Building Licence

[JDub]

Just after a couple of opinions from those in the know.....

I am 26 years old and am getting bored with my current career path.:(

I am considering doing my Builders Licence at Tafe starting next year. It will be 2 years part time and classes etc can be done after work.....

I have a couple of concerns once I finish the course....

I this too risky an enterprise to undertake given I have no background in the trades etc?

I currently work in the health care industry and have completed a uni degree so I dont believe I will have trouble with the study etc. Can I expect to earn a decent living from the start (Im currently on 55-60K a year)?

Any advice, experiences are appreciated.....:)

Cheers

[Termite]

Check a little deeper before leaving what you have. If it's anything like NSW I'd be suprised if you can even start the course. No experience in the industry = no licence.
With the money you're on I'd stick with it, as they say "Things aint what they used to be" in the building game. I got out of it about 25 years ago and am damned glad I did.

[jackiew]

same in victoria ... out of interest I went to a 1 evening course at the Tafe which discussed the licensing procedure and what you need to do and know before you can get your licence....

.... you will need to get experience ( from memory at least a year butit might have been two ) on a building site or at the very least project manage building your own home as an owner builder - you don't necessarily have to do any of the physical stuff yourself as Builder's registration in victoria is more about how to run a business, meet all the legislative requirements, understand about scheduling the job etc etc. again from memory any involvment in the building industry can count ... architects, designers, surveyors, valuers etc etc can all count their experience when they go before the board.

... but you can do the course if you want to pay for it ... apparently at this particular tafe they do get people who do it just out of interest ( in fact some of it sounded so interesting I was tempted myself ... sad soul that I am ).

[silentC]

Something else to keep in mind: Home Owner's Warranty.

7 years.

If you are the builder, the buck stops with you.

[bitingmidge]

JD
Looking at your avatar, I would think that with a brain the size of a peanut, you should be ok in the building game.

At 26 you have a dozen careers ahead of you, go for it. None of the knockers have experienced the adrenalin rush you get from the call from the building authority six years after you've finished a job, to go and fix a leaky drain, or repair a termite infested roof.....

If you aren't happy now, you are unlikely to become any happier in fifteen years time.

Save as much as you can for the next two years while studying part time, because you are going to have to take a pay cut initially. Get a job with a builder in the office and work your way into contracting after you've made a few mistakes at someone else's expense.

If you decide after all that it's not for you, find something else to do. Just don't stop learning and experiencing stuff, or enjoying work.

Cheers,

P
Thinking about going back to building humpies after a twenty year break. (not on the tools though!)

[JDub]

.... you will need to get experience ( from memory at least a year but it might have been two ) on a building site or at the very least project manage building your own home as an owner builder - you don't necessarily have to do any of the physical stuff yourself as Builder's registration in victoria is more about how to run a business,
Same in the ACT, I went to the info night at TAFE the other night..... You do not need any experience in the industry before hand to get into the course, it is more about the legal requirements, coding, running a business etc

And you are right you need 1 years experience with a builder or be an owner builder to get your actual ticket. I may be able to work with my brother in law to achieve this..



... but you can do the course if you want to pay for it ... apparently at this particular tafe they do get people who do it just out of interest ( in fact some of it sounded so interesting I was tempted myself ... sad soul that I am ).
Its not real expensive, works out to about $2000 for the entire course etc....

[JDub]

JD
Looking at your avatar, I would think that with a brain the size of a peanut, you should be ok in the building game.
LOL, a bit like that is it:rolleyes:




At 26 you have a dozen careers ahead of you, go for it. None of the knockers have experienced the adrenalin rush you get from the call from the building authority six years after you've finished a job, to go and fix a leaky drain, or repair a termite infested roof.....


Thanks for the support but you make it sound so appealing:cool:



If you aren't happy now, you are unlikely to become any happier in fifteen years time.

Yer thats the issue, Im on good money but Im bored s***less.....



Save as much as you can for the next two years while studying part time, because you are going to have to take a pay cut initially. Get a job with a builder in the office and work your way into contracting after you've made a few mistakes at someone else's expense.


Thats good advice I will look into it......
Cheers


Any more positive persuation or horrer stories out there?:eek:

[johnmc]

Two grand ! Think of the tools you could buy with that !! :o

[silentC]

Seriously, look into the insurance and warranty side of things before you go too far. In NSW a lot of little guys got out of the game because they couldn't get the insurance cover. $1mil public liability isn't it? Try the Dept. of Fair Trading of whatever the equivalent is in ACT.

[jackiew]

with any change of career you've got to think about what you're good at and what you enjoy doing.

From the reading I've done and the bits of courses I've done I get the impression ( and I'm sure someone will be happy to correct me if i'm wrong :) ) that a GOOD builder will have

a) good people skills - you've got to deal with tradesmen and whoever employs you so if you rub people up the wrong way a lot then you're going to experience a lot of frustration.

b) good communication skills - you may be dealing with clients who don't have a technical vocabulary and to avoid lots of grief in the long run you need to be sure that what they want and what they are going to get are the same thing.

c) be good at attention to detail - scheduling and planning and making sure that you've ordered the right number of X to be available on date Y to be installed by Z and that you didn't pay more than $w per unit which was what you based your quote to the customer on.

d) have plenty of perseverence for chasing up suppliers

e) be good at documentation.... when Mr Jones announces that he wants the window in a different location you're going to have to document the variation with any change in timescales or cost for both of your sakes.

If you're the type of person whose tax return goes in late, misses the payment date on their credit card, forgets appointments and makes enemies wherever you go I suspect you won't make a good builder.

[echnidna]

" Im on good money but Im bored s***less....."

The building industry gets mundane at times and as you increase your knowledge about it you will get bored more easily.

You're unlikely to make good money until you reach the skill level of a tradesman so you might be a bit hungry early on.

Most tradesmen on the tools start slowing down after 35 and by the time you hit 45 you will probably using subbies.

If you are thinking about this because need a lifestyle change why not use your income to undertake skills courses in woodwork, sculpture, metalwork, brain surgery etc, you may be able to improve your lifestyle without going back to a low income!

[namtrak]

And as long as you dont live anywhere near Albury ;) Landscaping isnt such a bad career. You can clear $2,000 a week, if things go well. Need to get a grip on paving, retaining walls, plantings, drainage, sprinklers systems and turf - and then you've just about got things covered.

As for Licensing and Insurance (similar to builders - in NSW anyway)

- Structural Landscapers Licence via Dept of Fair Trading (accreditation is available)

- Public Liability Insurance

- Home Warranty Insurance for jobs over $12,000 (I stage jobs so they are in components around $5,000 each)

- Urban Irrigation Licence for Sprinklers Systems (Tafe Course - with industry experience required), although you can legally build an irrigation system as long as a licenced plumber puts in the backflow.

Work is pretty solid through Spring, Summer and Autumn - but slows to a stop over Winter.

Anyway, food for thought - forgot to mention backbreaking, possible sunstroke, dehydration, callouses and bad wind.

Cheers

[bitingmidge]

The building industry gets mundane at times and as you increase your knowledge about it you will get bored more easily.

Mundane, yes. Boring....never!! Too many d@#$@heads to deal with to be bored ever!! Just read some of the threads on "blithering idiots" and you'll see why.


You're unlikely to make good money until you reach the skill level of a tradesman so you might be a bit hungry early on.

Most tradesmen on the tools start slowing down after 35 and by the time you hit 45 you will probably using subbies.

Don't go down the trade route, become a contractor from the start...even if you want to be come a subcontractor, be a very good pen-pusher and see Jackie's post above.



If you are thinking about this because need a lifestyle change why not use your income to undertake skills courses in woodwork, sculpture, metalwork, brain surgery etc, you may be able to improve your lifestyle without going back to a low income!

Do that too...do that even as you are making it big in construction!

As an aside, has anyone ever seen or heard of a person in any job, recommending it to someone looking for a career in the same job?

When I was in my teens and thinking of studying architecture, the architects I spoke with all told me to think of something else, so did the builders when I wanted to do that, and the snackbar owners when I opened my first sandwich shop..... I've done them all and a lot more and had a ball (mostly) doing all of them, but the negatives still abound. I'm not a squillionaire because I don't stick with anything long enough to make decent money, but I have learnt a lot about many things and can tell a few stories so it doesn't get better than that!

I got into the habit of doing the same, pointing out all the negatives in what I was doing, warning kids to do something else...until I realised that everyone was like me and there are plenty of positives everywhere one looks, and we are all in different places relative to what we want to do.

Don't ignore the pitfalls, but realise they aren't "deal breakers" follow your dreams, if they turn into nightmares, you'll eventually wake up in a cold sweat and do something else!

Cheers,

P

[ozwinner]

Just what the world needs, one more builder who knows nothing.


Al :(

[Barry_White]

JDub

If you want excitment get into sales along the line of your current expertise. The money will be comparable.

And sales is the only profession that I know of that you can go to the heights of exhilaration and to the depths of despair in same 24 hours.

And most reps jobs usually come with a car provided.

And I reckon you are just the right age to get into sales.

[Sturdee]

Al,

Did you ever meet a builder that did know something? :D The only one I knew got out in the 80's just before interest rates went sky high.


Peter.

[ozwinner]

Hi Peter

Actualy I met one 3 months before I gave the trade away, hes a realy nice bloke, and knows what hes on about too.:eek:
Payed you when ever you wanted paying, no bullsh!t like the rest of them I met.

I cant pay you this week because ( insert as may weak and feeble excuses as you can possably think of here ). :mad:

Just a pity I met him at the wrong end of my building days.

Al :)

[Sturdee]

Al,

I worked for that builder that got out as he also owned the Swagman Restaurant. The stories he told me about other builders that he worked for with his framing gang before he became a builder himself are unbelievable. :eek:


Not only waiting months for his money but then they usually deducted $ 50 / $ 100 a frame (usually worth $ 700) because an nogging was alledgedly missing and their supervisor had to fix it. Ofcourse they only told him after the brickie and plasterer was finished so you couldn't check up or go back and fix it himself. :(


Blood sucking parasites they were, may be now they are better ?


Peter.

[ozwinner]

Blood sucking parasites they were, may be now they are better ?
Peter.
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Aaaaarrrhh Peter, stop it, my sides are hurting.

Al :D