Switching from Structures to Mech
Moderators: North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako
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jsmetalbashers
- Rank 3
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:02 am
Switching from Structures to Mech
I've been considering a change for a while now, bashing rivets is not doing it for me anymore. I want to switch over to do my M license, but I can't not work and go back to school. What do you guys think my employability is if I took the course at home (correspondence). Any companies going to be interested in a 10 year sheet metal tech with an ICS course?
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jsmetalbashers
- Rank 3
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:02 am
Maybe go to your regional TC office and sit down with your assigned inspector and go over the plan. Make sure he is ok with the correspondence thing and get your log book and see what he requires signed. And time put in on the floor etc.
Sounds like you have a family and dont want to or cannot move so again go to the local shops who employ M1 M2 Engineers and tell them your story and see who will employ you.
Right now should be a good time to switch as there are lots of jobs around.
Sounds like you have a family and dont want to or cannot move so again go to the local shops who employ M1 M2 Engineers and tell them your story and see who will employ you.
Right now should be a good time to switch as there are lots of jobs around.
Having the ICS course alone usually doesn’t count for much but combined with 10 years experience on aircraft it makes you a valuable employee. An employer would get two sets of job skills out of one employee. I went that route and it has opened more doors for me. I’m E and M2.
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Canada cargo Inc.
- Rank 2
- Posts: 64
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:58 pm
- Location: Alberta
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switching from structures to mech
Any aircraft trades person with 10 years of experience is very valuable in this industry right now.
Have you also considered Non-Destructive Testing as an additional career extension. Your aircraft structures skills would be an asset when viewing hundreds of X-Ray film looking for defects.
On the aircraft side: there are a few opportunities but most are being taken by guys like me who left the military with all five of our CGSB licenses.
On the industrial side: CGSB certified Level 2 Radiographers or Ultrasonic technicians make more than $100K average in Alberta right now. In fact, Acuren in Ft. Mac was offering $120K to start - but who wants to live and work there - where a shack cost $500K. There are hundreds of other opportunities all over the world because our licenses are ISO recognized. I taught the courses for many years and my CGSB license number is 4.
NDT is the fastest trade that I know of where you can go from trainee to level 2 journeyman in one year. We can take a high school graduate and get him up to a potential $80,000.00 a year job with just three courses of less than 2 months total. Try to find that anywhere in the aviation business.
Have you also considered Non-Destructive Testing as an additional career extension. Your aircraft structures skills would be an asset when viewing hundreds of X-Ray film looking for defects.
On the aircraft side: there are a few opportunities but most are being taken by guys like me who left the military with all five of our CGSB licenses.
On the industrial side: CGSB certified Level 2 Radiographers or Ultrasonic technicians make more than $100K average in Alberta right now. In fact, Acuren in Ft. Mac was offering $120K to start - but who wants to live and work there - where a shack cost $500K. There are hundreds of other opportunities all over the world because our licenses are ISO recognized. I taught the courses for many years and my CGSB license number is 4.
NDT is the fastest trade that I know of where you can go from trainee to level 2 journeyman in one year. We can take a high school graduate and get him up to a potential $80,000.00 a year job with just three courses of less than 2 months total. Try to find that anywhere in the aviation business.
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jsmetalbashers
- Rank 3
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:02 am
I have been offered jobs in NDT already, both in Aviation and in the oil patch on cranes. I'm not interested in NDT on aircraft because it's too laid back for me, but I would do it in the oilpatch for the moola. We lost a Mech here to NDT, went to Texas as a helper, 90g's to start as a lacky.
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jsmetalbashers
- Rank 3
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- Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:02 am
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Canada cargo Inc.
- Rank 2
- Posts: 64
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2007 12:58 pm
- Location: Alberta
- Contact:
Switching
If the fellow you know went to Texas to work, I really hope it is not in the NUC power industry. The USA has a tendency to use foreign newbies whenever possible because local inspectors or any Intl. ISO inspectors wouldn't go anywhere near them.
You can't smell, taste or feel radiation but it will certainly kill you.
The places that provide NDT training in Western Canada include BCIT, SAIT, NAIT or you can contact Natural Resources Canada - Metals div. in Ottawa. However, there is a movement gaining momentum to bring NDT into the provincial apprenticeship trades division. First meetings in Alberta were held last year. It would certainly reduce costs, but of course increase training out to a full 4-year apprenticeship - just like mechanics and welders.
Regarding cross qualification - do any of you know if there is still a program in Ontario available that allows journeyman trades persons within certain trade groups to challenge the certification examination of other trades? The reason I ask is that because I was considered a journeyman aircraft mechanic with just my military MOC-511, I was allowed to challenge the automotive mechanic exams without having to complete another 4-year apprenticeship. I passed and have an inter-provincial designation. This is the reason I know auto mechanics make more money than aircraft mechanics.
I also have all 5 of my CGSB certifications, which made it almost impossible not to be employable. So if you do consider cross-qualifications, research each one carefully, just to make sure that it will be complimentary to what you already have.
Or maybe you should consider it to give you a break every few years. Statistically, most long-term employees change career focus every ten years. I don't think being a WalMart greeter qualifies though.
You can't smell, taste or feel radiation but it will certainly kill you.
The places that provide NDT training in Western Canada include BCIT, SAIT, NAIT or you can contact Natural Resources Canada - Metals div. in Ottawa. However, there is a movement gaining momentum to bring NDT into the provincial apprenticeship trades division. First meetings in Alberta were held last year. It would certainly reduce costs, but of course increase training out to a full 4-year apprenticeship - just like mechanics and welders.
Regarding cross qualification - do any of you know if there is still a program in Ontario available that allows journeyman trades persons within certain trade groups to challenge the certification examination of other trades? The reason I ask is that because I was considered a journeyman aircraft mechanic with just my military MOC-511, I was allowed to challenge the automotive mechanic exams without having to complete another 4-year apprenticeship. I passed and have an inter-provincial designation. This is the reason I know auto mechanics make more money than aircraft mechanics.
I also have all 5 of my CGSB certifications, which made it almost impossible not to be employable. So if you do consider cross-qualifications, research each one carefully, just to make sure that it will be complimentary to what you already have.
Or maybe you should consider it to give you a break every few years. Statistically, most long-term employees change career focus every ten years. I don't think being a WalMart greeter qualifies though.
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Bullet Remington
- Rank 4
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- Location: Alberta
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511
Cargo!!
511 eh?? The old "fitter" trade!! Same as my old one!!
But I gotta ask, " What's wrong with being a Walmart greeter??"
When i was down at Terror-water had a old MWO retire and the next day he was at Wally Mart. Talked to him a couple of years back he's still there! happier then a pig in poo!! Loves it!! Really assuring isn't it to see all that training and experience being put to good use!!
511 eh?? The old "fitter" trade!! Same as my old one!!
But I gotta ask, " What's wrong with being a Walmart greeter??"
When i was down at Terror-water had a old MWO retire and the next day he was at Wally Mart. Talked to him a couple of years back he's still there! happier then a pig in poo!! Loves it!! Really assuring isn't it to see all that training and experience being put to good use!!
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Brian Rosebrugh
- Rank 1
- Posts: 41
- Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:30 am
- Location: Alberta
Switching trades
Bullet
When we had to attend those retirement planning sessions, the most startling comment I remember hearing was that the average life span of a military retiree after serving 25 years was just 7 years.
Dieing at 49 was not an option for me and that is what drove me into NDT - the 'civi' job opportunities looked a whole lot better than being an AME.
When I got to Calgary in '82 within a couple years I saw my old CWO from Cold Lake working in a little tiny booth collecting parking fees as a comisionaire. I talked with him briefly every day. Two years later he died.
I now look at life a bit differnently and have adapted my dad's logic - every day I wake up is a good day and every minute in the air is worth a week on the ground. He's 81 and still flies to Oshkosh every year but his co-pilot is his cardiologist.
When we had to attend those retirement planning sessions, the most startling comment I remember hearing was that the average life span of a military retiree after serving 25 years was just 7 years.
Dieing at 49 was not an option for me and that is what drove me into NDT - the 'civi' job opportunities looked a whole lot better than being an AME.
When I got to Calgary in '82 within a couple years I saw my old CWO from Cold Lake working in a little tiny booth collecting parking fees as a comisionaire. I talked with him briefly every day. Two years later he died.
I now look at life a bit differnently and have adapted my dad's logic - every day I wake up is a good day and every minute in the air is worth a week on the ground. He's 81 and still flies to Oshkosh every year but his co-pilot is his cardiologist.
