Engineering Grad Looking to Gain the Right Experience - Frustrated!!

moveoverrover

I recently graduated with a BEng in electrical engineering and am finding the current labour market to be quite difficult.

Now I have been fortunate enough to find an engineering role, however it is not what I want to do long term. I came from a trade background and have over 13 years experience as an electrician and also ran my own business for 7 years. I went back to college to get away from the construction industry as I was completely sick of been treated like dirt by clients and the volatile nature of the industry. The current role I have now is a project management role with one of the large electrical contractors in the country, it is fine at the moment and I am glad to have it as the last four years in college were the toughest financially I have ever experienced. I am hoping to find something a bit more specialised, possibly in the area of automation and control but am open to other industries like the power/energy industry.

My grief is the impossibility of breaking into these industries. Any if not all of the roles advertised specify a minimum of 3 or more years experience in the area. I know I have a lot more experience than most other grads and i was fully sure four years ago that it would be an advantage to me but I am seriously beginning to doubt my decision to upskill.

How does one get the required experience?

Is my previous experience hindering my chances as it is all construction based?

I have thought about doing some PLC training courses in Allen Bradley or Siemens but am reluctant to invest a couple of thousand Euros into something that may be futile, besides is the BEng not enough?!

Also, as the automation industry in Ireland is heavily involved in the Pharma and medical devises areas I have considered doing a lean, six sigma or cGMP course which would look good on the CV, what are your opinions on this?

Would it be advantageous, I would invest if I was sure I could get a good position with it.

Leaving the country to get the experience is not an option as I have a young family.

Any opinions would be very much appreciated.

Panda_Turtle

*writing style nazi alert

If you could break up your various bits of information/questions into paragraphs or something other than one big slab of text it would be great.

moveoverrover

Panda_Turtle wrote: »

*writing style nazi alert

If you could break up your various bits of information/questions into paragraphs or something other than one big slab of text it would be great.

Fixed.

bbam

It's going to be tough given the market at the moment.
Companies usually need experience in a specific field, which for the moment you don't have. Or they want a grad, seems most grad positions are being filled by intern positions i.e. essentially free labour.

Due to our high unemployment rate there are a selection or people with qualifications and experience waiting to fill most positions that come available.

Lean or six sigma will increase your chances but not guarentee a job. It's your choice if you want to do extra work to increase your chances.

It may just be a case of sticking it out and keep applying.

moveoverrover

They want a grad so the can pay them as little as possible. I feel like I am in no mans land, can't get a more experienced role and too old / experienced for a grad position.

I have done 7 interviews in the last 5 months and have been unsuccessful with them all. I never even had a response from 3 of those to say if I was successful or not ( don't get me started on that)

I will have to keep plugging away at it and pray that something will crop up.

Will give the cGMP etc.. Courses a bit more consideration.

L.Jenkins

Would you not work to develop a few of your own projects? If you can get your hands on a few PIC controllers and additional components, even learn a few development languages also. I'd also look into Raspberry Pi and Ardurino Boards for the purpose of creating a few projects, that may help in gaining employment.

moveoverrover

Itzy wrote: »

Would you not work to develop a few of your own projects? If you can get your hands on a few PIC controllers and additional components, even learn a few development languages also. I'd also look into Raspberry Pi and Ardurino Boards for the purpose of creating a few projects, that may help in gaining employment.

Itzy

Ive done some work with the pic and raspberry pi in a project environment, would definitely be something to add to the cv alright and grappling with a new development language would be an addition . It is food for thought, would have to think of a project that would be interesting enough yo tackle in my spare time without losing interest in it. Mmm

moveoverrover

Itzy wrote: »

Would you not work to develop a few of your own projects? If you can get your hands on a few PIC controllers and additional components, even learn a few development languages also. I'd also look into Raspberry Pi and Ardurino Boards for the purpose of creating a few projects, that may help in gaining employment.

Itzy

Ive done some work with the pic and raspberry pi in a project environment, would definitely be something to add to the cv alright and grappling with a new development language would be an addition . It is food for thought, would have to think of a project that would be interesting enough yo tackle in my spare time without losing interest in it. Mmm

peeej

moveoverrover,

It is one year later now. I would be interested to know what solution you pursued and how it worked out.