What I did before 

Before being made redundant I had spent 34 yrs at Longbridge, commencing as a technical apprentice and successfully achieving an HND in Mechanical Engineering.  I started my career in Engine Development in 1974 working through until about 1992 when I took up a position in Current Engineering. This was an Engineeering function interfacing with production departments and I remained in this department until closure in 2005.

What I'm doing now

 I'm now self employed as a home maintenance handyman.

If you'd told me 5 years ago

that I would be self employed and achieving full time employment I would have placed money on the table in the sure fire outcome that I would have been lying!!

Top tips I'd pass on to someone else facing redundancy

• Give yourself time to think about what you want from life in a working environment.  It may not be what you had always assumed whilst you had been in full time employment.
• If you are young enough, be prepared to re-train, but be careful - not all re-training leads to automatic employment.
• Use your redundancy money wisely, don't fritter it away on non essentials.

The thing I miss most

is the people I worked with.  In retrospect I can see that I knew some very sincere and trustworthy, friendly people.  They are very difficult to replace.  In some respects redundancy is like a death. 

Biggest things I've learned

The biggest thing I have learned is that money isn't everything.  When you take a significant drop in earnings it doesn't mean disaster.  I tend to be less impulsive when buying items, but at the same time still treat myself occasionally.