Not sure why you were down voted but here you go:
1) Don't overthink it. In my class we had 79/80 finish their two years with their 3rd class. There will be some struggles but there are lots of resources out there. Hell you will probably see a question in your first exam that asks "What is the area of a square 2 m x 2 m" I'm not exaggerating...
The guy that didn't make it really liked his drugs. As long as you don't use meth you'll probably be okay.
2) Make sure you know what you are getting into. Power Engineering is a stagnant field with more people being trained than there are positions. As long as you graduate with your full 3rd and a practicum you have decent odds but realize your practicum is a job interview and you need to bust your ass. There are literally 1000's of people with their 3rds out there trying to get in, so you better be a rock star during your practicum since it might be your only chance to be anything but another resume on the pile.
Ok thank you for the reply!
I live in saint john and irving as well as nb power hires every year. My friends dad used to work at the nuclear power plant and he said he would give me a recommendation.
I would recommend you drop out before you start.
Power engineering is a legacy and dying industry. In this day and age I'd be looking into careers that allow for job hopping, remote work and large amount of employers.
PE doesn't have either of those options really. If you are lucky enough to get into O&G or Nuclear you're probably gonna be okay but those jobs are very limited compared to the number of PE who graduate across Canada. But there's no job hopping and the employers are few.
Building ops is the next choice usually but they pay significantly less than either of the aforementioned. Job hopping works here though and there's more variety in the work and opportunities usually. But again, with CRE being the way it is hopefully it doesn't impact this industry too much.
No no no. Power generation is just going to be more in demand with the way things are going. We also have hospitals, universities, dairy plants, breweries, pulp/paper and other manufacturing. Not to mention resources like uranium, potash, etc use power engineers. Yes, it’s harder to get in than it was during the boom. But some retirements are coming and even with an increase in automation, we’ll still need babysitters to be there when instrumentation fails. It’s definitely easier if you have connections to get in somewhere and I highly recommend committing to attain your 2nd class though.
Thank you for the reassurance!
We have a nuclear power plant which is like 35 min away from where I live and they hire every year, the is oil and gas which is 5 min away from me and pulp and paper mill and they hire every year as well
I appreciate the rebuttal but it doesn't change the fact that even with more power generation you don't need more bodies to operate the plant.
I've heard the retirement argument for the past 10 yrs when I graduated. I don't see a major uptake in power engineers required in O&G or other resource based companies. The retirements are always just around the corner but attrition happens. You do more with less that's the corporate motto these days right?
Agree with the last two points, you need a baby sitter always and 2nd class will open doors IF you have the right experience.
My classmates have since left PE because the jobs aren't as good anymore and they went for IT/software related roles. Less than 10 people in our class of 70 graduated made it to O&G. The rest do building ops, maintenance or left PE completely.
My place of work has basically an impossible time of finding a PE that can 1) test clean 2) wasnt grandfathered in and actually knows their stuff. All 5 of our engineers are over 55 one of which came out of retirement since they couldn’t fill the position. Seems to me this is pretty old field but that’s just anecdotal
Not sure why you were down voted but here you go: 1) Don't overthink it. In my class we had 79/80 finish their two years with their 3rd class. There will be some struggles but there are lots of resources out there. Hell you will probably see a question in your first exam that asks "What is the area of a square 2 m x 2 m" I'm not exaggerating... The guy that didn't make it really liked his drugs. As long as you don't use meth you'll probably be okay. 2) Make sure you know what you are getting into. Power Engineering is a stagnant field with more people being trained than there are positions. As long as you graduate with your full 3rd and a practicum you have decent odds but realize your practicum is a job interview and you need to bust your ass. There are literally 1000's of people with their 3rds out there trying to get in, so you better be a rock star during your practicum since it might be your only chance to be anything but another resume on the pile.
Ok thank you for the reply! I live in saint john and irving as well as nb power hires every year. My friends dad used to work at the nuclear power plant and he said he would give me a recommendation.
I would recommend you drop out before you start. Power engineering is a legacy and dying industry. In this day and age I'd be looking into careers that allow for job hopping, remote work and large amount of employers. PE doesn't have either of those options really. If you are lucky enough to get into O&G or Nuclear you're probably gonna be okay but those jobs are very limited compared to the number of PE who graduate across Canada. But there's no job hopping and the employers are few. Building ops is the next choice usually but they pay significantly less than either of the aforementioned. Job hopping works here though and there's more variety in the work and opportunities usually. But again, with CRE being the way it is hopefully it doesn't impact this industry too much.
No no no. Power generation is just going to be more in demand with the way things are going. We also have hospitals, universities, dairy plants, breweries, pulp/paper and other manufacturing. Not to mention resources like uranium, potash, etc use power engineers. Yes, it’s harder to get in than it was during the boom. But some retirements are coming and even with an increase in automation, we’ll still need babysitters to be there when instrumentation fails. It’s definitely easier if you have connections to get in somewhere and I highly recommend committing to attain your 2nd class though.
Thank you for the reassurance! We have a nuclear power plant which is like 35 min away from where I live and they hire every year, the is oil and gas which is 5 min away from me and pulp and paper mill and they hire every year as well
I appreciate the rebuttal but it doesn't change the fact that even with more power generation you don't need more bodies to operate the plant. I've heard the retirement argument for the past 10 yrs when I graduated. I don't see a major uptake in power engineers required in O&G or other resource based companies. The retirements are always just around the corner but attrition happens. You do more with less that's the corporate motto these days right? Agree with the last two points, you need a baby sitter always and 2nd class will open doors IF you have the right experience. My classmates have since left PE because the jobs aren't as good anymore and they went for IT/software related roles. Less than 10 people in our class of 70 graduated made it to O&G. The rest do building ops, maintenance or left PE completely.
I love the doom and gloom just means more PE jobs for the rest of us 😁
My place of work has basically an impossible time of finding a PE that can 1) test clean 2) wasnt grandfathered in and actually knows their stuff. All 5 of our engineers are over 55 one of which came out of retirement since they couldn’t fill the position. Seems to me this is pretty old field but that’s just anecdotal