Electrician > Electrical Engineer

[Doomed]

Degree in Geology, NVQ4 in management - left it all to go back to being a sparky 'cos I do it for ME and the couple of other good chaps that work with me, not working for some big company and I can live in a part of the world thats nice.

 

[jimmymac]

Degree in Geology, NVQ4 in management - left it all to go back to being a sparky 'cos I do it for ME and the couple of other good chaps that work with me, not working for some big company and I can live in a part of the world thats nice.

If your happy in your work it makes all the difference. I've done jobs which I didn't like and it just gets you down. You try not to let it affect your home life but it does because it's always on your mind and your unhappy. I suppose it's a case of you are what you do or you do what you are.

 

[Guitarist]

I did it the other way round. Took me 4 years as part of my electrical engineering apprenticeship to get an HNC, but got really disillusioned with industry after 20 years of crappy shifts and "personal progress reviews", so now I'm a self-employed domestic sparky.
To be honest, I wish I'd chosen a different career altogether....

 

[jimmymac]

I did it the other way round. Took me 4 years as part of my electrical engineering apprenticeship to get an HNC, but got really disillusioned with industry after 20 years of crappy shifts and "personal progress reviews", so now I'm a self-employed domestic sparky.
To be honest, I wish I'd chosen a different career altogether....

A bit peed off at the moment?

 

[scammell man]

I have corrected my post at the top of page 3, but the corrections do not appear to feed into the quotes other people have replied to.

 

[trev]

I have corrected my post at the top of page 3, but the corrections do not appear to feed into the quotes other people have replied to.

They don't mate, that's why you have to think about what you post and if it's going to make you look daft if someone quotes you before you can correct it.
Happens to me all the time.

 

[scammell man]

i'm quite good a looking daft

The correction is important to anyone thinking of going down the professional electrical engineering route and is woth looking at.

In summary HNC OR NVQ level 3 will be accepted for EngTech registration, which is a legally protected title / qualification

 

[tazz]

just quickly read through this tread, in my day, and I`m sure it hasn`t changed....first step is C& G....then ONC or OND and then HNC or HND....now ONC/HNC was part time 1 fully day and 1 night course 2 year......OND/HND was full time course 1 year...correct me if I`m wrong it was 30 years ago

 

[Knobhead]

Degree in Geology, NVQ4 in management - left it all to go back to being a sparky 'cos I do it for ME and the couple of other good chaps that work with me, not working for some big company and I can live in a part of the world thats nice.

So I'm not the only one then.

 

[mechelec]

sounds promising, would it be a foundation degree in electrical engineering?

Mine was electrical and electronic engineering. It covered a broad range but didn't specialise in any one area. You can use FDeng after your name to if you so wish.

 

[king_11]

I did it the other way round. Took me 4 years as part of my electrical engineering apprenticeship to get an HNC, but got really disillusioned with industry after 20 years of crappy shifts and "personal progress reviews", so now I'm a self-employed domestic sparky.
To be honest, I wish I'd chosen a different career altogether....

Oh wow , that bad ? Could you have not gone into a Differnt side of engineering rather than house bashing

 

[Lucien Nunes]

It's not just the qualification that opens doors, it's the knowledge and capability. If you are working in one sector of industry, you will probably forget 75% of everything you learn on a degree / HND course over time. But the bits you hang onto, especially the maths and pure theoretical material that never goes out of date, will enable you to pull rabbits out of hats on cue whatever field you work in. Many of my customers don't give two hoots what qualifications I have, so long as I design stuff that works well and solve their problems efficiently. This I could not do without what I learned at university 20 years ago, even though much of the technology has since changed radically.

I've always enjoyed the craft aspects of electrical work and that is why I still pick up tools on almost a daily basis rather than just sitting behind a computer. Having a trade and a degree qualification that complement each other is a very versatile combination. Many engineering graduates have limited or no crafts skills and have no ready fallback within the industry if their chosen branch of technical knowledge happens to go out of fashion.

If you plan to do a higher level electrical engineering course, start polishing up your maths in advance. Much of electrical engineering is maths, IIRC in the first year we were getting 6-8 hours of maths lectures per week. You need to go in with A-level maths capability and you will come out able to solve many kinds of second-order differential equations in your head. A spark who can do this will be a better spark!

 

[Guitarist]

Oh wow , that bad ? Could you have not gone into a Differnt side of engineering rather than house bashing

To be honest, I'd just had enough of the whole industry. Also, the only way of earning decent money was to work shifts, which I was sick of.

 

[king_11]

To be honest, I'd just had enough of the whole industry. Also, the only way of earning decent money was to work shifts, which I was sick of.

Oh right , you earn more now then ?

 

[king_11]

It's not just the qualification that opens doors, it's the knowledge and capability. If you are working in one sector of industry, you will probably forget 75% of everything you learn on a degree / HND course over time. But the bits you hang onto, especially the maths and pure theoretical material that never goes out of date, will enable you to pull rabbits out of hats on cue whatever field you work in. Many of my customers don't give two hoots what qualifications I have, so long as I design stuff that works well and solve their problems efficiently. This I could not do without what I learned at university 20 years ago, even though much of the technology has since changed radically.

I've always enjoyed the craft aspects of electrical work and that is why I still pick up tools on almost a daily basis rather than just sitting behind a computer. Having a trade and a degree qualification that complement each other is a very versatile combination. Many engineering graduates have limited or no crafts skills and have no ready fallback within the industry if their chosen branch of technical knowledge happens to go out of fashion.

If you plan to do a higher level electrical engineering course, start polishing up your maths in advance. Much of electrical engineering is maths, IIRC in the first year we were getting 6-8 hours of maths lectures per week. You need to go in with A-level maths capability and you will come out able to solve many kinds of second-order differential equations in your head. A spark who can do this will be a better spark!

Thanks for your most , very informative.

Are you freelance or do shift work ?

 

[Lucien Nunes]

I'm freelance and I work in a number of separate fields in parallel. Electrical work makes up only a small part of my week at the moment and most of that is on paper rather than with tools, however I would not like to give up installation altogether and keep the Hilmor and the pyro tools polished and ready for action. Nothing gives more satisfaction than wiring a panel neatly or making a smart job of MI at the DB. Designing and programming electronic stuff pays better but I can't take the same pride in signing my name inside it. Variety is the spice of life and with the range of electrical qualifications that you could end up with, it gets easier to pick and choose the best of all worlds.

 

[king_11]

I'm freelance and I work in a number of separate fields in parallel. Electrical work makes up only a small part of my week at the moment and most of that is on paper rather than with tools, however I would not like to give up installation altogether and keep the Hilmor and the pyro tools polished and ready for action. Nothing gives more satisfaction than wiring a panel neatly or making a smart job of MI at the DB. Designing and programming electronic stuff pays better but I can't take the same pride in signing my name inside it. Variety is the spice of life and with the range of electrical qualifications that you could end up with, it gets easier to pick and choose the best of all worlds.

I agree variety is the spice of life.

How do you get all of you work, via referrals?

Is designing ect more interesting?

 

[jimmymac]

I'm freelance and I work in a number of separate fields in parallel. Electrical work makes up only a small part of my week at the moment and most of that is on paper rather than with tools, however I would not like to give up installation altogether and keep the Hilmor and the pyro tools polished and ready for action. Nothing gives more satisfaction than wiring a panel neatly or making a smart job of MI at the DB. Designing and programming electronic stuff pays better but I can't take the same pride in signing my name inside it. Variety is the spice of life and with the range of electrical qualifications that you could end up with, it gets easier to pick and choose the best of all worlds.

Electronics were the bane of my life during the HNC, I was told by my tutor (who was an instrument tech) that electronics are like marmite, love it or hate it...

 

[jimmymac]

Electronics were the bane of my life during the HNC, I was told by my tutor (who was an instrument tech) that electronics are like marmite, love it or hate it...

Sorry, I need to elaborate, digital electronics were the bane of my life!

 

[Lucien Nunes]

Why is everyone so polarised about Marmite? I can take it or leave it.

Yes, all my business comes from word of mouth, I've never advertised. But in one of the areas I cover it has built up to the point that I either have to put a lid on it or start a company to do it for me because I can't keep up with demand.

Design work can be very interesting if you have a project that fires your imagination. Other times it's pure drudgery, working out laboriously how to achieve some result that you couldn't care less about. Pushing little shapes and numbers around on the screen wondering if this is the future of mankind or just a dead end. If you can see a project through from start to finish - spec it, design it, play a part in putting it together and take it for a test drive when it's finished, you can get immense job satisfaction. However that occurs most in niche areas where the work is not so compartmentalised, not so much in mainstream technology, although I think Tony and some of the other industrial chaps here might have achieved a similar balance of science and craftsmanship in their work. I'm lucky to work in some of those niches.