Thread: What makes a good employer ?

I didn't do an apprenticeship (nearly 45 years ago, didn't really need it) but I worked in a lot of different fields of engineering, from welding house frames to concrete mixer bowls, aluminium, stainless and mechanical work in between. It all depends on what field you want to work in, whether it be structural fabrication, welding maintenance, pipe work (oil and gas), general engineering/jobbing, there are many different aspects of welding. I would stay at the moment in general engineering/jobbing as you will learn a lot doing this. The other thing is to show a good work history, being able to stick to jobs, employers don't particularly like taking on staff that change jobs frequently. First year doing anything is hard, as you get the s*^t jobs, cleaning, sweeping, not much of what you really want to do. It is hard to say what you should do without knowing other details.
Regards
Kryn

Originally Posted by welder

I am currently undertaking a school based apprenticeship , which means I finish high school and complete the first year of my apprenticeship. I feel I am not learning enough at my current job which is in a small 3 person job shop which does repair work for Orica in Botany.

I would suggest you look for someone with a larger range of equipment/ tasks that you can be involved with. We are currently looking at hiring another fitter ourselves and I can agree that we look carefully at applicants who have not been with at least one employer for a reasonable period. However, lots of people move on after they have finished their apprenticeship - you just need to be careful about what your work history shows.
Is there an industry group scheme that is available? - that is, apprentices shared out between a number of employers. May be one way of getting that wide range of experience. You really need to think about what experiences you think you need (and why) and then look for organisations that can give you that.

Michael

Firstly a fairly well established company or a smaller company that has plenty of work.

The larger would probably give you more variety/learning ability than the smaller,that said if you find the right place either could be good for learning a variety of skills on the job along with the supplement of tafe,rather than somewhere you don't have a lot of variety and get most of your skills from tafe.

Also depends on where you intend to do you time,if its in the larger cities you may find that the jobbing engineering shops handle work from a wide variety of clients,where as in a smaller location work may only involve specific types of work for that area.

You would also need to give consideration to the type of work you think you would like to get experience in,whether that be light engineering,heavy engineering,bench fitting,on site work etc.

Unfortunately there are only a limited amount of larger jobbing shops in the Sydney area that cover a wide range of work without specializing in certain fields.

Thanks guys I didn't consider job history.Although I don't think I will get the experience I want at my current workplace.

Have you thought about trying one of the private contractors to the navy in the Nowra region? My nephew has done that and is doing a course on helicopter maintenance.

Hi Andre
A good employer is one that treats and pays you well.
Any employer is only looking for staff that he can teach to do the type of work that he does. If he is not teaching you what you want to learn it is not necessarily a fault on his behalf if he doesnt do much of that type of work.
I agree that a lot of employers place a high value on length of service which puts you in a difficult situation. You may find that you leave, get another job and discover that your new boss is nowhere near as good as the old one. Think carefully before you jump ship.

Roger

Do they do any CNC where you are?

I think being taught CNC is 100% essential for a machining type career in this day and age...