(Un)employment prospects in consulting engineers - your experience?

aquascrotum

Thought I'd ressurrect this.

I became a statistic yesterday - the company laid off 8 and announced a statutory consultation period which will ultimately probably cut about 30-40% of the workforce.

Sitting today and I have no idea what to do. People are coming home from Australia after 1 /2 months saying all there is is shop work. The UK is flooded. Half my (former) company is apparently heading to the Canadian embassy at the weekend to start applying for Visas there.

I knew this was coming but the figures that were floating about when we were told were incredible.

RJC

What's the consultancy?.....initials will do. Given the record spend on water this year I am puzzled at the reduction in work.

lg123

WYG?

aquascrotum

WYG are reputedly starting proceedings and took a fairly hefty paycut (12%), thats not who I worked for though.

Company I was in had a fairly peripheral water section, definitely wouldnt have been a core activity - prefer not to name names until it comes out (which it probably will).

murfie

Sorry to hear you are been let go. I have been hearing that OZ is no good unless you are already settled. Canada, Vancouver area, is where I heard engineering jobs from certain companies in Houston were moving to alright. BP sent many positions there.
I am in a consulting firm also, we are feeling the chapter 11 restructuring of Lyondell a big blow. We have been reassured our jobs are safe for now with the hope of projects for other companies picking up in the summer! Scary times everywhere, not just at home in Ireland!

Fake Tales

im a graduate civil going to vancouver. Doesn't seem too positive to be honest...

dan_d

Noticed a couple of small consultancies looking for engineers with 2-3 years experience.Problem is, will they go bust too in 10 months time? It's a tough one. I know one large environmental consultancy whose staff are taking 5% paycut and who let go 20 people in the last 2 weeks.
All we can do is keep our chins up. Economies are rebuilt with jobs such as engineering etc. The Irish gov just haven't copped that yet.

Kareir

10 months is better than doing nothing, surely?

If you were just graduated, say been working for 2 years, then got laid off as you were pretty junior, surely a (hopefully) year of working would get you paid a bit, and even if you didn't actually do much, it would still be a year of "experience", so even if the company implodes, you still get that extra year and some cash, which means you might be in the position for a better job later on.

just my 2c, feel free to correct me

_Kar.

Irjudge1

Kareir wrote: »

10 months is better than doing nothing, surely?

If you were just graduated, say been working for 2 years, then got laid off as you were pretty junior, surely a (hopefully) year of working would get you paid a bit, and even if you didn't actually do much, it would still be a year of "experience", so even if the company implodes, you still get that extra year and some cash, which means you might be in the position for a better job later on.

just my 2c, feel free to correct me

_Kar.

Agree. A degree is one thing. Some experience is essential if you want to get ready for a period of recovery.

lg123

yeah, i would jump at 10 months if it was offered.

ibh

I had just accrued 2 years experience in January when i was made redundant. Since then I have picked up some work doing pressure testing on ductwork.
I have now the opportunity to go back into an engineering position in Northern Ireland. The problem is, I can make as much cash doing 2 days a week as I am at present than i can working fulltime in this job in NI.

I don't know what to do here because the Northern company is not a consultant so it's not exactly where i want to be, but at the same time it would be nice to have fulltime work again.

I am being told by some people that you should be thankful to have any job in a recession, but should you stick to this even if it means you are being paid like a fcuking placement student.

I would be interested to hear from other people with similar experience as to what you would do.

Cheers

aquascrotum

ibh wrote: »

I had just accrued 2 years experience in January when i was made redundant. Since then I have picked up some work doing pressure testing on ductwork.
I have now the opportunity to go back into an engineering position in Northern Ireland. The problem is, I can make as much cash doing 2 days a week as I am at present than i can working fulltime in this job in NI.

I don't know what to do here because the Northern company is not a consultant so it's not exactly where i want to be, but at the same time it would be nice to have fulltime work again.

I am being told by some people that you should be thankful to have any job in a recession, but should you stick to this even if it means you are being paid like a fcuking placement student.

I would be interested to hear from other people with similar experience as to what you would do.

Cheers

Be careful when comparing UK and Irish salaries - a lot will depend on whether you're intending to live in NI while working for the NI company?

An NI salary (from experience) of £26k when living in NI offers a comparable standard of living to around about E37-40k when living in Dublin and commuter region.

Those figures are changing though, given the falling wages in construction and rapidly falling rents etc in RoI.

I wouldn't even countenance living in RoI and working in NI - do it the other way round though and yer quids in!

lg123

imo, take the job. if something turns up in the south you can always leave.

here are two sites worth doing a few sums on, income tax is very high in the north compared to south for low to middle incomes. they will probably be a lot closer after the april budget though.

http://listentotaxman.com/ for "uk" tax calculations and http://taxcalc.eu/ for irish calcs. the irish one isnt working for me atm, maybe its my computer as i am having some java wonkies the last while.

ibh

I have always worked in NI while living in Dundalk. There are numerous personal reasons for this and it used to be good when exchange rate was favourable.
Atm the exchange rate is insanely bad but a job is a job, so it looks like i will have to take it. Thankfully i should have a visa to canada this year so after Sept or so i won't have to give a fcuk about bad things are here.

Needing experience is a pain in the hole, cause most employers don't want to be the one to give it to you.

motherfunker

ibh wrote: »

Thankfully i should have a visa to canada this year so after Sept or so i won't have to give a fcuk about bad things are here.

I wouldent put all my eggs in the Canadian basket, my wifes cousin is in Canada now and finding it very hard to get a job, the canadians are onto the rest of the world moving there to escape the recession and they are only giving jobs to Canadians. I'm sure this is not the case 100% of the time but I'd say it is only going to become more the norm.

ibh

motherfunker wrote: »

I wouldent put all my eggs in the Canadian basket, my wifes cousin is in Canada now and finding it very hard to get a job, the canadians are onto the rest of the world moving there to escape the recession and they are only giving jobs to Canadians. I'm sure this is not the case 100% of the time but I'd say it is only going to become more the norm.

Unfortunately this is indeed true. But it is generally only the case in unskilled jobs. They have a shortage of Engineers in a few parts of the country and it is about the most stable economy in the world so probably better opportunities than in Ireland. I have previously worked there a few years ago.

I am not guaranteed to get into Building Services out there but there are a few other areas of Engineering that i'll be looking to when i get over there.

motherfunker

The wife's cousin is a solicitor so maybe it is starting to filter its way up the ladder, how many people have you heard in the last few months saying they are going to Canada. I'm even one of them.

godtabh

I'm going to Canada for a holiday. Does that count?