ABR Careers Advice

[Uglybassplayer]

I hope to glean a little advice from you wide and wonderfully varied people and the wide and varied jobs you do.

I currently work as an Engineer (Civil), a job i have been working towards/training for since i started my GCSE's. In continuous employment that equals just about 6 years, but is much longer including Uni and the summer employments etc etc

In a nut shell i hate my job at the moment, the little Engineering i am required to do is buried below hours and hours of bureaucracy and pandering to the whims of other and any descisions i make despite the evidence gathered, advice sought and experiance used is open to ridicule by every Tom, Dick and Harry who can wield an email or phone.

In part to maintain my sanity but also as a genuine exploration of what other careers options are open i'm keen to hear suggestions (nothing is to wacky) and other peoples experiances of changing careers.

The obvious options are to stay within the discipline but change employer or even change sides of the table to work for a Contractor but i'm also considering complete departures and even retraining.

So (potential moon on a stick) i'm searching for a job, outdoors, building/making/repairing somthing, working independantly.....

[Ricky]

Go it alone, I wish I had many years ago as I am now stuck in the office politics every day and all i want to do is do my job. :pinch:

Rather than ask us flip it on its head and tell the world what you can offer, you are and engineer with qualifications and work experience, think positive and dont be scared, if you have a shed start from there, give the world what it is missing (thumbs)

All the very best of luck mate

[Brenhden]

One mans opinion.

Sell your sole and work for the opposition mate. More money, less grief. Spend the money on bass guitars, motorbikes and life. Work to live.

I was an extremely happy engineer, but over years my career rolled away from making things and being technical, not cool. But now I earn more money and work less hours, I spend more time riding and boarding and doing all the things I've always wanted. To make up for the lack of engineering I make stuff in my workshop of an evening.

People always hate their jobs more in January.

Or go and work for VSO for a year. Use your skills to help people in the developing world, that would be an adventure.

[Mad Hatter]

I'm in a similar position to the OP except I'm a service engineer so its the customers bullshit office politics I end up involved in as well as our own :pinch:

I'd love a way out but atm I'm struggling, I'm an electronics technician by trade, HNC but no degree so can't really call myself and engineer, but I'm limited by what I can apply for because I'm not a sparky

Time served apprentice, BTEC and HNC in Electrical and Electronic engineering, and putting it modestly I'm pretty good at fixing stuff :laugh: As well as a raft of other qualifications including CAD, But I'm still struggling to even get any interviews

I think in part this may be something to do with my lack of skill with paperwork and admin as well as my unwavering commitment to honesty, if I think a task is pointless I'll tell you then get right on and do it to the best of my ability

So if anyone round the midlands want a time served apprentice with a HNC, who picks stuff up pretty quick, is loyal, honest to the point of it being a problem and is more than willing to do whatever task you want shout up, all I ask is a livable wage and to be treated with honesty and integrity :whistle:

[fullerton]

I'm in a similar position to the OP except I'm a service engineer so its the customers bullshit office politics I end up involved in as well as our own :pinch:

I'd love a way out but atm I'm struggling, I'm an electronics technician by trade, HNC but no degree so can't really call myself and engineer, but I'm limited by what I can apply for because I'm not a sparky

Time served apprentice, BTEC and HNC in Electrical and Electronic engineering, and putting it modestly I'm pretty good at fixing stuff :laugh: As well as a raft of other qualifications including CAD, But I'm still struggling to even get any interviews

I think in part this may be something to do with my lack of skill with paperwork and admin as well as my unwavering commitment to honesty, if I think a task is pointless I'll tell you then get right on and do it to the best of my ability

So if anyone round the midlands want a time served apprentice with a HNC, who picks stuff up pretty quick, is loyal, honest to the point of it being a problem and is more than willing to do whatever task you want shout up, all I ask is a livable wage and to be treated with honesty and integrity :whistle:

What industry back ground are you from, looking to recruit 2 engineers at the moment, mainly with manufacturing back ground, food and drink, pharma or any fast packaging environment. We are based just west of Bolton.

Steve

[92kk k100lt 193214]

I hope to glean a little advice from you wide and wonderfully varied people and the wide and varied jobs you do.

I currently work as an Engineer (Civil), a job i have been working towards/training for since i started my GCSE's. In continuous employment that equals just about 6 years, but is much longer including Uni and the summer employments etc etc

In a nut shell I hate my job at the moment, the little Engineering i am required to do is buried below hours and hours of bureaucracy and pandering to the whims of other and any descisions i make despite the evidence gathered, advice sought and experiance used is open to ridicule by every Tom, Dick and Harry who can wield an email or phone.

In part to maintain my sanity but also as a genuine exploration of what other careers options are open i'm keen to hear suggestions (nothing is to wacky) and other peoples experiances of changing careers.

The obvious options are to stay within the discipline but change employer or even change sides of the table to work for a Contractor but i'm also considering complete departures and even retraining.

So (potential moon on a stick) i'm searching for a job, outdoors, building/making/repairing somthing, working independantly.....

A good place to start. I do what I do for almost 42 years and enjoy my work.

One milestone I had was to not work for anyone after age 30. After 13 years in the job the firm I worked for would not give me any of what I wanted. So I left on my 30th birthday. Gave my notice when my eldest daughter was just 7 weeks old.

I worked at the time on the professional side and found I much more enjoyed selling my services to the contracting side and to some creative developers. Much more challenge and satisfaction. In the interim I explored choices of working for a contractor, specialist sub contractor, manufacturer etc and did work for all of them along with plenty of legal work for building disputes.

The Engineering degree opens up a lot of those avenues with companies that need your services but not on a full time basis. I prefer outdoors and a few months back a builder client suffered a health issue a week after his son was born. He did a rethink and put some ideas forward which I found very interesting and we are pursuing them. I still have a smile going to work, ride my K to all kinds of meetings and enjoy what I do.

My take on it is like this- after 13 years only on professional side the move to more contracting work and managing construction projects was a definite increase in satisfaction. I eventually manage to make it a mix with legal work thrown in which of course means that for any given situation I have experience in all areas. My best part came when I found myself as the right hand man to a major developer's key director where we both would do things outside the box. Like you the bureaucracy was a bit tedious, but the knowledge of the system was invaluable.

Think carefully on one thing: your skill sets. Where they lie. Very often they are technical and somewhat commercial, but some are better at looking after ones client affairs than ones own affairs in which case working for yourself may or may not be best.

At the moment there is good demand and it would be very easy to try a contract role.

Interestingly my eldest daughter decided to follow same career as me, worked for me a little while in college and decided to go on the contracting side with a the above mentioned developer's company. She is now 7 years out of college and after a move 4 years ago to London absolutely loves for work, currently based on site a project in Mayfair. She loves her nice things and laughs about having hand made safety boots. It wasn't a fashion statement, they didn't make them in size 3!

Manufacturing is another area, an engineer I know was a square peg in a round hole, until one day a steel fabrication company got a larger project than they could handle. They asked the firm he worked for at the time to do the shop drawings for them and to design the handling and temporary support bracing and write the method statement for erecting the frame. He now works for the company and he too has a smile on his face every day.

I have a nephew who got pissed off with his work and he always had an interest in bridges. He moved to a firm designing bridges and is now down under......designing bridges.

I make less money than those I left, but the look of envy when I bump into them after some nice trip on the bike is worth a million dollars. For a lot of people taking a bike to some nice place or France is a distant dream, for retirement. But life is the path, not the destination. I realise money and commitments have to be met, so a contracting position for a while is a way to go, explore your choices and get paid at the same time with little risk on the downside.

[Mad Hatter]

I'm in a similar position to the OP except I'm a service engineer so its the customers bullshit office politics I end up involved in as well as our own :pinch:

I'd love a way out but atm I'm struggling, I'm an electronics technician by trade, HNC but no degree so can't really call myself and engineer, but I'm limited by what I can apply for because I'm not a sparky

Time served apprentice, BTEC and HNC in Electrical and Electronic engineering, and putting it modestly I'm pretty good at fixing stuff :laugh: As well as a raft of other qualifications including CAD, But I'm still struggling to even get any interviews

I think in part this may be something to do with my lack of skill with paperwork and admin as well as my unwavering commitment to honesty, if I think a task is pointless I'll tell you then get right on and do it to the best of my ability

So if anyone round the midlands want a time served apprentice with a HNC, who picks stuff up pretty quick, is loyal, honest to the point of it being a problem and is more than willing to do whatever task you want shout up, all I ask is a livable wage and to be treated with honesty and integrity :whistle:

What industry back ground are you from, looking to recruit 2 engineers at the moment, mainly with manufacturing back ground, food and drink, pharma or any fast packaging environment. We are based just west of Bolton.

Steve

Nurse call systems and fire alarms mainly, the whole process from quoting and planning through to install commissioning and service and maintenance I do now. I spent a year and a half after I finished my apprenticeship working in manufacturing running high volume surface mount pick and place machines (Deck printer, pick and places machine x2 set up as a single unit, conveyors and a reflow oven, with visual inspection and testing on automatic test rigs thrown in) I actually moved on from that position because although they were more than happy for me to do general maintenance on the machines they wouldn't let me help with any breakdowns in an official capacity, they passed it on to someone else with less knowledge on running the machines, it was infuriating to know what the problem was and how to fix it but get shot down and waste half a day waiting for one of the dev guys to come to the same conclusion

[fullerton]

Hiya,

If you want to mail me a cv with more details on your apprenticeship and your early stuff and you can move to the area drop me a pm, this applies to anyone on the forum

steve