anyone use Aerotek?

[TXengrChickPE]

I'm starting to look around to see what's available job-wise. I've been doing petro-chem here in Houston for the past 2 years. The pay is great, but I'm really not loving the "cookie-cutter" jobs we seem to be doing. A lot of the listings I'm finding are through Aerotek.

I am not against going the contract route, my insurance is all through hubby's work and we are just about at the point where my not having work for a few months at a time wouldn't hurt too bad.

My biggest issue with looking at the listings is that I can't tell where the job is actually located. I'd rather keep my current position w/ a half-hour commute than take anything with a significantly longer commute.

So any experiences w/ contract work in general? or with Aerotek specifically?

 

[wilheldp_PE]

My experience with Aerotek is that they suck complete ass. I believe they are being sued in Texas for providing "engineering" services without PEs, or something to that effect. I personally wouldn't work for them if they were the last employer on earth, but your mileage may vary.

 

[frazil]

lol...so how do you really feel wilheldp?

 

[wilheldp_PE]

lol...so how do you really feel wilheldp?

I never was one to mask my feelings.

 

[Dexman1349]

Don't let Aerotek get ahold of any of your information if you cherish it at all. They managed to get ahold of my phone number, e-mail address and resume. I was getting 3-4 phone calls and e-mails a week for some of the stupidest shit you could imagine. I eventually had to block their number and get a new email account in order for them to leave me alone.

<--- Thinks aerotek is the worst company on the planet

 

[Slugger926]

My experience with Aerotek is that they suck complete ass. I believe they are being sued in Texas for providing "engineering" services without PEs, or something to that effect. I personally wouldn't work for them if they were the last employer on earth, but your mileage may vary.

They have been reported in OK for providing engineering services in the past without proper licensing. They are not a temp agency.

My company has used them for "engineering", and they just pick guys up off of the street from no college degree or background, to "english major". ARGHhhhh... On top of that, it costs more for unexperienced help than it does to go hire a new college engineering grad. Back when new grads would be payed $40K, Aerotek would charge $70K or $80K, and pay their person around $10 an hour.

If I was forced to use a temp service, I would recruite my own new grad engineer from a college, and then run them through Kelly Services. Kelly would only mark-up 5% on the sallary if we recruited the engineer, and the engineer reported directly to us rather than Kelly unlike the Aerotek arangement.

Companies are trying to get out of paying layoff packages if they are not sure they need the headcount for the long term, so they are using services like Aerotek. They don't want to use confirmed engineering firms because of the assumed costs (they may not be more expensive). They don't want to recruit an engineer, and run them through a temp agency like Kelly since several companies have been hit for lawsuits for severnce packages and benefits when they were temporary for 3 plus years.

 

[TXengrChickPE]

so, I've got my PE and 6yrs of experience. how do I get into contract work? are there reputable companies that place licensed engineers?

 

[MEPE2B]

so, I've got my PE and 6yrs of experience. how do I get into contract work? are there reputable companies that place licensed engineers?

I spent a few years doing contract work, had no problems with the agencies I used, and the pay was top-notch. Most of my contract time, I worked through an agency called Universal Resources (universaljobs.com), which is excellent and really looks after it's talent. They staff mostly in the Atlanta and Birmingham areas, though occasionally they will have an opportunity in Texas or elsewhere.

Another agency is Think (thinkjobs.com). I worked only a short time through Think, but I had a good experience with them. Think places engineers all over the country, and most likely will have something fairly close to you.

Think does alot in the power segment, which might be worth a try for you if you are getting bored in petro-chem jobs. Engineering for power plants is not suffering the slowdown right now that some other segments are seeing. The work is diverse and interesting, the pay is good, and the outlook is excellent.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

Another agency is Think (thinkjobs.com). I worked only a short time through Think, but I had a good experience with them. Think places engineers all over the country, and most likely will have something fairly close to you.
Think does alot in the power segment, which might be worth a try for you if you are getting bored in petro-chem jobs. Engineering for power plants is not suffering the slowdown right now that some other segments are seeing. The work is diverse and interesting, the pay is good, and the outlook is excellent.

That's interesting. I got a job offer at a company with Think Resource Group being the headhunter. So are they both a recruiting and a contracting firm?

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

I'm starting to look around to see what's available job-wise. I've been doing petro-chem here in Houston for the past 2 years. The pay is great, but I'm really not loving the "cookie-cutter" jobs we seem to be doing.

"cookie-cutter" stuff is about the only thing we let our contract people do. If you're interested in more diverse projects, look for a smaller consulting company.

 

[Casey]

I'm starting to look around to see what's available job-wise. I've been doing petro-chem here in Houston for the past 2 years. The pay is great, but I'm really not loving the "cookie-cutter" jobs we seem to be doing.

As someone else that works in the oil and gas industry, I am curious as to which industry you would like to move to find "more interesting" work. What are you looking for? And from what I have heard from other people, beware of architects!

I do agree that most of the design is fairly boring and cookie cutter. I try to make things more interesting by slacking off for weeks at a time and then when the deadline is about one or two weeks away I do a mad scramble to finish everything as soon as possible... This usually doesn't go well with the managers and drafters.

 

[TXengrChickPE]

As someone else that works in the oil and gas industry, I am curious as to which industry you would like to move to find "more interesting" work. What are you looking for?

I'm not sure... I guess that's part of my problem. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

 

[snickerd3]

I'm not sure... I guess that's part of my problem. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up!

Me too!

 

[Mike1144]

I got my current job through Aerotek. I never worked for Aerotek however. They contacted me based on my Monster.com profile. I interviewed with them, and then I interviewed with the employer.

I will agree they "suck ass". I don't feel they helped me at all in getting the job. Their screening process was 100% useless as well. When they asked me about my structural engineering experience I told them I had done a lot of work with curtain wall systems, specifically the anchoring of them to the building. The guy then asked me if i did anything with shower curtains and folding partition walls.

I then explained that a "curtain wall" is a glass or other non structural wall that is typically used in high rise construction, not the privacy curtain found around hospital beds.

 

[chaosiscash]

If you're thinking about going the contract route (which I highly suggest), you can try roadtechs.com (formerly roadwhore.com). They have a petrochem section. I've talked with Aerotek before, but they tend to try to lowball us nukeworkers, and they usually don't get very far.

Just be prepared for passive agressive animosity from the direct employees.

 

[Mike in Gastonia]

Just be prepared for passive agressive animosity from the direct employees.

That's classic!

I worked for Bechtel right out of school and they "loaned" about 10 of us to Duke Power in Charlotte to work on some projects. We found out later that the Duke office manager called all of the women of the office in and told them to stay away from us, as we were "temporary, contract engineers".......

 

[TXengrChickPE]

formerly roadwhore.com

really? their website was roadwhore.com? :blink:

somehow that doesn't give me a good feeling about working for them...

 

[Flyer_PE]

^^That really was the name of the web site in the late 90's. I don't know who actually owned the site but it was a place where people in need of contract engineering help posted the jobs. I was only aware of its use in the nuclear industry but it would seem to apply to others.

The contract engineers that came through working the refuel outages were referred to as road whores. They changed the name a few years ago when the IT departments started preventing access to sites based on key words.

 

[chaosiscash]

^^ exactly. roadwhore is just contractor slang for traveling nuke workers (outages and whatnot). But roadtechs has expanded into petro and other areas.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I never was one to mask my feelings.

But were you ever one to feel your mask?