What kind of Engineering firms in Ireland?

spideog7

I haven't spent much time working at home as I left soon after I graduated, but most of the guys I graduated with work for the usual big companies; Analog Devices, Intel, Ericsson, Cisco that kind of stuff (I'm an EE by the way).

I currently work for a small product development company and we in turn work with a variety of different clients across many sectors (a lot of industrial and medical stuff, some consumer). It's interesting to see the kind of stuff being done and being exposed to it. I always think to myself that I wouldn't have this kind of opportunity at home but then again I probably wouldn't even know of the existence of these companies here (my own included) had I not been exposed to them directly.

I'm curious what type of small innovative engineering firms we have at home. I've heard of several in passing so I know they do exist to some degree, I know of some marine energy ones (Wavebob et al) and the likes of CEL in Galway would have been a technical startup that did well for itself before Valeo bought them. McHale in Mayo would probably be another good example.

I've seen some interesting projects in Universities too but in my experience these are far from fruition and rarely designed with manufacture in mind, I'm thinking more of drawing board right up to something tangible, rather than just research.

There's probably not a a huge supply of venture capital available at home (or any kind of capital for that matter) so that combined with the small domestic market might be a limiting factor?

CatFromHue

There are a few product development companies here. I was abroad and these type of companies were the ones I was sending my CVs to and just out of curiosity had a look to see where there any in Ireland and came across a few.

If you go onto hotfrog.ie and do a search for product development or CAD you come across them.

Some of the universities have incubation centres which would be more industry based than research. Have a look at the Nexus Innovation centre in UL for a bit more info.

http://www.nexusinnovation.ie/

Openhydro in Louth would be another innovative engineering company but I don't know a huge amount them.

nogoodnamesleft

I worked in a firm for some time in an incubation center for developing fledgling businesses into a feasible one. Just my experience but never again, career would go no where as certain firms of this nature rarely have the budget for developing staff potential. I worked with many intelligent individuals and most left due to conditions, no structured career ladder and got sick of the "jobs for the boys mentality" that is rife in Ireland.

Before I left there was an atmosphere of "your lucky to have a job in this climate" which I found repulsive (I was lucky that I am in my 20s however some people had commitments, children in school, mortgage etc).

I did get decent experience thou for my time with the firm and it is interesting to a degree but there is a point when all the promises of successes wear thin and your getting paid pittance for your hard work.


Im in the Uk currently working for a multinational electrical engineering company, getting paid substantially more than at home, very good perks, global internal mobility, structured career development (I have a MSc in engineering, however the firm also has funded staff during a Phd if its in a business area of interest).

CatFromHue

That's interesting about your experience in the incubation business.

I've been reading a few books about a few start up business's that made it big. Just wondering was there ever a mention of employee stock options to counter act the low pay?

Turbulent Bill

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

I worked in a firm for some time in an incubation center for developing fledgling businesses into a feasible one. Just my experience but never again, career would go no where as certain firms of this nature rarely have the budget for developing staff potential. I worked with many intelligent individuals and most left due to conditions, no structured career ladder and got sick of the "jobs for the boys mentality" that is rife in Ireland.

Before I left there was an atmosphere of "your lucky to have a job in this climate" which I found repulsive (I was lucky that I am in my 20s however some people had commitments, children in school, mortgage etc).

I did get decent experience thou for my time with the firm and it is interesting to a degree but there is a point when all the promises of successes wear thin and your getting paid pittance for your hard work.


Im in the Uk currently working for a multinational electrical engineering company, getting paid substantially more than at home, very good perks, global internal mobility, structured career development (I have a MSc in engineering, however the firm also has funded staff during a Phd if its in a business area of interest).

That just sounds like a bad employer. In my own experience startups offer more interesting work and far better experience, but poorer job security, salary and structured career development compared to established firms. It really depends on what you want from a job.

CatFromHue wrote: »

I've been reading a few books about a few start up business's that made it big. Just wondering was there ever a mention of employee stock options to counter act the low pay?

It's usually just the founders and select long-term employees that actually benefit from stock options. These get diluted over time too as new investors come in. An exception is the IT industry where very small companies can be sold for huge money (e.g., Instagram) - I'm guessing all the employees there aren't short of a few quid now!

djpbarry

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

I worked in a firm for some time in an incubation center for developing fledgling businesses into a feasible one. Just my experience but never again, career would go no where as certain firms of this nature rarely have the budget for developing staff potential. I worked with many intelligent individuals and most left due to conditions, no structured career ladder and got sick of the "jobs for the boys mentality" that is rife in Ireland.

You can't take one bad experience and extrapolate to such a degree. Besides, you're kidding yourself if you think there's no kind of "jobs for the boys" mentality here in the UK.

nogoodnamesleft

djpbarry wrote: »

You can't take one bad experience and extrapolate to such a degree. Besides, you're kidding yourself if you think there's no kind of "jobs for the boys" mentality here in the UK.

Im not saying it doesnt happen in the UK either! As i have seen it on more than one occasion here too. But from my experience it was more blatant at home.

nogoodnamesleft

CatFromHue wrote: »

That's interesting about your experience in the incubation business.

I've been reading a few books about a few start up business's that made it big. Just wondering was there ever a mention of employee stock options to counter act the low pay?

The organisation I was working for at the time had stock options for all staff whilst you were working with the firm. Individuals could also buy stock options if they wished. However what the stock options were worth on paper and what there real monetary value was worth was a totally different matter entirely. If an employee had purchased stock options they would receive periodic financial reports which could possibly provide more visibility than was being communicated through the hierarchical structure of the organisation :rolleyes:.


Some of these incubation centers also have a time limit that the startup can remain as some receive subsidised overheads (office space, light, heating etc). A problem is that even as the startup has matured (say 10years) they can still remain dependent on funding (possibly depriving a business which could be more successful).

spideog7

I think I had read about that Nexus facility before but like a lot of the stuff I see at home it tends to be predominantly software stuff, which other than man hours is relatively cheap to develop.

The company I work for is far from a startup, been around in one form or another for decades now. We're a consultancy so we don't develop our own products but our capabilities typically complement our client's engineering departments (if they have one). So we can develop projects from white board to manufacture and everything in between.

I would tend to agree that the breadth of work you get to do and the individual responsibility on certain projects is much greater at a smaller location (we have some really bizarre products across a huge range of sectors). But you do lack the specific development paths that a larger corporation would usually have available (many of which wouldn't be for everyone anyway).

I can't comment as to the pay scale as I can only compare the US to Ireland and there's no point even attempting that comparison! Smaller companies are often privately held so no real stock options. I know for sure that my benefits would probably be better at a larger company.