Job Vacancy

[toshiba tony]

Hello,
I know the bunch of comrades on here are into more vintage gear but we desperately need engineers to come and work with us. This is a full time job working on new products of LG manufacture. I love my vintage gear but I am still in employment. We are in the middle of Manchester (uk) and I have been here over 10 years. Brilliant bunch of people. We are finding it impossible to recruit people, all us ex. techies are either dead, bad backs or totally insane.


Humour intended.

If anyone is interested please contact me on here and I will respond the same day. Ive been at it 40 years and I can't believe there are no people in the trade, or those that are are either out of the trade or past it. Thanks for reading, and bye for now.
Tony Walker

[Hybrid tellies]

I would certainly be interested but for the distance. Can't relocate because my son is at that critical school period with exams looming.

[toshiba tony]

Thanks Simon,

Things are really dire in this trade, if my Korean was up to scratch we would bring LG itself in. I mean they build the things, I've heard of companies going down because of lack of work but we are at the opposite end of the scale. Thanks again.

Tony Walker "and good luck with the exams"

A bit OT, I have been an 'engineer' (more of a loony electronics guy) for all my working life and have never had a problem getting good, well paid, work. Just shows how short of capable people we are short of.

[evingar]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

A bit OT, I have been an 'engineer' (more of a loony electronics guy) for all my working life and have never had a problem getting good, well paid, work. Just shows how short of capable people we are short of.

I'm of early 80s "intake" - started day release for electronics HNC in 1981. I don't think the local tec college even does that type of course these days - I certainly drew a blank when I was looking for an evening course teaching "C" a few years ago - taught myself in the end.

[Station X]

Originally Posted by Toshiba tony

we desperately need engineers to come and work with us.

Tony.

This is not a job for me as I live in the wrong part of the country and am retired.

I think our members would appreciate a few more details such as job description for example.

[toshiba tony]

OK Graham. With your permission I will detail the post. And thanks for the other comments everyone. Bring back the 224 course!

[Peter.N.]

I went straight into the TV trade from school, if you could repair them you didn't need any qualifications, there was always a shortage of engineers until the trade collapsed just before I retired - now if it was valve equipment you wanted repairing I might be interested.

Peter

[toshiba tony]

Thermionic devices, I'm misting over. Haven't held one in years, and I can still remember the Mullard identifying line up, including the heater types, eg 100ma was the U range. Who remembers the E series valves used in Emo colour sets?All gone, except the odd ones on here and similar sites.

[IanNVJ35]

I am a working engineer but I get quite a few messages from companies and agencies wanting an engineer to fill a vacancy. When I have been for an interview I get offered the job every time - and I'm not even that good (certainly not as good as many I know).

I suggest over and over to people who are struggling with finding work to at least look into electronics but it falls on deaf ears. I guess too many years or reading 'authorised service personel only - no user serviceable parts inside' on equipment and have dulled peoples curiosity and interest.

[flyingtech55]

Originally Posted by toshiba tony

Who remembers the E series valves used in Emo colour sets?All gone, except the odd ones on here and similar sites.

Me...remember them well...not fondly, but I remember them.

TimR

[AC/HL]

Originally Posted by IanNVJ35

I get offered the job every time - and I'm not even that good (certainly not as good as many I know)

You probably under-estimate your skills, most competent people do.

[flyingtech55]

I work at a well know Scottish university. I 'looked after' the building I was based in and attended to all the things that needed doing in the building. I was basically an IT tech in there but I'm an old TV type techie. As such, as well as doing the desktop support, I repaired any electronic item which went faulty to component level if necessary. I used to repair the PC motherboards as well as the LCD monitors. I also looked after and repaired all the AV kit. I also used to repair electrical items and as a qualified PAT tester was able to also certify the repairs. I could and did make things as required. I had a full technical workshop in the building which I ran.

I have now been transferred to an office after having been told that the University doesn't need technicians like me anymore; there's no point repairing things because the the policy of the University is to just replace things if they go wrong. They are only interested in my IT skills and my PAT test abilities so that I can PAT test all the IT equipment in the section of the University where I work. I now hear that my workshop is to be destroyed and converted into a cinema room and I have been given a time by which it must be cleared.

I have gone from a highly motivated person who looked forward to going work every day to one who simply turns up, puts in his 7.5hrs a day and then goes home. I'm just waiting until I can get my pension...I'm hoping that they will be offering packages in due course. And then I hear employers saying that they can't find skilled people!!

TimR

[boxdoctor]

My experiences were similar to Peter N. I left school with a basic knowledge of electronics, and landed a job in a service department doing all the radio repairs unsupervised and 'off my own bat' so to speak. One thing Peter did'nt mention (or possibly he was more fortunate than myself) was the unbelieveably poor pay at that time, even for seasoned engineers. Maybe the the mists of time have sweetened the memories.
The real problem is that engineers and engineering of all types is looked down on by the media people, mainly because they have not the brains to understand what it is all about. Thus young people are not encouraged go into these types of jobs - its not "glamourous" - and you could get your hands dirty! Tony

[mark_in_manc]

TimR - same story in my university. We subvert the system by mending things on the quiet, but the way the game works, brownie points are scored by winning big external funding grants for major capital spend, not by keeping good, old gear working. So, our thrift is a quiet act of rebellion, and appreciated by no-one but ourselves.

More on-topic, BEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering disappeared here some time ago, and I am not at all surprised to hear companies cannot recruit. I am depressed but not surprised that your workshop will be replaced by video facilities - there are 'audio and video' courses here which contain no maths, practical electronics, or anything else which I recognise. This would be OK I guess if they were badged 'BA', but they are BSc awards. Strange times.

[Peter.N.]

Tony.

I started work in London for a year and for that including the daily commute I received the princely some of £3.00 per week. I then got a job in the TV shop just round the corner to where I lived at £5.00 per week, which wasn't bad for a 16 year old, in addition to this I was building up my own customer base for evening work which probably doubled my income, this was common practise for most of the engineers I knew.

If you saw a teenage driving his own car in the '50s the chances were he was a TV engineer.. The trade was good in the early days, peaking probably in the '70s but went slowly and then rapidly downhill after that as the much more reliable transistor sets replaced the valve ones and then the prices fell dramatically.

Peter

[Nuvistor]

Obviously you had London weighting on your wage, mine was £2 and 5shillings.
Yes the 50's, 60 and 70's were good after that it went down hill, I got out of the trade 1981. Looking back, for me it was the right thing to do, I still was fixing things but they were mini computers and disk drives the size of washing machines etc.
Frank

[evingar]

Yep, the writing was on the wall by the early 80s.

I never worked full time in the consumer repair business - I was trained by a Broadcast equipment company and my working life up to a week or so ago was largely in that industry (I start work at a scientific research establishment on the 6th May).

I did though repair consumer equipment as a part time sideline in the 80s. Paradoxically, for a time, the fall in new equipment prices benefited this part time operation. Because I had no real costs, I could pick up repairs that were refused as uneconomical from commercial repair outfits as well as cater for my traditional "friends and family" customer base. After a while though it became a joke even for me - on the basis that as an "20 something" I had better things to do with my evenings and weekends than repair equipment for a practically non existent hourly rate.

It never ceased to amaze me how long some commercial repair outfits struggled on for. The last to go were undoubtedly the older engineers that had freehold premises that were paid off years before in the "good days".

[toshiba tony]

Anyone know of any high bridges in or around Manchester, is it really that hopeless. I've heard of companies going under because of lack of work, BUT TOO MUCH!!!!!!
We had an artic of new goods delivered this morning, getting another tomorrow, and I'm the only engineer here, we have loads of pimply horrible brain dead minors testing them but whatever they fail comes to me.
Anyway, my jobs safe, unless ??

[steviewonder]

A high possibility I can help out here Tony. Will send PM shortly.

Best wishes for the mo, Steve.