I will preface this with a rant. I got employed at a Wastewater Treatment plant September of last year. Even though I have an Associates Degree in Process Technology, they refused to hire me in as a TPO1, and made me start as a trainee. The pay sucked, but it was a really easy job and most days/nights was legitimately just sitting around reading or playing on my phone after I did my rounds and samples for the day. They promised me after 6 months I could move to TPO1 (pay still kind of sucks, but it doesn't suck as bad) and again, the job was easy and allowed me plenty of time off (6 months on 6 months off essentially). I learned a lot of the plant very quickly, before my probation was over I was fully trained on 3 areas (out of 4), and I knew a bit about the 4th area. Considering many of the current employees were trained on 1-2 areas tops, even after being employed there for years, I thought I'd have no issues getting a raise. Well, the plant ended up getting privatized due to 'lack of competence', which I can't say I disagree with as I previously mentioned no one there cared about training more than the bare minimum. Due to this, everything is in a state of being frozen. No one can move up and no one knows what is going to happen with our jobs. I've already been putting in applications, but in the meantime I am working for a few dollars less an hour than my coworkers who for the most part know 1/3 of what I do and barely do that (which is compounded when factoring in OT hours). Now my supervisor is telling me he'll have to be more strict going forward cause the outside company is coming in to 'watch and learn', and we need to “be prepared to come in and work a full shift or we will be written up”. I refuse. I am not going to bust my ass to make anyone look good to our replacements. I already refused to train any further when I was told I can't move up. I'll find a quiet place to hide with my kindle and phone during the day, if they need me they can call me on the radio. I feel for the guy cause he's vested 23 years and needs to make 25 to get his full retirement, so he's kind of between a rock and a hard place. However, I am not vested. I don't care, let the place burn (metaphorically).
And now for some fears. I received my Associates last year. I performed well. I have background experience in the field from a prior pipefitting position. I know how the crap works, I'm passionate about learning, but I just can't find work. I am so sick of it. I put out application after application. I either don't hear back, or it's a bait and switch. FFS, I placed an application for a job titled “Plant Operator Custodial”. I wondered, “WTF does that mean?” But I placed the application anyway. They got back to me and prefaced the conversation with “BTW, this isn't a plant operator job at all. It's a janitor position for a High School.” What the actual f***. Like what is the point in this blatant bait and switch? Told them I wasn't even remotely interested, that kind of job posting is misleading and blatantly in bad taste, and hung up. I just want to take care of my family. I have a wife and kids, wife is a GIS specialist with a PHD and ten years of experience in her field and gets paid 'well', which is still, IMO, way lower than she deserves. I don't know anyone who is a harder worker than my wife, but it took her 2 years of constantly applying to find work, and the first job that got back to her was an entry level position barely making 20 an hour. After working so long to get ANY job, when another company got back to her with a better position (better pay, better area, better growth potential, better everything) she was so damn scared to take it and lose her current piece of crap job that she hesitated until I talked her into it. She is much happier at the new place and like I said she has potential to move up to being the manager/assistant manager in the department (though as I said she deserves better pay considering how much work she does). I'm just so fearful for the future. I want my kids to be happy. I want my wife to be happy. They are my world, they are the reason I can go on day after day, but I am so scared about what each new day will bring to my family and what the future in general is going to look like.
Maybe I just wanted to get all this of my chest. Maybe someone may have some advice (though it really seems like getting a job in the Plant field is about 'who you know'). I did the associates degree program with mostly kids straight out of HS (I'm in my early 30s). Most of these kids barely knew one end of a wrench from another and had no idea how pressure and temperature are related. Yet many of them had or got jobs after the program because of their family connections. One kid I knew got a job at a major plant even though he was so slow at what he did and his lack of comprehension was so bad that every instructor didn't believe he could ever work in a plant. This kid obviously had a mental impairment of some kind, which is fine, I'm not bashing him for it. But considering while working in a process plant that a process can get out of hand in the blink of an eye and if something isn't done about it can have repercussions which could possibly kill hundreds if not thousands of people, he shouldn't be working in a critical environment. However, because his dad works for a major plant he got in there, so this guy who took 5+ minutes to answer a question regarding the simplest points of process technology and then needed confirmation several times about what the correct answer was/wasn't is working in a petrochemical plant where a fire or explosion can level 2+ square miles of a town. Other guys working there were already apprentices at well known plants and spent their classes sleeping/playing in the back of the classroom, and were also unable to answer simple questions or run simple programs.
That's about all I have to say. Rant over I guess. I have an interview Tuesday and it pays better than my current job. I'll keep putting out applications and hope to find something better though, but I'm so tired of it all and so worried about it all. Good luck to everyone in similar positions.