Exactly where I am and doing exactly what I do.
I am certified by The National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies as a Level IV technician in the field of "Fire Protection Engineering Technology - Water Based Layout" which is a fancy way of saying I design fire sprinkler systems for buildings. The National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies is a Division of the National Society of Professional Engineers.
I've spoken of what I do here before and if you haven't read any of them then I doubt you have any clue such a career field exists. According to the registry there were 3,006 certified technicians nationally of as of July 31,2015. That is an average of 60 per state. Yeah, that is one out of 107,322 people in the United States so it shouldn't be a huge surprise that you haven't heard of us.
In the United States there aren't any schools that teach this; we are all industry trained and with the cost of training a new technician, which I would conservatively put at $40,000 for the first year, there is very little going on in the way of training which results in a severe shortage of qualified people that is about to get a whole lot worse.
In Georgia, which I would say represents the rest of the country, the median age of senior level technicians is 61 years old while the median age of fully certified technicians is 55 while only 20% are under 45 years of age. There is panic in the industry because they know a tsunami of retirements are coming but nobody knows how to fix it.
I think we are the last field where a college degree isn't required and the fact is most of us have but high school but, seeing how old we all are, it isn't a surprise that we came from an era where college... well... you could be successful without.
A little but here is a snip from the latest
2010 salary survey with a graphic at the top showing levels of education. Since this came out salaries have increased.
Where else can a high school graduate earn $60 to $80k in flyover country, one can live pretty well in rural Georgia on $70k, with 15 years experience? In addition to pay they all come with benefits... it is the nature of the industry.
With 15 to 19 years experience, in a field where experience is practically everything, pay is pretty close to where the median pay between holders of a bachelors and masters degree.
Huge shortage; I'm 67 and in the past year received three unsolicited job offers. Job security is 100% and I can not imagine how badly someone would have to screw up to get let go. Getting let go isn't going to happen because everyone knows an unemployed technician can find another job within 48 hours and it is just that tight and it is going to get tighter.
Oh, the industry is dominated by men (93%) but women (7%) are paid more. Go figure. I wish more ladies would be interested because it would be a perfect career. Yes, telecommute is very possible.
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