Job Advertisement, 2 posts û Plumber ú60k, Engineer ú25k. 31

[chris9]

In the UK, tradesmen such as plumbers, plasterers, bricklayers, joiners and electricians earn far more than fully qualified and experienced engineers.

Generally you can become a tradesman in a couple of years on the job training and perhaps a short college course. Compare this with a minimum of 6 years full time study and four years post grad experience to become a professional engineer.

Is the UK the only country to have this kind of job market or do other countries also experience this?

 

[ScottyUK]

Because you/we know that when we create a multimillion dollar system that works as it should, it is 'ours' in a sense that few other professions can achieve

Ever noticed that when something works brilliantly well it it 'ours', yet if it is a disaster it is 'yours'? Or is that just where I work??




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If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!

 

[jmw]

Yeah, that's a real great incentive scheme; if it works, only you know that it's yours. The boss is busy claiming it's "his". You can bet that come review time, all those successes don't add up to a hill of beans. One mistake and your out.
As ScottyUk says, when it all goes wrong is about the only time anyone avows your ownership of the idea... and neglects all those reports you submitted saying "don't do it this way!"

JMW

http://www.viscoanalyser.com

Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[ScottyUK]

If any of the readers from outside the UK need more evidence of my nation's misuse of the terms 'engineer' and 'technician', I spotted the following on the back of the cab of one of the support trucks that accompany the huge mobile cranes which frequent our site:

'Counterweight Relocation Technician'.

I swear I'm not making this up. I wish I could post a photograph. When I was a kid, he was a truck driver. The guy who drives the crane is probably a 'senior object relocation engineer' or some such. At least I'm bitter enough to laugh - a recent graduate would probably be crying into his beer.





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If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!

 

[chris9]

Whenever someone asks my wife what I do she says ‘he’s an engineer but not the kind that fixes motor cars with a spanner’.

 

[jmw]

What do you use? a hammer?

JMW

http://www.viscoanalyser.com

Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[Tobalcane]

On the BAE System web sit (

http://www.bae-systems.com/engineering/index.htm)

the first sentence to describe the peoples common perception of what an engineering is “A common perception of engineering is that of servicing a car or repairing a television.”. You guys were not kidding. Here in the USA, I deplore it when I tell somebody that I am a mechanical engineer and they ask me if I drive a train or fix cars.

Go Mechanical Engineering
Tobalcane

 

[chris9]

jmw,

No I use a mechanic.

 

[jmw]

You got me!

JMW

http://www.viscoanalyser.com

Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[jmw]

You got me!
......except they are not called mechanics anymore (see earlier in this post), they are auto-technicians. At least they didn't call them engineers.

JMW

http://www.viscoanalyser.com

Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[GregLocock]

You do realise that that is a peculiarly British issue?

Move to the colonies! (now I sound like the advertising blimp in Bladerunner). Engineering is well respected and reasonably well paid (in context) in EVERY country I have been to (apart from Nepal).



Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[JamesCG]

Re "Whenever someone asks my wife what I do she says ‘he’s an engineer but not the kind that fixes motor cars with a spanner’. "

I get the same from my wife too - either that or "I'm not sure what he does, but he sits in front of a computer"

Regarding salaries, I think it depends on the sector you work in too. I keep looking in the IMechE magazine and see adverts of Senior Engineer in London offering 26K - I didn't think you could live in London for that. I work in safety (as a fire engineer - though not driving fire engines!) and the pay is reasonable enough, though I am a contractor rather than staff.

 

[chris9]

In London you really can earn £60k as a plumber and £25k as an engineer! You need £60k for a reasonable standard of living in London.

I suppose £26k may be OK if your wife also earns £33k?

 

[corus]

Reading the stories in the press it seems that 'potentially' you can earn high salaries as a plumber

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...24.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/02/24/ixnewstop.html

Personally I always avoid job advertisements that say 'You can earn up to ....' as they tend to mean that you can earn that amount if you give up life in any real meaning of the word.
At the bottom of the article it says that the average salary is £30k, which is still higher than the London average of £23k for a mechanical engineer, but is probably a more realistic figure than £60k.

http://www.workthing.com/servlet/Sa...ECHANICAL+ENGINEER&sector=Any&location=LONDON

The moral of the story is:
Don't go rushing out to learn how to fix a dripping tap, Don't hire a plumber from London.

corus

 

[JamesCG]

Wife doesn't earn at all. But fortunately I don't have to live in London - but up north where it is (slightly) cheaper.

 

[jmw]

JamesCG,
are you being funny or modest? You guys in the North can afford a £60,000 a year plumber.

The term "slightly" seems a gross understatement.

Property prices are one of the major factors that influence the disposable income of families.

This means that not only is your beer cheaper (and often better) you can live in a beter house and have more money to spend.

If you live in Hampstead Heath (London, but not too close to the centre) a 2 bedroom flat can cost £335,000 (around $600,000, ar a 200 acre ranch in Montana or is it bigger than that?) and out by the London Orbital motorway, £205,000 ($380,000) while in Manchester a 3 bedroom house is £161,000 ..... I hate to think what you can biuy a Scottish castle for, but it isn't that much more expensive.


JMW

http://www.viscoanalyser.com

Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

 

[friartuck]

We are all in control of our destinies. (Sounds like key luke off that programme Kung Fu with John Calladine)

I believe that its never too late to change. If you want to be a plumber, as an engineer, you would be able to make the change with reasonable ease.

Good quality plumbers are like rocking horse poo. So if you are an engineer and not happy with it, just go for it.

Like somebody said, Its not rocket science.

I would do it if I didn't have a dodgy back.

Its hard work and dirty, but I would think that its less stressfull than being sat behind a desk for 8-10 hours, getting home at 7, having tea, starting again till 11pm. and the cycle goes on.

Must dash, going to enrole on a plumbing course.



Friar Tuck of Sherwood

 

[JamesCG]

A 3 bed house in Manchester may only be £160k, but is that in a part of Manchester where I would like my kids to grow up? (I did live in Salford and Manchester for 10 years, up until a year ago, before people start ranting about that last statement)

I must be doing something wrong (maybe living 60 miles away from work to enable my wife and kids to live in a nice area by the sea), but I don't have enough disposable income to pay a £60k / year plumber.

Anyway, if a plumber can earn that much money by doing a good job then good for him.

 

[jmw]

At £205,000 you could ask the same about 2 bedroom flat somewhere near the London orbital motorway.

There are parts of the south you wouldn't want to bring up kids, just as there are anywhere.

So the best thing is just to treat these prices as equivalent, for what that's worth.

These were price guides from an internet national house sales site.

They are a price guide.

JMW

http://www.viscoanalyser.com

Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.