Electrical Design Courses & Regulations Recommendations (London, UK)

Adrian


I would not be to sure that you are to old to study and be a designer. I was the senior electrical designer for a company and tried to recruit an electrical designer to replace me. The company paid big money to a recruitment consultant to provide qualified and experienced people. We also advertised on this web site for the same. I was able to offer a very good pay package to a suitable candidate and even more if they could do mechanical design.


I was provided with many impressive CVs with people having glowing accounts of themselves. The selection process was an interview asking questions on how to carry out a design and do some simple calculations. I interviewed a number of applicants. Now the CVs all said they had an outstanding knowledge of BS 7671 and other standards plus experience of design. After the introduction the 1st question was "we have a design just come in to the office for 3 blocks of flats sitting above a basement car park what standards are we going to apply? Then I get a load of waffle about the importance of standards and the need to be compliant but no list of standards. I press a bit harder and ask for a list of standards to be applied and more waffle. I am expecting BS 7671, BS 5839, BS 5266, BS 9991 and 9999 and BS 8519 to trip off the tongue for an experienced designer to trip off the tongue. Most of them could not even state BS 7671 or the 18th Edition with prompting. So lets try another question there is a 1MVA transformer in the basement of this building what sort of prospective fault current would this deliver? Again more waffle and B*****t. At that point interview terminated and out of the door as we are not paying £50K plus a package for B******ters.


A couple half managed some of the questions and I thought they could be recruited at a junior level and worked on to develop in to a designer so got to stage 2 of the interview which was an Amtech test which they all said in reply to the adverts they were experts. They were presented with a lap top with Amtech already booted up with a sheet of A4 with some basic design information to input. Again totaley clueless with one even managing to switch the computer off!


One old boy cruised the interview and punched all the information in to the Amtech with ease. I was in very poor health but I recruited him but he only lasted 2 weeks due to his health which was a shame.


We tried outsourcing the work to consulantancies as I could not meet the demands of the work coming in to the office. It took me more time to correct their designs than it would to do them myself from scratch. In the end we were outsourcing the work to the Philappines , send it before leaving the office and it was there the next morning due to the time difference. Good work needing much intervention.


So if you are very good at design and can prove it there is good jobs out there for you!

Evening John


I wholeheartedly agree with your entire post to be honest.  Yes I certainly feel old, albeit I am told I have more life left in me, but following some projects, I do think that my time is limited.


Yes, you are never too old to learn.  I was not gifted with 'honors' or 'masters' etc., but I have spent many years as a sole electrical engineering design consultant for a couple of practices and as such, I have spent many many hours researching and learning whilst on the job as it were.  I would never claim to be the best designer, nor do I believe that I ever would be, but I am good at knowing my limitations and researching and learning new things as and when needed.  P.S. Anyone reading this should know that one of the best sources of knowledge is actually this forum!


Perhaps I should have stuck with just being too ugly to learn, then you may not have commented on that!


As for the struggles you appear to be having regarding finding a suitable replacement design engineer, I get where you are coming from.  There certainly does seem to be an abundance of mid 20 to 30 year olds who as you suggest claim to know everything on their CV's, but when questioned, do not.  I have generally noticed that a lot of these people also appear to have already worked at 6+ practices already.  It appears that they stay somewhere for a year or 2 then jump ship before any of their designs catch up with them.  Not my kind of dedication.


Regardless, that is not everyone, and there are some good ones out there, just very hard to find.


Thanks again for the reponses.


Regards


Adrian B.

Hi John.

I’m waiting for my design course, I have over 20 years experience working in various sectors, various countries etc, Mostly running projects from on site, but  I am looking for a new avenue, and something to carry me into the future, currently learning to use design software etc and obviously a lot of reading etc. In your experience with a couple of projects designed and another couple of years of experience, are degrees etc still  needed to pursue work in design?.

Continuing the thread drift a bit ...


Years ago I was sent on a short interviewing skills course. At the intro we were invited to identify topics for discussion and I mentioned fake CVs. The consensus was that a bit of embellishment is normal.


Subsequently, over a few years in one small department, I had three colleagues who had falsified their CVs to the extent of claiming to have mandatory qualifications which they did not. All three were subject to serious professional sanctions in due course.


What bothers me is that those three must have been the tip of the iceberg and many more must have got away with it.

Morning Chris


Interesting that you should say that.  My personal feeling is that some people think embellishment to their CV's is acceptable nowadays.  To this end, I do not understand why they do as there is certainly a chance that you will be caught out.  I can only assume that this occasionally happens to provide the applicant a means to at least get an interview?


What is frustrating from an employers point of view is that not only are you not finding the ideal candidate for your company, you are having your time wasted also, and we all know how precious that can be in this industry.  I also find that I am probably too harsh myself if I am ever reviewing CV's as I try to sort the wheat out from the chaff, which is possibly not a good thing either.  Difficult situation to be in overall.


Anyhow, I do not suppose that this is ever going to stop soon, so in the mean time I guess we just crack on with things and do our best.


Kind regards


Adrian B.

Hi Adrian

The IET Academy has recently released a course on electrical design calculation and considerations https://academy.theiet.org/electrical-design-calculations-and-considerations.

Kind regards

Amanda

Afternoon Amanda


Interesting, many thanks for this.


Regards


Adrian B.