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

[davioh]

Hello, I am now registered both with my community college and Excelsior College for a LARGE number of Nuke classes this semester.  I don't want to make the same mistake by ending up with a degree with 0 experience.  The associates degree program does have a 12 week paid internship with 2 credits.  Here's my question: besides the internship if you were in my shoes...what else would you do to get experience? 

[radgal]

Work at a commercial power plant outage.

[hamsamich]

And chat up the seniors.

[SloGlo]

go down to the local hospital 'n axe to work in the nuclear medicine program

[thenuttyneutron]

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, then you are good to go.

[davioh]

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.

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]

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.

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]

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.

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!!

[hamsamich]

Agree, but if you are working at a site with 2 or more units, you may be involved in re-fuel for EACH UNIT, so if there were 3 units, you may be working some type of outage schedule every 6 months or so.  More with less!  Yee-hooo!

Yeah you don't need a degree, but if you have no experience you will be starting very low on the totem pole depending on where you want to work.  If I were you I'd send my resume to some plants that have the openings you are looking for.  If you get no response than you should find out why.  A great place for feedback is by using a HeadHunter.  He will be easier to contact and more knowledgable about the entire industry's hiring specifics than a lone HR person from one company.  Depending on what degree you have, he may be able to get you an interview as earlt as next week which could lead to you talking to people who have many of the answers you are looking for.  Even if you don't get the job, just going to the interview and taking test/talking to the interviewers should push you in the right direction.  I assume you want to be an Aux Operator?  Indian Point just hired an ex-Hatian police chief with little experience.  They needed some diversity, but still shows you don't need much of a resume to get in depending on the plant.  If you are able to move out of the area you could probably get a job in the next 6 months without getting another degree, depending on what your degree is now, how good you do on POSS, how well you interview, if you know anybody at the plant, etc.

[davioh]

  latest news is I am having financial difficulties.  I was trying to get funded thru the workforce investment act and they are saying the outlook for the industry is no good.  They are trying to get me placed in a job instead of giving me help to make it thru my education.

    I got hit by a drunk driver and lost my job btw.  I am not trying to be a leach to the system.  This is about the only time I've asked for any help but Im not getting it.  ANY suggestions for where to go to refute their statistics would be great.  So far all I've found is the ans, and the nei. 

[hamsamich]

call bartlett man, work as a deconner for a while.  money isn't good at first, but you will make some, and u will get experience. just do it. then when you get $ together and you feel like you want to go back to school, you can afford and you will know you really want to do (school or not).

[davioh]

I don't know who or what bartlet is let alone their phone #.

p.s. latest news is the govt. in ohio thinks there are a total of 8 job openings in the state of ohio and that according to them "THE OUTLOOK IS DISMAL NO ONE SHOULD PURSUE THIS TRAINING"

[PWHoppe]

Go to the jobs page, see employers and all the contact info is there. The decon route is one of many to get your foot in the door. Some of the best HP technicians I know in this business started as deconners. There are also career decon professionals who I have the utmost respect for who are worth their weight in gold. Good Luck!

[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]

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.

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