A change of scenery?

DanielMartin · Jan 5, 2014

Hey, I currently work as a domestic electrician, mainly focussed on domestic kitchen/bathroom upgrades (fuseboard/new kitchen circuits/ex. fans/smoke alarms etc.)

I find myself wanting to get away from the basic house bashing, looking towards something that I may find more challenging mentally, whilst also ideally providing me with better potential earnings and not having destroyed my body by the time I'm 50!

I'm 22 at the moment, here's a list of the qualifications I have at the moment.

NVQ Performing Engineering Operations, Electrical Installation, Level 2
City and Guilds 2330, Electrotechnical Technology, Level 2
City and Guilds, Requirements for Electrical Installations (17[SUP]th[/SUP] Edition Update Course)
City and Guilds 2377-02, Inspecting and Testing Electrical Equipment (PAT testing), Level 3
City and Guilds 2330 Certificate in Electrotechnical Technology Level 3
City and Guilds 2391 Test and Inspect

I am looking for advice, preferably from someone in the role they are talking about. Where to go from here? I live at home, so taking time out to retrain/improve my training wouldn't be the end of the world.

I assume it will be very difficult to get into offshore work at this point? Have been thinking about either focussing my efforts on going more specialised (P.V/renewables?) or towards a Design Engineer type role.

Any contributions are welcomed!

Cheers, Dan.

atm84 · Jan 5, 2014

Hi Dan. I was in a similar position as you a few years back, working as an electrician on the tools but wanted to further my career.

I sent my CV off to numerous companies, briefly spent a year working for a facilities management company. This was part office, part on the tools.

What I really wanted to do was to work as a design engineer on large projects: hospitals, schools, supermarkets etc so I sent my cv to a number of large contractors and consultants stating my desire to enrol on a degree course and work as a designer.

After a lot of cv tweaking and sending endless cvs out I eventually got a job working for a consultancy. They pay for me to go to uni one day a week. I'm studying Building Services Engineering which I would recommend over an electrical engineering degree as it teaches you mechanical and electrical and is biased towards services in buildings hence the name. An electrical engineering degree would be good but you would likely learn a lot of stuff that would not be relevant.

I really enjoy the design and I also get out quite a bit onto site snagging, carrying out surveys and report writing.

gnuuser · Jan 6, 2014

there are many fields you can choose from to specialize in but they require different training and general attitude for the choice you make.
off shore speciality is a demanding field and safety concerns are paramount.
being able to complete a job properly and quickly is an asset
being able to do detailed visual inspection and identify problems at a glance is even more important.

industrial field is a different sort of animal! learning control systems and automation takes a bit of time but if you are skilled in or take the time to learn plc/slc programming you are definitely putting yourself in a good position.

sparks123 · Jan 6, 2014

atm84 said:
They pay for me to go to uni one day a week. I'm studying Building Services Engineering which I would recommend over an electrical engineering degree as it teaches you mechanical and electrical and is biased towards services in buildings hence the name. An electrical engineering degree would be good but you would likely learn a lot of stuff that would not be relevant.

just quick question mate..

when you enrolled to university did they have a specific conditions on your qualification or other educations you have to meet to enter university..for example level A on maths or level 3 on the City&Guild 2365 or etc etc..

i dont think so you can go straight away to there..

DanielMartin · Jan 6, 2014

atm84 said:
Hi Dan. I was in a similar position as you a few years back, working as an electrician on the tools but wanted to further my career.

I sent my CV off to numerous companies, briefly spent a year working for a facilities management company. This was part office, part on the tools.

What I really wanted to do was to work as a design engineer on large projects: hospitals, schools, supermarkets etc so I sent my cv to a number of large contractors and consultants stating my desire to enrol on a degree course and work as a designer.

After a lot of cv tweaking and sending endless cvs out I eventually got a job working for a consultancy. They pay for me to go to uni one day a week. I'm studying Building Services Engineering which I would recommend over an electrical engineering degree as it teaches you mechanical and electrical and is biased towards services in buildings hence the name. An electrical engineering degree would be good but you would likely learn a lot of stuff that would not be relevant.

I really enjoy the design and I also get out quite a bit onto site snagging, carrying out surveys and report writing.

This is definitely the kind of direction I would like my career to be heading in! It seems perseverance in this case really does pay off.

I think I'm going to spend some time over the next few weeks looking up potential companies that would be able to accommodate such a position, perhaps even if they can't help me they could point me in the direction of some things I could do to make myself more employable.