Magnum PI
Phil
Evening all,
I'm more of a lurker on here nowadays while I'm "inbetween cars" although I may well be investing again soon so expect to see
more of me.
Anyway, I need some advice and you guys were my first thought of collective, sensible (ish) people to get thoughts from.
I've been employed by the same company for 15 years, 14 of which as a Financial Crime Investigator and I've just been offered redundancy.
It comes at a nice time really as I've not really enjoyed the job for the last few years and unless I was forced out I'd be there till the
day I die. So in a few weeks time I'll be out of there with a nice little pay off of over a years salary, BUT what do I do next? I fancy a
total change to something non-desk based, and I'm not too bothered about earning huge amounts of money.
I'd love to maybe be a diving instructor (already a Dive Master) or run survival courses or something along those lines, but whilst I don't
mind not earning a lot, I understand both those jobs pay literally nothing. I'm good with my hands, strong as an ox and pick things up quickly
but other than investigation stuff I have no formal qualifications although I'd quite happily go to college or uni and would be willing to spend
maybe £10k or so on getting the right qualifications for something I'd like.
In the interim period I'll be helping my missus with a business she's buying which is a flower shop so not exactly my cup of tea
Any thoughts?
EDIT to add - I don't have many regrets in life, I did regret not going travelling when i was younger but I've just been away for 6 months
rectifying that one, however, one of my biggest regrets is not training to be a stunt performer - we have a family friend who's in the business
and when I was 19 or so he was pointing me in the right direction and I was getting there but then met girls, and more girls and let life get the
better of me. Sadly at 34 I'm too old (and fat) to do it now.
[Edited on 8/7/13 by eznfrank]
Private Investigator
Magnum PI
Phil
Private detective with a cover delivering flowers - go self employed and set-up a few businesses using your present skills.
Well, that's a definite possibility, I have done bits of private work before but it's significantly more boring that good old Magnum and co would have us believe. It's also full of blokes crying and asking you to do a weeks worth of surveillance on their other halves for a few hundred quid :-)
I spent years as an automotive engineer and the pressure and stress of customers like Jaguar and Nissan was horrendous..
Anyway, took my redundancy and got a job inside Nissan as a supplier QA engineer.. Big mistake! 6 months later I jacked it and got myself an HGV
licence..
Now I can work 3 days a week, admittedly sometimes 14~15 hour shifts but I now take home as much and sometimes more than I did as an engineer, and
theres no stress!
5 days is normally about 55 hours which I don't do much of but that brings me a handsome wage in
you can earn up to £30,000 PA according to RED driving school's advert on TV 
haha, yeah I'll bet!!
Don't know what your finances are like but how about going into Property Development? Get the first one under your belt and it should get
successively easier and will soon become very profitable (at least by my simplistic logic...)
Phil
That's something I've been thinking of as I've actually done 3 houses before and done ok out of it. I could afford to do it I would have thought but it would be risking most if not all of my cash and possibly having a long wait for returns. Definitely one for me to think about a bit more though.
Done the city bus driving myself and have to say office work of staring at a computer screen all day is way way more boring
Odd Job Man, did it for 8 years
Could you be a diver with the police? Not sure whether your investigative background would help though.
Buy some houses to rent out for investment and get a job to keep you going 
I don't know how much cash you have but you spread your money out in deposits across 2 or 3 houses and buy to let mortgages for the balances. You
gear it so that the incoming rent covers the mortgage payments with a bit left over which you can use to supplement your income or use to pay off the
mortgages quicker.
Basically you keep your money as equity in the properties, you benefit from the capital growth on several houses and someone else pays the cost of the
mortgages.
Teach survival, it's got to be easy telling people how to breathe in and out, eat something and have a drink now and then
Police diver is an interesting prospect and one I've actually done a mass of research into. The police take serving officers and make divers out
of them and currently don't recruit civilians - that being said, the HSE regs do allow it and as the police have civilians scene of crime
officers I can't see any legal reason why a civvy couldn't do it. To get the training I'd need though would be silly money - around
£15,000 with a very slim chance i'd get any work out of it.
For the divers out there it would be HSE Scuba, HSE Surface Supply plus some other bits and bobs.
I work self employed in the building trades and absolutely love it. Currently contracting fitting kitchens. You do need experience to get a good contract though, but i couldnt be happier at the min. Property development is where id like to head to, i have 2 houses at the min but not enough capital to start banging houses out full time. There is serious money in it when you know what you are doing, even more if you can claim PPR on them and not pay capital gains tax.
My brother In law was a driving instructor, but jacked it in cos there wasn't enough people and far too many driving instructors out there. Red take a huge monthly fee for passing on customer and still charge it even if they don't have any for the instructor.
quote:
Originally posted by Ben_Copeland
My brother In law was a driving instructor, but jacked it in cos there wasn't enough people and far too many driving instructors out there. Red take a huge monthly fee for passing on customer and still charge it even if they don't have any for the instructor.
Think BSM are pretty bad too, they all do the same. Better to be completely self sufficient and get your own business. Then you need to be cheap enough to get people to come to you, but charge enough to survive! My brother in law couldn't make enough money as everyone was under cutting each other.
It's really not worth being a driving instructor, as mentioned the supply is outstripping demand. What the country needs is more driving
examiners, at the moment there is a 6 to 8 week lead time (in some areas) for taking your test purely because there isn't enough examiners in the
test centres.
eznfrank, you mention that they take serving police officers and make them into divers? Would you consider being a police officer first with the
intention of becoming a diver? Even starting as a 'special' would work as a first step on a potentially long career.
quote:
Originally posted by eznfrank
Police diver is an interesting prospect and one I've actually done a mass of research into. The police take serving officers and make divers out of them and currently don't recruit civilians - that being said, the HSE regs do allow it and as the police have civilians scene of crime officers I can't see any legal reason why a civvy couldn't do it. To get the training I'd need though would be silly money - around £15,000 with a very slim chance i'd get any work out of it.
For the divers out there it would be HSE Scuba, HSE Surface Supply plus some other bits and bobs.
The civillian police diver thing really got my interest as I'd done alot of research into it already. I've had discussions with the HSE and
various training agencies and I know that I can get the same training as the police, albeit I would have to pay for it which I am happy to do, plus 14
years in evidence handling/crime investigation is a huge benefit. I'm just not convinced they would ever go for it but then if I don't try
I guess I'll never know. The skills I'd acquire could always be used elsewhere I'm sure.
I'm still just weighing up all my options but I knwo I definitely don't want to be sat behind a desk for the rest of my life!
I'm with Ivan... it's unlikely that the police would take on a civilian diver as most underwater search units operate on a call-out basis
(when they're not training or on a live job, they're doing 'normal' police work).
The only time I could see civiians doing the job is if the service was contracted-out (unlikely due to the high costs), or they civilianised the whole
unit and operated on a part-time basis. I would add that there's not really a huge demand for underwater search unit assistance in most areas,
so there's little chance of steady work.
I applied once and realised very early on that it wasn't for me. Most calls were in the manky harbours where you'd be up to your chest in
mud and you (literally) couldn't to see your hand in front of your face. Factor in that you are operating 'by touch' and usually
looking for human remains, and the appeal soon subsides.
So I decided to join the firearms section instead... far more fun!
I agree. I know that it is technically and legally possible, but I'm also not convinced the police would go for it, and it would cost a lot for
me to find out.
I'm guessing their might be call for underwater investigators outside of the police - maybe working for solicitors on defending negligence cases
etc?
Not that i know anything about the subject - but aren't there such things as underwater welders? Have you thought about that?
quote:
Originally posted by jps
Not that i know anything about the subject - but aren't there such things as underwater welders? Have you thought about that?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F_C089Cweg
IVe heard alot of good things about deep sea divers too.
Aparently there is alot of diving on offshore oil rigs and wind farms, especially up in the north sea. Very dangerous work but comes with the pay
packet to suite.
Son of a family friend is a diver in the Navy and was recently diving in the north sea disarming unexploded ammunition that is sat on the sea bed.
Aparently its in the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the world!
A little off the wall, but you could be an IVA inspector.... would be nice to have an insider when it comes to getting our kit cars sorted!
I looked into the whole diving thing a couple years back.
When I looked they seemed to prefer welders who could dive as oppossed to a diver who could weld. THe welding courses are quite intense and getting
the required standard can be tricky unless you have some welding knowledge.
The Police on occassion do use civilian divers - West Midlands Police have no Underwater unit (closest support is Leicester), so use a local
charitable trust. They're all trained to the required diving standards, which doing it voluntarily/part time can take a while. I used to train
with them, and have friends who are still part of the trust.
Have you considered Civil's diving? this would be more inspection, contruction and cleaning work. You'd have to pay for the courses up front
and getting work initially could be an issue - but if you have some 'back up' income that's probably not too much of an issue. Be
prepared for some shitty work though i.e. diving in sewage works...... One of the guys who worked in the local Dive shop went the civils route - he
seemed to be enjoying it last time I spoke to him (which was a while ago).
As I said, I looked into this a couple of years back - didn't get very far though (thankfully) as I had to quit diving for medical reasons....
Good luck though in whatever you decide to do!
eznfrank - i have just sent you a U2U regarding a contract position that sounds right up your street.
Cheers Darren,
Thanks for sending me this. I've responded to your u2u. Sounds like a good job on fairly decent money but I think I'm more inclined to
look for something paying a fraction of that but doing something I actually enjoy.
I'll send it on to my mate though if you don't mind, he's just finished a contract out in Dublin and is lookign for something like
this.