Electrical Technologist Jobs?

[nspicer]

Hey everyone,

I graduated as an EET but have had a hard time finding a good place to start at.

Does anyone know what good starter jobs are for these?
Would I get credit if i decided to become an electrician?

Im not registered with ASET yet.

[FiveFreshFish]

http://www.altalink.ca/Default.aspx?DN=8576942e-1efe-42eb-aa6a-88375fe3f7d8

[Grogador]

Originally posted by nspicer
Im not registered with ASET yet.

They have a job bank, seems decent. I can't remember the details but you might still qualify for cheap 'student' membership, otherwise it's really not worth the money, unless your job requires it. Good huntin.

[Nufy]

Its a tough time right now as there are many Elec Tech with experience looking for work due to all the layoffs.

Me being one of them.

Luckily I just landed some field work that will keep me busy till next spring.

Start checking engineering firms and you may get lucky.

[HuMz]

Originally posted by nspicer
Hey everyone,

I graduated as an EET but have had a hard time finding a good place to start at.

Does anyone know what good starter jobs are for these?
Would I get credit if i decided to become an electrician?

Im not registered with ASET yet.

Pretty sure you would be credited for a 3rd year electrician. Without any on the job experience though I doubt anyone would be willing to hire you right now.

[Jim Rome99]

Nobody will be willing to hire you as a third year apprentice right now. Currently the going rate for a journeyman is $36.50 in Calgary so you'd make 70% of that.

Your best bet is to try to get a job with an electrical company as an estimating assistant. Phone up all the big companies in Calgary: Unitech, Canem, Western etc. Ask around and see what happens. You'll likely have to start out as a first year electrical apprentice but you won't have to go to school for the first two years.

www.tradesecrets.org

[nspicer]

Yeah i didnt think there was much work going on right now. I need to be with a company before getting papers in to be an electrician anyways, right?

I'll try the estimating but i havent seen any juniors yet.
Any other job titles an EET can look for?

[Jim Rome99]

Yes, you need to get hired by an electrical company willing to indenture you (sign you up at the apprenticeship board) first.

Then you can get your blue book which is meant to keep a record of your hours worked and school marks. I believe you are credited for your first two years of trade school but you may be able to challenge the third and fourth year exams with ease.

You're in a tough situation as a lot of people in charge of hiring at electrical companies are just electricians themselves and as such they will be intimidated by someone walking in with an EET diploma. Unfortunately there seems to be a big tendancy to look down on people with a proper education in the trades. Good luck to you looking for work but honestly you might find it easier not to mention that you're already an EET.

[nspicer]

intimidated? man I would love to be an electrician

[Nufy]

Thats what you should decide first before you proceed.

Do you want hands on work installing and servicing electrical equipment ?

If so then electrician is the path to follow. A bit of waste of a Sait (or equivalent) diploma IMO but to each their own.

Typically the Sait/Nait people want to get into design engineering and do field work only on a part time basis.

Personally I have sat on enough well sites at 3 in the morning to last me a lifetime and yet I still do it cuz the money is good.

I guess you need to decide where you want to be in 10 years and pick your path from there.

[rinny]

Originally posted by Nufy
Thats what you should decide first before you proceed.

Do you want hands on work installing and servicing electrical equipment ?

If so then electrician is the path to follow. A bit of waste of a Sait (or equivalent) diploma IMO but to each their own.


If you would even consider becoming an electrician, I'd probably recommend searching a power systems type contractor to get hired on to as you'll have a strong mix of construction and commissioning.

You could be doing any types of work from wiring inside a sub shack to dressing a transformer, and after, use test equipment to test the Tx or on the other side of things, test relays or RTU/SCADA work.

But quite frankly, if you went to SAIT i'd say you have many many more doors open than a 1st year electrician. Try searching on monster/workopolis for: automation, electrical, power, technologist, scada, control etc etc

And after that, look in the phone book and go hand out resumes.

[Sophal]

try this place

www.primaryeng.com
ask for a dude named guy risdin (sp) or throw in a general application at my place www.fortisalberta.com

[redblack]

altalink just posted a position for a substation technologist up in acheson/edmonton

[nspicer]

Thanks for the help all! Found a position in Lloydminster doing design.

[danno]

just curious, but i'm a journeyman electrician still fairly young and what like to know what i could do to make more money?? going to school full time isn't really a option as i own a house and couldn't afford to do both, i work for one of the biggest companies so moving into the office is highly unlikely. i'm pretty happy with how much i make but it's still not enough to make me really happy.

[msommers]

Danno,

Not knowing your current employment and family situation, it's kind of tough to provide the best solution. However, I'll try.

Pay scale generally is industrial > commerical > residential. Depending on if you like to travel, I've met a few electricians up north who worked in Russia and the Middle East, making considerable amounts of money.

Personally if you aren't doing industrial, I would look into it if you're interested in making more money. OT racks up quick, and if you work in BC, it is that much better because the tendency is longer shifts, and DT on sundays (depending on the contract; same taxable income as Alberta which is nice). You may look into being stationed in a remote town (Norman Wells for example) if the jobs are available.

Just an FYI for apprentices, BC is where it's at. The taxable income is the same but BC apprenticeship pay percentages are different. For example, I was a 2nd year making 3rd year wage.

Hope that helps.

[danno]

that helps but i was more looking into advancing my career not doing industrial. i do commercial now as much i like it i would to think about other paths being a j man could lead me too.

basically i don't want to go up north unless i have to due to lack of work, no overseas unless it's large amounts of money $150 and up. i enjoy working 40-50 hours max, work is to pay my bills and get toys not to be my life. hope i make sense

[msommers]

Are you referring to $150k/year or $150/day? Cleared or gross? Just to give you a rough estimate, when I was working in Helmut BC, I grossed about $225/day as a 2nd year, and that was...God maybe 5 years ago?

I think I understand what you're getting at (balancing life and money, it just didn't come across like that initially), and I really only see a few solutions; bare in mind I've really only worked industrial. You could:

1) Start your own company
2) Stay with the company, get your own vehicle and crew
3) Become foreman of a large project (I believe pay is higher than J man)
4) Change to industrial working in town doing skids or managing a panel shop
5) Change careers

From my end, getting more pieces of paper won't really help you if you plan working as a J bird for the rest of your career.

You could do what I was planning on doing. When I first started my apprenticeship, I had already spoken to a family friend of ours who owned an electrical safety company. I needed to get a few years of J man experience and a ticket under my belt, and I basically had an office job with decent money. The problem eventually come up that working out of town to get there, was not for me. I get the impression that you are hesitant to work out of town, consequently may not be a very viable option.

Something that just occurred to me was doing high-voltage and/or possibly working for Enmax. There may be ways to move up the corporate ladder in such a company, unfortunately I don't know the specifics and you'll have to look into that further if you wish.

Best of luck, Danno.

[danno]

thanks for the help, i thought of enmax too. starting a company in a few years maybe once i'm a master. i did residential and had a crew but it slowed down so i switched back to commercial. becoming a foreman is something that will most likely be the path, i was basically a sub without the title at the last job moved on to a different site and back to the bottom of the pole.

if i went over seas i would want at least $150k take home. not sure if that's possible but that's where i value not being at home.
not to sure what i'm really looking for... lots of money and being home everyday i guess.

[HuMz]

Given you can make over 120,000 a year up north as a Jman im sure you could get close to 150,000 in certain parts of the world.

Danno have you looked as to whether Sait offers the EET program part time or through correspondents?

Also in terms of its worth it and some of the differences, PM redblack who posted above, I know he has both the EET and J-man ticket.

[rinny]

Originally posted by nspicer
Thanks for the help all! Found a position in Lloydminster doing design.

Out of curiosity, was this Noralta controls that you got on with? And if not...which sort of industry are you in?

[danno]

i actually havn't looked into anything, just curious if there's a point in trying to advance further with more degrees or tickets. first hand experience is all i want to know about. i like what i do i like working fast and being rewarded for doing it, that's why i like residential. i'm going to look into it a bit more but i don't want to go back to school full time as my bills require a full time job.

[rinny]

Danno, if you're still fairly young that you wont be discriminated against when applying to companies who seek young people, I'd highly recommend heading to SAIT for an EET diploma.

Many more opportunities, both in field and not. With J-man status that you have you'd be a shoe in at any company like Enmax/Altalink/Independent contractors which are hurting for experience, especially at the J-man level. This could bump you up to work leader within a shorter time frame than any others coming out of school.