Choosing a career - Part 4

I was around 33 at this time and undecided what to do when I finished at the bakery, so I popped in to a Careers Advice Centre near where my parents now lived - they also had jobs advertised as part of the Jobcentre network. The advisor there suggested I try their aptitude test, which only took a few minutes, and while waiting for the system to spit out some results they mentioned to me that they were trialling a new psychometric test which took half a day!! The next was on Saturday (it was Tuesday) in a different town, but there were vacancies - normally this test would cost about £50 but was free to the invitees for the trial.
There were around 20 of us there and we were told there would be about 12 different tests, lasting different lengths of time - we would be told when to start and when to stop, but not how long we had for each test! The tests were varied, from mental arithmetic, general knowledge, spatial awareness, and even manual dexterity - and the times allowed seemed very short! We did 6 tests then had a break for refreshments, and I found that, like me, the attendees were struggling to complete the tests in the time allowed - that was a relief as I was beginning to think I was thick! When we had finished the organiser explained that not being able to finish each test was part of the test!! It was supposed to put us under stress to see how we handled that - and when he found out that I had actually completed 4 of the 12 tests he was amazed, as no-one had achieved even one before!
While waiting for the results, which would take a couple of weeks, I started working for an Engineering company - a friend worked there and told me they were recruiting short-term workers, and I ended up in the machine shop, working on a power guillotine alongside a 64-year old about to retire! We had to chop up steel following simple drawings, and the work was physically hard, but relatively easy, the pay was OK, and weekend overtime usually available, as well as a productivity bonus! We were initially employed on 13-week contracts, then laid off during a "shut-down" and immediately re-hired for a further 13 weeks (most of us were contracted to do overtime during the shut-down, too!). The government of the day had introduced a job creation scheme where they paid part of the wages of any "new" employees hired for at least 13 weeks, so many companies realised that if they hired and fired at 13 week intervals then they would get a big chunk of the payroll paid for by the state!
I received the results of my psychometric test and had an appointment at another different Jobcentre! My results were excellent, among the best they had seen, and my aptitude demonstrated that I could pretty much choose any career I wanted, and this included professions like legal, medical, etc. However - and there is always a "however" -  entry into these professions was almost impossible past 30, since the years of study and training required meant that many companies would not invest in "older" candidates (I would have required sponsorship from a firm to attend university) since the "pay-back" time after qualification was limited. It left me with very few options at my age to think about starting a new career track, and opportunities in Norfolk limited them further.
By now I had been offered a permanent job at the engineering company, and they were talking about multi-skilling all the workforce, so we would be moving round the machines (there were power presses, punching machines and sheet metal fabricators), and learning new skills like welding, so I put any career aspirations outside this on hold. My first child was also on the way so I needed a regular, steady income, and with occasional stretches on night shift (with enhanced pay rates) and weekend overtime when I wanted, I decided to maintain the status quo.
My colleague retired and I "inherited" his machine with my own assistant, but I was waiting for the multi-skilling opportunity that everyone else, except me, seemed to be getting. Eventually I asked my foreman about it, and he was genuinely shocked - I was the youngest worker with his "own" machine, and he thought I was happy - though rather it was that he was happy knowing he didn't have to worry about output from that machine! They did, however start training me on other equipment, but I never got round to the welding!
The work was hardly high-quality "engineering" as tolerances were pretty generous, but it did give me an insight into a different world of working practices, and in attitudes by the workforce - at breaks (tea break, lunch) and start of day the men would all stand around, even after the "hooter" had gone and wait for the foreman to come and say "All right, lads" before starting, and if he was late (at a meeting, or just elsewhere on the site) we would all still wait until we got the "nod" to start again! "It's his job", they would tell me if I asked why.
My daughter was born just after I got my permanent status and the regular reasonable income, especially on night shifts, though not brilliant, meant I was in no particular hurry to move on, especially as my wife was not yet working again. The company had factories at two locations locally (as well as one in Holland), the other some 30 miles away, and a change in management meant we embarked on a "customer service" training course, to be held at both factories and with some workers from each travelling to the other site for sessions. They were stressing that we were all customers, as well as the final purchasers of the trailers - and that each department was a customer of the preceding one along the production line, so we had to work together, rather than try and compete (and make life difficult for the others!). At the end of the training session we all had a "meet and greet" with a senior company employee, and we got the Financial Accountant, who then opened up a question and answer session. I asked why they didn't give the staff more information about how things were going for the company, as the notice boards were devoid of any company information - his response was that they "didn't think we were interested"! He then went on to tell us the company was doing reasonably well at the moment, with full order books, but that we shouldn't get complacent as it was a very competitive industry.
The next day I started a two week holiday in Kenya (where my in-laws lived), during one of the regular shut-downs, and returned to find that they had just laid off a third of the workforce as business was bad! I was appalled that the Accountant had stood in front of us and lied about the situation - as I couldn't believe that he was unaware things were that bad, but either way the signs were not good for the business. I decided that maybe the time had come to move on, before I was forced out into a very limited job market locally. For some time the man who had bought our grocery shop/bakery had been pestering me to go back and help save his bakery business which was being ruined by highly paid "managers", and I had been rejecting his advances, but a few days later he contacted me again, and offered me a lot more than I was earning in engineering to go back, so I decided to jump ship and change career path again.