Career suggestions for stagnating ME in Alaska

[monique]

I am a mechanical engineer working for a medium-sized construction company performing quality control at the construction site in the summer and drafting/material acquisition in the winter. I have been out of school a little over two years. I took a job in construction right out of school because I thought it would be good experience for design. There always seems to be a riff between the designers/engineers and the people who construct what was designed. I wanted to get a better hold on what problems and solutions occurred with a design in the field.

This job was pretty fun for the first year, I was learning so much, and everything was new. But, the problem now is that it seems to have kind of stagnated. I feel like I am just pushing paper for the Corps of Engineers, sort of like a glorified secretary. I have rethought the idea of working for a design firm, but not sure if that's the right path anymore.

There are some things that I really like about working construction:
-no cubicles (I'm out in an office trailer all summer, mostly out on the jobsite)
-good pay (payed overtime all summer, 40 hour weeks in the winter)
-interaction with all kinds of people (Gov't workers, subcontractors, laborers, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc)

But, there seems to be more downsides:
-working overtime all summer
-no payed vacation (everyone's hourly with no payed time off)
-working with mostly non-engineers (lots of cheesy engineering jokes)
-working with Gov't employees who stick to the book even if it makes no sense,
-working for a small, family run company (nepotism runs rampant)
-and really no "engineering" per say, I just check that the crew has followed other engineer’s designs

I would definitely be willing to take a pay cut if I could find something interesting/creative/challenging to do. I expect that every job will have its downsides and slow periods, but I wonder if anyone has any advice on places to look in Alaska for jobs, or even a career path, that might have more of the good qualities I described above than the negatives. I would love to go into manufacturing but, unfortunately, Alaska is not the right place and I'm not quite ready to relocate. Any suggestions/questions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[TheTick]

To paraphrase a famous actor whose name I don't recall (Orson Wells??)...
"If you want to act, you must go to where people act. Nobody gets discovered in Des Moines."

Also, if you want to be a designer, you must design. Picking up peripheral skills (i.e. construction) is great, but not at the expense of what needs to be your core competency.

Head down the coast to Seattle or Portland or San Jose when the economy picks up a little. Those are places where design happens.

I've been to Alaska. I liked it so much that I wanted to move there (my brother has been there 15 years and he ain't coming back). I look into design prospects in AK from time to time, but nothing turns up. Maybe when my lotto numbers match up.

All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted.

 

[TheTick]

short version:
Go South before your career does.

 

[GregLocock]

On the other hand I'd say that for someone that is two years out of school you have made good use of your time - but you are right, it sounds as though it is time to move up, move round or move on.

I've /always/ had to move to change jobs, as the Tick so wittily quoted.



Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[Binary]

The one career path open in AK seems like it would be with the oil companies. Have you checked out whether you could break in there?

 

[Miper]

monique,
All government work (and most govt. sponsored work) is like what you've seen so far, including Aerospace. They tell you what to design, how to design it, and how to make your drawings. They tell you how to build it, where to procure parts and equipment, and how to run your quality program. They audit you until the cows come home and send in teams of rubbernecking kibbitzers to tell you all the not-yet-govt.-spec stuff you "ought" to do anyway. You learn all about codes and specs., but not much about design. (You should now give thanks that I gave you the short form of this observation.)

Shop people, builders, etc. -- they always have cheesy engineering jokes, no matter where you go. And no, they never build it like the drawing. Some engineers spend whole careers straightening out the differences. In the future, when tooling is made directly and entirely from the engineering drawings, and computer-driven machines shape and assemble everything, we can hope to see the true product of our efforts.

Alaska is an unlikely place for anything but construction and petroleum engineering. Still, you might check to see if there are any specialty manufacturing firms that do some engineering. One possibility would be a company that puts specialized equipment on vehicles. Several coach manufacturers in this area (midwest) make ambulences and small buses. In Alasks, I would expect there to be some of this and off-road work truck modifiers, as well.

 

[leanne]

monique, if you just graduated a few years ago, I'll make an assumption (perhaps erroneous, but what the hay, I'll make the WAG anyway!) that you are fairly young & haven't started a family yet. Check out roadwhore.com if you have relatively few ties & think you might be interested in working contract & moving from job to job. There are usually quite a few construction positions posted on roadwhore.com so your current experience will be a plus. Contract can be very lucrative because of per diems & OT. Some contract folks work four or five months & make enough to not need to work for the remainder of the year.

I work for a government contractor so I know what you mean, but you can effect changes with some of them. Show them cost savings or other improvements & some government entities will change the "book".

Tick, DH's uncle was an air traffic controller in Alaska & as soon as his Uncle retired, Uncle left Alaska for Salt Lake City.

 

[monique]

Thanks for the responses.
I am definitely thinking about moving when the economy picks up, right now it looks like the best move might be to sit tight.
I have been looking for openings in the oil industry, but its kind of an old boys club, plus it helps if you know someone. But, I continue to look and see if anything comes up. Some of the other posts on finding jobs, and skills relevant to engineering have been helpful.
I will definitely look into specialized manufacturing, I might be able to find something there.

 

[D55]

Monique,
Having spent close to 5 years up there, I understand your frustrations.

The solution in your case in my opinion is to diversify while holding on to those qualities of construction life you like.

Need a new position up there? Look at this company and then call John Sheppard or John Lee and tell them Darrell in Atlanta told you to call. Their phone is 907.761.6000

http://www.nhtiusa.com

 

[Binary]

D55, I hope you know those guys well enough to know that they're fine with you posting their names and number on the 'net.

Personally, I'd be pretty torqued if somebody did that to me.

Monique, tread lightly. You might find these guys a little irritated at the manner in which you got hold of them.

Perhaps I'm wrong. However, privacy issues being what they are, I'd question the judgement of putting people's names and numbers on a public discussion forum.

Mabye it's just me, though.

 

[D55]

Yes. I know them quite well. If she wants to access them through their website, she can as it is listed there as well.

Given they are running a multi-million dollar business and always looking for qualified workers, they would be more than happy to talk to someone that could assist in their growth.

 

[D55]

Binary?, I understand your concern, however the same info in my initial post is listed on their website link.