Job opportunities for an ex aircraft technician?

Job opportunities for an ex aircraft technician?

Author
Discussion

TheRingDing

Original Poster:

91 posts

96 months

Thursday 3rd June 2021
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TCX said:
Where you based?
Take it your not wanting to work away so what kind of area you'd be willing to travel?
I live near Guildford, Surrey. I'm happy to commute anywhere within the South East really.

rigga

8,728 posts

201 months

Thursday 3rd June 2021
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TheRingDing said:
rigga said:
Had a couple of ex aircraft guys working with me on the railways, doing fault finding rectification, rather than the mundane repetitive service/exams

Did well as they were more switched on safety wise, pay is good, shift work aside, and final salary pension scheme is always a bonus.
Yeah I think this is definitely a direction that interests me! Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any rail jobs in my area at the moment!
Unfortunately there's a general recruitment freeze currently, due to government taking over the running of the system under emergency measures, hopefully if things open up as intended, and traveling numbers increase, things will change.

TCX

1,976 posts

55 months

Friday 4th June 2021
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TheRingDing said:
TCX said:
Where you based?
Take it your not wanting to work away so what kind of area you'd be willing to travel?
I live near Guildford, Surrey. I'm happy to commute anywhere within the South East really.
Harsco are looking for rail maintenance fitter Horsham,on indeed,Balfour's looking for rail fitters too in s east,might be worth looking into machine control systems,on plant and agriculture,gkd,prolec,Leica,seen few ads recently for fitters,if you're not to bothered about getting dirty,plant firms in general and hs2 are heavily recruiting

98elise

26,497 posts

161 months

Saturday 5th June 2021
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Marcellus said:
A friends son was an Aircraft Tech in the Army and when he left had several offers, ended up working for Anglian Water on the road sorting pump stations, leaks etc etc.

Another friend was an aircraft tech in the RAF and now instals and maintains ultraviolet lighting systems in football stadiums.

So, my point is that demand is strong for the skill set required to be an aircraft engineer I’d have thought!
I would agree.

I was a Navy Weapons Engineer, and moved into M&E (ie Building Services) after the Military. Hands on Engineering skills are very transferable.

Phunk

1,974 posts

171 months

Sunday 6th June 2021
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SSE Plc are recruiting for over 50 engineers at the moment. Should hopefully be something that fits:

https://careers.sse.com/jobs/search

Gary C

12,408 posts

179 months

Sunday 6th June 2021
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Commissioning engineer posts are up at Hinkley point C

TheRingDing

Original Poster:

91 posts

96 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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Thanks for the ideas, everyone!

Tempest_5

603 posts

197 months

Tuesday 8th June 2021
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When I worked in the Space industry we employed a lot of ex aircraft people, especially in the Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) department. They use a similar skill set. There are currently a fair few jobs being advertised.

One thing to bear in mind though is that one major problem with the Space industry is that it is Feast or Famine on the manufacturing side as everything is done as a project. Everyone will be working hard to get the spacecraft out of the door, but then when it disappears off to the docks/airport on a truck your work can disappear until you win the next project. Hopefully the bid teams have kept the projects coming in but I have experienced times when we have had significant voluntary, and a few non voluntary, redundancies

I was chatting to some of my ex aircraft colleagues one day and asked what they preferred. The response was that although they found aircraft interesting, assembling a satellite in a cleanroom environment beat fixing an aircraft freezing your bits off on a wet windy night on an exposed airfield whilst getting covered in fuel, hydraulic fluid or something else unpleasant.

I spent 28 years in the Space industry and worked on many interesting projects. It's worth considering.

Edited by Tempest_5 on Tuesday 8th June 21:41

TheRingDing

Original Poster:

91 posts

96 months

Thursday 10th June 2021
quotequote all
Tempest_5 said:
When I worked in the Space industry we employed a lot of ex aircraft people, especially in the Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) department. They use a similar skill set. There are currently a fair few jobs being advertised.

One thing to bear in mind though is that one major problem with the Space industry is that it is Feast or Famine on the manufacturing side as everything is done as a project. Everyone will be working hard to get the spacecraft out of the door, but then when it disappears off to the docks/airport on a truck your work can disappear until you win the next project. Hopefully the bid teams have kept the projects coming in but I have experienced times when we have had significant voluntary, and a few non voluntary, redundancies

I was chatting to some of my ex aircraft colleagues one day and asked what they preferred. The response was that although they found aircraft interesting, assembling a satellite in a cleanroom environment beat fixing an aircraft freezing your bits off on a wet windy night on an exposed airfield whilst getting covered in fuel, hydraulic fluid or something else unpleasant.

I spent 28 years in the Space industry and worked on many interesting projects. It's worth considering.

Edited by Tempest_5 on Tuesday 8th June 21:41
Thanks, I'll check it out!

Almighty

36 posts

36 months

Thursday 10th June 2021
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Are you willing to relocate to the USA? There are plenty of aviation jobs. Create a linkedin page and look up all the military industrial complex websites and check the careers section.

I am an avionics technician and I have seen no shortage of jobs here.

TheRingDing

Original Poster:

91 posts

96 months

Friday 11th June 2021
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Almighty said:
Are you willing to relocate to the USA? There are plenty of aviation jobs. Create a linkedin page and look up all the military industrial complex websites and check the careers section.

I am an avionics technician and I have seen no shortage of jobs here.
Haha, as much as I would love too, it's a bit too far to move unfortunately.

Buzz84

1,140 posts

149 months

Friday 11th June 2021
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Simulation companies like Aircraft Technicians for simulator building or maintenance due to the fact that their simulators avionics are very closely related to the aircraft.

If you look around Crawley there are several simulator companies: L3 Harris, CAE and Boeing.

No idea if they are recruiting but it's a place too look that's not a million miles from Guildford

jymmm

133 posts

43 months

Friday 11th June 2021
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If you want a change of direction there are technical/engineering jobs within the NHS and medical manufacturing companies (GE, Varian, Elekta, Siemans, etc)

Len20

366 posts

122 months

Saturday 12th June 2021
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Amazon take on huge numbers of ex military engineers for their fulfillment center engineering teams.

TheRingDing

Original Poster:

91 posts

96 months

Saturday 12th June 2021
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jymmm said:
If you want a change of direction there are technical/engineering jobs within the NHS and medical manufacturing companies (GE, Varian, Elekta, Siemans, etc)
Yeah I’ve had a look at these and they really interest me!

TheRingDing

Original Poster:

91 posts

96 months

Saturday 12th June 2021
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Len20 said:
Amazon take on huge numbers of ex military engineers for their fulfillment center engineering teams.
I’m exploring my options with Amazon at the moment, hopefully something good comes up!

liner33

10,690 posts

202 months

Saturday 12th June 2021
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Will add to the chap that mentioned Space , Rutherford Appleton Labs at Harwell are often recruiting , pretty sure sure Harwell have a recruitment portal . Might be a little far though

ChevronB19

5,764 posts

163 months

Saturday 12th June 2021
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Catnip to the nuclear world.

Len20

366 posts

122 months

Saturday 12th June 2021
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TheRingDing said:
Len20 said:
Amazon take on huge numbers of ex military engineers for their fulfillment center engineering teams.
I’m exploring my options with Amazon at the moment, hopefully something good comes up!
PM me if you have any questions, was in that role myself until recently.

TheRingDing

Original Poster:

91 posts

96 months

Monday 14th June 2021
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ChevronB19 said:
Catnip to the nuclear world.
I would love a job in nuclear!