That's what entry level engineers used to do at power plants. You get assigned jobs that force you to go out there and get dirty as hell. In the mid 90s, factoring in OT, I was grossing a little over 100k in years with both a Spring and Fall refuel outage. You work enough consecutive 12-hour days and you can put a little in the bank. Life was pretty much work-sleep-repeat but the money was good.
Working that much OT for only 100k is not really that much money (maybe it was better money in the very early 90's), now if that was your base 40 hr pay and you raked in over 200k in OT then we would be talking (like mechanical designers make on big projects with all there 1.5 OT 60-80 hrs a week), otherwise I would just take the 40 hr office job and take the 20k pay cut. I generally dislike any sort of field work and have never worked in the field, I was hoping utilities work had office based engineering work as well.
Utilities do have office based engineering. What most people are describing is power generation work. I work on the distribution side which is regulated in the state I work in. However, I do have to go out into the field but not as much as others are describing. I work in substation engineering doing structural and geotech work. The amount of time I spend in the field depends on on a lot of things. If I did a good job designing/engineering then I won't have that many field visits and also smaller substations are usually built with less hickups. For example I tend to do few field visits for our standard distribution 34-13kv substations but alot more for anything 115kV and above. We do not have 69kV in case anyone is wondering. So I would say on average I go out in the field 1-2 times a week or 10% of my time. The pay is good and so is the atmosphere and the work life balance (in most instances). The only thing that I dislike is the storm duty. I am on call 2 weeks out of a 9 week rotation period. If a storm hits the system and cause a lot of outages then the storm crew is mobilized. My storm assignment is a patroller. To sum it up I look for downed wires and assess storm damage. It is not engineering work and I get paid a flat rate for anything above 40 hrs which is less then what I make an hour. That is the only instance in which I can make OT since I am a salaried employee. When a storm hits its all hands on deck. Yes I do hate working storm but its a necessary evil.
Everyone has to pay their dues. Also going out into the field is part of engineering. You have to be able to build a raport with the crews where they respect you and trust you. Their lives are in your hands. If you do not have that respect you will not go far. Utilities are all about teamwork and having the Utility mindset. Its tough to even get an interview. I know first hand that after interviews hiring managers and HR ask themselves "Will this person fit in?" You do get paid well but the people who they look for are not motivated solely by money.
