Where to look for a suitable job?

[seanf]

Info removed.
But thank you Ranger, Frank and Monkey Spanners for your replies.

[RANGER1]

Seanf,
You have extensive qualifications, have you thought about maintenance manager or something like that in food production or process/ chemical plant, or where ammonia refrigeration.
You can use a variety of your skills then.
Your resume might scare some people off, as their job might feel threatened.
Not sure what’s in your area

[seanf]

Hi Ranger,

I've never really wanted to manage people. When I think of the maintenance managers I've seen, they were mainly behind a desk concerned about numbers on bits of paper. The numbers didnt seem to be for working out engineering problems alot of the time.

I'm thinking for the other people that arnt scared off, my resume probably dosnt have enough of what their looking for. I'm guessing their the ones I should be trying to speak to.

I have a feeling I'm going to have to look outside my area again.

Cheers, and sorry theres alot of badly written text in that first post.

[RANGER1]

Would Howden have anything for you on Glasgow, assuming that’s where they are exactly.
Probably not where you would want to be?

[frank]

Hi seanf

Nice to see someone that has such a desire for knowledge and it seems like you have achieved quite an array of knowledge in many subjects so far.

Reading through your first post I get the feeling that you lack direction in what exactly it is you are looking for as the 'ideal' job vacancy.

Seeing that you have worked on many different types of systems, you don't say which one's were the type that got your juices flowing and that you could be content working in that area up until retirement.

The technical side of the refrigeration industry, and I suspect most industries, have people working solely on the design and application side and not also 'on the tools', i.e. hands on. Whereas the coal face end of the trade has the engineers/technicians working on the equipment, and rarely involved in the design details/calculations.

I suppose that as your CV is quite wide ranging, employers looking for 'hands on' labour might see you as over qualified and therefore think that you won't be happy in the role long term due to your desire for learning.

It may be a good idea to decide wether you want your ideal employment as office based (design etc.) or site based (hands on). Not many, or any, jobs in the industry cover both aspects as far as I know.

Best of luck with your search and I hope that you eventually grab the opportunity that may come your way.

[seanf]

Would Howden have anything for you on Glasgow, assuming that’s where they are exactly.
Probably not where you would want to be?

Aye Howden are in Glasgow. They might have something, but they never seemed to be that keen on my job applications even when I did live in Glasgow. I would definetly try them again though if moving down there.

I would prefer to stay in the Highlands, but its looking more and more likely I'm gona have to relocate to nearer one of the cities. Glasgows about a four hour drive from where I am in Inverness, a wee bit of a commute.

[seanf]

Hi seanf

Nice to see someone that has such a desire for knowledge and it seems like you have achieved quite an array of knowledge in many subjects so far.

Reading through your first post I get the feeling that you lack direction in what exactly it is you are looking for as the 'ideal' job vacancy.

Seeing that you have worked on many different types of systems, you don't say which one's were the type that got your juices flowing and that you could be content working in that area up until retirement.

The technical side of the refrigeration industry, and I suspect most industries, have people working solely on the design and application side and not also 'on the tools', i.e. hands on. Whereas the coal face end of the trade has the engineers/technicians working on the equipment, and rarely involved in the design details/calculations.

I suppose that as your CV is quite wide ranging, employers looking for 'hands on' labour might see you as over qualified and therefore think that you won't be happy in the role long term due to your desire for learning.

It may be a good idea to decide wether you want your ideal employment as office based (design etc.) or site based (hands on). Not many, or any, jobs in the industry cover both aspects as far as I know.

Best of luck with your search and I hope that you eventually grab the opportunity that may come your way.

Hi Frank,

I think I can claim a good basic knowledge, plenty still to learn.

Your right I dont really know what the ideal job would be. The more I see and find out (about the industry, companies, the way things are done, availabilty of jobs, ect..) tends to change what the ideal job would look like. I keep going back to the idea of a hands-on technician type role in R&D, to be able to be in an environment where there would be people to learn from and opportunities to see and get involved in the more in-depth stuff, while still being hands-on. But those sort of roles seem very few and there nearly always in a city.

I think industrial has a good amount of variety, complexity and stuff you can actually open up and fix (or seen as worth opening to fix). But I found heavy commercial can get close to being as interesting. Transport with the more complex trailer and container units can also.
I think with them all, if your allowed to delve into the more technical stuff they can all be interesting.

I'm not smart enough, and I wouldnt want to be sat staring at a screen day in day out to go into the modern day design side. I think the coal face is closer to where I would be happy being, but yes, the need to go into the in-depth stuff isnt really a part of that job. Parts changing and ticking tick boxes are what companies and customers seem to want most of the time.

I hope so. I hope I can make my mind up as well.

Cheers

[monkey spanners]

Not sure what the dairy industry is like up there, down here a lot of farms are installing robot milking machines as they can't get staff to milk cows, just an idea, you might find the automation interesting plus there is still refrigeration work for chillers and dx systems to cool the milk before collection by the tanker.

[seanf]

Thanks monkey spanners, any ideas / suggestions are welcome for stuff in or outside the fridge industry.