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None wht so ever
Paid to travel
- Thread starter strantor
- Start date
I insist in my question: on a platform or ashore?
GetDeviceInfo
- Joined Jun 7, 2009
- 2,284
not very romantic sitting topdrive in the middle of nowhere, but good luck in your future ventures.
Who said anything about romance? Are you suggesting to working professionals can not "meet"?
As far as being "in the middle of nowhere", you can bet those interested in romantic relationships ... Male and Female ... have pursued a relationship "in the middle of nowhere."
GetDeviceInfo
- Joined Jun 7, 2009
- 2,284
Doesn't sound romantic anyway you shake it.
So, I guess an update is in order.
Days spent OCONUS since 6/14/14: 0
Things didn't turn out quite as planned.
My new employer made it sound as if I were desperately needed in Korea the day after yesterday. He made it seem as if my honoring the traditional "2 weeks notice" with my previous employer was an imposition. So the day I signed the offer letter, I put in my 2 weeks, and showed up day #15 at my new job. Received my hard hat, coveralls, laptop, camera, etc. I was told to go home and check my email throughout the day every day and keep abreast of the reports coming in from my colleagues in Korea, so that after my travel arrangements were complete and I showed up in Korea, I would have a clue what we were in the middle of.
So 2 weeks later I'm still sitting at home, charging as many hours per day as I feel borderline guilty for charging for "reviewing commissioning documents" (about 2-3hrs/day). I kept asking if/when they would update the online calendar to reflect my rotation in Korea; never got a substantial answer.
So I hit the streets looking for work, to pay the bills while I wait for this nebulous korea trip to sneak up on me. I used to be self employed, and I never dissolved my business, so technically I'm still self employed. I have a business tax ID, $2M General Liability, etc. I got into this place, a start-up operation recently purchased by a larger corporation (a technology-buy), that had been having DeviceNet issues with a prototype subsea saw machine for weeks and couldn't get it figured out. I figured it out in about an hour, and they asked if I could stick around for their first function test of the saw, in case any more bugs crept up. That test was a soup sandwich.
That was 5 weeks ago. I've been there every working day since, redesigning the entire control system from the ground up, because it was designed by a team of imbeciles, all working in different countries and not speaking to each other. There were 12V valve coils being energized by 24V, PER DESIGN, shown in the electrical schematics that way. There were hydraulic drain lines connected to pressure lines PER DESIGN, shown in the hydraulic schematics that way. The default failure mode for just about anything but a complete loss of power, was runaway operation, because they used 0-10V proportional hydraulic valves (5V= center, closed), which spool full blast in one direction when the signal drops to 0. The "Emergency stop" button was not wired to anything but a PLC input, which sent a 5V reference to the valves to center them, you know, as long as there were good comms and power and no actual emergency. The PLC programming was sub-amateur. The design was negligent, and minimalist to extent that it impossible to operate.
In these past 5 weeks, my "actual employer" has contacted me on a handful of occasions, to ask if I could "attend a Factory Acceptance Test today @ 3PM" (at noon), or "go to a commissioning planning meeting and take notes, first thing tomorrow morning" (at 6PM). Each time I turned them down, saying I had a previous engagement.
So 3 weeks ago I finally see my name on the calendar to depart to Korea Aug 1st, and I informed my client that I would be leaving the country. Then it changed to Aug 7th, and I updated my client. Then Aug 9th, and I decided against providing any further updates to my client. Then the 12th, then back to the 9th. So I contacted my "boss" and asked if the schedule would change again and he said no. So I updated my client. Then my name disappeared from the calendar completely, replaced by "XXXXXX - Relieve Winters in Korea" So I called and asked WTF and they put my name back in the blank. Then next day it's gone again, so I sent a passionate email explaining my situation and about how they were making me look like an ashoole to my client, and I asked for a CONCRETE day of departure and was told that I wasn't qualified to go to Korea yet since I had missed those "training experiences" that I had turned down, and that they were moving me to September rotation.
Roger that. I dropped a hint to my client (we were quite cordial by this point); "You should just get me a desk plaque made. You would save a lot of money by offering me a big fat salary." - and what do you know, the next day I had an offer letter in hand. We talked seriously about it, and we both agreed that as balls-deep as I am in this saw project, I'm the most logical choice to be the first one to operate it on location. I'm the only person in the world who knows how it works and could troubleshoot it efficiently on-site, and having me on the team would prevent them having to outsource all the various aspects of future design to a multitude of different companies as was the disastrous case here. There's no more-informed person to train future operators and technicians.
I made a counter-offer and they've been sitting on it the past few days. Not sure how long they plan to incubate that thing, but I hope it's about 2 more weeks and then they accept. Or they might not accept, but if they don't, I see plenty of repeat business with them in my future.
I'm not sure if it is written anywhere in stone that "to be an actual Engineer you must have an actual Engineering Degree" but I sure feel like I'm an engineer right now, you know, as I'm wrapping up this project where I single-handedly ENGINEERED a control system for a cutting-edge (pun intended) technology.
Anyway, that's what's up with me these days. I haven't been on the forum because I have been working my butt off, and I don't see myself slowing down for at least another month. When things settle down, I'll be back.
Thanks for listening.
-Strantor
Days spent OCONUS since 6/14/14: 0
Things didn't turn out quite as planned.
My new employer made it sound as if I were desperately needed in Korea the day after yesterday. He made it seem as if my honoring the traditional "2 weeks notice" with my previous employer was an imposition. So the day I signed the offer letter, I put in my 2 weeks, and showed up day #15 at my new job. Received my hard hat, coveralls, laptop, camera, etc. I was told to go home and check my email throughout the day every day and keep abreast of the reports coming in from my colleagues in Korea, so that after my travel arrangements were complete and I showed up in Korea, I would have a clue what we were in the middle of.
So 2 weeks later I'm still sitting at home, charging as many hours per day as I feel borderline guilty for charging for "reviewing commissioning documents" (about 2-3hrs/day). I kept asking if/when they would update the online calendar to reflect my rotation in Korea; never got a substantial answer.
So I hit the streets looking for work, to pay the bills while I wait for this nebulous korea trip to sneak up on me. I used to be self employed, and I never dissolved my business, so technically I'm still self employed. I have a business tax ID, $2M General Liability, etc. I got into this place, a start-up operation recently purchased by a larger corporation (a technology-buy), that had been having DeviceNet issues with a prototype subsea saw machine for weeks and couldn't get it figured out. I figured it out in about an hour, and they asked if I could stick around for their first function test of the saw, in case any more bugs crept up. That test was a soup sandwich.
That was 5 weeks ago. I've been there every working day since, redesigning the entire control system from the ground up, because it was designed by a team of imbeciles, all working in different countries and not speaking to each other. There were 12V valve coils being energized by 24V, PER DESIGN, shown in the electrical schematics that way. There were hydraulic drain lines connected to pressure lines PER DESIGN, shown in the hydraulic schematics that way. The default failure mode for just about anything but a complete loss of power, was runaway operation, because they used 0-10V proportional hydraulic valves (5V= center, closed), which spool full blast in one direction when the signal drops to 0. The "Emergency stop" button was not wired to anything but a PLC input, which sent a 5V reference to the valves to center them, you know, as long as there were good comms and power and no actual emergency. The PLC programming was sub-amateur. The design was negligent, and minimalist to extent that it impossible to operate.
In these past 5 weeks, my "actual employer" has contacted me on a handful of occasions, to ask if I could "attend a Factory Acceptance Test today @ 3PM" (at noon), or "go to a commissioning planning meeting and take notes, first thing tomorrow morning" (at 6PM). Each time I turned them down, saying I had a previous engagement.
So 3 weeks ago I finally see my name on the calendar to depart to Korea Aug 1st, and I informed my client that I would be leaving the country. Then it changed to Aug 7th, and I updated my client. Then Aug 9th, and I decided against providing any further updates to my client. Then the 12th, then back to the 9th. So I contacted my "boss" and asked if the schedule would change again and he said no. So I updated my client. Then my name disappeared from the calendar completely, replaced by "XXXXXX - Relieve Winters in Korea" So I called and asked WTF and they put my name back in the blank. Then next day it's gone again, so I sent a passionate email explaining my situation and about how they were making me look like an ashoole to my client, and I asked for a CONCRETE day of departure and was told that I wasn't qualified to go to Korea yet since I had missed those "training experiences" that I had turned down, and that they were moving me to September rotation.
Roger that. I dropped a hint to my client (we were quite cordial by this point); "You should just get me a desk plaque made. You would save a lot of money by offering me a big fat salary." - and what do you know, the next day I had an offer letter in hand. We talked seriously about it, and we both agreed that as balls-deep as I am in this saw project, I'm the most logical choice to be the first one to operate it on location. I'm the only person in the world who knows how it works and could troubleshoot it efficiently on-site, and having me on the team would prevent them having to outsource all the various aspects of future design to a multitude of different companies as was the disastrous case here. There's no more-informed person to train future operators and technicians.
I made a counter-offer and they've been sitting on it the past few days. Not sure how long they plan to incubate that thing, but I hope it's about 2 more weeks and then they accept. Or they might not accept, but if they don't, I see plenty of repeat business with them in my future.
I'm not sure if it is written anywhere in stone that "to be an actual Engineer you must have an actual Engineering Degree" but I sure feel like I'm an engineer right now, you know, as I'm wrapping up this project where I single-handedly ENGINEERED a control system for a cutting-edge (pun intended) technology.
Anyway, that's what's up with me these days. I haven't been on the forum because I have been working my butt off, and I don't see myself slowing down for at least another month. When things settle down, I'll be back.
Thanks for listening.
-Strantor
Last edited:
Haha yeah not the same people, but definitely cut from the same cloth. Unfortunately I know too well who designed the saw control system. It's an old cantankerous fart in Norway who on day one, insisted on peering over my shoulder from across the globe through TeamViewer and Skype. Within 15 minutes I had already pulled the plug on him. Before I had even had a chance to look at the code, he was already critiquing the way I configuring the software display layout. Since then he's been pestering my client to reconnect TeamViewer and send him the updated program. Me and the client are in agreement that having him involved will only slow down progress, as he will fight against every change I make and just cause lots of drama in general. I feel for him though; I would be very depressed if someone cut me out of the loop and started altering my work. But you gotta do what you gotta do.Fascinating! I'm sure you've wondered at times if your new "Korea dangling" employer is the same outfit that did the "system engineering" on the saw.
Thanks! I feel like I'm doing fairly well on my own; charging my client almost as much as my attorney charges me, but who knows, if I had an agent, ...
I wonder how I would go about finding an agent. I wouldn't even know what/who to look for. Do you have any ideas/search terms in mind?
Agent? For engineers? Currently are called temporary employment agencies, tech force, manpower, ...
Not a bad idea for real experts though.
There is a technical consulting company called GLG. They have a huge list of technical experts. When one of their clients says, I need to talk to an expert that know about X, Y or Z, they can set up a 2-hour call in a few hours to a few days. I really mean experts. Former employees of your competitors in some cases. Because of non-compete agreements, the conversations can be limited in certain areas but, if you know nothing about a particular field, these guys can find someone with plenty of information at 'those knowledgable in the field' of X, Y or Z can quickly get you up to speed in what is considered "publicly available information".
I spoke to a few of the consultants off-the-clock about how the process works. They put their name in (or they were recruited to put their name in) at GLG and they occasionally get a call. They make good coin when the calls come but it can be a while between calls. The good ones definately get follow up calls. We request refunds on some bad ones.
Not a bad idea for real experts though.
There is a technical consulting company called GLG. They have a huge list of technical experts. When one of their clients says, I need to talk to an expert that know about X, Y or Z, they can set up a 2-hour call in a few hours to a few days. I really mean experts. Former employees of your competitors in some cases. Because of non-compete agreements, the conversations can be limited in certain areas but, if you know nothing about a particular field, these guys can find someone with plenty of information at 'those knowledgable in the field' of X, Y or Z can quickly get you up to speed in what is considered "publicly available information".
I spoke to a few of the consultants off-the-clock about how the process works. They put their name in (or they were recruited to put their name in) at GLG and they occasionally get a call. They make good coin when the calls come but it can be a while between calls. The good ones definately get follow up calls. We request refunds on some bad ones.
