Engineering Options

[Pope John 11]

I have been offered a Project Management course in TCD.

I have been unable to find suitable engineering work since.

This is a part-time course, any options out there to improve ones enginnering skills in ones free time, while participating in the course.

Also looking to do the IEI Chartership.

Also thought about heading to Oz.

Any thoughts from anyone else much appreciated.

 

[Imperator]

Hi Pope John

What branch of engineering are you working in? Is your engineering discipline sector-specific? As we all know, certain sectors have seen a collapse in employment, construction for example. Others, such as medical devices, are still looking for people. If you post details of your qualifications it may be easier to give a considered answer.

If you are not working at the moment I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that funding expensive courses - such as Masters' degrees - may be an issue. One option which will make it easier for you to find a job somewhere is to learn another language. One or two colleagues of mine have had to emigrate. They are currently learning German. This makes them employable in Germany but also in other German-speaking countries.

It may be an idea to attend evening courses in a European language.

You have put forward many options. Can you highlight your thinking behind them? For example how long do you think it would take to get chartered? Do you have a job lined up in Oz?

 

[Purple]

what branch of engineering are you working in? Is your engineering discipline sector-specific? As we all know, certain sectors have seen a collapse in employment, construction for example. Others, such as medical devices, are still looking for people. If you post details of your qualifications it may be easier to give a considered answer.

+1

 

[Pope John 11]

Unfortunately, I would be on the front line, Structural Engineering.

Yes, it has always been on my mind to learn French or German. Its amazing to think how you learn the languages in school or college, & just completely ignore them later in life, for me, this was the case. But yes its been on my mind lately.

IEI Chartership requires drafting up reports, your experience & an interview. It would take the next year at least.

No job in Oz yet, just thoughts

 

[Imperator]

If you are still undecided about travel then I suggest that you make the most of the time available to you.

In my opinion, you may as well pick up some skills and titles that are recognised and that can travel with you. Developing your language skills and reviewing your professional development are good things to do while you're off work. Now that I think of it, I applied for my charteredship during a 'between contracts' stage of my career.

The next deadline for submission of an application for Chartered Engineer status is the last Friday in January. So you have 16 weeks to prepare your report, summary, and essays - that's plenty of time. As a structural engineer you may have a 'home institution' such as the Institution of Civil Engineers (I don't know). Find out if there's a mutual recognition agreement between Engineers Ireland and any other bodies of which you may be a member. You may find that you're better off making applications for senior status to a few institutions - the procedures tend to be similar and there may be less confusion about the use of professional titles.

There isn't a massive amount of attention paid to registered titles in Ireland. In the UK and on the continent it's a different matter. Words like 'chartered' or 'corporate member' in a c.v. tend to trigger alerts among engineering recruiters.

Best of luck,

Imperator