29, mortgage, young family and a career I hate – is it realistic to start again in the trades?
I’m looking for some honest advice from people working in the trades, particularly landscapers, gardeners, builders and other self-employed tradespeople.
I’m 28, turning 29 soon, and I’m increasingly thinking that I’ve gone down the wrong career path and would actually be much happier working in a trade.
My background is a bit unusual.
I’ve previously worked in the NHS, including in an Emergency Department. I’ve always liked practical, hands-on environments and working alongside tradespeople. I’ve done labouring work with roofers and landscapers in the past, and I’ve also worked alongside my uncle, who’s a general builder. I enjoyed that sort of work considerably more than sitting at a desk.
When I was at school, though, there was a pretty strong expectation that the route to a decent career was university/academic education. Trades weren’t really presented to us as an equally legitimate option. So I followed that route.
I actually tried to get apprenticeships before eventually ending up in my current career, but I didn’t hear anything back from the applications I made. Eventually I took an apprenticeship in Trading Standards and went down that route instead.
I’m now working for a local authority as a Trading Standards Officer and I’m approaching the end of my qualification.
On paper, it’s a reasonably good career. It’s professional, relatively secure and I’m earning around £37k. But I’m genuinely miserable doing it.
There are several reasons for that.
The work itself is incredibly unfulfilling to me. I spend a lot of time dealing with casework, administration, emails, reports, meetings, policies, etc. There are aspects of enforcement that I find interesting, but overall I don’t get much satisfaction from the actual day-to-day job.
The workplace has also been a significant source of stress. I’ve had issues involving what I felt was bullying and inappropriate management behaviour. I raised formal concerns internally and went through the proper processes, but although some aspects of my concerns were acknowledged, I didn’t feel that the underlying problems were really addressed.
I’ve also found the training and development side of the apprenticeship pretty poor at times, with a lot of material being thrown at apprentices alongside normal workloads without what I consider to be particularly good support.
I’ve reached the point where I don’t really see myself wanting to spend the next 20–30 years doing this.
The strange thing is that I keep coming back to landscaping.
I’ve recently completely redone my own garden largely by myself, and I absolutely loved doing it. I enjoy planning things, physically building things, planting, moving materials, seeing a project develop and then actually being able to stand back and look at what I’ve achieved.
I also genuinely enjoy just being outside in my garden. Even when I’m not doing anything particularly productive, I’d much rather be outside doing something practical than sitting at a desk.
I’ve worked with landscapers before and really enjoyed it. I like being outside. I like physical work. I like being able to look at something at the end of the day and see what I’ve actually achieved.
That makes me wonder whether landscaping might actually suit me far better than the career I’ve ended up in.
But there is a fairly significant problem.
I have a mortgage and a young family.
I’m not in a position where I can simply quit my job, go to college full-time and live on beans for three years while I learn a trade. I have a partner, a young child and a mortgage, so any career change has to be financially realistic.
And I’m nearly 29.
It feels like I’ve missed the boat on apprenticeships. I assume most employers aren’t going to look at someone who’s nearly 30, already has a professional career and wants to start again as an apprentice, particularly if I’d need a reasonable wage to make the transition financially viable.
I could potentially do college courses part-time/evenings to get some basic qualifications and then try to get work with a landscaping company as a labourer/trainee and work my way up.
Alternatively, I could keep my current job while learning in my spare time, build up some practical experience, and gradually transition into landscaping.
Eventually, I’d quite like to be self-employed, but I realise there’s a massive difference between enjoying gardening and actually being able to run a profitable landscaping business.
I’m not under any illusion that it’s an easy option. I know there would be early mornings, bad weather, heavy lifting, dirty work, difficult customers, quoting, accounting, equipment costs, quiet periods and all the other realities of being self-employed.
But honestly, that sounds considerably more appealing to me than spending another 20 years in an office.
The question is whether I’m romanticising it because I’m currently miserable, or whether I’ve genuinely identified something that would suit me better.
I’m therefore really interested in hearing from people who’ve actually done something similar.
Am I being ridiculous considering a trade at 29?
Are apprenticeships genuinely unrealistic at my age, or are there employers who will take on older starters?
Would I be better off doing evening/part-time college courses and trying to get labouring/trainee work?
What qualifications would actually be useful for someone wanting to get into landscaping?
Could I realistically learn while keeping my current job and supporting a family?
How long would it realistically take to become competent enough to start taking on small jobs myself?
Is landscaping a viable career financially once you’re experienced/self-employed?
Would you recommend landscaping specifically, or another trade based on my background?
Has anyone here changed career in their late 20s/30s and gone from a professional/office job into a trade?
If you’ve got a mortgage and family, how did you manage the financial transition?
I’m particularly interested in hearing the unromantic version from people actually doing it. If you’ve made this transition and regretted it, I’d like to hear that too.
I’m not expecting people to tell me to “follow my dreams”. I’m trying to work out whether this is actually a realistic career change, particularly given my financial responsibilities, or whether I’m simply romanticising the idea because I’m currently miserable in my job.
Obviously I do not intend to leave my job and just start my own business, and I know that running your business does not entail just turning up doing a job and getting paid. My job now is literally making sure people do all the other stuff correctly. Whether I have to work for another trader for 10 years before I can go on my own, I don’t mind, I just feel I need to explore this.