Personal Opinions/advice Please.

[ChisusChrist]

Hello,

Just looking for peoples advice and/or opinion about my situation. I'm not an electrician but am very interested in it. So here is the score, I'm 24 and currently a security engineer. As I couldn't get an apprecticeship when I left school, I thought i would just go into higher and further education, stopping only when i got a career/job. I still think about trying to go for an electrical apprenticeship/trainee position, but as i recall from the past, the employers made it seem like they were after people fresh from school.

I work about 40-60 hours a week and on a salary, have to do on-call for a week straight and if I get called out during the week, I don't get paid for it. The pain about the on-call is that if I do a ten hour day and get home and get called out again, it can easily be a twenty hour day. Why am I working so many hours and still struggling to pay bills? that is what I'm starting to ask myself.

Here is a few things I have:

HND in Electrical/Electronic Engineering.

Gate safe.

CSCS card.

All of which I paid for myself.

Would it be worth my time to try and get into electrical again or would would i get turned away for being too old? What would I need qualification wise? Also, what experience would I need? I'm always trying to book courses and training days in my spare time so wouldn't mind looking a few up and booking days off for them.

Would really appreciate some feedback. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[Andy™]

 Why am I working so many hours and still struggling to pay bills? that is what I'm starting to ask myself.

I doubt that bit will change

 

[NozSpark]

Sounds like your employer is taking the P

But then again you could be on a really good renumeration package,,,,60 days paid holiday ,£50k annual salary

 

[Sharpend]

The problem you have here is time. Whilst you may get an offer of some free assist work you will not get anything permanent. If you were to ditch current job and start at the bottom then you'll be on substantially less money than you are now.

If you want to do a training course then it's either a college course spread over evenings or a 5week course for several thousand of pounds which will only give you the basics which without hands in experience is fairly meaningless.

Your best bet us to do some cold calling on local sparks or sparks firms, see what they can offer you?

 

[Sidewinder]

What about a local Spark that wants to bolt on security systems in exchange for training you in electrical?...

 

[ChisusChrist]

I doubt that bit will change

I'd be happy on 23k.

The problem you have here is time. Whilst you may get an offer of some free assist work you will not get anything permanent. If you were to ditch current job and start at the bottom then you'll be on substantially less money than you are now.

If you want to do a training course then it's either a college course spread over evenings or a 5week course for several thousand of pounds which will only give you the basics which without hands in experience is fairly meaningless.

Your best bet us to do some cold calling on local sparks or sparks firms, see what they can offer you?

I'm currently in the stage of not needing to be on high pay, I just don't want to go down the line and think bollocks... should have jumped ship.

 

[M107]

I'd do as sidey suggests.............for starters the gate safe is a nice carrot to dangle.

I've got a customer purchased gate kit to install....................not even seen it yet  :_|

 

[binky]

OK I am assuming you fit alarms for a living, so running cables is no big change. You can knock out 17th edition ' update course' in a week, but FFS do a **** load of reading, and pay attention to this forum to gain a lot of real technical knowledge and ideas of how to install electrical items.

£23k for the hours you are working - hmmm, your employer has you nobbled then! Unless there's some good reason to stay, you need to go elsewhere, or re-negotiate contracts. Even flat rate for all hours would be better than your current position.

You sound like a keen young fella who is getting used a bit too much - I would be inclined to seek out alternative employment and jump ship asap. You could try talking to your manager about improving terms and conditions, (maybe even threatening to leave, but that may back-fire). Shame you don't live near me, I would happily drag you through the electical training side.

 

[Andy™]

OK I am assuming you fit alarms for a living, so running cables is no big change.

have you seen the way some alarm installers 'install' cables?!

 

[binky]

yep, and the way some electricians install alarms! what i'm getting at is he has experience in running cables around buildings, and no doubt trunking, which is certainly a start.

 

[ChisusChrist]

M107 - was going to PM you but I don't know how to unfortunately. Just pray that your customer hasn't bought one of the 12-24V output gate control boards, they are completely useless for outside gates, as a squirrels fart a mile away will cause them to play up.

Binky - I don't install alarms, i know how to and with the manual can happily program one. I'm focused mainly on automatic gates, access, cctv, intercom and dabble in PA. I've been on this forum for nearly and year and only started speaking/posting this week. i've got a brown and red on-site guide, is there a new lime green one out? think it caught my eye in Edmundsons or something. I would happily let you drag me through training, do you have a small shed at the end of the garden?

Andy- I'm a bit anal when it comes to cables. Labelled, all spare cores pulled back and wrapped around the cable. I also stay away from plastic conduit, can't stand the stuff, might be down to smacking myself in the face the first time i tried it, but who knows?

 

[M107]

I've called him (my customer)............................ wait for it.............................................. he's got one of these.

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/FC413LSKIT.html

 

[ChisusChrist]

Judging by the picture, it's a faac 452/455mps board, nice little simple control board. I think this package has 230v rams with limit switches. The rams are pretty light duty to be honest and if the gate has any big signage or coverings, it will act as a sail. I'm assuming the gate has nothing on them at the moment so it'll be worth getting another set of photocells, I've had someone put on set on the outside, stop his car before he got to the path side of the gate posts and the gates closed on his car. Or use a safety loop.

For the love of god, read the installation very carefully, if you ser the geomatry right, the gate will run lovely and last bloody ages!

Why is there a thread for cctv and burglar alarms but not gates and access?!?

Good luck with the install.

 

[Sidewinder]

It would be because we have not had much in the way of questions, or comments wrt this in the past.

We can create an automatic gates area if you think we could get the volume of posts, we could add roller shutter doors and access etc.

Do you think it would be worth while?

 

[Andy™]

maybe just include it with alarms etc?

 

[steptoe]

maybe just include it with alarms etc?

I'd concur, add access controls in with cctv etc,,  it's all sort of security related.

 

[ChisusChrist]

In my honest opinion i think it would be worth it, purely by customers saying those famous words 'while you're here, you wouldn't mind looking at this, would you?' If this is done it might be worth pinning common symptons and faults and what to look out for.

Good/bad idea?

 

[Sidewinder]

Could this not be part of the security sub-forum, as security/access control is one of the fundamental aspects of automated gates?

 

[apprentice87]

Not sure... I have to admit though, if i was looking for information on electric gates, i would not be searching for "security" but "electric gates"!!

john

 

[kme]

That isn`t a problem-  we can provide a tagged link, to send searches there - and amend the name, if need be.

Chisus - you happy enough to draft a sticky for common gate- and access- related issues?

If so - then we`ll include it