Hello All,
Ex-navy Nuke here (EM 10yr vet ). I've been out of the Service since 2006. After spending 10 yrs wrapped in the Service's nuclear appendages, I decided I wanted to stray away from nuclear power and see what "normal" civilian maintenance could offer. Needless to say, I got a job as a maintenance technician at a brand new, state of the art tire manufacturing plant (japanese owned). During my three years at this plant I've gained a multitude of cutting edge knowledge ranging from robotic systems, servo motor controls, the lastest in various PLC programming code, everything you can think of in the latest pnuematic control systems, and a plethera of other maintenance related fields. Almost all of my new experience is quite high tech.
Anyways I digress.....
A family situation has come up which may require me to look for a straight shift type job. Does anyone know what types of maintenance related jobs the nuclear industry might have to offer. Are any of those jobs straight shift? Would they be hard to get into after being away from nuke power for 3+ years?
From what I read in some other posts, Ops seems to be what a majority of ex-navy get into. That is going to be a NO_GO for me due to rotating shifts. I really enjoy PLC programming and would love to continue working around them if by some miracle they utilize them at a plant. Ohh... and if you nukers don't know what PLC's are, it stands for Programmable Logic Controller.
Thanks
In short. No.
Quote from: Grimosian on Feb 27, 2009, 02:12
Hello All,
Ex-navy Nuke here (EM 10yr vet ). I've been out of the Service since 2006. After spending 10 yrs wrapped in the Service's nuclear appendages, I decided I wanted to stray away from nuclear power and see what "normal" civilian maintenance could offer. Needless to say, I got a job as a maintenance technician at a brand new, state of the art tire manufacturing plant (japanese owned). During my three years at this plant I've gained a multitude of cutting edge knowledge ranging from robotic systems, servo motor controls, the lastest in various PLC programming code, everything you can think of in the latest pnuematic control systems, and a plethera of other maintenance related fields. Almost all of my new experience is quite high tech.
Anyways I digress.....
A family situation has come up which may require me to look for a straight shift type job. Does anyone know what types of maintenance related jobs the nuclear industry might have to offer. Are any of those jobs straight shift? Would they be hard to get into after being away from nuke power for 3+ years?
From what I read in some other posts, Ops seems to be what a majority of ex-navy get into. That is going to be a NO_GO for me due to rotating shifts. I really enjoy PLC programming and would love to continue working around them if by some miracle they utilize them at a plant. Ohh... and if you nukers don't know what PLC's are, it stands for Programmable Logic Controller.
Thanks
Ops probably isn't an option if you want dayshift...
You might try I&C. There are probably a few plants that are on straight days. We were on days until a few months ago...now we get to work a week of afternoons once every two months. And might be on nights for a month every two years during a refueling outage.
One thing to keep in mind is that very little is permanent in regards to shift preference. As an example, in my plant maintenance (Mechanical, electrical, & support) went onto a straight day shift about 7 years ago. I&C remained on 24/7 coverage. With the new fatigue rules coming in October it's a pretty safe bet that we'll be returning to shift coverage again by summer. What it ends up being is still being negotiated but 2 shifts is pretty much a given and it might end up being 3 shift coverage.
All of maintenance at VY is straight days, except for maintenance periods...however, the new training class just started, so hiring in will be a while...
Some other plants may have minimal backshift coverage in maintenance.
Good luck
Thanks for the replies.
So far its looking pretty grim in a triumphant return to the nuke field. Its just hard as hell to find a great paying day job nowadays. I have been researching more on the training aspects maintenance. Many of those jobs seem to look like day shift. I was an instructor prior to getting out, but It looks like I might have a low order on the pecking table due to being away from the nuke field. I'll keep searching though
Quote from: Grimosian on Feb 27, 2009, 02:12
Needless to say, I got a job as a maintenance technician at a brand new, state of the art tire manufacturing plant (japanese owned).
A bird in the hand is often better than two in the bush...
Are there promotion opportunities there?
Dave
Quote from: Grimosian on Feb 27, 2009, 07:39
Thanks for the replies.
So far its looking pretty grim in a triumphant return to the nuke field. Its just hard as hell to find a great paying day job nowadays. I have been researching more on the training aspects maintenance. Many of those jobs seem to look like day shift. I was an instructor prior to getting out, but It looks like I might have a low order on the pecking table due to being away from the nuke field. I'll keep searching though
Your Navy instructor time is like showing up at a Major League Baseball Camp and saying you should be hired because you coached an undefeated T Ball Team.
Mike
Quote from: Broadzilla on Feb 27, 2009, 08:11
Your Navy instructor time is like showing up at a Major League Baseball Camp and saying you should be hired because you coached an undefeated T Ball Team.
Mike
Ha Ha Ha
The union rep came around and did an anonymous survey on if there is interest on moving us (OPS) to fixed shift... I have yet to hear anyone that is for it. I personally love the idea of 12s so that way there are those nice long weekends which you can tailgate your vacation on. But I can of course imagine the difficulty of working 12's, especially the RO's sitting in that control room. Any sites or people on here work 12's in OPS? I know RP and Chem depts often do it, but I would be curious on input from OPS people on what 12s are like.
WTH is fixed shift? I've been on 12s for 11 years now and wouldn't want to go back to 8s.
Mike
"Fixed shift" was the term that was used... but basically you have crews that always work days, swings, and mids... so no rotating.
As I said, I want 12's... work hard but no more 7 days of mids...
Why would any operator want to go on fixed shifts?
I wouldn't mind longer stints on a certain shift for say a month rotation instead of swapping around every couple of days or every week.
Such as F/S/Sun night shift, getting off at 6 am Monday morning and being back in at 0600 on Wed. That one kinda sucks.
Well if the it on a month long basis that wouldn't be bad at all. Mike, I agree with yah on that. I personally want to go to 12's rotation.
12s are the way to go. I've heard of rotating 8s and the idea of working 7 straight days or more as a normal schedule is not my idea of fun.
QuoteA bird in the hand is often better than two in the bush...
Are there promotion opportunities there?
Dave
Well, they are doubling the building size and adding umpteen more machines. There problem is the maintenance eng/ sups will likely go on to 12hour shift work. The ONLY ability to get a straight shift position would be upper management and that definintly not my cup of tea, nor am I
anywhere near qualified for those paper pushing jobs. I still feel my best bet is to continue searching Conventional and Nuke power for some sort of training department opening. With the commertial elec/mech experience I've gotten, plus the Navy experience has to ammount to something. Sometimes I wish I could backtrack and get BS in Education instead of that useless BSAST. Going back to school is just not an option in my life right now, especially on 12hour rotating shifts.
Thanks
Quote from: Grimosian on Feb 28, 2009, 11:10
Well, they are doubling the building size and adding umpteen more machines. There problem is the maintenance eng/ sups will likely go on to 12hour shift work. The ONLY ability to get a straight shift position would be upper management and that definintly not my cup of tea, nor am I anywhere near qualified for those paper pushing jobs. I still feel my best bet is to continue searching Conventional and Nuke power for some sort of training department opening. With the commertial elec/mech experience I've gotten, plus the Navy experience has to ammount to something. Sometimes I wish I could backtrack and get BS in Education instead of that useless BSAST. Going back to school is just not an option in my life right now, especially on 12hour rotating shifts.
Thanks
I'll tell ya from experience...virtually no place in the utility industry, whether on the neutron side or the buzzing electron side takes trainers off the street. The most junior trainers I have seen on either side of the switchyard had 3+ years doing THAT job ( PLUS all that Navy jazz ) or hot license at someone else's plant as a
minimum.
Even with a BS in Ed, with extra Instructional Design...looks nifty, but again, without years of current relevant utility experience ( and no, paralleling the USS Ustafish to shore power doesn't count as utility experience ) it's fairly unlikely.
Since you have a solid, secure position there , and the nuke plants are almost entirely either rotating 12s or rotating 8s, why not consider staying?
QuoteI'll tell ya from experience...virtually no place in the utility industry, whether on the neutron side or the buzzing electron side takes trainers off the street. The most junior trainers I have seen on either side of the switchyard had 3+ years doing THAT job ( PLUS all that Navy jazz ) or hot license at someone else's plant as a minimum.
Even with a BS in Ed, with extra Instructional Design...looks nifty, but again, without years of current relevant utility experience ( and no, paralleling the USS Ustafish to shore power doesn't count as utility experience ) it's fairly unlikely.
Since you have a solid, secure position there , and the nuke plants are almost entirely either rotating 12s or rotating 8s, why not consider staying?
Well considering I already make very good money, I probably am going to stay here. I'm just "testing the water" on possibly getting on straight shift. Like I said, I prefer to put family high on my priority list, and a day job staight shift would be nice to accomplish that. I just insanly hard to find such jobs, especially in industrial maintenance, that pay as well as what I'm getting now
AND are straight shift.
I appreciate the insight on the training aspects of the house. I'm sure its gotta be tough breaking into that area, but people have done it in the past. It'll all about just getting past the front door and into that interview that seems to be the milestone. I'm trying to stay positive here :)
Thanks