Career Path > Getting in

no credential, no experience...wanting to get into the utility industry

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Rocp15126:
I was pretty much in the same situation.  4 year degree in Aviation, looking to change careers and had trouble getting aid.  I've been told that simply having a BS is enough to get hired at most plants.  I went and got my ASEET anyway.  My advice is pretty much what everyone else has said, try and temp/work an outage.  If you can get in to a company fulltime, they might have educational assistance/reimbursement program.  I ended up getting private loans to fund my schooling.  After temping at 2 outages, I was offered the Mass/Poss test and then an AEO position at FENOC.  Good luck.

wolfxoman:
Another way is to try and work as a HP and look to see where there might be a NPOT course being offered at a nuke.  (Nuke Plant Operator Training).  This is offered by the hiring plant when they are looking for Operators from the local area that are not previously ex-navy nuke.  if you have a tech degree already then you'll have the opportunity to move up after finishing the Non-Licensed operator course and getting fully qualified as an Operator.  Just another avenue of approach to get into commercial nuke.

Evilpixie:

--- Quote from: davioh on Aug 31, 2005, 03:39 ---ok granted I know nothing about this industry except what ppl on here tell me and the guy in charge of the program at the 'junior college' as you like to call it.  What he told me:
#1. avg age of employee at some nuke plants = 54 years old.
#2. must pass background/psych/us citizen requirements to work there.
#3. MUST have an engineering degree (2 year for jr operator, 4 year for manager).  He stressed that this was also a govt. requirement.
#4. Be prepared for overtime every 2 years for 2 months during shutdowns. (basically give up your life during this time frame). 
thats about it...so based on what he said I figured I couldn't get into the jobs with a bs in computers.  So I decided to go on and get another bs in Nuke Engineering. 
p.s. can anyone address the roll of licensed engineers? In Ohio you need an bs engineering degree (NOT engineering tech. degree) + 4 years experience + pass fe/eit test to get licensed.  The licensing office sd that only these people can do things with drawings etc.  It would seem that anyone who got the nuke engineering degree + eventually their pro engineer license would be rare and Golden in terms of compensation.

--- End quote ---

The average age out here is 48, I think.  At least that is the last figure that I heard. 

You do not have to have a degree to be an operator.  You do have to pass the poss test and the subsequent training that is given.

In regards to being a licensed engineer... it is usually the design engineers that change the plant drawings.  They tend to be civil, mechanical or electrical, depending on what type of drawing is being changed.  You do not have to be PE to change plant drawings, depending on the level of drawing you are trying to change.  Final sign offs (ie the wogga wogga big cheese guys) are PE.  Mostly you have to have the design qual to change a design.  This qual has several layers.  The upper layers tend to require that one be PE.  Additionally, if you are PE, there is extra money for that, although you have to be in the design engineering department to take advantage of it.  I'm a computer engineer and if I were PE it would make no difference at all in my salary. 

  Nuke engineers tend to provide support for ops in running the plant in the form of core mapping, flux maps, etc.  I doubt there is much of a benefit to being PE with a nuclear engineering degree as you suggested.  It's a great credential to have, however, I think it would be like if I were to get it.... I'd get some letters to put after my name on a business card, but no real need to ever use it and no salary boost due to having it. 

  What type of CS degree do you have and why is it that you aren't looking to work in that field?   

Asa1:
Try Entergy's web page. They don't own anything in the Buckeye state, but I know for sure that the Palisades Plant is currently hiring about 65 people (engs, hps, icts, mms, welders, planners, ems.....) any sort of degree will give you a little bit of an edge. Oh yeah, Palisades is in the great state of Michigan (and that's from a transplanted LSU fan's viewpoint). Good luck......
Asa1

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