What did you do before you joined up?

[buddah]

Left school and straight to work building and testing Heatslave central heating boilers for Worcester engineering, weekends worked on the holliday barges, after a few years got bored and joined the RAF as an MTD.

 

[prop135]

Gents outfitters 86
Roofer 86
Navy 86
Roofer 88
Shop Manager 88
Inland revenue 88

then RAF 88 (managed to hold this job down)DT_Xtremez_31:

 

[uber pikey]

Left school and worked YTS as a diesel fitter for Wimpey waste, then moved to Leyland Daf as a fully qualified fitter and joined the TA(157 transport Reg REME). Got asked to work for Volvo trucks by manager and then head hunted after a year by a haulage company to manage and fix all their Volvo's. I then did contract work because the pay was better but was spuradic for Foden trucks. I qualified in tachograph callibrations and went to work for Mercedes Benz but knocked it all on the head when I had a child I realised I had too much insecurity around me to bring a child up. I applied for the RAF at 25 and I was asked if I wanted to be an MT fitter but told them to ram it right up um(why, oh why?) Sooty......The best job ever. I dont move anymore , they move me.

 

[propersplitbrainme]

I worked in the Leisure Centre in Gloucester between leaving school and joining up.

 

[Hu Jardon]

I worked in the Leisure Centre in Gloucester between leaving school and joining up.

Much like today then still chasing round after a bunch of Kids and Old Folk
DT_Xtremez_30:DT_Xtremez_30:DT_Xtremez_30:DT_Xtremez_30:DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[Rigga]

Left School in may 74!(I;d done my exams and was already 16.
Had to wait for 13 months to join up as a rigger there was no room at Saints to get more troops in!
Worked as a Plumbers mate for almost 6 months Then got a Job cutting steel bars for a welding Company.
Got a place as an apprentice Printer but couldnt stand being stood behind a machine all day and not being able to fix it when it went wrong.
When the mob said they finally had a place for me, I jumped at it.

Joined in June 1975.
Left in August 1999.

 

[Irritant]

You know when you crack a bad joke and get told that you should be on the stage ............... sweeping it. Yep, that was my job for a bit, stage hand at my local theatre.

I remember one kiddie’s play that was put on for infants. All of the nonces and slappers got dressed up as insects and they acted out a play based in a garden. The wise old mushroom sat on top of a compost hill and the b45tard insects kept having to go and ask him for guidance every sodding five minutes. As the stage hand I had to help the fat tw4t up into the mushroom with just his face showing. Then I climbed into the wooden and paper-mashe compost heap that he stood on, closed the door and wheeled him on and off stage as the lights dimmed. Meanwhile team d1ckhe4ds were dancing around the stage singing a stupid song entitled "we'll ask the great mushroom, the great mushroom will know what to do, dah dahdy dah etc". I was 17 then (actually I had a bit of a fantasy over Miss Butterfly. Bit of a MILF, know what I mean) to this day 28 years later, I still have the s0dding tune in my head.........Still at least I never tipped the geezer up, that was my fear at the time.

 

[Teh Wal]

Went to work for Everest Double Glazing, making them not fitting them complete cowboy outfit but I learned how to get into a house with double glazing in a few minutes causing no damage at all...

DT_Xtremez_19: Was in my bro-in-laws back garden about 8 years ago when I noticed his windows were 'vulnerable'. I told him to go into his dining room via the kitchen. When he walked into the dining room I was already in there sat at the table: his jaw hit the floor. Can't believe you still see inside-out windows, it's just plain wrong! DT_Xtremez_26:

Anyhoo, I spent 6 months doing a YTS job (25 quid a week! DT_Xtremez_09 working on a farm - I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. And then at the tender age of 16 1/2 took on the Shilling.

But having just read a lot of these threads it's put my mind at ease over my youngest son.
He's just turned 19. He left school 2 years ago and has had 3 or 4 jobs - trying to improve things for himself as he went along . He's intelligent, got a good mechanical bent about him but he's colourblind so can't do engineering, fireman, police, RAF, RN, Merchant Navy, etc, etc. It's a bg shame that he's had so many doors slammed shut because of his eyes as he would be a good technician/engineer as he picks things up really easily.
So last week he pops over and tells me and Mrs Wal that he's going to move to Amsterdam at the beginning of January because he's sick of the UK and the lack of opportunities. I wasn't keen and told him so but he's set on it.
As I said above you've put my mind at ease somewhat - he's young, he's determined and self-motivated, he's sensible and tho he's experienced booze and a bit of smoke (I think an awful lot of youngsters do try it nowadays) he's not drawn to or ruled by either of them. Cheers for the unintentional reassurance guys and gals.
And sorry for boring you with my worries. DT_Xtremez_40:

 

[Rambling Sid]

I went from school straight to Cosford. It was a real shocker about 11 years later when I was looking for a job for the first time.

Good luck with your son's move to Amsterdam, lived there myself for a while, great fun city.

 

[mick-a-nick]

Being a country lad, I worked as an agricultural machine fitter and at the weekends I was a Farriers mate and blacksmiths lacky. Good job, good tips but hard work with no future prospect. Joined in 1971 and just started terminal / re-settlement leave after 38 years

Happy Days

 

[tats]

Did school, 6th form, college and uni (1st time)

Left uni as I didn't like the course, went on to do about 11 jobs in a 2 year period - anything from packing meat in a factory to doing accounts for a roofing company.

Spent a year and a half doing sales admin for a medical company and decided that I wasn't being allowed to progress due to the level of my education so went back to uni (got offered a £1000 pay rise when I told them I was leaving, even though they'd told me they couldn't give me a pay rise as they weren't bringing enough in!)

During my degree started thinking about what to do with the rest of my life and after discussions with friends looked at the RAF - wanted an active job, not sure thats quite panned out as I thought but should change soon.

Whilst going through the process of joining I worked for BT (oh my that was a waste of time as they decided they didn't need all the people they took on - we could have told them that - plus they gave no real training for the job), also worked for a pension company, another company that gave insufficient training and employed more people than they needed!

 

[Tedlooney]

Left school in '74 and did 18 months training to be a radio officer in the merchant navy. I realised I'd spent far too much time looking out of the window during lectures to ever qualify so I went to the CIO in Manchester to join the army. On arrival at the CIO I saw the RAF were there too so decided to join them instead. I wanted to be a fairy but they said I was colour blind and would suit being a heavy. I went for that and was at Swinditz 3 months later.

 

[steve_k243]

I worked in the samples section of a wine bottling plant.
We would package samples for delivery to offies, pubs etc etc.
Did Friday afternoon and Saturday morning as OT cleaning and oiling the
bottling machinery, I was taking home a huge £58 per week after stoppages in 1979.

 

[Digzster]

After being "asked" to leave 6th form 4 weeks before the bitter end, I started off working for the local council outdoors. Cutting grass in parks, clearing out woods etc.
If the "high heid un's" get their way it looks as though I might be going back to it!

 

[Stewie]

Left school in 76 and joined straight up basically left in 86 and became a trucker, been doing it ever since, however Im going back into the auggies in Feb so I suppose I could count the intervening years as a driver as what I did, plus Ive just started my own landscaping buisness as well.

 

[ELM1998]

got booted out of sixth form on 1996 and got job at Porton Down as an Electricians Mate/Labourer £250 a week after tax & NI. Not bad @ 17 years old. Joined up as Eng Tech EL in 1998 and havent looked back, well maybe the odd glance. No point in looking forward its all green & misserable

 

[eric the red]

Didn't have long to wait between leaving school (officially, though I hardly attended for the last year) and going to Cosford. Had many part time jobs though and mostly paid cash in hand at the end of every day. Jobs varied from bar work (not even 16 when I started) to picking apples and although had nothing remotely related to becoung an Air Radar fitter it did teach me a few things about life.

 

[Odie]

I worked as a farm labourer to fill in the few months between school and Swinderlitz. Great job in summer, but the hours during harvest were bloody long.

 

[shettie]

Teachers were on strike in '75 - so instead of going to school - I got a full time job with NAAFI at HM Dockyard Rosyth - they gave me days off to go back to school and sit my O Levels and Highers. did that for 6 months - and at the tender age of 16 and a half - was then thrown to the tender mercys of the DIs at Swinditz

 

[Shugster]

Left school at 16 and joined GEC research as an apprentice toolmaker, made a real hash of my time keeping and if I hadn't joined up I would have probably got the boot anyway.

I'm glad I did join up though, it was the discipline I needed, (I was still 16), and gave me a trade that I still use many parts of in civvy straße.