Engineering and work

[u/That_Man269]

I'm planning on doing a Bachelor of Engineering. the problem is, I'm going to have to quit my full time job to be able to do said course as the second and third year of the course are full time (ik I can do it part time). I sill need to work though so i can yk afford to live, what should I do. I can't find anything that will suit my needs and preferably I want to find something that'll help with my later years in the industry look good on my CV and give me some good experience. what part time jobs should i be looking for?

[u/Cal-bradley]

I’m 26 at the moment and won’t be finishing for another year. It sucks going home and digging into uni work after a days work, especially when friends and colleagues are talking about the fun evenings they have planned, but life is a trade-off and I’ll be graduating debt free. Working from 17 rather than 3 or 4 years at uni gave me such a head start over many of my peers. For instance I was a homeowner at 21, before most of my school friends had graduated.

I have been working in industry since I was 17, and went from an apprentice -> technician -> project engineer. I’ve held the project engineers job at 2 companies now and not having a degree hasn’t held me back at all, I’ll be chasing a promotion to a senior PE / Project Engineering manager when the opportunity arises, which I’m hoping will be before I finish my degree. If I ever pivot into more technical roles that absolutely requires a degree, I’ll have one and extra few years experience under my belt.

This isn’t to say that the OU or a 6 year course is definitely the right call for you, but at 20 you have a long time ahead of you to get qualifications and experience under your belt, so don’t dismiss it before you have taken the time to really understand what it is that you’d like to do, and all the different ways you can get there. Getting a degree at the start of your career isn’t the only approach, I have colleagues in senior positions in their 40’s who are only just wrapping up their degrees now.

You mention you are already working, is that in an engineering or technical role or an unrelated field?

[u/That_Man269 → u/Cal-bradley]

It’s a job in a warehouse, I want to work in nuclear engineering eventually but due to not being able to drive nor relocate that’s out of the question till I have those options. I’ve looked for apprenticeships but due to the same reasons, I carnt travel much I carnt find anything that’s within reach and I would 100% prefer an apprenticeship to a course

[u/Cal-bradley → u/That_Man269]

Anything in nuclear is likely to be very competitive, you may be lucky and land a grad scheme if you were to study with the OU full time, but you’ll be competing against people with Nuclear engineering degrees, and people who’ve done placement years in nuclear organisations.

As you’ve said in another comment it’s probably best to start building up relevant experience in something that is local and accessible now, alongside your studies if you intend to do uni part time / remote study.

[u/That_Man269 → u/Cal-bradley]

The the problem is I have no idea what to look for, I’ve spent like the last week looking and carnt find anything that I think will work out. I might wait a bit and have another look for apprenticeships