What to do?

[730SMAG]

Well, I got out back in '09 after four years as an ELT on an SSBN.  Took a year off to do some traveling and unwind, and now I'm currently in school working on my nuclear engineering degree, but being "in school" in one way or another for the last twenty years of my life is getting a little tiring; I'm looking for a change of pace and a change of scenery.

Anyone got any suggestions for a nuke-field related job that'll give me enough time to finish school on the side, or should I just grit my teeth, get my degree (with an amazing sub-3.00 GPA) and see where I go from there?

[retired nuke]

Getting on with a Utility, in Ops, Maintenance or Radiation Protection would allow you to finish your degree in your spare time, after completing whatever training program they have for you.

Short of doing contract RP work, which is part time, any major challenging employer is going to have their own training to go through, plus qualification, etc.... kinda like the Nav (funny how nuclear power is different.. but the same)

There is contract RP work in the DOE world.... and many of those locations are in a "change of scenery", and a change of pace. Also tend to be longer term

Look at the job board. If you read through enough, you may find something interesting. You may just want to try some contract work in the fall - take a semester off and give that a try...

Good luck  

ps - you got a response because you wrote the request in reasonable English, with appropriate punctuation, etc. Eventually, someone is going to give you a "use the search function" spiel - but I gather you aren't sure what you are looking for. So nose around, read some, look over the job boards. After you formulate a bit more for direction, the search function will come natural....

[MacGyver]

Well, I got out back in '09 after four years as an ELT on an SSBN.  Took a year off to do some traveling and unwind, and now I'm currently in school working on my nuclear engineering degree, but being "in school" in one way or another for the last twenty years of my life is getting a little tiring; I'm looking for a change of pace and a change of scenery.

Anyone got any suggestions for a nuke-field related job that'll give me enough time to finish school on the side, or should I just grit my teeth, get my degree (with an amazing sub-3.00 GPA) and see where I go from there?

If you are a little tired of the school thing then you should be warned that no matter what department you find yourself in (other than janitor) you will be receiving a lot of schooling.  Most of which will interfer with your outside schooling.

HouseDad has given you good advice though.  A contract RP/HP/deconner will give you a lot more "free" time for more schooling (re: college).

If you really want to get back to the utilities and go to school then try an co-op'ing.  I am just sayin' ...

Mac

[730SMAG]

Getting on with a Utility, in Ops, Maintenance or Radiation Protection would allow you to finish your degree in your spare time, after completing whatever training program they have for you.

Short of doing contract RP work, which is part time, any major challenging employer is going to have their own training to go through, plus qualification, etc.... kinda like the Nav (funny how nuclear power is different.. but the same)

There is contract RP work in the DOE world.... and many of those locations are in a "change of scenery", and a change of pace. Also tend to be longer term

Look at the job board. If you read through enough, you may find something interesting. You may just want to try some contract work in the fall - take a semester off and give that a try...

Good luck 

ps - you got a response because you wrote the request in reasonable English, with appropriate punctuation, etc. Eventually, someone is going to give you a "use the search function" spiel - but I gather you aren't sure what you are looking for. So nose around, read some, look over the job boards. After you formulate a bit more for direction, the search function will come natural....

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I figured there'd be additional training and schooling, I just wasn't sure of the "total time commitment" it would require, and how much continuing training and education there would be, and if utilities/operators had programs designed to help employees finish school while they work.  I tried using the search function for it, but my keywords have failed me; ultimately I'm trying to get a total per-week average time commitment for these sorts of thing. 

I mean, power school was 40 hours/wk of school, plus 10 hr/wk of study time; the boat was 70-80 hr/wk on-crew and maybe 40 hr/wk offcrew; college is running me 50-60 hr/wk right now between studying and classes.  I assume that training will run close to 40-50 hr/wk as well, and full-time will probably be on the same order of magnitude, with the potential for rotating shiftwork as needed.

I glanced through the jobs postings, and aside from becoming a "road tech," which I assume is a rad tech doing contract work - the nuclear version of a migrant farm worker, as far as I can tell - there don't seem to be all too many jobs outside of rad sponge and general survey work for someone with my qualifications.  There is a chemist job in NJ, but I keep hearing bad things about living in NJ and being a gun owner, and since I like to go shooting on the weekends, that's a big no-go for me. 

And yeah, I try to be reasonably literate; I find that being able to use English appropriately saves me a lot of grief, especially when it comes to first impressions and whatnot.  I suppose that being a technical writer for a few years has given me a hand up in that matter.

Thanks again for your advice, and I'll be sure to use the search function more once I figure out what keywords I need to be hunting for.

If you are a little tired of the school thing then you should be warned that no matter what department you find yourself in (other than janitor) you will be receiving a lot of schooling.  Most of which will interfer with your outside schooling.

HouseDad has given you good advice though.  A contract RP/HP/deconner will give you a lot more "free" time for more schooling (re: college).

If you really want to get back to the utilities and go to school then try an co-op'ing.  I am just sayin' ...

Mac

And thank you for the reply as well.  I figured there'd be schooling; what I wasn't clear in my questioning was the quantity of training and time commitment for it, and if employers have any sort of program meant to help their emplyees in their professional development. 

Could you give me a basic rundown of what contract RP/HP/rad sponge work-life schedule and balance is like?  From my reading, it seems that it depends on outages, and that a relative newcomer with minimal experience and qualification - like myself - is at a disadvantage when it comes to competing for job opportunities with experienced professionals who've established existing networks with employers. 

[RDTroja]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I figured there'd be additional training and schooling, I just wasn't sure of the "total time commitment" it would require, and how much continuing training and education there would be, and if utilities/operators had programs designed to help employees finish school while they work.  I tried using the search function for it, but my keywords have failed me; ultimately I'm trying to get a total per-week average time commitment for these sorts of thing.  

I mean, power school was 40 hours/wk of school, plus 10 hr/wk of study time; the boat was 70-80 hr/wk on-crew and maybe 40 hr/wk offcrew; college is running me 50-60 hr/wk right now between studying and classes.  I assume that training will run close to 40-50 hr/wk as well, and full-time will probably be on the same order of magnitude, with the potential for rotating shiftwork as needed.

I glanced through the jobs postings, and aside from becoming a "road tech," which I assume is a rad tech doing contract work - the nuclear version of a migrant farm worker, as far as I can tell - there don't seem to be all too many jobs outside of rad sponge and general survey work for someone with my qualifications.  There is a chemist job in NJ, but I keep hearing bad things about living in NJ and being a gun owner, and since I like to go shooting on the weekends, that's a big no-go for me.  

And yeah, I try to be reasonably literate; I find that being able to use English appropriately saves me a lot of grief, especially when it comes to first impressions and whatnot.  I suppose that being a technical writer for a few years has given me a hand up in that matter.

Thanks again for your advice, and I'll be sure to use the search function more once I figure out what keywords I need to be hunting for.
And thank you for the reply as well.  I figured there'd be schooling; what I wasn't clear in my questioning was the quantity of training and time commitment for it, and if employers have any sort of program meant to help their emplyees in their professional development.  

Could you give me a basic rundown of what contract RP/HP/rad sponge work-life schedule and balance is like?  From my reading, it seems that it depends on outages, and that a relative newcomer with minimal experience and qualification - like myself - is at a disadvantage when it comes to competing for job opportunities with experienced professionals who've established existing networks with employers.  

Being an ex-ELT has its advantages in the RP world. I am not sure about now, but in the past it was a ticket to instant Senior Technician, allowing you to bypass the entry level deconner and/or Junior Tech steps. As far as how much free time you have... once you make Senior (like I said, you may already be one) the time you spend working is largely, but not entirely, up to you. The more location-flexible you are and the more tolerant of odd schedules and shift changes you are, the more freedom of choice you have. Most outages are in the Spring and Fall, but there is usually some work available at other times, particularly if you include the DOE sites (qualifications there differ from commercial plants, and I am no expert on them.) If you want to work just long enough to support your school work, you can do that. If you want to work as many hours as possible and take the summer off, that is also quite 'normal' although you will quickly find out why I put that in quotes.

For your first few jobs, you can expect to get you second or third choice, since the contract companies like to reward loyalty with prime job choices (you could get lucky, though.) But during the outage seasons there is almost always work. Meet your commitments (i.e. show up on schedule for the outage and every assigned work day and stay until released) and your loyalty will soon be rewarded, too. Some will argue this, but it nearly always works. The less grief you cause the contract company, the better your offers will get... should be obvious, huh? Most of it is common sense with a healthy portion of common courtesy thrown in. The rest is up to you.

The only way to find out is to give it a try. It won't be too painful and you will at very least learn something. The bad part is that the outage season is rapidly coming to an end for this spring, so the next big rush will be in September. Call Bartlett (the big fish in the pond) or one of the other companies (see the jobs board http://www.nukeworker.com/job/) and see what your options are. Like I said, it is late for this spring, but there is always something coming in the future.

Good Luck.

BTW -- There is a lot more information on this scattered throughout the forum... use the search function and you should find more to read then you can handle.

[730SMAG]

Being an ex-ELT has its advantages in the RP world. I am not sure about now, but in the past it was a ticket to instant Senior Technician, allowing you to bypass the entry level deconner and/or Junior Tech steps. As far as how much free time you have... once you make Senior (like I said, you may already be one) the time you spend working is largely, but not entirely, up to you. The more location-flexible you are and the more tolerant of odd schedules and shift changes you are, the more freedom of choice you have. Most outages are in the Spring and Fall, but there is usually some work available at other times, particularly if you include the DOE sites (qualifications there differ from commercial plants, and I am no expert on them.) If you want to work just long enough to support you school work, you can do that. If you want to work as many hours as possible and take the summer off, that is also quite 'normal' although you will quickly find out why I put that in quotes.

For your first few jobs, you can expect to get you second or third choice, since the contract companies like to reward loyalty with prime job choices (you could get lucky, though.) But during the outage seasons there is almost always work. Meet your commitments (i.e. show up on schedule for the outage and every assigned work day and stay until released) and your loyalty will soon be rewarded, too. Some will argue this, but it nearly always works. The less grief you cause the contract company, the better your offers will get... should be obvious, huh? Most of it is common sense with a healthy portion of common courtesy thrown in. The rest is up to you.

The only way to find out is to give it a try. It won't be too painful and you will at very least learn something. The bad part is that the outage season is rapidly coming to an end for this spring, so the next big rush will be in September. Call Bartlett (the big fish in the pond) or one of the other companies (see the jobs board http://www.nukeworker.com/job/) and see what your options are. Like I said, it is late for this spring, but there is always something coming in the future.

Good Luck.

BTW -- There is a lot more information on this scattered throughout the forum... use the search function and you should find more to read then you can handle.

Ah, okay.  I'll have to look into that at some point; unfortunately, I'm locked into a certain course set through fall-winter-spring, and if I deviate from that - assuming I was staying in school - I wouldn't be able to actually complete my education in any sort of reasonable timescale.  However, I will keep the information regarding summer options, and depending on how the coursework looks, possibly in fall.

And yes, now that I have some better focuses and guidance, I believe that I can make more effective use of the search function.  Thank you for providing the additional information required to permit me to make more effective use of my resources.


Thanks for all y'all's help.