Engineering grad working in contracting go perm & take less?
Discussion
Hi mate,
Interesting thoughts and one I've been speaking a lot too with my colleague, who I'm currently sitting across from. Both in automotive, similar age (26) who did the contract route from uni, I did a grad scheme and now in a permanent role. I was quite disappointed by the grad scheme, and felt a lot of times that you were "Just a Grad", and not a proper qualified engineer so to speak. But that is purely down to department ethos, and probably not industry wide. In addition, we didn't really get the training and development promised to us. Although the positives are holiday, pension, company benefits etc.
Contractor boy across from me did a couple of years on big projects at Ford and I think got a bit more out of it then I did comparatively.
If you can get variety in different roles as a contractor, I wouldn't recommend going the grad scheme route. I'm looking to go contract in a few of years once I get enough experience behind me to command a good rate to make giving the benefits up worthwhile.
Interesting thoughts and one I've been speaking a lot too with my colleague, who I'm currently sitting across from. Both in automotive, similar age (26) who did the contract route from uni, I did a grad scheme and now in a permanent role. I was quite disappointed by the grad scheme, and felt a lot of times that you were "Just a Grad", and not a proper qualified engineer so to speak. But that is purely down to department ethos, and probably not industry wide. In addition, we didn't really get the training and development promised to us. Although the positives are holiday, pension, company benefits etc.
Contractor boy across from me did a couple of years on big projects at Ford and I think got a bit more out of it then I did comparatively.
If you can get variety in different roles as a contractor, I wouldn't recommend going the grad scheme route. I'm looking to go contract in a few of years once I get enough experience behind me to command a good rate to make giving the benefits up worthwhile.
gkw90 said:
Hi mate,
Interesting thoughts and one I've been speaking a lot too with my colleague, who I'm currently sitting across from. Both in automotive, similar age (26) who did the contract route from uni, I did a grad scheme and now in a permanent role. I was quite disappointed by the grad scheme, and felt a lot of times that you were "Just a Grad", and not a proper qualified engineer so to speak. But that is purely down to department ethos, and probably not industry wide. In addition, we didn't really get the training and development promised to us. Although the positives are holiday, pension, company benefits etc.
Contractor boy across from me did a couple of years on big projects at Ford and I think got a bit more out of it then I did comparatively.
If you can get variety in different roles as a contractor, I wouldn't recommend going the grad scheme route. I'm looking to go contract in a few of years once I get enough experience behind me to command a good rate to make giving the benefits up worthwhile.
That's interesting and I guess puts to rest that nagging feeling of missing out development wise by not being on a grad scheme...Interesting thoughts and one I've been speaking a lot too with my colleague, who I'm currently sitting across from. Both in automotive, similar age (26) who did the contract route from uni, I did a grad scheme and now in a permanent role. I was quite disappointed by the grad scheme, and felt a lot of times that you were "Just a Grad", and not a proper qualified engineer so to speak. But that is purely down to department ethos, and probably not industry wide. In addition, we didn't really get the training and development promised to us. Although the positives are holiday, pension, company benefits etc.
Contractor boy across from me did a couple of years on big projects at Ford and I think got a bit more out of it then I did comparatively.
If you can get variety in different roles as a contractor, I wouldn't recommend going the grad scheme route. I'm looking to go contract in a few of years once I get enough experience behind me to command a good rate to make giving the benefits up worthwhile.
My other query is you mentioned a higher rate, from what I've seen in automotive at least it seems to be the graduate or minimal experience level/rate (which probably shouldn't be a contractor but it's the only way these places will employ you if not grad scheme) or senior, without much in between. Is it the senior ones you're looking at?
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