This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with R.J. Fenton, 40, about how she opted to reskill as a plumber after she became a single mom during the pandemic. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified her previous and current employment.
Over the past 18 years, I’ve built a career in publishing and media. I started in audio publishing, working at Amazon’s Audible and later becoming head of development at a TV production company.
Then, the pandemic hit, and my life trajectory changed.
In August 2020, I was laid off from my job, and a couple of days later, my husband left me.
To add to the shock, I found out weeks later that I was pregnant. We’d been trying for children for a few years and had unfortunately suffered two miscarriages in our fertility journey, so finding out I was pregnant was a piece of joy amid a very trying time.
My pregnancy was surprisingly calm. I tried applying for a few jobs but soon gave up, as sleep deprivation left my energy levels on the floor. I gave in to the idea of leaning on some of my savings and taking statutory maternity pay during the pregnancy and the first year of my daughter’s life while continuing to do some volunteer mentoring.
The main struggle came after my daughter was born, as I tried to navigate being a single parent with only a small amount of family support.
I registered with the job center in mid-2022 when my daughter turned 18 months old. I needed to return to a career for financial reasons and to boost my self-esteem.
The job center introduced me to the Connecting Communities scheme, where I could receive £500 ($640) toward a chosen training course. That’s when I decided to do something completely different: retrain as a plumber.
Within weeks of applying, I found myself in a drafty workshop in the South East of England, undertaking a weeklong plumbing accreditation course.
R. J. Fenton
A trial-by-fire
I was the only woman on the ten-person course, and it’s safe to say I felt out of my comfort zone. I’d barely done any DIY before, and the tutor had us soldering and bending metal pipes from day one.
I felt embarrassed that I couldn’t distinguish a hacksaw from all the other saws laid out before me.
It was definitely a trial-by-fire, but by the end of the week, I felt a real sense of accomplishment.
As a new mom and a single parent, you can feel that your capability is in doubt. Sleep-deprived and mentally exhausted, I felt disconnected from myself. Despite the intensity of the course, learning a new practical skill allowed me to engage a new side of my brain, and I couldn’t get enough.
Six months later, I took another course to obtain a Level 2 plumbing diploma. I was lucky enough to receive a full bursary from the City & Guilds Foundation, a charity that offers vocational training.
This course upped the ante: it was six weeks long, and I’d be in the workshop most days from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It was a mixture of classroom and manual learning followed by nine academic exams. Once again, I was the only woman on the twelve-person course.
It was a lot to manage: I was getting three to five hours of broken sleep each night with my daughter, then having super intensive days where I’d be heavy lifting and using a threading machine on heavy-duty steel pipes.
Outside my comfort zone
Most people were surprised when I opted to reskill in plumbing maintenance instead of returning full-time to my previous career.
It might sound crazy to have chosen to dedicate my time to a new pursuit so far removed from my previous career. But I was at a point where I had to prove to myself that I could do something that was out of my comfort zone.
As a new parent, sometimes you feel your sense of self falter. I didn’t have a partner or a full-time job to give myself a sense of continuity, so achieving something I’d never even imagined doing gave me a lot of pride.
R. J. Fenton
From training to setting up my own business
While doing my training, I was still maintaining my freelance work as a media consultant, using the network and skills I’d built up over 18 years.
I was working a contract job for a literacy nonprofit, and thankfully, they allowed me to take six weeks off to complete the plumbing course.
After the course, I started by practicing my skills close to home. I live in a new development building that contains around 150 flats. All the residents have a WhatsApp group where they ask around for contacts in the trades or ask other residents for advice on home maintenance.
I shared with them that I was about to become a qualified plumber and immediately had around four jobs booked.
That pushed me to become self-employed in plumbing and do this alongside my media work, which forms the basis of my income.
I work the two jobs side-by-side, and I’m a little taken aback that I can charge clients the same rate as a newly qualified plumber as I do as a media consultant with 18 years of experience.
The thing I like about the trades is that people know they have to fork out a certain amount for an in-demand service, so you don’t get as many clients cheekily asking you to do extra work for free.
How I manage my time and income
I began combining my two careers earlier this year when I became a spokesperson for TaskHer, a platform that matches female tradespeople with clients.
Some female clients prefer a woman tradesperson. But also a number of male clients have told me they’ve felt embarrassed to admit to a male tradesperson that they can’t fix a problem themselves.
I currently carve out one day a week for plumbing work — I concentrate on smaller maintenance, so I can do around four to six jobs within a day. I get the satisfaction of solving problems for my clients as well as bringing home a decent wage.
Right now, being self-employed is the best option for me while my child is below school age. I need a bit of work-life balance, and working for myself means I can go to a morning fitness class or go out for lunch on occasion.
The plumbing work gives me good flexibility, and I’m very aware that it is a way of future-proofing my career in case the rise of AI makes elements of my media work redundant.
To some extent, I’ve always been a bit of a hustler. I love having these two wildly different careers and blending them together. It means that I don’t get bored.
I don’t want my trade knowledge to end at plumbing. Next, I’m planning to start a new course in carpentry and joinery to continue expanding my skill set.
I want to show my daughter and other women in the trades that there are many options out there to design your own portfolio career.
