Need help with career path

Hi, I would like to take advantage of this thread to touch on the point of being unhireable due to age as mentioned by deshNL

What is the age limit to be hireable in Newfoundland?

Why companies wouldn't want to hire experienced people?

Is it the same in the US?

In my case, I'm about to be sixty, love what I do, have no intention to retire and hope to keep being competitive for at least ten more years.

By the way, I searched the web and found that Newfoundland's Premier is 62, the US president is 73 and was hired by millions of people and in the UK the Prime Minister is 55.

Bye

deshNL said:

I have a lot of friends in NS and used to work in Halifax for BlackBerry. I never really considered moving back as it seemed NS had the same lack of work for tradespeople as Newfoundland, but I would love to work closer to family without having to move too far west. Connections are important but sadly I don't have any to start in a job I'd like. Which industries are in need of technicians?

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I have never been unemployed in N.S. !!!!

You need to apply to any job ads related to maintenance. Sometimes the folks making the ads don't even know what they need, so getting in the door just to chat to some of the maintenance mangers could be a winning ticket. I started as a lube mechanic in a Pie Factory for about 2 weeks, then they had PLC troubles. Luckily I had a whole apprenticeship under my belt doing PLC work. I quickly fixed their problems a few times, then I got a day job and an office, then some more training. Just like that. many years later..... I'm still programming every day. So, I'm just saying, getting in to a maintenance dept, in a place known to have equipment will eventually get you working with the right crowd. You will excel as a tech on a plant floor and it will get noticed. Trust me, usually we notice folks for the wrong reasons, good ones are hard to find but usually stick out like a soar thumb.

-Shipyard: Usually hiring, frequent layoffs, good money, grunt work.

-Food Production: Potato Chips, Apple Production, Sour Cream, Milk, Frozen Foods, Ice Cream, Chicken, Always hiring, decent money, no layoffs. (We are ALWAYS looking for decent folks in the pie business, we have 2 plants in Kentville)

-Agriculture:Farms, Marijuana and greenhouses galore in the valley. There are tons of machine places around that use electronics. Excavators, Dozers, tons of Forestry Equipment here! I installed a PLC in a log harvester of my own!

Tire Production:Three plants in N.S. and always hiring. Good Money, good benefits, institution style work place, guaranteed retirement.

Food Container Production and Packaging Machinery: There are two plants here running ads for techs involved in these games. I don't know how they are to work for though.


Drug Production: There is a drug company who here I will not name that is ALWAYS looking. New start up and cant find techs anywhere. They have a plant here and one in PEI. Good Pay. Good Guys to work for.

Pulp and Paper: Large L>P> Plant here I did 6 years at. Great place to work. Good money, always hiring. Benefits and retirement plan.

Integrator: In Halifax there are MANY integrator groups that do all kinds of things. They are ALWAYS hiring. Just had one ask me if I'm interested in a job yesterday.

Saw Mills: There are lots of mills here. Not as great pay but decent places to work. Lots of maintenance to do and troubleshooting work. This industry is in peril though unless Northern Pulp comes back on line again.

Just to name a few off the top of my head. Most of industries have ads continuously running on the job banks. Not to mention the local electrical contractors that could desperately use any control experience on their side. They are ALWAYS hiring. There is the electrical union in N.S. that seems busy and again always hiring somewhere. Even the local school board had a spiffy looking ad out for someone I assume wants a more slow pace, changing light bulbs kind of job. It certainly helps to know folks in the industries but if a person is willing to travel around the province a bit there is work, there are job ads out there. I know with your qualifications you could start at said "Drug Company" tomorrow. I know the maintenance manger. WINK WINK!.

Should also mention that you should if you haven't already, create a LinkedIn account. I have never taken work form there, but I seem to get contacted by recruiters that are filling the positions I mentioned before. They all use that platform.

Originally posted by chantecler:

What is the age limit to be hireable...

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I am "only" 52 so my view might be a little skewed but I have never seen a purely age-related cap on any position. However, I have seen an age+experience cap. If you are 45 years old and have never held an automation related position you will have a much harder time breaking in than if you are 25 years old with the same lack of experience. If you are experienced then age isn't nearly as much of a factor.

Originally posted by PLC Pie Guy:

Sometimes the folks making the ads don't even know what they need, so getting in the door just to chat to some of the maintenance mangers could be a winning ticket.

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This is absolutely true. It costs you very little or nothing to respond to an employment ad. Every company is different. If an HR person is screening resumes as they come in you are probably out of luck in that case. But it is just as likely that HR is passing ALL the resumes to the person making the actual decisions. In that case you have a shot. You won't know until you send in the resume. Then it is in your hands based on how you present yourself.

Keith

PLC Pie Guy said:

Should also mention that you should if you haven't already, create a LinkedIn account. I have never taken work form there, but I seem to get contacted by recruiters that are filling the positions I mentioned before. They all use that platform.

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I have and account and filled out all the pertinent information including "open to new opportunities". So far I've received no contact from recruiters, nor have I seen any jobs specific to what I'm looking for.

I joined Linkedin years ago & did not get any for years (even though I was not particularly looking, then all of a sudden, they came all at once, even though I'm now retired I get at least two invitations a month.
So it's worth keeping it up, also make connections even if it's just other engineers, you never know.

Forgive me if someone's already brought this up...does NFLD have an industrial elecctrician's ticket? We have one in Ontario. More and more companies are wanting this. I'm guessing it means more training/experience in an industrial setting. It's worth looking into....with your experience, they might just give you one!

ValeoBill said:

Forgive me if someone's already brought this up...does NFLD have an industrial elecctrician's ticket? We have one in Ontario. More and more companies are wanting this. I'm guessing it means more training/experience in an industrial setting. It's worth looking into....with your experience, they might just give you one!

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In Canada its simply the RED SEAL Industrial Electricians Certificate. I did this one first. It allows you to work in any industrial facility in Canada. But not any residential or commercial. This is the ticket to have in my opinion, as it will get you an industrial or troubleshooting job any day of the week. However, if you want to freelance or contract, you need the RED SEAL Construction Electrician Certificate. This will let you take out permits from the supply authority and work on Commercial / Residential sites. It only took me 6 months of practical and an 84% on a challenge exam to get that after having the Industrial first. I wanted to do freelancing so its a no brainier.

Some of the provinces have different degree of masters tickets and so on. In my opinion its simply fees fees and more money to the local governments and supply authorities to allow you to make money so they may tax you again. The RED SEAL's are inter-provincial and should trump any local masters tickets. IMHO. Any hiring manager with a brain will recognize them.

I have worked in Alberta and BC with my Red Seal tickets and never have been asked for anything else. Granted this was some years ago.

deshNL said:

I have and account and filled out all the pertinent information including "open to new opportunities". So far I've received no contact from recruiters, nor have I seen any jobs specific to what I'm looking for.

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Just googled "PLC jobs in Nova Scotia"

The first 3 results you can / should apply for. One of them is the drug company I mentioned before.

I googled "Automation Jobs In Nova Scotia" and got 43 results. Anything from software testing, to integrator looking for really skilled people to building automation groups looking for guys. (interesting)

Id bet if you also searched for Maintenance Jobs ans Electrical Jobs In Nova Scotia, you would also see something that would catch your eye. I know because we have postings out as well for the maintenance type folks. All the techs here come into contact with machine automation and controls to some varying degree depending on experience and want too.

Also, think of approaching sales and project groups. I have literally went to the industrial park before with a hand full of resumes. I went to every business that I recognized the names of. Any wholesaler of control or electrical parts. I actually got a call from Honeywell and a local wholesaler from this. It also landed me a Supervisory position for the short time I was in Calgary back in the day at an engineering firm that was building a water treatment plant, I just knocked on the door and left with a job. Point is, you need to literally dump resumes everywhere. Once you get in somewhere, then you set your sights on the direction you want to go.

deshNL said:

I have and account and filled out all the pertinent information including "open to new opportunities". So far I've received no contact from recruiters, nor have I seen any jobs specific to what I'm looking for.

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what is your name on linked in? (pm me if you would like)



it took me a while to get into automation, but i am a dual-ticket, no official degree, and now i am a Manager of automation technicians.



Im not looking for anyone just yet, but the possibility is there in the future.



have you done any real world work with ignition or just the online training?

ValeoBill said:

Forgive me if someone's already brought this up...does NFLD have an industrial elecctrician's ticket? We have one in Ontario. More and more companies are wanting this. I'm guessing it means more training/experience in an industrial setting. It's worth looking into....with your experience, they might just give you one!

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In Newfoundland the Industrial Electrician apprenticeship is 5 years, but there's so little work in industrial here it's very hard to get enough hours to finish. It took me almost 8 years to finish my construction apprenticeship.



To do the industrial apprenticeship I'd need to find work industrial related and get a new log book to get hours signed off. This would start me as a 3rd year apprentice. Then I'd have to go back to school to do 4th and 5th blocks and then I'm able to write the IP. There's no challenging the exam. It's quite a ridiculous process.

ValeoBill said:

Forgive me if someone's already brought this up...does NFLD have an industrial elecctrician's ticket? We have one in Ontario. More and more companies are wanting this. I'm guessing it means more training/experience in an industrial setting. It's worth looking into....with your experience, they might just give you one!

Click to expand...

DwSoFt said:

what is your name on linked in? (pm me if you would like)



it took me a while to get into automation, but i am a dual-ticket, no official degree, and now i am a Manager of automation technicians.



Im not looking for anyone just yet, but the possibility is there in the future.



have you done any real world work with ignition or just the online training?

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I'll PM you my LinkedIn profile.


Unfortunately I've only done Ignition online training. What are you dual ticketed in?

deshNL said:

I'll PM you my LinkedIn profile.


Unfortunately I've only done Ignition online training. What are you dual ticketed in?

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Electrical/Instrumentation.



I have learned alot from this website before and once i started automation. if you look on this website, im the "ROC" rtu guy. lol.

DwSoFt said:

Electrical/Instrumentation.



I have learned alot from this website before and once i started automation. if you look on this website, im the "ROC" rtu guy. lol.

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Sounds good. I just did a 9 month course in Instrumentation but because of the pandemic all of my labs and exams for the last 5 courses have been pushed to Seotember. I have six weeks left which will run until the middle of October. I think it might be difficult to find a job at that time.


My problem is that I have very little industrial experience. I did have some work last summer working at a lead smelter in New Brunswick but was laid off due to lack of experience.

This is meant to encourage you. A coworker has an IT degree. He never used it much outside an apprenticeship. He started with us as a forklift operator. Then he moved to a packaging machine operator. Next he moved into maintenance at a helper / PM tech level. Now he’s a full mechanic (title, really multi-craft). He asked me about PLC stuff. I gave him my usual answer to start with RS Logix Micro Starter Lite. He was the first one who actually did that and went above and beyond setting up the emulator through a virtual com port to Advanced HMI.

So I gave him a PLC job to replace an old dual pump panel using a ML1100. I gave him logic needs in steps. He’d write some code and I would try to break it and give more steps.

Now I include him in lots of stuff. I have to work to keep ahead or keep up with him. He’s way above me in Visual Studio, Java, etc. I’m slightly above Hello World and learning from him.

I suppose the moral of this story is if you can, find someone already doing this who isn’t too insecure to share. There’s plenty of great people here if you don’t have someone locally. Ask questions that show you’re trying and take action to learn and grow.

Another observation: I’ve suggested to people to buy some hardware: S7-1200 starter kit, Click , ML1100, Micro 800, whatever interests you. I’ve found most people won’t spend a couple hundred for hands on learning tools but think maybe they might possibly eventually go back to school for thousands of dollars then don’t. Invest in yourself. I’m impressed by someone who plays with automation because it’s exciting, not just a job.