get up and running quicky.
>
> I guess you don't actually need any formal training, but I would like to
> have something just to make sure I have the theory as well as the
> practice, and to make sure I'm doing it correctly.
>
> Any Ideas?
>
> Cheers
>
> Mike


IANAP&D, but I bet most of it's straightforward. Take on some simple
jobs 4 or 5 days a week and do 1 day's training. That way you're
earning from day one. And learning is often a lot easier if you can see
immediately why you need to know XYZ. Might be better not to tell any
difficult customers why you have to have one day off, though :-)

Chris

AlexW wrote:

> Owain wrote:
> 
>> AlexW wrote:
>>
>>> Rick wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Mike Hibbert wrote
>>>>
>>>>> for a while now I have been thinking quite seriously about giving 
>>>>> up my IT job, 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I am also in IT, and also intend to leave it.
>>>
>>>
>>> I also work in IT and am considering leaving it ... 
>>
>>
>>
>> I am useless at decorating and am still naive enough to believe that 
>> IT could offer an interesting and lucrative career.
>>
>> Owain
>>
> 
> It's not the "technical" work, just that its all getting outsourced, 
> offshored, offshore/onshored etc. Also, you start of wanting to build 
> things and end up pen-pushing in service delivery or something. Which is 
> fine if that's what you want to do, if not you wonder why you are doing it.


Yep, thats pretty much the size of it! It would just be nice to work for 
yourself, no danger of having to explain how you do thing to an indian 
so that they can then do your job for you.