"Snuze: Needs another Swede" (markg)
04/10/2015 at 22:59 • Filed to: None
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"Snuze: Needs another Swede" (markg)
04/10/2015 at 22:59 • Filed to: None | 0
| 7 |
I'll be honest, the McLaren M8B was just click bait so you'd read this...
Good evening. I'm sitting here in the aparment alone, my wife is away overseas for 2 weeks for work. So I'm having a scotch, wrapping up my dad's birthday gift, and thinking about my future. I could use some insight if any of you have some to offer.
At the end of 2012 I interviewed for an amazing job at NSWC Carderock in Bethesda, MD. It would have put me back in the submarine community, which I am a veteran of, and given me the opportunity for lots of travel. Alas, the government sequestration and shutdown of 2013 dashed my chances at that job.
After a crazy 2013 which included graduating college, getting married, losing all prospects at a decent job due to sequester & shutdown, being unemployed, and then working for my father (which has it's ups and downs), I finally attained gainful employment in 2014 at my current job with a leading naval architecture & marine engineering firm. I've been there for almost a year now, and frankly, I don't like it very much. The company is good, and I genuinely like many of my coworkers, but I don't enjoy the work. The job opening I applied for was for a marine propulsion engineer - it's what I studied in school and what I am interested in. Since I've started I've done a total of 2 weeks worth of propulsion work, and all the rest has been HVAC work. I find it to be soul crushingly boring, and I really don't care much for the senior engineer I'm stuck working with. I've brought it up to my department head several times, and he keeps saying he will shift me to the propulsion side of things, but it just never happens, because I'm usually already up to my armpits in some HVAC project that he doesn't want to just yank me off of. I'm not one to pitch fits, make demands, or give ultimatums at work. In my opinion, I've made my feelings known in a professional manner and I shouldn't have to do any more. As far as I'm concerned the onus is now on him as a supervisor to figure out how to manage his people. Also, as much as I'm unhappy, I'm still grateful to this company for taking a chance on me and giving me the opportunity. After a year of un/underemployment, I'm happy as hell to have a job.
But I just don't see things going where I want them to there so I've started reaching out to see what else is out there. And to my surprise, I recently heard back from my contact at NSWC. Long story short they gave him one permanent hire, he doesn't have any openings available to make a permanent hire but he realistically needs 2 to 3 more engineers. As such, he's working to bring on a couple contractors. Back in 2013 we had attempted to go this route after the sequester killed his permanent hire opportunity. By the time we got the ball in motion, the gov't shutdown killed whatever funding was in place for a contractor.
So on the upside, I know the contracting company and several people there and have a good relationship with them since I was a contingent hire for a while. The downside, of course, is that it's much less stable than my current position. The work they do there is "vital to national security" type stuff, so I think that even if the budget goes to hell, this would be one of the last areas that gets cut since the work is so important. But if it does get that bad, the contractors are going to be the first to get let go. On the flip side, it could be a good foot in the door, and if a permanent job opens up, it would be significantly easier to make the transition.
I'm just wondering if anyone has been in a situation like this, or has any experience with government contracting type work and what your thoughts are.
DrJohannVegas
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
04/10/2015 at 23:14 |
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Some work is better than no work, and if you don't like the job as much as you thought you would, so much the better. Just do it.
f86sabre
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
04/10/2015 at 23:28 |
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A Question I would recommend asking yourself, or the employer, is do the contractors they hire tend to be long term or do they come and go depending on project needs. About a quarter of the engineering team I manage are contractors. We tend to keep them around long term as the company is hesitant to increase full time head count "just in case". Some of the contractors have been with us 6-8 years. I just think you need to understand how stable it will be. Also, you need to look at your benefit situation. Sounds like your wife has a good gig, so hopefully you would be covered there, but I don't want to assume that.
I appreciate your desire to stick with submarines, but have you considered the airline side of commercial aviation? It is a pretty enjoyable area to work in. Skill sets are not that much different.
SALfan
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
04/10/2015 at 23:41 |
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Some thigs to consider: How stable is your wife's job? Which of you has the benefits (health and other insurance, retirement, etc.)? Is your financial situation such that you could weather a period of unemployment withou it being a financial disaster?
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> SALfan
04/11/2015 at 00:23 |
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All good thoughts. And I think we would be fine if I became unemployed. We both have good jobs at the moment, hers is very stable, and she actually makes a bit more than me. We both have health plans (oddly it's cheaper this way than going on a joint plan), make retirement contributions, etc. through our respective employers. We're good about saving money (well, she's great, I'm getting much better about it since we got married). The only thing is that would potentially delay us buying a house, which is something we wanted to do later this year, but that's not the end of the world.
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> f86sabre
04/11/2015 at 00:28 |
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When I originally interviewed with the contracting company, I met with the "senior contractor" who had been working for this same department for over 15 years on the contracting side. Many of the contractors there have been their for 3-5 years or more. And I know the mentality varies a bit at different organizations, but NSWC Carderock tends to like to bring contractors into the fold as permanent employees, as the positions open up.
I've never really considered commercial aviation as a career field, though I'm not opposed to it. Why, looking to hire? Haha :)
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f86sabre
> Snuze: Needs another Swede
04/11/2015 at 08:19 |
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If there is stability in the contractor ranks, then that certainly makes things easier.
Unfortunately, I'm just getting done with a hiring binge, but we do hire engineers. Right this second there aren't any engineer positions posted for any of the groups. But they do pop up from time to time.
http://www.deltajobs.net/tech_ops.htm
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Snuze: Needs another Swede
> f86sabre
04/12/2015 at 10:52 |
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Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely keep an eye out for openings. But I'm really considering the option of going contractor at NSWC.