I had a plan. I had what I thought was a secure job that would carry me to retirement in roughly 5-10 years. Then the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) decided not to renew our contract and I was laid off in December with a fairly generous severance, which helped somewhat.
I thought I’d be able to roll over to one of the other defence contractors on base as I have a lot of experience and would be a pretty much plug and play situation. Except…
Except Covid and budget issues are creating a pause in hiring right now, and moving out of the area is a non starter due to my wife having a permanent contract as a teacher. (Teachers actually make a decent wage in Canada, in fact she makes more than I did) so having her leave her job would be insane at this point.
I’m getting to the point where my severance will be exhausted and I will either have to go on EI, take a temp job that likely won’t pay squat, or do I strike out and try being self employed knowing that it will take years potentially before I see any real profit while trying to build up the business?
Thankfully, I have access to funding through Veterans Affairs for post secondary and professional development and I am taking advantage of that, but I won’t be able to rely on that as a pillar for another career for a year or two.
So, for those of you that were/are in a similar situation, how did you make it work?
Go on EI first. This is exactly why we have EI. You shouldn’t/needn’t feel any reluctance whatsoever. It is an insurance plan, to which you have contributed… at every pay period for your entire working life!
This IS why you have insurance, this IS why we, as a society, instituted it. So you won’t be forced into horrid circumstances and unsavoury choices. So you have time and space to right things, find a new path etc.
So, before you lose sleep and before you take up something you feel forced into, but I’ll suited to, just go and apply for YOUR EI.
Would you put off collecting on your car insurance?
Just do it!
That is a good point; and this is the first time in my life I’m actually eligible, but it won’t be until Aug that I can actually apply. I completed my application for my part time grad diploma program so I’m hoping that will go through with no problems and in an ideal world I’d be able to collect EI while I’m in school but that would require a full time program.
Thinking of your family as the “family firm”, you need to figure out if you need both of your incomes roughly where they are to hit your broader life goals (retirement and etc.) I think training or getting more education are great, but if you’re doing them to further those goals I would be certain that without moving, such training and education will translate into you meeting those goals.
Without knowing any more information, it sounds like to me there may be a faulty assumption in saying it would be insane to move because of your wife’s job. Teachers I would presume can find employment anywhere in Canada that has children, but it appears your job skill set is much more geographically constrained. If moving would make it easy for you to get a job and finish out your 5-10 year plan, I am not sure why this isn’t being seriously considered. Is it very difficult for teachers to land contracts in Canada? Is the current contract your wife has particularly lucrative by Canadian standards? If so that would be something to consider, but if she would be able to find gainful employment somewhere that you also could, it’s hard for me to understand that not being an option.
Basically if your family goals are retirement in 5 to 10 years, and you need both incomes to do that, the paramount importance in my mind would be securing both of those incomes. If you think you can bridge to making that happen without moving by leveraging severance and other benefits to tide you over while you retrain / get a grad degree…then that seems viable. But if that plan doesn’t ultimately make you more employable where you are right now, I struggle to see how you will hit your goal of retirement in 5 to 10 years without some mechanism to get yourself employed at near the rate you had planned. Is there perhaps an expectation in a couple years that hiring will turn back on and you may get back on with the defense companies in your area?
@Keith1 I laughingly considered that but I’m not quite ready to trade my soul for money quite yet although I’d be hard pressed to do worse than the current government in Alberta. @TriPolar@velomont I worked in the Air Force as an avionics technician and as an instructor on F-18 EW systems. I then retired from the AIr Force and worked as a field service technician working on radar and IR Electronic Warfare simulators. I have experience in a really broad range of skills and I’ve been throwing resumes out adapted for the jobs I’m applying for. As part of my VAC benefits I’ve been working with a employment coach to modernize my resume and build skills to nail the interview toward a new career. That has helped me get two interviews so far and expand beyond the “military industrial complex”. @Martin_Hyde Moving right now is complicated by a locally depressed housing market due to low oil prices (The two biggest employers here are the military and the oil patch), Covid, and the cost of higher housing prices in major cities. While you are right about her job being portable, moving to a major urban centre would mean, at best, that she would be on a substitute list for at least two years. Introducing more uncertainty seems to me to be counter productive right now. We had always meant to move from here once we were ready to retire and if that means working a few more years then that’s a step we have to take. Once I have my Masters in Emergency Management then moving makes much more sense.
My expectation is that the job market is going to get better and I’ve had some assurances from a couple of site managers that that is the case, but I’m still anxious that I won’t be able to find anything.
Yeah that’s a rough situation, it would seem the smart move is to take as much advantage of the benefits you have available to tide you over and work on the degree. When/if the benefits run out you could take a lower paying “bridge job” until you finish school and by then hope that the market is back where you need it to be or the new degree opens up different doors.
If you’ve always wanted to start a business, this may be the right time to do it, assuming you have the capital and experience you need. Starting a small business is a lot of work, but for many people, it’s rewarding to build something out of nothing, and the fact that your wife is working and the bills are being paid means this may be the best time to do it you may ever have. Can you turn your skills into cash by becoming an independent contractor, or do they only apply to specific military applications? What would you really like to be doing between now and retirement. I would strive to accomplish that if you can and maybe it will reduce your overall stress and anxiety.
The small business suggestion has some merit. I think it’s very likely, when we come out of this pandemic, that governments, (federal, provincial and municipal), will have programs to help start up small businesses. There are a lot of people who took this time to work on a side hustle or hobby, originally out of necessity, and are thinking about taking it a step further rather than jump back into the grind of being an employee. Lots of businesses won’t survive this break in income, and government at every level will be heavily invested in reversing those losses. I could see a lot of incentives being offered for the first 6-18mnths. Might be worth considering.
I’ve never really considered the contractor angle, although I did have a side hustle as a satellite dish installer/computer repair dude for a few years. I would have to really give this some thought as to how to maximise a customer base. I was going to do guitar repairs/ builds as a retirement job later; I would have to do up a business plan and figure out how to expand beyond the local area to make a go of it. Alternatively, I like researching stuff and was an aspect of my previous job I really liked. That would also be something that isn’t geographically tethered. A lot to think about here.
Good to know you’re maintaining your dignity
Having Forces experience on your resume can carry a huge amount of weight when looking for work. Unfortunately your area sounds somewhat specialized which reduces opportunities. Similarly, a good friend was a member of the revered Special Forces - those guys that can kill with their baby finger. Doesn’t do him much good in the ‘real’ world though.
Opportunities in your general field could be greater in Ontario or Quebec. Bombardier comes to mind.
Speaking of which, and I know you didn’t ask, but…
London, Ontario is home to a major defence (General Dynamics) contractor that just landed a huge contract and is looking to hire. Also home to a prestigious university and college as well as several private schools set up to prepare the large international student cohort, which is huge! Just saying!
My father is currently living in London so I’m quite familiar with the area. I’ve always liked it, and Kingston, but as I addressed above moving right now would wreak havoc on our bank balance. SWMBO would also have to take additional courses to teach in Ontario or BC IIRC. I’m doing an analysis of starting a maker space with laser cutters and enterprise quality 3d printers and configuring it so customers could build by submitting files remotely along with remote payment so lockdowns are less of an issue. I also considered the possibility of having businesses rent 3-d printers/cutters for prototyping. I’ll have to look at legalities and liabilities if I go through with this path.
So it looks like I have two job offers on my plate! One is a one year term position in the same job I left 11 years ago and the other is working in a new but related field that is a permanent position.
I should know one way or the other by Monday! Yay!
Bump. I start my new job next Monday! I’ll be working as a flight sim technician, which is a whole new field for me but still lets me use the skills I have. I was also accepted into my Masters in Public Safety and I start in the Sept. Thanks for sharing your ideas with me, I can honestly say that they helped me a great deal and have given me some direction for the future!
