occupations

[Redsheep]

30 years service this month - company has been bought a few times, but been Balfour Beatty since 2008.
QS to trade but now Estimating Manager in N Scotland.
Looking forward to retirement, but 6-7 years to go yet.

 

[mwpe]

Fascinating thread, I left school at 15 and joined the RAF as an apprentice fitter after 14 years I decided to try the world outside. I tryed various odd jobs for a few months and then decided to return to what I knew which was aircraft. I joined Dan-Air which some of you older ones may remember, got my CAA licences and worked my way up to middle management. I stayed with the same company through various owners until I retired at 71. I enjoyed my job but eventually got fed up with the beaurocratic bullshit which is required for everything these day.

 

[757Capt]

Airline pilot, 21 years for three UK airlines though I’ve not flown for the last 15 months due to the pandemic.

Civilian contractor to the MOD working as a flying instructor teaching RAF, Army and Navy pilots to fly before joining the airlines having previously been a corporate pilot. Prior to that I was in the Army having taken the Queens shilling after leaving school at 18.

 

[Keet]

Six years down the pit from leaving school. Well, it was five actual years thanks to a year off courtesy of Mr Scargill and Mrs Thatcher. Then swapped sides and joined the Police. Spent the majority of my nearly 30 years on traffic and firearms. Retired nearly 4 years ago and have never looked back!

 

[Natrolite55]

Contracts Manager for a civil engineering company. I specialise in highways projects for local authorities. Still got 25 years to go before I retire.... Fairly boring really, which is why I have a Zed!

 

[jonco]

Left school at 16 with a mixed handful of O levels not knowing what to do. After a few jobs, joined a newly formed major industrial fertiliser company as an accounts clerk at 19. In all honesty, should have been sacked in first 2 years as I was lazy and had no interest in work (was that really me ). Transferred to chemical plant operations in 1971 and fortunately saw the light and transformed into a workaholic. Over 38 years with the same Company (albeit different owners) worked in various roles retiring as Department Manager (Ammonia and Nitric Acid Operations and Maintenance). Took an early retirement option at 57. Have never missed going to work but have kept active on many DIY projects plus of course the Zed.

 

[Dakar Z3]

I’ve sold car parts for the last errrmmm , a long time

Thought I’d better give an update, worked for carnation foods before joining Beechams, then into the motor trade working for Quinton Hazel, moved to a friction manufacturer that is now EBC, then to ZF Lemforder 15 years they supply Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Bentley and RR that’s just in the UK, I’ve been at MEYLE for the last 10 years supplying Morgan and others, as well as the UK aftermarket.
Retirement closing in fast.

 

[Redline]

Thought I’d better give an update, worked for carnation foods before joining Beechams, then into the motor trade working for Quinton Hazel, moved to a friction manufacturer that is now EBC, then to ZF Lemforder 15 years they supply Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, Bentley and RR, I’ve been at MEYLE for the last 10 years supplying Morgan and others, as well as the UK aftermarket.
Retirement closing in fast.

My wife worked for QH in Nuneaton and then moved to Lucas, which later became Delphi Aftermarket.

 

[Dakar Z3]

My wife worked for QH in Nuneaton and then moved to Lucas, which later became Delphi Aftermarket.

Small world, That was the head office, I worked there for over 5 years although I was in field sales, what dept was she in?
I’ve been trying to think back, not easy at my age, I was there between 1980-1990 ish, Mick Giles was CEO, Ken Collins MD, Alan Mallard General Manager. It was when Moprod and QH Amalgamated.

 

[Devon Z]

Site maintenance engineer on a leisure Marina, jack of all trades. Previously motor mechanic after leaving school then 15years in motor vehicle electrics.

 

[Redline]

Small world, That was the head office, I worked there for over 5 years although I was in field sales, what dept was she in?
I’ve been trying to think back, not easy at my age, I was there between 1980-1990 ish, Mick Giles was CEO, Ken Collins MD, Alan Mallard General Manager. It was when Moprod and QH Amalgamated.

82-87ish. Gail worked in sales, ran telesales and later export marketing.

 

[Dakar Z3]

82-87ish. Gail worked in sales, ran telesales and later export marketing.

Mad, same as me, she will know Pete Hayden, Pete Henry, Terry Fisher, Lurline etc
I can only really remember Sam from telesales, she moved from Moprod, there are so many people I can remember but their names evade me at the moment, did she know Jessica Fradier from Delphi?
No sorry, I doubt she will not know Jessica she was later.

 

[t-tony]

Anyone in the car fraternity remember a guy called Ivan Green who worked for Chrysler (Warranty) when I first ventured into the car game in 1977?

Tony.

 

[rmoconnor41]

Air Traffic Controller. Area radar control, the one nobody knows much about

 

[Alan Slade]

I left school at 15years of age. I had taken the HM Dockyard entrance exam I wanted to be a fitter/turner but didn’t pass high enough I was accepted as a Coppersmith Apprentice. I did a 5 year apprenticeship normal back then. Worked on various naval vessels during my time in the dockyard. I spent a lot of time working on submarines and went on sea trials twice. In order to do so I had to do the submarine escape course which entailed escaping from a depth of 100 feet (great fun).
I left the dockyard due to pressure from my then wife and joined the Hampshire Constabulary, stationed at Basingstoke for the first year, then at Fareham for the next 23 years, I was an area car driver driving Volvo 240. I got divorced and shortly after met my wife Maxine through work, no I didn’t arrest her, she was a store detective working for Boots she was renowned for her ‘dodgy’ jobs several of which I had to deal with. Then onto Bishops Waltham (semi retirement) Retired properly in 2002, 30 years, hence the registration of our Zed GOT 30 1N. Then started my own small business mainly fitting kitchens and bathrooms Maxine regularly worked with me. Retired completely in 2013.

 

[Iamjonw]

I left school at 16 and spent a few months trying to figure out what to do. My father at the time worked in Saudi, so from June to December after leaving school I was in Saudi. Came back to the UK after Christmas and got a job locally at an insurance company as a filing clerk, started January 1982. Back then some of you may remember, there were no computers on every desk, there was still a typing pool and all the insurance policies were in paper files. My first job was to convert the paper files onto microfiche (really high tech), so we sat for hours scanning paper documents and converting them to fiche.

From Sept 1985 I was offered a new role as a Trainee Computer Operator for Barclays Bank. I have been working in IT ever since in various roles. Currently working for a software company managing consultants in the field. In my 40th year of work, but not quite ready to retire and not sure that the financials stack up just now. Hoping for a stock market boom as the economy recovers and my pension fund will go into over drive. Otherwise I will have to keep blagging it for another 10 years...

Anyway in the meantime, life is good and enjoying being part of the Z community

 

[colb]

Started as an Apprentice Toolmaker when I left school, didn't take to it so found a stop gap job as a Cost Clerk at a local Garage Parts Department, stuck that for a while whilst looking for something else. Office machine Technician job came along and stuck with that for 5 years, all typewriters and adding machines, electronic calculators were just comming out. Looked at joining the Police and to cut a long story short found myself as PC W149 in the British Transport Police stationed at Birmingham, went on to serve at Coventry then brought back to Birmingham as Acting Sergeant having passed the promotion exam. In those days you had to move to a Station other than your home station for permanent promotion so I ended up in Cardiff. Periods of being a Shift Sergeant, Mobile Support Sergeant with a van full of troops and then a District Post Sergeant at Newport and Newport Docks. Following a reorg of posts I ended up as Crime Bureau Manager at our Area Headquarters in Bristol spent 7 years doing that then moved into Emergency Planning involved with Civil Contingencies, covered Wales and the South West so lots of travel and attending meetings. 33 years in I was retired and reemployed as Police Staff doing all the Civil Contigencies and Business Continuity planning. Managed another 10 years before I had had enough so 43 years in I retired and spent a year loafing about. Bored I took up a job with a local Funeral Directors driving the Limos and being on call 1 week in four for out of hours calls for the Black Private Ambulance. Not everyones cup of tea but there isn't anything I haven't seen or dealt with before. Pocket money for spending on the Z's

 

[Robert Wiles]

Started out after graduating as a Project Engineer for an American company that made electrical interconnection products. My first project was the fuse and relay module for the 1981 Ford Cargo truck.

In 1982 I joined MK Electric as part of their management development scheme which gave me the development opportunities that youngsters sadly don't seem to get today. After a variety of projects and assignments across the business, I ended up as engineering manager looking after around 100 staff and being trusted to spend lots of the company's money on a complete new product range. Tough, but the best time of my working life.

After a couple of takeovers, MK Electric was aquired by a US conglomerate and I was asked to move into quality management, ending up as manufacturing quality leader for 12 sites across Europe, which had its moments. Investigating product safety issues on gas valves for domestic boilers grabs the attention....

As is the way with American businesses, the overriding imperative is to do more and more with less and less to the point where the wheels fall off and I found that I no longer shared the values that the business was being run by. In 2017 I got the opportunity to retire early after 35 years service with a brown envelope full of cash and a good pension, so it wasn't all bad.

After 3 years of gardening, decorating and rebuilding old pushbikes and mopeds, I missed the intellectual challenge of work so I took a job as a quality engineer for a local manufacturer. Pays for holidays (which we can't have at the moment) and attending to the zed.

Would I have done it differently? Well, in my final year whilst looking for a job, I did get an interview for Copersucar which was Emerson Fittipaldi's Brazilian sponsored F1 team. It never came to anything, but I sometimes wonder what would have happened if it had...

 

[pgunter]

A very interesting read.

left school and did a yts scheme in H Samuels before starting and apprenticeship in architecture becoming a qualified architectural technician. Then moved to local authority carrying out surveys on properties being leased by the city council. A job came up in Environmental Health working in the night noise team and enforcement which I really enjoyed. I became the person who had to approve live music venues and attend concerts to approve sound levels. Bands such as Carter, Faith no More, Prodigy and Stranglers to name but a few of the hundreds I had to watch and sign off before the concerts could go ahead. Hard life, but someone had to do it. I also had to enforce noise policy on parties and close down places too. I was also employed to carry out sound checks for other local authorities and working with promoters on things like Donnington monsters of rock. great view from the sound engineers desk. Then other things such as Guinness World records at Wembley (Cup final 2016) has been ongoing, trying to get the loudest stadium cheer. Close but not as loud as the Italians were. Pity I do not like football because it was Liverpool and Man U I think. VIP box and touch line view.

During all this I was asked by my former manager to come and work with him in a consultancy role. Which I have been doing for over 20 years now all over the place. Thousands of music venues over the years and love the work and the challenges it still throws up.

Also for my sins I have organised a few events which some mad BMW drivers seem to enjoy coming along too.

Wembley having to work. Honest.

 

[Eddie Zedder]

l was also employed to carry out sound checks for other local authorities and working with promoters on things like Donnington monsters of rock.

I remember AC/DC at Donington in '84 being exceptionally loud, mind you we were right next to the speakers. Thumping headache and deaf for a few days afterwards, but well worth it .