From selling paint to collecting blood: What to do if your job dies out

Eighteen months ago, Peter Funnell was the owner of a paint store that had been in his family for almost 130 years. Today, he's a blood collector, making him one of around half a million Australians who changed industries last year.

The 49-year-old's great-grandfather bought a factory in 1890 in Melbourne's west when it was swamp land.

Peter Funnell started a new career after running a paint business for 30 years. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

"I remember being a little kid going through the factory, watching the mills and the grinders going and big stacks of cans of paint. As a little kid, it was like a big playground," he says.

Mr Funnell ran the business profitably for 30 years but changing consumer retail habits and competition from the "big boys" - Dulux and Bunnings - meant in 2017, it was time to shut up shop.

"All the small ma and pa paint shops that used to be around are pretty much all gone. There are no independent paint shops anymore.

"Everything comes to an end and it's always best to do it on your schedule and not someone else's schedule."

Use our interactive to see if your profession is thriving or dying:

Employment projections are based on Department of Jobs and Small Business modelling. The data tipped the entire workforce will grow by 7 per cent between May 2018 and May 2023, so if your sector is expected to expand by less it will not be keeping up with the rest of the employment landscape.

Census data shows there were 184,751 shop managers nationwide in 2016, 13,268 fewer than there were in 2011. In real terms, it is the occupation that has suffered the third-largest drop in numbers over the past five years.

After the paint stocks were cleared and the bricks and mortar sold in mid-2017, Mr Funnell then had to consider what lay next.

Peter Funnell got a new job in pathology collection after completing a Certificate IV at TAFE.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

"Do I stay in the paint industry? Do I work for one of the major paint companies? Do I work at a hardware store?

"Then I thought what about something completely different?"

Mr Funnell didn't want to spend years getting a qualification. He had never considered a medical career, but a conversation he had while mixing paint for one of his clients who worked as a radiographer gave him an idea.

"I thought, what else is similar to that? Pathology collection, it's diagnostic, you're helping doctors obtain information to get a diagnosis."

He consulted a careers counsellor and within six months of selling the paint shop, he was enrolled in a Certificate IV in Health Administration at TAFE. A month after completing the course, he landed a full-time role at a clinic in Brighton.

His new job includes taking samples from patients then labelling and storing them correctly. While it may seem like a big leap from selling paint, Mr Funnell says engaging with patients, like clients, is a big part of the role.

"We try to build up relationships to make people more comfortable in coming to see us rather than an anonymous centre where they walk in, get it done and walk out."

Mr Funnell's new vocation appears to be a growing field. Between 2011 and 2016 the number of medical technicians (which includes pathology collectors) swelled by 18 per cent, compared with a 7 per cent drop in retail managers over the same period.

Same role, different industry

Charles Samut worked for 33 years and three months at NAB and had five careers while he was there.

"I was getting caught between years of service being an advantage and years of service being seen as a big redundancy package," he says.

He became "sick" of being in that position and in 2009, took the redundancy package in a move he describes as a "mid life crisis".

"I started my second job in life two weeks before my 50th birthday," he laughs.

He's since worked in project management roles in a diverse range of industries: UniSuper, Village Roadshow, Bupa, the Australian Tax Office and Telstra.

"It's been another mid life crisis every time I'm looking for my next contract."

Mr Samut makes every effort to beef up his skill set as he moves from one job to the next, taking advantage of internal training when it's available. He's also sought out extra qualifications, like an online diploma in project management.

While the companies' culture and industry have differed from one job to the next, Mr Samut says his outsider perspective can be an advantage as he can plead ignorance to workplace politics.

"I have no vested interest in saying we can deliver something we can't," he says.

Mr Samut describes himself as a "specialist at being a generalist".

"I'll go into a superannuation company. I'm not a subject matter expert but my job is getting things done, that's what I'm there to do."

His advice to others changing industry is to "make sure you don't stray too far from who you are".

"You’ve got to start before you can find out what the people you work with are really like.

"Find out fast and if you think you’ve made the wrong decision, find out whether the environment is likely to change, whether you can change the environment or whether you should just get out."

with Craig Butt