James Russell and marek s. tas,
Sorry boys - but Bolty speaks the truth. Please don't waste a good proportion of your early working careers by starting at Qantas. You both sound young and keen and you won't be well served by being at Qantas. The training is a distant faded shadow of what I received when I started in the late 80's. The jet base in Sydney is a rickety old skeleton of what was once a grand mini city of aircraft and component/engine maintenance. What's left now (after the accountants were allowed to take over the world) is barely enough for those of us left to keep the current fleet in the air. Some areas that I spent time in and learning during my apprenticeship were an engine shop that stripped and rebuilt up to 6 types of high bypass fan engines, 2 types of turbo prop engines, a turbo prop test-cell, a workshop that overhauled all the major engine components - yes, i got to strip and rebuild starters, fuel control units, generators, pumps, valves, motors etc. there was a propellor overhaul section, a chair maintenance 'Bay', a complete fibreglass workshop, 4 sheetmetal shops, a 'survival' section where escape slide/rafts & lifejackets were overhauled, a wheel & brake overhaul section, major maintenance on 767, 747, 747-400, RAAF Hercules C130, RAAF 707..........the list goes on. NONE of this will be available to you!
The training was unavoidable and relentless. It was a system of training that was fantastic at turning out engineers who had a great base for going on and are now the ones keeping the aircraft and the line stations running. Then accountants and globalisation arrived one day and now all this stuff has been "relocated" "downsized" "rationalised" "outsourced" "re-directed" and "put out to tender". As I said, with our newfound lack of resources, we're hard pressed to maintain our fleet to any sort of decent standard let alone have any resources or time/facilities to provide new people a decent shot at training. As with everywhere else in " the current climate" , the almighty dollar rules and it's all about "minimal" cost and minimum everything else.
As an example, for the introduction of the Airbus A380, Qantas will be training approx 18-24 people on the aircraft. If this is the level of engineering input that Qantas believe is adequate for their "Pride of the Fleet" where do you think that will leave you?
There have also been persistent rumours for years of "Qantas, the airline" spinning/selling off engineering and/or making it a subsiduary. Very soon you may find yourself not working for Qantas, but 'Red Rat Low Cost Maintenance Services."
Management see engineering as an expensive nuisance and is treated as such.
Yep, when I want to replace a titanium duct because it's damaged, I "cost" the airline money. There is pretty much nothing I do that "makes" money for Qantas so the numbercounters just want to get rid of engineering altogether.
Please listen to blokes like me and Bolty who have been very well trained in this industry and have seen the gradual (and lately, steep) decline in the engineering arm of Qantas. People such as yourselves who are young and keen, in fact keen enough to seek out web chatrooms to find out about a potential career should direct your energies toward a skill/trade that will serve you better in making some progression through life.
Obviously aviation is an interest, if not a passion for you, so try to find a way to incorporate it in your life as a hobby/sidelight rather than "a job" as an aircraft engineer - you will only be dissapointed.
Trust me - (hundreds of people do each day with their lives) I'm not trying to burst your bubble or be negative -
MY job is good and the pay is still adequate - unfortunately for you, at Qantas currently, there is a snowflakes chance in hell of you coming close to achieving the same level of training/pay under the current system.
You must have another passion or interest, why not try Formula 1 Driver or rockstar?