this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
116 points (97.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26753 readers
1881 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Also, how did you get into it, and what sort of education or certifications (if any) did you need?

And if you were to get into the same niche today, would you? (And in some cases--COULD you, or has the door closed?)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm a designer, which is a well-known profession, but I design substations, which almost no one I've run into has heard of.

Substations are like giant jungle-gyms for electricity. They're a grouping of electric structures that transfer high-voltage electricity to low-voltage, or low voltage to high voltage. They're a major part of our electricity distribution system. You drive by at least one every day, most likely.

I got into it by chance. Right place, right time. I went back to school and got my AS in drafting for industrial design and manufacturing. I applied to this job on accident, thinking it was for manufacturing, then when I was offered an interview, accepted it despite the mixup. Why not? They offered about double what other jobs were for a drafter, so I took it.

8 months into the job, a designer position opened up, so I interviewed for that and got the promption!

Door is still wide open, despite the general idea that drafters are becoming less of a demand. Based on my experience, they're sorely needed, especially for civil jobs. Also I get paid higher than a friend of mine who got her masters in interior architecture (also a drafting/design gig), with just my AS. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. Totally worth it.

[–] IonAddis@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

My school dropped their computer aided drafting degree due to (I think) Covid making instructors impossible to find.

So I've a half-done drafting degree, and naturally places like yours won't touch me, heh. Gonna have to redo a bunch of credits.

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Doesn't your country just have a few standard designs you just copy/paste everywhere?

[–] Natanael 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even with standard components, you're still dealing with a wide variety of different sized city blocks with different types of buildings and industries, different grid layouts, etc. You also have to plan for potential future changes in load. Even if you have a large part you can copy-paste you still need to check all requirements and design the interconnections

[–] Aux@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

I see. It's just that here in the UK a lot of infrastructure like that is literally just copy paste boxes. I'm from a xUSSR country originally and there all the infrastructure is just factory built all the same stuff. Something custom is super rare. I guess everyone knows copy pasted Soviet house blocks, so yeah, infrastructure is the same.