Career Path > Getting in
no credential, no experience...wanting to get into the utility industry
davioh:
--- Quote from: thenuttyneutron on Aug 30, 2005, 08:46 ---Do what I did.
Send a friendly letter to all 64 sites asking for advice on how to get in. DONT send a resume. Just give a brief description about what you did and sound like you are dieing to get a job in the nuke field. You will get some responces, although very few and far between. You will eventually get invited to take the POSS and if you pass that, can get a unescorted access badge you are good to go.
--- End quote ---
can you tell me what the poss is?
do you know if there are any financial aid grants to help pay costs of training? I already have a bachelors degree, and this makes it next to impossible to get funding.
thenuttyneutron:
If you have a BS or ANY technical degree then you are good to be recruited by some of the utilities. The major hang up is the POSS test. This is nothing more than a stress/apptitude test. The math sections are what give the most trouble to the test takers. The test will give 40 or so questions that require unit manipulation etc. You will have only 4 min to complete them however. If you are fast and accurate at mental math and know most unit conversions by heart you can pass this test. I am told by many sources that only 15%-20% of the people taking the test can pass it. Also you should have a reasonably clean background so you can pass the background check and get the unesscorted access.
With a 4 year technical degree you could go into an SRO class after you get fully qualified. If you got hired you could start a very challenging and enjoyable career. I know Davis-Besse is hurting for operators. They were doing lots of interviews and test sessions this last summer, call up some HR people there.
My advice is to not piss away money in the junior college if you have a technical degree. Otherwise an associates in a tech area may be needed.
davioh:
--- Quote from: thenuttyneutron on Aug 31, 2005, 01:11 ---
My advice is to not piss away money in the junior college if you have a technical degree. Otherwise an associates in a tech area may be needed.
--- End quote ---
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.
hamsamich:
what is your degree in?
Nuclear NASCAR:
--- 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 ---
I'm not sure how well informed the guy in charge of the program is.
1. While the nuke workforce is aging I'd like to know the plants where the average age is 54
2. There is a background check/psych exam/not so sure about the citizenship thing though.
3. A degree is NOT, REPEAT NOT, required to work in a nuke plant. This is false information and he should be called on it.
4. Refueling outages are usually every 18 months, 24 months at some plants and they are getting shorter all the time. For onsite personell it's probably getting down to 5 or 6 weeks on a 72 hour/week schedule.
You've come to the best place to get the answers you seek. Welcome to Nukeworker!!
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