Maintainance engineering career - advice.

[Foz2]

Hi

I am seriously considering a career change and am giving serious thought to aircraft engineering. I have a PPL have been fascinated by aircraft for a long time.

What I am looking at is doing the foundation degree at Kingston University in aircraft engineering.

With this in mind, what i want to know is what the career opportunities are for licenced B1/ B2 engineers? ie is there a decent job market or do you have to move anywhere to get that elusive first job? Is most of the work contract work or permanent? Is it shift work or 9 - 5?

I would be really interested to hear from any engineers on whether you would recommend the job? What you could be expected to get paid, conditions etc.

Any advice on the career would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Foz2

[Fargoo]

From my own experience it can be a well paid and rewarding career. It also involves working shifts although some heavy maintenance outfits run mon-fri shifts to avoid shift pay.

There are less and less jobs out there every year but also less and less engineers as the general age of maintenance engineers has crept up and many are less than 10 years from retirement or less.

Getting experience is going to be your first hurdle and getting a job without any experience is going to be an even bigger hurdle. You will almost certainly have to move to find work and will have to put up with totally crap wages until you get the experience needed. If you can put up with that and are good with your hands as well as your brain you will do ok.

I work with some younger eng's who despite having been in the business for only 5 years or so are light years ahead of some of the dinasours I work with. I've also seen quite a few fast tracked B1/B2's come and go when they realise crap working conditions and hours aren't for them. Many in fact seem to think once the licence is earnt they don't have to get their hands dirty any more.

From what i've seen and heard the Kingston course is ok and a good start if you're too old to go down the tradition RAF/Apprentice route.

To get an idea of jobs, take a look at Aviationjobsearch - despite the downturn there are still plenty of positions avaible.

I'd never put anyone off doing it for a job, I've worked up from a lowly apprentice through years and years as a technician and the last 10 years as an LAE and have never stopped learning. I even take home a decent wage these days :ok:

As for B1/B2 , my advice is to take both. If you get a grounding in both skills from the start you will be far ahead of the competition. I hold both now but am still an Avionics man at heart and only use the B2 side of things at the moment. I can see a future with only one licence though so it's something worth bearing in mind.

Good luck whatever you decide :ok:

[Foz2]

Fargoo

Thanks for your response, very interesting. Coming out of the 2 year course at Kingston what should you expect salary wise. I understand after this course you would do 2 years work experience prior to becoming licensed. Is there a rough guide on what you could earn in that 2 year period?

I'm just trying to work out debts, loans etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Foz2

[mrmagooo]

That all depends on where you get work, but as a rough guide about 20k to 25k depending on how shifts work etc etc. As you work your way up the ladder the money doesnt start to become anywhere near good until you are licensed, then as a permie expect around 40k as a B1 and 45 as a B2.

Depending on what types you get will determine where you can and cannot go, but generally speaking there are always openings of some form or other.

As a foot note if you are considering doing both B1 and B2 it takes less exams to go from B1 to B2 than the other way round and passing the exams is the easy part! Getting experience which is worth while isn't easy and then getting the CAA to accept it can be even harder! As many people will tell you, its not just what you know but who you know in this industry.

[Fargoo]

Foz, i'd expect you to be in the £25k band as an unlicenced mechanic depending on what shifts you work. The more depressing the hours the more money you get!
Some places offer a lot less and others pay more. As said above, this rises rapidly once you start certifying your own work.
Contract rates differ , check out the job sites for the hourly rate on offer.

I take home similar money to that mentioned by mrmagooo but work long shifts which is a fair chunk of the pay and have been certifying on many different types for a long time now. Note the wages I mention are gross not take home.

Theres a lot to think about when chasing a potential employer too - if they run a single aircraft type it means that any additional licence pay will be small and your experience will be very limited.
If they run many different types it will broaden your experience and make you more attractive to other employers in the future. My company has over half a dozen different large aircraft types in its fleet at the moment and although we don't get licence pay for each type it is a good thing to have on your cv and licence.

Check also if any potential employer provides type courses for free or whether they require a bond. If you go the contractor route you'll almost certainly end up paying for some of your type courses and they can run into serious ££££.