Graduate electrical Engineer looking for advice!

GradEngineer

Hi All,

Firstly I am completely new to Boards.ie so thanks in advance for any of your advice.
When I left school I did an apprenticeship to become an Electrician and later when to University to study Electrical Engineering. I am currently studying for my final fourth year exams.

Last summer I worked with ESB International and really loved it and was hoping to gain a graduate placement either there or in a similar Origination.
I would love to work for ESBI but as I am well aware, there is fierce competition for places in the current environment so I am going to hedge my bets and apply to similar companies abroad.

Basically my question is, What companies are there out there that are in a similar business to ESBI?? That is International Consulting companies involved in the power sector that have a good reputation internationally and who provide very good Graduate Development Programs. I would be especially interested in companies located in Ireland, the UK or America.

I would also be interested in any Electrical Engineering Companies that you reckon are stand out companies to work for.

Thanks again for any advice!

PS
I am 26 years old if that makes any difference...

nogoodnamesleft

Being honest it doesnt sound as if you have looked very hard at potential employers or researched the area very thoroughly.

What area are you proposing to work in, utilities, power, consultancy, transport....

ESBI have a very good reputation for consultancy however they are very very very small in the grand scheme of things. Im working as an engineer for a large electrical engineering company here in the UK and globally in the electrical sector (not including transport) there is approx 50,000 employees across the globe.

Ireland has very limited opportunities in the electrical area.Your best bet in my option is to look at the UK particularly www.gradcracker.com for potential employers.

A Primal Nut

Apply for the ESB anyway, there is a general shortage of engineers and you've already done an internship there so I'd say you have a decent chance.

Siemens would be a good one as well.

brandon_flowers

If you are willing to travel then the world is your Oyster, I have worked in a few different countries as an Elec Engineer both for Irish companies and international companies. I would suggest choosing an industry first to narrow your selection. Power gen, renewable, oil, building services etc... Once you have chosen you can start looking at companies.

One thing I would point out is the variety in electrical engineering is very limited in Ireland, there simply isn't a requirement for thousands of electrical engineers.

2011

brandon_flowers wrote: »

One thing I would point out is the variety in electrical engineering is very limited in Ireland

I guess that depends on who you work for. Some consultancies carry out both front end & detailed design work in Ireland for projects all over the globe.

there simply isn't a requirement for thousands of electrical engineers.

Although there seems to be quite shortage of electrical engineers in Ireland at the moment.

brandon_flowers

2011 wrote: »

I guess that depends on who you work for. Some consultancies carry out both front end & detailed design work in Ireland for projects all over the globe.



Although there seems to be quite shortage of electrical engineers in Ireland at the moment.

You are right in that there are Irish companies working on projects all over the globe but the number of companies involved is pretty small therefore the opportunities for the OP are smaller again.

There does seem to be some jobs available whether that is a shortage due to emigration or a shortage of graduates I am not sure. My own experience tells me its emigration, more than 50% of my graduate year are not working in Ireland. Some due to choice and some due to unemployment.

Also I don't know the OP's personal circumstances but the opportunity to work in different countries/continents is something which one should always take advantage of. Once you get married, have kids etc you are not as near mobile or flexible in terms of where you can work.

You will also be able to ask for a much higher salary if and when you do move back to Ireland :cool::D (says he who sadly has no intention of it)

nogoodnamesleft

2011 wrote: »

I guess that depends on who you work for. Some consultancies carry out both front end & detailed design work in Ireland for projects all over the globe.



Although there seems to be quite shortage of electrical engineers in Ireland at the moment.

These consultancy companies are few and far between I can only think of a handful in Ireland.

I echo what brandon_flowers mentioned about looking outside of Ireland for career opportunities. For example major consultancy companies such as Siemens, ABB and Alstom perform consultancy, manufacturing and development in areas that graduates who remain in Ireland can only dream of. One of these new areas is power electronics (for multi-terminal HVDC) which is an area in electrical engineering which is currently growing rapidly and will continue to grow.

From a professional development perspective it would make sense to travel and gain valuable and lucrative experience in these areas for a few years.

2011

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

These consultancy companies are few and far between I can only think of a handful in Ireland.

I can only think of a handful too.
I am not suggesting that there are numerous consultancies such as this, I am just stating that they do exist.

eoghan_85

Joining this thread a bit late but would definitely agree with nogoodnamesleft that you should try looking internationally first. If you didn't want to travel that far there's plenty of opportunities in the UK and any experience with the likes of Siemens, ABB, Alstom would be far better than the experience you're likely to get with ESBI. Don't think the money they offer is huge but you dont have to stay with them once you've taken what you can out of them from an experience point of view.

cast_iron

As the CEO of ESB himself told students studying electrical engineering (of which there are only 3 colleges running courses in the country - so the number of these graduates is quite low in Ireland), "we don't want ye out of college, come back when ye have worked abroad for a bit".

nogoodnamesleft

cast_iron wrote: »

As the CEO of ESB himself told students studying electrical engineering (of which there are only 3 colleges running courses in the country - so the number of these graduates is quite low in Ireland), "we don't want ye out of college, come back when ye have worked abroad for a bit".

From what I have seen of the curriculum of one masters course in a leading Irish university It would have been silly to stay in Ireland to do it. It was blindingly obvious there was a massive void between where industry in at present and what they were teaching students (im saying this as an Irishman).

Many UK universities have links to industry and as such the dissertation projects could be very interesting indeed.

For example from when I did the MSc in electrical engineering one of my course colleges dissertation was testing the insulation performance of carbon composite materials (that will be used in future aerospace applications) to lightening strikes. Another dissertation topic was testing new types of silicone HV insulator design with rain and fog tests observing the corona and heat dissipation (via infa red cameras).

There are very little competent electrical engineers so much so that the company I work for have an attractive referral scheme in place. In the MSc in completed out of 16 students, I was the only one that spoke English as my native language there were 3 other Europeans and we all had industry experience.

Papa_Bear

cast_iron wrote: »

As the CEO of ESB himself told students studying electrical engineering (of which there are only 3 colleges running courses in the country - so the number of these graduates is quite low in Ireland), "we don't want ye out of college, come back when ye have worked abroad for a bit".

This is what's wrong with the attitude of employers in this country.

"From what I have seen of the curriculum of one masters course in a leading Irish university It would have been silly to stay in Ireland to do it. It was blindingly obvious there was a massive void between where industry in at present and what they were teaching students (im saying this as an Irishman)."

Which course are you refering to? UCD by any chance?

nogoodnamesleft

Papa_Bear wrote: »

This is what's wrong with the attitude of employers in this country.

"From what I have seen of the curriculum of one masters course in a leading Irish university It would have been silly to stay in Ireland to do it. It was blindingly obvious there was a massive void between where industry in at present and what they were teaching students (im saying this as an Irishman)."

Which course are you refering to? UCD by any chance?

Yup. compared to what is offered in the UK at MSc level there is no comparison. There is also the benefit in my case that many of the faculty were contacted directly by companies looking for MSc qualified candidates (emails were forwarded to our university emails).

Papa_Bear

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

Yup. compared to what is offered in the UK at MSc level there is no comparison. There is also the benefit in my case that many of the faculty were contacted directly by companies looking for MSc qualified candidates (emails were forwarded to our university emails).

I know what you mean. I was doing some looking into Manchester Uni last year for and MSc and those guys have some serious industry connections.

Unfortunately I couldn't get on the course cause I only had a 2.2 and not a 2.1. So I applied to UCD instead for their ME in Energy Systems and I have yet to take up position as it is currently deferred for personal reasons.

Of course I am a good deal concerened about prospects here just as the op is.

cast_iron

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

From what I have seen of the curriculum of one masters course in a leading Irish university It would have been silly to stay in Ireland to do it. It was blindingly obvious there was a massive void between where industry in at present and what they were teaching students (im saying this as an Irishman).

Many UK universities have links to industry and as such the dissertation projects could be very interesting indeed.

For example from when I did the MSc in electrical engineering one of my course colleges dissertation was testing the insulation performance of carbon composite materials (that will be used in future aerospace applications) to lightening strikes. Another dissertation topic was testing new types of silicone HV insulator design with rain and fog tests observing the corona and heat dissipation (via infa red cameras).

Well from what I've seen of the undergrad courses in Electrical Engineering, there is very little that will prepare you for a job in a specific area like your example. From what I know of the masters programs, they are not much better, as you say.

However, the question is do they have it right? I know a good few engineering graduates, and almost all of them say that they rarely if ever have used what they learned in college in their job. Admittedly, not all are working in engineering jobs, but even those who are would broadly agree alot of what they learned they never understood, but just learned it off anyway.

On the insulation test you listed above, there probably isn't a job in Ireland that this knowledge is required. It begs the question as to why they would teach it, does it not? Or should the Uni's here be churning out graduates to ship them abroad for their jobs?

You could argue there is a greater all rounded teaching here, as any highly specific teaching will be all but useless in any job you get here.

Papa_Bear wrote: »

This is what's wrong with the attitude of employers in this country.

How so?

pljudge321

Papa_Bear wrote: »

I know what you mean. I was doing some looking into Manchester Uni last year for and MSc and those guys have some serious industry connections.

Unfortunately I couldn't get on the course cause I only had a 2.2 and not a 2.1. So I applied to UCD instead for their ME in Energy Systems and I have yet to take up position as it is currently deferred for personal reasons.

Of course I am a good deal concerened about prospects here just as the op is.

This problem is mostly down to scale. Manchester has around 4 times the number of academic staff as any of the college's here. I'm doing a postgrad in Imperial and the research group I'm in has nearly as many lecturers as the entire department of where I did my undergrad. They also charge £9000 a year for undergrad courses and their masters programs are packed with Asian students who are each paying in the region of £20000 and there class sizes are around 3 times the size.

None of the colleges here can do that, especially with the massive dilution of resources that takes place. If we wanted a college that could compete at the same level as Manchester, Imperial and the other top tier UK universities we would have to shift all the focus onto one or two of the universities and more than double them in size because that is all we would be able to support.

cast_iron wrote: »

Well from what I've seen of the undergrad courses in Electrical Engineering, there is very little that will prepare you for a job in a specific area like your example. From what I know of the masters programs, they are not much better, as you say.

University degrees aren't there to teach you how to do a specific job, my undergrad has served me pretty well so far.

nogoodnamesleft

pljudge321 wrote: »

This problem is mostly down to scale. Manchester has around 4 times the number of academic staff as any of the college's here. I'm doing a postgrad in Imperial and the research group I'm in has nearly as many lecturers as the entire department of where I did my undergrad. They also charge £9000 a year for undergrad courses and their masters programs are packed with Asian students who are each paying in the region of £20000 and there class sizes are around 3 times the size.

None of the colleges here can do that, especially with the massive dilution of resources that takes place. If we wanted a college that could compete at the same level as Manchester, Imperial and the other top tier UK universities we would have to shift all the focus onto one or two of the universities and more than double them in size because that is all we would be able to support.



University degrees aren't there to teach you how to do a specific job, my undergrad has served me pretty well so far.

That may have been your experience however the university I attended for my MSc has a very small engineering faculty. However due to the caliber and progressive research and the fact that it was one of the National Grids research centers employers were attracted to the graduates that were going through the system.

GradEngineer

Thanks for all the feedback everybody.

As suggested above I have been applying for positions in the UK and have had very positive feedback from several of the companies named above. Some interviews completed and waiting to attend assessment centers.

I am amazed at the percentage of employers that I have been in contact that have taken me for Interview and then onto assessment centers. There is either an awful lot of work in the UK at the moment or there is a shortage of Electrical Engineering grads.

Thanks again and I will let you know where I end up!!

pljudge321

GradEngineer wrote: »

There is either an awful lot of work in the UK at the moment or there is a shortage of Electrical Engineering grads.

Bit of both from what I can see.

nogoodnamesleft

GradEngineer wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback everybody.

As suggested above I have been applying for positions in the UK and have had very positive feedback from several of the companies named above. Some interviews completed and waiting to attend assessment centers.

I am amazed at the percentage of employers that I have been in contact that have taken me for Interview and then onto assessment centers. There is either an awful lot of work in the UK at the moment or there is a shortage of Electrical Engineering grads.

Thanks again and I will let you know where I end up!!

The electrical engineering sector is experiencing a shortage of suitably qualified candidates at the moment and will continue to do so from what I have seen and from speaking to colleagues.

Ofgem approved a 24billion pound investment in the UK's electrical grid shortly before Christmas so it looks as if the sector will continue to grow.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/12/17/uk-ofgem-idUKBRE8BG0A320121217

Hibbeler

Hi all,

I've been reading this thread with interest and have found it quite informative. Like the OP I am also in in my fourth year of study, however in mechanical engineering. I am also applying for graduate work mostly in the UK. What I am interested in is working in the energy sector: power generation, oil & gas etc...

A lot of the jobs I've been looking at have been specifying Masters level qualifications so despite the fact I've my heat set on working I'm also considering doing such a masters if I'm not lucky enough to find a job. Based on what I've read above would ye recommend that I try to do it in the UK rather than at home?

Also I'm 21 and wouldn't have as much experience as the OP plus my year is the first year of my course so it is not accredited yet to complicate matters, would this affect my chances of securing work or a postgrad abroad?

eoghan_85

Hibbeler wrote: »

Hi all,

I've been reading this thread with interest and have found it quite informative. Like the OP I am also in in my fourth year of study, however in mechanical engineering. I am also applying for graduate work mostly in the UK. What I am interested in is working in the energy sector: power generation, oil & gas etc...

A lot of the jobs I've been looking at have been specifying Masters level qualifications so despite the fact I've my heat set on working I'm also considering doing such a masters if I'm not lucky enough to find a job. Based on what I've read above would ye recommend that I try to do it in the UK rather than at home?

Also I'm 21 and wouldn't have as much experience as the OP plus my year is the first year of my course so it is not accredited yet to complicate matters, would this affect my chances of securing work or a postgrad abroad?

I'm open to correction on this but I think the 3rd level system in the UK is different in that it normally takes 3 years to attain a bachelors degree in engineering as opposed to the 4 over here so I wouldnt be put out by any insistence on a Masters qualification as that does not necessarily guarantee that the UK Masters graduate is more qualified than the Irish Bachelors graduate.
Aside from that anyway, I'd never be overly put off by those kind of things on any job advert. i.e. if I saw an insistence on having a year or two experience and I had none, I'd apply anyway - what's the worst that can happen? Obviously, need to be realistic as well and not go applying for jobs as a graduate that insist on ten years experience or something.

Hibbeler

eoghan_85 wrote: »

I'm open to correction on this but I think the 3rd level system in the UK is different in that it normally takes 3 years to attain a bachelors degree in engineering as opposed to the 4 over here so I wouldnt be put out by any insistence on a Masters qualification as that does not necessarily guarantee that the UK Masters graduate is more qualified than the Irish Bachelors graduate.
Aside from that anyway, I'd never be overly put off by those kind of things on any job advert. i.e. if I saw an insistence on having a year or two experience and I had none, I'd apply anyway - what's the worst that can happen? Obviously, need to be realistic as well and not go applying for jobs as a graduate that insist on ten years experience or something.

Thanks, I heard something to that effect about the 3 year bachelors thing, if I'm interested I generally apply anyway, worst they can say is no.
Guess the job hunting isnt as easy as I expected it to be