Reply With QuoteCould be either to be honest:Originally Posted by justin44
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My son has applied for a job with Anglia Water as a Mechanical Engineer, I have no idea what this is? Can anyone give me any feed back?
I believe it’s a person responsible for maintaining their water plant equipment, but is that a computer job or a mechanical job?
What does anyone think?
Could be either to be honest:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Is it not possible to tell from the application form/job description? Or is the application process just whacking off a CV to them?
It will most likely be maintaining pumps valves and air compressors-similar kit may also be control room based operating their plant and distribution system
Worked most of my working life in the oil industry which has similar kit but rather more danger....
What are your sons qualifications? If it’s a graduate role then it’s more likely to be desk based rather than hands on.
The trouble with this country has always been the misuse of the term “engineer”.
There’s lots of interesting engineering in water treatment plants, it would be a great opportunity for your son.
If they've used the word maintaining then that will probably be inspection and repair of the equipment, so pumps, pipes, etc. They seem to have stopped using the old job titles of engineer for office based and technician for hands on, everyone is an engineer these days.
You are right, far too many Engineers who wouldn't know how to use a spanner ;)
I doubt Isambard Kingdom Brunel ever wielded a spanner!
I know somebody who works for Anglia Water, don't know what his job title is but he uses a van and loads of tools, Wellies/Waders are probably a good idea too! Cheers, John B4
^^^^^^ As well as a pair of those thick rubber gloves that go all the way up to your armpits.....
Hmm it might be on the sewage side rather than the supply side!
It might be the level of qualification required to the post.
I expect it might be a bit of everything mechanical and systems engineering.
When I did Mechanical Engineering at College as a apprentice there were people from all kinds of this type of industry, service maintenance for factories and plant.
I qualified as a Mechanical Engineer and went on to specialise in Clinical Engineering in the Medical industry.
Good Luck to your son, hope he gets the post.
No I doubt he ever did, for what its worth I have always believed that the title of Engineer should only be given to HNC/D qualified and above but that doesn't mean that Engineers shouldn't be on the tools
I don’t disagree; theoretical knowledge is fine but the ability to apply it is equally important.
I always like the terms 'artificer' and 'fitter'.
Drifting off-topic a bit, but I think that the term 'engineer' is such a catch-all phrase in our language. There is such a wide range and level of occupations that are encompassed within it.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I know a fair few people I have met through work who are bothered by this and I have been asked by engineers “are you qualified to call your self a engineer please”, and the reply is usually politely “the engineering council seem to think so, when they take my annual registration fee”
But I agree, although it does not bother me.
Hello Ralphy, hope all is well with you. :)
Sorry, but this is an old fashioned, and very outdated attitude to engineering. Grease monkeys in the garage are on the tools. Engineers are not.
'Sky TV Engineers' are my favourite.
I agree with GOAT of this parish....
Its most likely to be maintenance of plant either on the water supply or wastewater network. Interesting job that can involve travel to various sites around the region.
Would recommend!
Mike
In the 90s I knew a very senior professor at a university in Brasil, where he was also head of department. On his business card it didn’t say “professor” or “head of department”, it said just one word, “Engineer”.
Personally I think it’s a great term, but such is the usage we put it to that it needs significant clarification before it’s meaningful.
My son worked at the Port Talbot steelworks during his mech eng year in industry. He was desk based, mapping the water and gas distribution equipment around the site onto a new system to track the location of everything and record problems/maintenance. Some interesting stories came back as well...
During my first industrial placement in 1983 (I did two, each of six months) I had a similar role identifying and mapping various pipelines at Tetleys Brewery in Leeds.
I think I will agree to disagree
The title of ‘Engineer’ is unfortunately not protected in the same way that the title ‘Architect’ is, so the term is massively overused and often misrepresents the skills and qualifications of the person using the term. I personally have no issue with skilled people calling themselves Engineers if they work in an engineering profession and have the appropriate technical qualifications and experience to use it, whether they are on the tools or desk based, so long as they have reached a well-defined and recognised standard within their field of expertise.
The term should also state what the field of engineering is, so that it is clear to others, ie civil, mechanical, structural, motor, agricultural etc.
Someone who refills cups and beans in a vending machines is NOT an engineer, despite what the note on the front may say.
OP, a mechanical engineer within Anglian Water could be doing anything from working on their infrastructure of pumps, valves, turbines through to the repairing their office air-conditioning/ductwork, through to desk-based design work, so the only way to know if to ask AW.
We seem to be going a bit OT with regard to discussing the use of the title "Engineer" but my twopennyworth...
I am a Chartered Mechanical Engineer (have been for nearly 25 years). I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College. I work on everything from top level system design to detailing individual pieces of equipment, hands on build/test/commissioning/operations and maintenance.
I have an issue with people calling themselves Engineer if they are purely a technician, not that there is anything wrong with technicians, they are an essential helpful part of working. I believe it is not allowed in most (all???) European countries or the US to call yourself an Engineer without being licensed. However, I gave up a long time ago thinking anthing would or could be done about it in the UK.
I work for another water company, but they all cover the same assets just in different parts of England.
If it's advertised as a Water Engineer it will be on clean water (raw water or treated water ready for drinking) rather than waste (sewerage or sewage treatment). I would think it will be a hands on type role looking after either :-
Boreholes, reservoirs and pumping stations.
Or
Water mains buried under the roads / fields.
The first role will be more technical and slightly less manual as you wouldn't be excavating down to the pipe that needs repairing.
Surely there is a mini-job specification in the job advert? Ask your son for a copy?
dunk
"Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"
Reminds me of my Dad (long gone...)
He was FIMechE,FIEE and FBIM (3 Fellowships almost unheard of now, I guess)
Used to grind his gears when an “engineer” turned up to mend the washing machine!
Me to, I spent 42 years as an Engineer Officer and have a certificate to prove it ( although it does say i'm competent ), most of that time spend pulling engines apart and sometimes putting them back together.
I've met way too many chartered engineers who i wouldn't trust to be anywhere near an engineering problem, the whole professional registration thing annoys me.
The old saying used to be a technician can fix a problem, an engineer can design it out, i guess that still works.
That’s not a bad description although a decent engineer would be able to do both.
I’m a Chartered Chemical Engineer with 27 years experience currently leading the technical assurance of the process design of offshore oil rigs.
A major part of the role is ensuring the facility is an ‘inherent safe design’, and therefore designing out any risks that would otherwise need protecting by non-inherent safe systems, e.g. instrumentation.
When you have at any point in time 100 operations personnel on a rig above a massive hydrocarbon reservoir, each with wives and children they want to go home to, I think it brings the importance of engineering home to you.
If I flip my hands and look at my palms, they are silky smooth. In my job, I’ve never picked up a tool in anger.
Well he’s got through two of the interview stages and now has an interview Monday, they have also now produced a job description. It seems he is applying for a job fixing sewage pumps (maybe I’m parafrazing a bit), but at the age of 15 it looks like a good aprentership, first year fully paid at their training college in Grantham then three years with a mentor in the field.
And a decent wage that’s more than £125 a week.
He’ll probably need those gloves though.
Thanks for the input and thoughts.
Seems like a very good opportunity for your young son with a very reputable company with what’s seems like a good training/apprenticeship plan.
But, I would say it appears to be more of a skilled mechanical fitter job than a mechanical engineering role.
Best of luck to your son.
Yet he started out at 14 hand forging chains and links for the great western railway but continually improved himself and ended up as engineering manager in a power station
Stripped and rebuilt the top end of his BMW when he was 76- could do the tools and the clever stuff.
Having been a Chartered Engineer for 35 years (submarines / nuclear power plants) I have been as frustrated as many others on this thread by the misuse of the term “engineer” . No other professions would allow this e.g medicine or the law. However the engineering profession is stuck with it - an engineer is the guy who comes to fix your washing machine.
Unfortunately the media - including the BBC - don’t get it either.
In my job, I am very hands on and on the tools, in fact I always have been.
As I have mentioned, I have been working and pulled a fair few times by people who explain that they are a proper engineer, you are a technician. Nothing wrong with that in my book, but i am a qualified and registered engineer, it used to bother me when I was younger but I am beyond caring now.
I do sometimes dread, when I am working with a client and they say they are a engineer, usually they are switched on and actually really understanding of what you are trying to achieve. However some are a nightmare.
Well done to the OP son, hope he gets the role.
My oldest son is doing engineering apprenticeship as well, he thought it would be a good thing to do.
This is an interesting read - my eldest is just finishing chemical engineering year 2 at loughborough - starts a year in industry placement late June . Loving it currently and hopes to move into pharmaceuticals or fuels as a career . I shouldn’t be surprised at the engineering interest on a watch forum really should I :)!?
Im a Chartered Mechanical engineer (for last 14 years) and an assessor for IMechE CEng candidates.
Yes, the 'misuse' of the word engineer bothers me but what we call a Chartered Engineer has changed radically in the last twenty years.
I routinely see engineering professionals employed in finance, risk and wider than areas like project management. All are most defiantly chartered engineers but not what society would expect, I still think people reckon I'm a train driver TBH.
An engineer should have a slide rule.
And know how to use it?
That’s me out then but my Dad’s ok.
A friend of mine who works in the international banking sector mentioned that their HR department specifically target engineering graduates as their new recruits. The main reason being, you can teach someone with a logical brain (engineer) how banking works, but it is far harder (virtually impossible) to teach someone how to be logical.
The salaries are often better when engineers employ their skills outside of engineering too, hence why there is a national shortage of engineers.
Posting Permissions