Will I get a job in maintenance??

Talk Electrician Forum

Help Support Talk Electrician Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
So my question is will an employer be willing to take me on with what experience I do have and give me the chance to learn the rest? I don’t think it would take me long to pick it up. Obviously I can’t take a drop in money because I can’t afford to...……  

I just want a stable, regular job that I have some interest in doing. With No traveling all over the country and working away. The industry is dead. And it’s time to get out before I lose the will to live.

thanks in advance for replies


The only person who can answer this question is a prospective employer... :C

How many jobs have you seen advertised that meet your ideal job spec?

How many have you applied for?

How many have you got to an interview with?

At the end of the day it doesn't matter one jot how good or competent, qualified or experienced you think you are...

If an employer has whittled their choice down to 10 potential candidates..

and all of the others have a bit more hands on experience, are willing to work for less, work longer hours and travel further then you will be bottom of the choice list!

Every business in todays economy is looking to reduce costs and increase productivity...

You are going to have to have some very strong additional selling points when you try marketing your self to an employer,

if initially you are going to be less efficient than a fully experienced and skilled worker especially if you are expecting to be paid full whack.

Businesses are not charities, there is no sensible economic reason for a company to spend their time and money training you up in new skills....

(when you may just go and leave after they have trained you!!)

Especially if they can purchase an equivalent worker already skilled in the basics needed for their business....

Unless of course you do have some amazing unique abilities that only you can bring into the job role..

Bottom line you are just a commodity trying to sell yourself in a competitive market place..

AND 99.9999% jobs are won by 'who-you-know' NOT 'what-you-know'.

People  do change jobs,

people do learn on the job,

nobody starts any job knowing everything they need with no additional formal or in-house training....

And jobs change over time even if you are with the same company.

BUT...

Complete strangers have to prove themselves a bit more to prospective employers that they are a good investment for a company to commit to,

whereas friends, relatives, or friends of relatives will often be given more of a chance and considered a bit less risky investment.

:coffee  

 
There’s got to be install sparks who move to maintenance, surely?
I'd guess at not so many going into  industry ,  but a lot go into ...what would you call it ?....commercial property maintenance  , I think it entails doing a bit of everything TBH  as well  as electrics .   Probably a deal of re-lamping .  

Tony , I see you're just up; the road from me  in Walsall  ,  not much industry left there  now  is there .  

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Tony , I see you're just up; the road from me  in Walsall  ,  not much industry left there  now  is there .  
There’s a bit. But it would probably be nearer to Birmingham. I see lots of jobs on indeed. But as others have said I will have to do a good job of selling myself. 

 
I'd guess at not so many going into  industry ,  but a lot go into ...what would you call it ?....commercial property maintenance  , I think it entails doing a bit of everything TBH  as well  as electrics .   Probably a deal of re-lamping .  

Tony , I see you're just up; the road from me  in Walsall  ,  not much industry left there  now  is there .  
This is what I was driving at, whenever I mentioned working for housing associations etc 

 
There is usually little mercy for someone who doesn't know what they are doing, especially if they are over a certain age.

A young lad can get a pardon, an established man is expected to be all singing all dancing.

A few weeks training on new machines is all well and good, but to essentially retrain someone from scratch is another story. You'd sooner take on an apprentice, at least you can pay him buttons.

 
Don’t maintenance work in two man teams? Will a company let me shadow someone to learn? Is this something that normal happens? There’s got to be install sparks who move to maintenance, surely?


Not always, sometimes you are the fitter if a fitter is needed.

Be an electrician, its a nice clean job playing with wires! Get real, you’ll be up to you’re eyeballs in grease and **** to get the plant running.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
But as others have said I will have to do a good job of selling myself. 




You have answered your own question there......

if you can't do that then NO.. you will not get a job in maintenance.

UNLESS...  you do have a rich uncle with his own company manufacturing widgets for thing-a-ma-bobs.....

and he will employ you because you are his sisters third child and he always liked you at the family Christmas reunions..

Or something like that!

:C

Guinness

 
Top