Have Any Of You Lost..

EvilMerlin

The field I'm in, people can't seem to spend the money fast enough. I've got a 7 year backlog of work coming up with new jobs being added to that monthly. I've really been feeling bad that I just kind of fell into this, and see so many people suffering right now. Many of my friends, and family have lost jobs or can't find new jobs when they're stuck at a dead end point in their current place.

I couldn't be any busier than I already am (I was just put on 84 hours a week until Thanksgiving then I'll have enough money saved up to take the rest of the year off and start a new project sometime in January after my birthday) and it just continues to grow. The company I'm at does reviews every four months now for raises/promotions.

Yet, somehow...they still can't seem to find enough qualified people to join and help give us some relief to finish these jobs whether it be in the office or at job sites.

That's how I got thrown into working both and travelling back and forth now. When I joined 18 months ago, just the office I was in and the project I was on were understaffed by about 15 people. We're now understaffed to about 25-30, and in those 18 months, they've only found ten people to hire and two were already fired. And out here at the job site where I'm currently at...we could use probably about 50 more people.

It's a shame out there right now.

wolfbear

EvilMerlin wrote:

The field I'm in, people can't seem to spend the money fast enough. I've got a 7 year backlog of work coming up with new jobs being added to that monthly. I've really been feeling bad that I just kind of fell into this, and see so many people suffering right now. Many of my friends, and family have lost jobs or can't find new jobs when they're stuck at a dead end point in their current place.

I couldn't be any busier than I already am (I was just put on 84 hours a week until Thanksgiving then I'll have enough money saved up to take the rest of the year off and start a new project sometime in January after my birthday) and it just continues to grow. The company I'm at does reviews every four months now for raises/promotions.

Yet, somehow...they still can't seem to find enough qualified people to join and help give us some relief to finish these jobs whether it be in the office or at job sites.

That's how I got thrown into working both and travelling back and forth now. When I joined 18 months ago, just the office I was in and the project I was on were understaffed by about 15 people. We're now understaffed to about 25-30, and in those 18 months, they've only found ten people to hire and two were already fired. And out here at the job site where I'm currently at...we could use probably about 50 more people.

It's a shame out there right now.

Just curious, what type of work are you in?

EvilMerlin

wolfbear wrote:

Just curious, what type of work are you in?

Control systems and electrical design.

Anything with power that needs monitoring I do it. I was hired strictly as a designer. But now I'm basically overseeing all my designs at the construction site. I first did system check downs on installation, spec checks on the junction boxes and instruments, and now I'm coordinating the loop check process during the nights from the control room and working the boards.

That's usually a process that four different teams do...instead we've delayed the project now since I'm finishing one, and bounce to the next. I should have been home in September but they never did get around to getting any other teams in. Currently we've got 16,000+ instruments to loop check and we've completed 8200 thus far. We've got 22 techs under me, and we put in an order for 12 more to try and speed this up to get it done by the end of the month, but they could only supply us with 2 guys. That should get us to do about 200-400 a night.

Oh and this job site is a solar grade silicon plant. This place is giant and investing a ton of money into solar energy.

CHANGEinWAVES

EvilMerlin wrote:

Control systems and electrical design.

Anything with power that needs monitoring I do it. I was hired strictly as a designer. But now I'm basically overseeing all my designs at the construction site. I first did system check downs on installation, spec checks on the junction boxes and instruments, and now I'm coordinating the loop check process during the nights from the control room and working the boards.

That's usually a process that four different teams do...instead we've delayed the project now since I'm finishing one, and bounce to the next. I should have been home in September but they never did get around to getting any other teams in. Currently we've got 16,000+ instruments to loop check and we've completed 8200 thus far. We've got 22 techs under me, and we put in an order for 12 more to try and speed this up to get it done by the end of the month, but they could only supply us with 2 guys. That should get us to do about 200-400 a night.

Oh and this job site is a solar grade silicon plant. This place is giant and investing a ton of money into solar energy.

Oooooohh! Ur job sounds fun! And I'm NOT kidding!

wolfbear

EvilMerlin wrote:

Control systems and electrical design.

Anything with power that needs monitoring I do it. I was hired strictly as a designer. But now I'm basically overseeing all my designs at the construction site. I first did system check downs on installation, spec checks on the junction boxes and instruments, and now I'm coordinating the loop check process during the nights from the control room and working the boards.

That's usually a process that four different teams do...instead we've delayed the project now since I'm finishing one, and bounce to the next. I should have been home in September but they never did get around to getting any other teams in. Currently we've got 16,000+ instruments to loop check and we've completed 8200 thus far. We've got 22 techs under me, and we put in an order for 12 more to try and speed this up to get it done by the end of the month, but they could only supply us with 2 guys. That should get us to do about 200-400 a night.

Oh and this job site is a solar grade silicon plant. This place is giant and investing a ton of money into solar energy.

Thanks, but I'm still in the dark. lol I love the solar energy aspect, and I think if anyone is interested in a trade to get into this would be it. What is your background and what classes etc. did you take?

EvilMerlin

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

Oooooohh! Ur job sounds fun! And I'm NOT kidding!

haha, thanks. In certain aspects it is...although hard work, stressful, and when in a crunch, long hours.

When back home at the office, it's peaceful, boring, not much to do except figure things out and draw on a computer. When I'm at home doing design, it's about 35-40 hours in my work week. Up here, looking back...I haven't worked less than 60 since sometime in August. I do go home once a month though for 4 days.

It keeps things interesting, and the travel(if you like to do it, sometimes you get sent to shitty places though) always keeps you on your toes. Nothing is ever the same anyday, so you're not just doing the same ole repetitive thing each day. But out here at the sites, it's pretty cut-throat, and a person can get walked all over if they're not up for it.

CHANGEinWAVES

EvilMerlin wrote:

haha, thanks. In certain aspects it is...although hard work, stressful, and when in a crunch, long hours.

When back home at the office, it's peaceful, boring, not much to do except figure things out and draw on a computer. When I'm at home doing design, it's about 35-40 hours in my work week. Up here, looking back...I haven't worked less than 60 since sometime in August. I do go home once a month though for 4 days.

It keeps things interesting, and the travel(if you like to do it, sometimes you get sent to shitty places though) always keeps you on your toes. Nothing is ever the same anyday, so you're not just doing the same ole repetitive thing each day. But out here at the sites, it's pretty cut-throat, and a person can get walked all over if they're not up for it.

So are u a CAD pro??? Can I call on u when I'm stumped!??:)

EvilMerlin

wolfbear wrote:

Thanks, but I'm still in the dark. lol I love the solar energy aspect, and I think if anyone is interested in a trade to get into this would be it. What is your background and what classes etc. did you take?

Well, to get into it, you definitely need an electrical background. I came in through the labor side, as I can do electrician work, weld, mechanical, etc. With my mechanical and electrical side I was able to get into Control Systems, and with my computer knowledge as far as Cad prgorams I was able to get into design. If I didn't have my labor side I would have never been hired as all my schooling was for Psychology(except for one programming class I took. )

The best way would be to go through and become an electrical engineer if you want an office job, or if you like the labor aspect, you can go and try and join a local union, and take your electrical classes in college to try and become a certified electrician, or join a steamfitters/piping/refrigeration type union who does control systems work.

The majority of my work, if I don't take job site assignments, will mostly be drawing designs on a computer through AutoCAD, Microstation, PDDraw, and making 3D-models of the plants, drawing panel diagrams to scale, making connection diagrams for your wiring, etc. This is what I did on this job from April of 07, until June of 08. Then I moved on up here to the job site in Washington to support construction.

It's all big scale work, whether doing upkeep on refineries to keep them safely producing, or doing grass roots energy projects like the one I'm on with the solar grade plant.

This is just my little area that I do as well...there's still the main power electrical that I can jump into, or the things that I can't jump into like process engineering, the chemical engineering side, mechanical, etc.

EvilMerlin

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

So are u a CAD pro??? Can I call on u when I'm stumped!??:)

I can look it up in my autocad for dummies.

I haven't done anything in Autocad for probably a year as far as building anything. I've only done minor changes and edits to my drawings when I got out here. So I've probably maybe used it 10 hours tops the last year.

I've been mostly working in 3D design and Microstation since then. But around July is about the last time I did any design work. That aspect is all done and the only reason I've opened up a program is to just double check a drawing I didn't have handy with me.

So I'm rusty, but I could try to help still.

I won't be doing anymore cad work again until January. And that's a good 2-3 year job, so I better get back into the flow of it quickly again.

PJGARDEN

We are understaffed and working our bootys off. We are now working 7 days a week. Fun stuff I'm actually thankful I'm employed and busy enough that I feel safe.

But I do know one small business owner that is shutting down and house probably going to get foreclosed on. His line of credit was reduced drastically and he doesn't have the cash to run the business.

CHANGEinWAVES

EvilMerlin wrote:

I can look it up in my autocad for dummies.

I haven't done anything in Autocad for probably a year as far as building anything. I've only done minor changes and edits to my drawings when I got out here. So I've probably maybe used it 10 hours tops the last year.

I've been mostly working in 3D design and Microstation since then. But around July is about the last time I did any design work. That aspect is all done and the only reason I've opened up a program is to just double check a drawing I didn't have handy with me.

So I'm rusty, but I could try to help still.

I won't be doing anymore cad work again until January. And that's a good 2-3 year job, so I better get back into the flow of it quickly again.

ahhh AutoCAD for dummies....my Bible;)

EvilMerlin

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

ahhh AutoCAD for dummies....my Bible;)

hehe it's a gift! And so much cheaper than any other CAD book out there.

What do you draw if you don't mind me asking?

CHANGEinWAVES

EvilMerlin wrote:

hehe it's a gift! And so much cheaper than any other CAD book out there.

What do you draw if you don't mind me asking?

I'm in interior architectural design... construction documents and schematic designs....YAWN! Can't render for shit on the computer!

*to make it relevant to the thread, it's a bitch to find a job in the field now cause it basically shuts down on my end in a recession:(

EvilMerlin

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

I'm in interior architectural design... construction documents and schematic designs....YAWN! Can't render for shit on the computer!

*to make it relevant to the thread, it's a bitch to find a job in the field now cause it basically shuts down on my end in a recession:(

I'm sorry to hear that.

CHANGEinWAVES

EvilMerlin wrote:

I'm sorry to hear that.

it' doesn't help that I'm currently not finished the degree:( *it's on hold for a sem. and no one has the money to hire an intern for a few months! damn it!

Left Porch

My Mother is in real estate and Father is in contruction, very tough for my Dad to find jobs right now and the luxury apartments my Mom is selling, they're not selling. I work in construction safety, haven't had any change.

EvilMerlin

CHANGEinWAVES wrote:

it' doesn't help that I'm currently not finished the degree:( *it's on hold for a sem. and no one has the money to hire an intern for a few months! damn it!

Yikes! That's no good. I never even went to school in my field.

So I've already got a lot of enemies within the company I work at. I apparently took a job away from their friends that could have used it when they were graduating. Ugh...they need to get over that. And now they're made because I've "moved above them, and must be kissing ass because I'm offered traveling jobs and got promotions before them, but they have the knowledge and degree! I don't know shit!"

But that only came because of...my real world experience...which they don't understand. If you have field experience, they'll hire you right away before the years set of college kids coming out. It's just so hard to get field experience, and most of them that do work the field never leave it to learn drafting/designing, or like their job enough to not leave the labor position. So they rarely get applicants from field experienced people. They just won't get that through their thick skulls. :rolleyes:

Oh well, what can ya do? I'll be going back to school in January at nights though to continue on my psychology class work. I'm excited. Good luck on finding an intern spot and finish your degree.