Has anyone successfully changed their career after 40 and is now working in a trade for example and is doing well? Or knows about services, resources, support in the UK?

I had a well paid job in cellular, but when all the companies left the UK or failed 15+ years ago, I was in trouble and the business unit closed.

It coincided with the financial crisis. So I spent a year with no money and no interviews. I almost ran out of money and savings and had no means to pay the mortgage. I couldn't afford to go get a MSc or a different degree.

I managed to get another job, at 50% less salary, after looking at over 10,000 job ads. I spent all day everyday on it applying to things. It destroyed my confidence which has still not really recovered and my career is going nowhere. I have also lost my job twice since.

I read you have peak earnings in your 30's and early 40s. That is my experience. Not what I expected for the sacrifice I made.

I still earn less in 2025  in absolute terms than in 2005, allowing for inflation I have about 40% of the spending power now.

I am not poor and earn more than average but once you are behind the curve you stay behind the curve.

There is no help. You have to do stuff yourself , get to uni for a masters or something,  or start your own business.

I seem to have been more unlucky than others but I was in more of a niche and perhaps I undersold myself or screwed up. People don't understand or believe my CV.

I don't have the drive now, at 56, to work 70+ hrs a week and forego leave anymore. I have spent 30 years on my own fighting the world single handedly,

There are no easy answers. You are responsible for yourself. You just need some luck and to be in the right place at the right time.

I had a well paid job in cellular, but when all the companies left the UK or failed 15+ years ago, I was in trouble and the business unit closed.

It coincided with the financial crisis. So I spent a year with no money and no interviews. I almost ran out of money and savings and had no means to pay the mortgage. I couldn't afford to go get a MSc or a different degree.

I managed to get another job, at 50% less salary, after looking at over 10,000 job ads. I spent all day everyday on it applying to things. It destroyed my confidence which has still not really recovered and my career is going nowhere. I have also lost my job twice since.

I read you have peak earnings in your 30's and early 40s. That is my experience. Not what I expected for the sacrifice I made.

I still earn less in 2025  in absolute terms than in 2005, allowing for inflation I have about 40% of the spending power now.

I am not poor and earn more than average but once you are behind the curve you stay behind the curve.

There is no help. You have to do stuff yourself , get to uni for a masters or something,  or start your own business.

I seem to have been more unlucky than others but I was in more of a niche and perhaps I undersold myself or screwed up. People don't understand or believe my CV.

I don't have the drive now, at 56, to work 70+ hrs a week and forego leave anymore. I have spent 30 years on my own fighting the world single handedly,

There are no easy answers. You are responsible for yourself. You just need some luck and to be in the right place at the right time.

Thank you for sharing your story and I can imagine how tough it must have been. I can hear the bitterness... A bit scary to think that I am past my prime earning power, because that means I will spend my retirement aka I can't find a job anymore in poverty.... 
I won't work 70hs a week or forego leave, that's for sure, but that also makes me less employable / employers reckon that they can't work me to death anymore because of my age. 

I know there are no easy answers and have to come to the realisation that life is a *** and that luck is a real thing.