Career path 4

[Liftingengineer]

I am a BS ME and I was recently laid off from my reliability engineer position in the chemical. I currently have 5 years of reliability experience. I have joined the job market and I will likely be receiving offers for field service engineer positions, the first is servicing a specific piece of equipment during turn arounds and the other is doing NDT inspections. Both positions are in the chemical industry. The positions interest me and the pay is comparable to my past positions. My questions will taking field service positions be a good career move, and would I be able to head back to plant side reliability/maintenance engineering or should I hold out for a reliability or maintenance positions for the better career advancement opportunities?

I've got a PHD is Broscience

 

[JBreunig]

I'm sorry to hear about your layoff.

Is your long term goal to be a reliability engineer? If it is, I would hold out for the reliability engineering gig (if you have the reserves to hold out a few months). It sounds like you have experience in the field, so I would think you could get another job doing something similar.

On the other hand, if you want to do something different, now's the time to make your move in a new direction!

Jim Breunig P.E.
XCEED Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
FEA Consultants

 

[Liftingengineer]

Thanks for the response.

My long term goal is to become a plant manager so it is not necessarily reliability engineering. I got offered a position doing NDT testing, and I am just worried that position isn't a step down from my past reliability engineering work. I am also worried that the travel with while exciting now might be hard to maintain. I think I have enough experience to hold out. I am just worried about coming back when I get tired of traveling.

I've got a PHD is Broscience

 

[MintJulep]

For a reliability engineer seeing how equipment fails and doesn't fail in service seems like valuable experience.

Travel is hard to maintain.

NDT is typically a "technician" job, not and "engineering" job, so yes it is a step backwards.

 

[JBreunig]

I like your goal of becoming a plant manager someday. I don't know you and your abilities, but it seems achievable.

Personally, I wouldn't be too worried about stepping down or up. I would mostly be worried about stepping in the right direction. If you had an opportunity that would put you on a path to be a plant manager, but it was a paycut, or the job stunk, I'd be inclined to take it.

Could you be a maintenance supervisor? Or perhaps a plant operator? I don't know your industry in depth enough to know what paths work to get to PM, but that's the direction I think I'd go. Now's your chance to make the next move!

Who knows, maybe this layoff will be the best thing that could have happened.

Jim Breunig P.E.
XCEED Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
FEA Consultants

 

[MFJewell]

Look for plant engineer positions as a stepping stone to plant manager.

 

[Liftingengineer]

Thanks for the responses.

I dream of being a plant manager, but it isn't necessarily a strong goal. I just enjoy the hands on manufacturing atmosphere. I don't think I will get much failure exposure if I only work on a single piece of equipment. That is another concern. The traveling seems really exciting as a single man, but I will probably want a family soon.

Thanks for the help

I've got a PHD is Broscience

 

[oldestguy]

It would appear that English is not your native language. However, if it is, you really need to work on that. Communicating via reports, etc. must be as near perfect as possible.

 

[Liftingengineer]

After taking an NDT inspection job would it be hard to go back to reliability engineering?

I've got a PHD is Broscience

 

[IRstuff]

Unless there's some direct applicability, it'll certainly be as if the stopwatch stopped on reliability experience and you'll have a gap in experience. You could possibly take some courses in the mean time to demonstrate that you were keeping up and keeping sharp.

Engineers are loathe to sell themselves, but resumes, cover letters, and interviews are the selling opportunities. Two people with seemingly identical experience could have radically different job search results, depending the resume/cover letter, and the attitude and ability to make use of every chance to sell yourself. If you can convince someone that you are EXACTLY what they were looking for, you can get any job you want.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[Liftingengineer]

Thanks for feedback.

I have been thinking and stress too much about the positions and the your answers helps. Yes the position being a stopwatch on my reliability experience is one of my major concerns. The international travel with the NDT sounds exciting now and is a huge driver for the position, as I am still young and single. I am worried I might feel differently when I want to have a family though. I am still having the concerns about my ability to leave the position and go back to plant side engineering. Thanks for all the help.

I've got a PHD is Broscience

 

[oldestguy]

Each post with this notice buggs me.

I've got a PHD is Broscience

How about this: I have a PHD in Broscience, what ever that is.

Edit here: a Google search for Broscience tells a lot.

 

[Liftingengineer]

Oldestguy, thanks for the constructive criticism. It's a fitness joke, but I should be more professional so I removed it.

 

[CWB1]

JMO but the career move is much like your post's verbiage, unthinkable to a select few but reality for most. So long as you're working in an engineering capacity I wouldn't second-guess a move into field work, many engineers do NDT, advanced troubleshooting, and other "technician" tasks daily among other duties. Field service is a very common stepping stone on the path to operations management along with various "other" technical roles in sales/marketing, product definition, purchasing, etc. Reliability engineering OTOH is often considered a technical path, usually culminating with engineering management rather than the desired operations/plant management role.