Jobs that pay £30ishK but are flexible?

[barbatoo]

Am I dreaming thinking that such a thing exists for a 30 year old male with no qualifications but has worked his whole life, is ex military and now works as a civil engineer (on the roads, not in an office)?

I have changed my work hours to do school runs and nursery runs for 3 DCs but DH doesn't do any, and I can't do it anymore as I'm missing out on pension and promotion.

He understands this and would do anything but it needs to be what he's earning now, which is £30k. It doesn't have to be that much initially but he can't afford a drop in wages.

Any ideas? Or am I barmy?

OP - how about YouTube? That seems to pay really well.

I'm in the US, so take it for what it's worth. But Road Maintenance Workers who are employed by a State or the Federal Govt make damn good wages and have a lot of leave flexibility due to being unionized.

Doesn't the UK have a Roads Dept or something similar?

I think the problem is that he's on a really good wage for someone with no qualifications because he is away for 2/3 nights a week. To get a job with more sociable hours I suspect he'd have to take a pay cut. It's tricky, I think he'll have to either take a (massive) pay cut to get more flexible hours or as a family you'll have to sort out wraparound care so that you can do more hours, but plenty of people are in that situation.

Shift work in manufacturing companies tends to pay well with few qualifications needed, but the shift patterns can be a bit anti-social with weekends/bank holidays etc. Bonus is generally a lot of overtime available and patterns are known in advance.

Downside is that these jobs are extremely popular and tend to get hundreds of applicants.

Electrician. All the ones I know are on £50/60k plus after the two years of training.

Could he work nights on the road work? Not exactly flexible hours but they work around the school runs, pay is likely to be good and it’s the same job really.

Or, thinking left field. Something like a housing officer. Recent vacancies I’ve seen are £30k, you have good pension and work-life balance. Being ex military could work in his favour thinking about his transferable skills.

Chartered Engineers are the professional engineers.

Being a registered/chartered engineer is a professional qualification, but it doesn't make you a 'professional' engineer. Qualifications from an accredited course are what lead you to being an engineer. Being chartered is a reflection of professional experience, but it's importance and relevance throughout engineering streams varies. In certain industries, being chartered is an advantage, and desirable, whilst in others, whilst it is possible to become chartered, it is not of any benefit professionally. In summary, you are an engineer whether you or chartered or not.

What’s he good at and can he make a business out of it?

My dh has a university degree (in business), but he’s a self taught blacksmith. He took maybe a few weekend blacksmithing courses, taught himself welding, so though he has a degree, he has no formal qualifications in his trade. He has a lot of flexibility (he’ll do the school run 3 out of 5 days as I’m the one with the annoying less flexible job and long commute). He makes well over £30k a year.

Being self employed takes initiative and some guts but there’s way more flexibility in many cases. It’s also just more enjoyable if you can turn something you enjoy into a good living.

I agree with self-employment for the flexibility thing. My dh and I are self employed and we both do several different things each. We trained as performers but over the years we have specialised in various things, so we run a performance business together, I do community work in our performance medium, we both perform professionally and my husband teaches. We feel more secure because of the multiple income streams but obviously there is the lack of pension - we are working out how we are going to tackle that. But something like plumbing for example, he could set his own hours, can charge a lot per hour relatively speaking and if he builds a reputation could have a good career. He could train at night school and then start out doing plumbing jobs around his other work initially until he’s a bit better established. It’s not a quick solution but could pay off in the long run and give you both more flexibility

Train driving. I know several career changers who moved from professional jobs to train driving because it paid more and offered better work life balance.

Have you considered before and after school for the kids so that you can both work time, assuming your increase in salary will cover this?

Night shift work can be surprisingly lucrative. That also knocks all your childcare on the head as he can do that while you go full time.

It'll be a ships in the night slog for a while, but if you do it with the sim of both of you improving your prospects you can stick at it for a while.

Full time, dammit!

Higher apprenticeships. Apprenticeships aren't just for young people starting out and don't all pay badly. They are great for people wanting to learn new skills and as they can be funded through a levy. He might need to look into them himself though and turn check the organisation he works for are levy payers.

Chimney Sweep? Around here they earn £70 a chimney and can do five in a day. My sweep told me it takes about two months to get qualified.

Sales? My DH works in sales, does most of the school runs away one night every 2 weeks. He earns about £40k with commission plus car and medical.

You really have to be a certain type of person though

Can I just clarify - are you looking for a job that would enable him to do school drop offs and pick ups, or just a job that doesn't take him away from home for 2 - 3 nights a week ?
As they are quite different perspectives.
Also, how old are the dc - as in, at school, or pre-school (or about to start school)
Also, how fixed are your hours? - We have done various patterns over the years, but one of us dropping the dc off while the other starts early, and that one then finishing early whilst the 'dropper off' person stays late at work, can help with childcare costs.
So something like a bin man, would start early, but finish early (also postman - though probably not paid so much), will cut down your after school costs, if you can start after dropping them off.

Are you close to London? Night tube drivers are on about 24k for two nights work and once you’ve done a year you can apply to go full time. I do a job share so am on 33k for three evenings per week Just have to keep an eye out for vacancies.

Firstly, it sounds like you are still in the nursery years? So grit your teeth and hang on in there. It gets a lot better / cheaper once they start school.

Career suggestions:

• local govt or highways agency? I work for local govt and most people have at least a degree of flexibility (I have huge flexibility but have high quals and lots of experience)
• or freelance/ self employed is the other way to get flexibility (but much less reliable!)

Driving Instructor

I second electrician. A friend's DH is doing this. He is degree qualified is something else but is making a lot more as an electrician than he ever did in his graduate job (he does start early though so they used breakfast club for years and my friend changed her hours to 7.30 to 3.00 with a short lunch break). And my general buolder, who has no quals other than school and trade certs, is always very busy but has flexibility as he works for himself.

Builder!

What about site safety? He could get qualifications in health and safety audits etc

Civil service. I earn more than £30k and its very flexible, i wfh once a week, theres no real start time just fits in with your team, some people start at 6am others at 8am, whatever suits you