Could be a new chapter in my life starting soon...

John before you give up on that job, call the company and check on whether they have made any decision. You are reacting without any information. I have known small businesses to take up to 3 months or more to decide on filling a position. Sometimes other events get in the way and not intentionally they just dont get around to it. Sure the logic of it from the outside makes no sense when they say they are backed up and real busy, but you have to understand the beast to understand the thinking.
So before you give up on them call them, let them know you are interested and let them know if you are willing to, that you are quiet happy to have a probation period and try things out if they want to see how it goes.

What i am basically saying is take the initiative and make some moves from your side to let them know you are flexible. try to take the risk out of it for them.

They may be concerned about what would happen to their benefits plan if they took you on and put you on benefits and it affected the group in the rest of the company etc.

If there is reason for this to be possibly true consider that this will be an issue at any place so consider what may be done to address this concern. But first establish the basics then go into it step by step.

Just to give you some encouragement, consider for a moment the what ifs. What if something has happened to the person who interviewed you. Or What if they had to rush off to attend to some other more important project or family issue of their own. You never know.

What our minds do is think of the worst and we end up justifying our thoughts which can be a no win self fulfilling end.

You got more to gain and nothing to loose by contacting them in my view. If nothing else it would give you a conclusion.

Best of luck.

I have to agree with Rob, you need to follow up with them before counting yourself out.

Ditto and ditto. Even working with a larger company, whenever I had to hire folks it took months even though we needed them yesterday. There's just so much paperwork and HR stuff to deal with. I agree you should follow-up. Also, and this is pretty old fashioned, follow-up with a thank you letter (or email) for the time the person spent with you in the interview. Some of those ancient manners don't go unnoticed

Bob I think you were right in telling them the truth, why would you want to start a new relationship with a lie?

I've been hired and fired a few times, and I've been the one hiring guys too. I used to work in a place where we hired two full time summer employees every year, it was my job to do the interviews and then pick the people to hire, my boss hated to do it, so he put me on it. Almost always I would get 20+ good applicants (this was at a university, lots of students looking for full time summer work) and I would narrow that down to around six guys. I would tell them all that I was looking for self starters, people that I did not have to watch every minute to do the job right. At the end of the interview I would tell them that I'd be in touch by the end of the week. I never ever got back in touch with any of them. The first two guys that showed the initiative to get in touch with me got the jobs. In the four years I did this I never regretted one summer hire, a lot of the time they ended up working for us part time during the school year as well.

My point is that you need to call back, or drop by and check in with them, show that you are eager to work and willing to start right away.

Best of luck, fingers crossed!

I'll add to the chorus of dittos. Don't throw in the towel yet. A friend recently got a job after several years of being out of the workforce, and it wasn't until a couple of months after the interview that she got called back for a second one. Heck, the job I'm working right now took over a year from the time I submitted my resume to the time I had an offer.

another thing that you might think about is working at home and using your benefits that you are entitled to and use this as a supplement..

Well I just got home from spending a few hours with a very good friend that I haven't seen in a long time. I've known him for 33 years and we've been best friends ever since. We don't see each other very often even though we only live about 20 minutes apart. But we're like brothers for the most part. We had dinner and talked for a while. He's VERY knowledgeable in the ways and workings of HR. Being that I worked in the family business prior to getting my builders license and working for myself, I've got very little job interview experience.

This has been a VERY hard decision to come to, but I've come to the conclusion that it's time to hang it up as far as working for myself in the trades. I'm going to cancel my builders liability policy and my license expires in May of 2014. I'm fairly certain that I'm going to let it lapse. This has been very tough to do, I've had my license for about 19 years. I'm 49 years old and I'm going to have to start over again! I feel like an eighteen year old kid just out of high school starting at square one.

At this point I haven't got a clue as to what I'm going to do and I'm terrified! I'm disabled, not unable. I'm going to have to find something that I'm capable of doing and go from there. I've got the number of a vocational services firm who can work to retrain me and even help with finding suitable employment for my condition. I mentioned the company name to my friend and he said that he's familiar with them and they are very good.

I have a feeling that I could probably handle this job that I just interviewed for, but at this point I'm not sure for how long. I'm sure it would require a lot of standing at a machine and assembly table. I don't know how well that's going to work in the long run. So I think I'm going to let this one pass without following up at this point. If I do get a call back before I find something else, I might give it a try. But right now I've got to find something that's going to work long term. It's already very late in life for me to be starting over and I don't want to have to do it again. I'm going to start searching for some sort of gainful employment that will not be too diminished by my disability. Hopefully I'll find something soon because this stress is NOT doing my much good at all.

Thank you all again for listening to my problems and for your support!

John, I'm sure it's a hard decision to step away from the trades, but I'm confident you'll adapt and do well in whatever you end up pursuing. You've already shown that you take a proactive approach to situations like this, so I'm pretty certain you'll push through the current stumbling blocks and conquer your world.

John it's good that you have a good friend close by that you can sit with and talk these things out, it helps your make your decision.

OK you are going to hang it up with working at the trades, but there are lots of jobs that are feeders to the trades, or that you have to have knowledge of the trades to be able to do the job, what about something along that line? Something that is not so physically demanding but requires that you have a knowledge of the trade in question, that might be a good fit for you.

I too am 49, and at this age I know it would be hard to just start all over, like I was 18 again, but that is not really true is it, while we may have to start over and change course, at 49, we have a LOT more life experience and a much larger network of friends, family and co-workers than we did at 18.

Best of luck.

Stu

John i will echo what Stu just said. I dont think you should see starting over at 49 as something particularly difficult. Today its no big deal to be doing this even without a disability. Heck I am 55 and have started over so many times i have lost count.

Its a mental battle to be taken as a challenge rather than a problem .......words i know but self speak at this time is very important. Its no different to golf, or any other sport once you know more or less how to play the game.

Stu mentioned something i would like to expand on for you. With all your years at the rockface, consider what that experience is worth on the retail distribution end of the material trades use.

Example the other day i was in a few electrical stores that are electrical wholesalers supplying the trade. They were really busy and had quiet a few empty desks behind the counter. My guess in Canada is that they cannot find guys with experience of the trade to be able to interface sensibly with their customer. There is more to the job than just being able to take down an order. You and i both know that a trade guy might have a term for something that those in the trade know well but its not whats in the database of the company so the person that fills that space needs more than just the ability to take down an order. Then there was a guy discussing lighting with the guy behind the counter, again how could there be any interaction without knowledge of the trade and the product. Same would go for the guys selling auto parts and on and on.

Most of those jobs are not necessarily on their feet all day. That's just a starter. I would hazard a guess that there is a minimum of 5 if not more guys behind each guy thats a pro in the field to make a trade job possible. Think in terms of the town planning, think about a contracting company needing to deal with estimating and bidding. You been doing this in your sleep but its something they do all the time and you cannot do those kinds of jobs given the risk without the valuable knowledge and experience you have.

Yeah you right you only disabled not out of the workforce. Right now the light may not be feeling like its at the end of the tunnel but i would wager that when you manage to get over the upset of the change, which is normal, you will see a host of other opportunities that hey once you settled in one will wonder why the heck you did not do it years ago.

Nothing fits better than Marine Corps motto..."Adapt, Improvise and Overcome". You only a spring chicken at 49. Try not let numbers be the thing that gets you down.

Also there are many young uns that need training in classrooms to become trades or we got serious issues in this world. There is another aspect that's possible.
You still have your decal machine, if you wish to stay independent consider expanding that business. Just see this change as moving from one business to another.
Oh when i get started i can think of a ton of places that need your abilities after you having been on your journey to date. Big thing is don't give up mentally. Stay in the fight and see it all as a game. Shout if you need more ideas.

I would review how i go about disclosing the aspect of your disability by the way. I know honesty is the best policy but "terminal honesty" is fatal in a job interview. Remember in this case the beast you are dealing with. Its 2013 not 1889. Used to be we could shake hands on a deal and it meant something. There are snakes in the grass nowadays where their word means fresh air nothing. If i had my way i would terminate these snakes they make me sick but you still got to deal with them. Its a reality to survival. My way of dealing with them is to avoid them but they getting harder to spot. Keep the faith.

I'm going to chime in here with a slightly different perspective. In 2001 I was in a car wreck that left me unable to continue in the custom furniture business. I had no employees, a few unfinished contracts and a bleak future. I also had amazing woodworking friends who finished my contracts and still gave me the money while I struggled to be able to walk again. I also had contacts that landed me a book deal and a tour of demonstrating at shows around the country even though I needed to sit through part of the demonstration. Then my life really changed as I moved out of state, planned to semi-retire, but to do what? Short story, I wound up in seminary (with no money) and graduated debt free and am now an ordained minister who loves my job and I still have great woodworking friends. So your future may be altogether different from what you can imagine now. Keep your eyes open, your options free, and allow your imagination to be positive. There is a plan. You will find it and follow it - and we will still be here for you.

Thank you very much for that Carol.

This is certainly NOT where I pictured myself at this point in my life. I'm hoping to find something out there that I can do and if not enjoy, at least tolerate. I guess it's possible that I could find something that I actually do enjoy and can continue to do for a while. In the long run that would be a good thing. Something to let me get out of the house, make a few bucks, and allow me to concentrate on something other than my condition. I keep telling myself that there are many out there who are far worse off than I am.