Electricians are u sick of the knock next friday

paulg1770

hi, I'm a sparks myself Ive worked in a lot of jobs for mercury, house bas-hers, fire alarm inst, ship building and on the oil rigs over the past 8 years and must admit no matter for who or where you work in this game its the same old bull **** conduit, tray, 4x240s cable pulls chasing walls etc but thats no so bad i suppose its the lack of job security that really gets me.
I'm looking to to find a more laid back position like as a maintenance electrician or something but they all require experience in their specific departments. Does anybody know if there's a course in maintenance electrician practises or can someone suggest a more satisfying secure job electrical related. cheers

bertie1

What about a course in Plcs they are a must if you are looking for a maintenance job

paulg1770

Do you know of any and what sort of cert is required? I liked doing PLC'S in kevin st alright

bertie1

I am in Cork & I know Cork It run one at night, you should check with Kevin Street or Bolton street & see whats running by night in both , I think that they also run a degree in electrical engineering by night as well,

paulg1770

Whats the deal with the engineering degree, How much is it and how long does it take if I went full time? cheers

brightspark

Hi Paulg1770,

Having worked in maintenance since my apprenticeship I'm not sure that I would describe it as "laid back", however it is probably less physical most of the time.

The quiet times on maintenance are rarer now that multi-skilling has become the norm, and with production efficiencies more important now than ever before there is a lot more pressure to get a line running quickly (even if it means being in 3 places at once :rolleyes: )

Having been made redundant I earlier this year and with production related industry in decline I don't think there is a lot of job security either (but that's the same no matter what job you have these days).

I'm not sure what part of the country you are based in but Vistakon in Limerick (or maybe a similar type of operation elsewhere) might be an option, the production technician position there might not involve a lot of "maintenance" but would give you some experience of looking after machinery in a production environment. I know that they have hired electricians recently who have had very little maintenance experience.
Alternatively Suir Electrical do most of the real "maintenance" work there, maybe you could try them. (BTW personally, Vistakon did not suit me, for many reasons, but it might be a stepping stone for you).

There are very few maintenance "Electricians" roles now.
Maintenance positions these days require you to have good fault-finding abilities, knowledge of PLCs, Pneumatics, Hydraulics and be able to perform a lot of mechanical type work such as bearing replacements, aligning motors and gearboxes, replacing chains and belts etc. So you have to be prepared to do almost anything.

Another thing to bear in mind is that most maintenance roles involve working shifts and even if you are fortunate enough to find a day work position you will probably have to work through weekends and holidays to do the work that can only be done when the machines are off.

paulg1770

Thanks for that brightspark,

The hours and that wouldn't bother me as long as the job is reasonably secure and I'm not busting my balls when I'm in my 50's! Things are tight theses days alright but I reckon there's more jobs in maintenance than construction.
So how does one go about becoming an all round maintenance sparks who has a knowledge of hydraulics, mechanical etc?
Would it be a case of just getting in somewhere and picking it up as you go along or is there a specific course you can do?

brightspark

Not sure how to go about getting into maintenance these days.

I did my electrical apprenticeship in a factory that had strict demarcation, and then moved to another job where I ended up having to do everything. 99% of what I know about pneumatics etc I learnt on the job from my colleagues through the years, but I have done a few short courses, also I read alot.

TEEU have a training division (They know that demarcation long gone)

http://www.etos.ie/_/skills_training.asp

I got to do a few of their courses through my previous employer.



Your biggest difficulty and one experienced by other electricians I've known is getting the first maintenance job. If it's any consolation I doubt if I could get a job in construction as I've only ever worked in industry.

The difficulty in getting into maintenance positions is the reason why I decided when I was made redundant to take any maintenance position I could (as opposed to trying to start out on my own).

I think you might need to reconsider if job security is essential to you at the moment as you might need to take a gamble and apply even for a short term contract in an industrial environment, assuming that there are any positions available at all.

Upskilling to an engineering position if you are in a position to study for a degree may be a better long term solution.