Jobs aplenty .......

ukcarper

　

It was possible to get an apprenticeship with a company willing to train you and send you to college during apprenticeship and after. After leaving school with no A levels it took me 11 years of day release to get the qualifications needed to be an engineer.

I think this is the one advantage us boomers had over today as I can’t see to many companies doing that now.

kabayiri

ukcarper wrote: »

　

It was possible to get an apprenticeship with a company willing to train you and send you to college during apprenticeship and after. After leaving school with no A levels it took me 11 years of day release to get the qualifications needed to be an engineer.

I think this is the one advantage us boomers had over today as I can’t see to many companies doing that now.

This is my main gripe nowadays. I have seen job ads where the company is trying to recruit someone fairly new to the market but with the exact set of skills and experience. Sometimes these expectations are unrealistic.

What happened to looking for talent, and cross training? We have bright young people here, they just need that first break.

DSM

I'm very well positioned to comment on this one in a forum I often feel out of my depth.

I'm an engineer. Started as an apprentice in 1997 on a 4 year journey to employment straight after leaving school. I loved it. Would recommend this route to anyone if you know which industry you want to work in.

Did day release for 4 years gaining a BTEC ONC & HNC in mechanical engineering. When I finished my apprenticeship I started a degree course, did a year of the 4 year course then got made redundant (2001). Infact out of all the lads I went through college/uni with, at least 60% of us experienced redundancy at some point throughout our course.

Often more than once.

Having found alternative employment, the company I then worked for allowed me to resume my course after a 12 month "break". Ended with a good degree in Computer Aided Engineering. No sooner had I had completed the degree, my employer was sold off and I set out to find new employment again in an industry which had been decimated over the last decade in our northern region.

Decided to "get out" and went into civils/construction, which was booming at the time. This takes us to 2007 and cue economic melt down. I stayed put for a couple of years, content to at least have a job. I was eaning under £20k per year at this point at 28 years of age in a design technician type role.

Having realised I needed to start upping my income or be stuck on a lesser income with no prospect of being able to support myself or ever owning my own home, I took a job in sales within another civil engineering company. I stuck that out for about 15 months. It was a good company, but I just hated sales. It just wasn't for me but good timing meant that a local engineering company had secured a big contract in the oil & gas industry and so I was fortunate to be offered a job with them and am absolutely loving it! There is a mini ressurgence in this sector around these parts so it feels good to be valued again rather than dodging redundancies left, right & centre. I earn around £30k now in a design role which leaves me comfortable up north for my lifestyle!

I must say throughout my career path, I've come accross many individuals paid far in excess of what I ever was for doing jobs which required considerably less intelligence,commitment,ability etc. but thats the way of the world. I wouldn't want to be doing anything other than engineering so am content. Others though will see this and will simply follow the money such as described in an earlier post with qualified engineers working in banking but as long as I'm comfortable, I'll stick where I am and try to progress from within.

There is a chronic undervalueing of engineering believe it or not, even in engineering companies! and this eminates throughout the sector. In my experience, quite often, MD's and senior management don't quite understand the engineering element (without wishing to sound condecending) as they don't often come from the engineering side of the business. Sales are highly valued as they are the ones who win the business and get the contracts signed. Accountants are well valued as they are the ones who actually get the money in.

Engineers are often looked on as the ones who cause problems because they cannot get something to work/manufactured within a given deadline or it costs twice as much to manufacture something which sales haven't budgeted for. This often reflects badly on engineering from the managers above regardless of the fact that sales should not be committing to supply a given product within unrealistic targets but that is the nature of the engineering/manufacturing sector.

Anyhow, hopefully that gives you all a little anecdotal insight within the engineering industry to those not on the inside.

Joe_Bloggs

'She 'canee' take it Captain !', Scottie was alleged to have said . If only they had listened then there wouldn't have been the need for all those Star Trek sequels.

Engineers are going to continue to be underpaid and exploited until they engage their brains for their own business. Some may say that this is mission impossible but that is another story/ movie franchise.

J_B,

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I work in an engineering dept at a top university, and we have barrows of research cash that needs to be spent, and are seriously struggling with recruitment at all levels from PhD students upwards. There are just not enough top quality graduates.

A society that undervalues engineering will end up with its entire infrastructure designed, owned, staffed and maintained by other countries.

Zekko

DSM wrote: »

There is a chronic undervalueing of engineering believe it or not, even in engineering companies! and this eminates throughout the sector. In my experience, quite often, MD's and senior management don't quite understand the engineering element (without wishing to sound condecending) as they don't often come from the engineering side of the business. Sales are highly valued as they are the ones who win the business and get the contracts signed. Accountants are well valued as they are the ones who actually get the money in.

Engineers are often looked on as the ones who cause problems because they cannot get something to work/manufactured within a given deadline or it costs twice as much to manufacture something which sales haven't budgeted for. This often reflects badly on engineering from the managers above regardless of the fact that sales should not be committing to supply a given product within unrealistic targets but that is the nature of the engineering/manufacturing sector.

Absolutely bang on. :T

luvpump

MrRee wrote: »

"All of the motor industry is crying out for good-quality engineers"

To those who want a job, train as an Engineer (a real Engineer, not a grease monkey) and you can command your own career structure and pay!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18399376

And REJOICE in a secure future!!:T

Yeah, on the minimum wage !

angrypirate

DSM wrote: »

I'm very well positioned to comment on this one in a forum I often feel out of my depth.

I'm an engineer. Started as an apprentice in 1997 on a 4 year journey to employment straight after leaving school. I loved it. Would recommend this route to anyone if you know which industry you want to work in.

Did day release for 4 years gaining a BTEC ONC & HNC in mechanical engineering. When I finished my apprenticeship I started a degree course, did a year of the 4 year course then got made redundant (2001). Infact out of all the lads I went through college/uni with, at least 60% of us experienced redundancy at some point throughout our course.

Often more than once.

Having found alternative employment, the company I then worked for allowed me to resume my course after a 12 month "break". Ended with a good degree in Computer Aided Engineering. No sooner had I had completed the degree, my employer was sold off and I set out to find new employment again in an industry which had been decimated over the last decade in our northern region.

Decided to "get out" and went into civils/construction, which was booming at the time. This takes us to 2007 and cue economic melt down. I stayed put for a couple of years, content to at least have a job. I was eaning under £20k per year at this point at 28 years of age in a design technician type role.

Having realised I needed to start upping my income or be stuck on a lesser income with no prospect of being able to support myself or ever owning my own home, I took a job in sales within another civil engineering company. I stuck that out for about 15 months. It was a good company, but I just hated sales. It just wasn't for me but good timing meant that a local engineering company had secured a big contract in the oil & gas industry and so I was fortunate to be offered a job with them and am absolutely loving it! There is a mini ressurgence in this sector around these parts so it feels good to be valued again rather than dodging redundancies left, right & centre. I earn around £30k now in a design role which leaves me comfortable up north for my lifestyle!

I must say throughout my career path, I've come accross many individuals paid far in excess of what I ever was for doing jobs which required considerably less intelligence,commitment,ability etc. but thats the way of the world. I wouldn't want to be doing anything other than engineering so am content. Others though will see this and will simply follow the money such as described in an earlier post with qualified engineers working in banking but as long as I'm comfortable, I'll stick where I am and try to progress from within.

There is a chronic undervalueing of engineering believe it or not, even in engineering companies! and this eminates throughout the sector. In my experience, quite often, MD's and senior management don't quite understand the engineering element (without wishing to sound condecending) as they don't often come from the engineering side of the business. Sales are highly valued as they are the ones who win the business and get the contracts signed. Accountants are well valued as they are the ones who actually get the money in.

Engineers are often looked on as the ones who cause problems because they cannot get something to work/manufactured within a given deadline or it costs twice as much to manufacture something which sales haven't budgeted for. This often reflects badly on engineering from the managers above regardless of the fact that sales should not be committing to supply a given product within unrealistic targets but that is the nature of the engineering/manufacturing sector.

Anyhow, hopefully that gives you all a little anecdotal insight within the engineering industry to those not on the inside.

Just to give people an idea of my way in, after getting As and Bs at A level, did a 5 year course at uni (Master in Engineering with an industrial placement). I now work for a Global Oil and Gas Engineering company (designing oil rigs and oil refineries) and I have my Chartership. My work sends me all over the globe which i love and I do a mixture of site work and office based design work. I live and work in London and although my salary is respectable, i could probably earn half as much again if i was working in finance.

MrRee_2

My Company is recruiting Apprentices ... grads. ... scientists ... engineers ... they are going around jobs shows BEGGING for new recruits, BEGGING!

Anyone with half a brain can get a job - it may mean getting off your rear ends and stopping watching Jeremy Kyle to train and put some graft in ........ but, lucrative jobs are there waiting!

rakingpapers

angrypirate wrote: »

Just to give people an idea of my way in, after getting As and Bs at A level, did a 5 year course at uni (Master in Engineering with an industrial placement). I now work for a Global Oil and Gas Engineering company (designing oil rigs and oil refineries) and I have my Chartership. My work sends me all over the globe which i love and I do a mixture of site work and office based design work. I live and work in London and although my salary is respectable, i could probably earn half as much again if i was working in finance.

Agreed. I'm a design engineer that designs parts for gas turbines including all production machinery, jigs and fixings for making these parts. My pay is pretty good and I love my job - it's so interesting and exciting. However, a lot of my other friends who also graduated in mechanical engineering went into banking and finance that pays nearly twice as much. However, they hate their jobs but the pay means they can't leave.