EDIT: Bloody hell, that came up long, like a serious article in The Times
sorry
Time for me then.
Age: 31
Origin: Poland
In UK for 9years now.
Education: 15years in total. 2 diplomas in IT, IT inc. telecommunication with elements of electronics and also multimedia and computer graphics.
I worked for the biggest telecommunication company for only few months until I realized that IT isn't what I want to do for a living.
At the age of 15 (while studying) I got into car tinting business, back then it was something unknown and not done properly. Within 2 years we got contracts with almost every single car manufacturer tinting brand new cars for customers who have chosen to have windows tinted to specific grade. Within another year we already had own dedicated bays for tinting in Mercedes, Audi, Volvo, Nissan, Honda, BMW, Renault, Peugeot and many more dealerships.
In the meantime I was stripping and swapping car interiors for a private investor, not for long, all in my own time which was very limited due to looong working hours and studying at the same time.
After 6 years of tinting the cars and also homes, shops and showrooms later on, I draw a line in my CV and decided to take it easy, focus on having a family and even working for someone else which I don't mind till present day, although I am currently thinking about new business/partnership whci is very exciting.
I was happy with what I've done in my life so far.
Got a property and invested money. I wasn't and I'm still not too greedy. Yes I would like to be a millionaire one day, but that wasn't the time for me.
UK adventure was nothing else than adventure, at that point I was settled and done OK so I decided to visit few mates over here. Were quickly I got a good job in I think still the biggest home improvement company after offering for a laugh my place in the line to a regional manage of this company while I was queuing in the bank.
I was making so much £££ that after 2 months I was promoted to assistant manager where I made even more £££. But this experience lasted less than a year after I decided to quiet because of stupidly long working hours which made me a lot of money which I couldn't spend.
After that I was looking after 8 difference hotels across London, almost AtoZ maintenance.
After 2 years me and all the guys across UK faced a redundancy, company decided to give away all maintenance related services to outside contractor.
I was kind of happy even if this happened few days before Christmas as my child was due to be born in next couple of months, so it was like a unlimited father's maternity which helped me spent a lot of time with my little one which was a best possible thing. Thanks to hard work, savings and good skills in fixing electronics I managed to stay away from the benefits and other handouts, I was actually making more money from home back then than any other full time job in the past.
In the meantime I was doing some extra H&S courses to help me getting into local government, property services dept.
Soon after passing all my exams I got a job with my local government. It wasn't the best position, but I was prepared to start at the bottom of the ladder as that's how sometimes it is in life.
Till now, after 5 years I'm still working for a local government as a site manager now and enjoying what I'm doing. This is due to position being slightly renamed and reformed which offers my fair amount of power, say and variety of things to due across each week, anything from budgeting and finances to getting my hands dirty which is what I like.
I've got variety of skills, from manual ones, technical to management.
I like fixing electronics a lot, not an expert in everything hence I undertake only the ones I'm confident with, but sometimes I do take on new challenges.
See attached few photos of what I did this weekend for example.
I go through few smartphones almost each week which all come from friends and family. That's purely because I love doing this, fixing stuff, making it look better, full refurbs. Plus I save plenty of £££ to the owners at the same time and I just can't sit still and do nothing or just watch TV, I was even washing my car few days ago at 9pm, pitch black, only because I couldn't just sit and watch TV.
But don't take me wrong, i do like to have a lazy moment from time to time
Anything from water damaged phones to phones run over by a car.
From time to time I will repair some TomToms, rebuild a laptop or a PC, full software install as well, do a reflow on a motherboard's graphic chip, tablets, anything just to keep me busy.
I do like spending a lot of time around the car, mainly cleaning it, but also making it looks better or fit new stuff, not much of that recently, but I do have few retrofits and new installs lined up which I absolutely enjoy.
Other than that I love a good laugh, not always everyone gets it, but thats a different story. I will always tell you how it is, I wont tell you stuff which I don't believe in only because it sounds better. I'm a straight forward guys. I will help anyone as much as I can, no matter what it is as long you didn't ''upset'' me in the past as I do judge people within few seconds and if you cross the line with me thats it. Some people are not the biggest fans of these sort of way of living, but you know what, it works for me very well, I would rather have a smaller circle of quality mates/friends than a massive bunch of people you can't trust. Plus weirdly I am very good in judging people within seconds, sometimes it takes few months or years for them to show the real side, but they get there eventually.
One thing I definitely don't do, I borrow money to people or from people or banks, I pay only for the stuff which I can afford. I'm not a bank to lend money, unless its a family, as usually money can be the nasty part of a friendship problems and I would rather not experience any of that.
If I do get to watch TV, I like watching clever/fascinating stuff plus I'm a big fan of racing, especially F1. I watch every practice session, interviews, press conferences, pre race build ups, you name it. I don't like superbikes tho.
I like the smell of petrol and anything what runs on it, from cars to petrol blowers
And I'm a proud owner of a fantastic 8, jest, it's only 7.3, but well looked after and superb mechanically, due to replacing stuff before it breaks which is kind of a problem I have, but one day, if I decide to give her away to a good home, which is hard as I'm attached to her even if I could have a better and newer model, she will make someone very happy.
The money I spend on this car a year, overall running cost inc all the extras, in excess of over 10k it's stupid and not worth it for some, but I LIKE IT
, and that's what matters to me, doing in life what I like.
The End
Thanks
Marcin