How to get a construction or maintenance job in the Wind Industry in Australia.

I get a bit of traffic here from people looking for a way into the industry as turbine technician. Now unfortunately it’s not a great time to be doing this in Australia – the industry is pretty flat, and has been for a couple of years. There are jobs around right now, but not a lot of them, and they are pretty much all regional, with limited fly in/fly out opportunities at present.

I should start by saying that there are two distinct paths into the industry, and two quite different jobs – construction and then maintenance.

Construction jobs are at the front end – the building of the farms, and so this work is reliant on the industry actually building new farms. But once there are farms being built, this is the easiest way into the industry for someone without wind turbine specific skills and knowledge. Wind farm construction needs civil crews to build the roads, crane crews to assemble the components, electricians to wire up the components and put together the substation / balance of plant, and plenty of trade assistants to help those guys get it done. There are plenty of guys who now have solid long term jobs in the industry who came first to wind farms through a trade assistant job in the civil or crane crews on a construction project. So this is the best way to get in if you are not an electrician or have a mechanical trade – find yourself a construction project and get on a crew. As I said, there is not much around at present, so the best thing to do would be to watch the industry press for any new projects, and then contact the construction company involved to try to get on.

The other site based jobs available in the wind industry are of course the operations and maintenance roles. These are a little tougher to get, as generally there are fewer low skilled jobs in this area. These jobs involve doing the scheduled servicing of the wind turbines (three or four days every six months), and then responding to breakdowns and getting the turbines going again if there are problems. Some turbines (particularly newer ones) are more reliable than others, so wind farms can need a rough ratio of one technician to every 5-8 turbines on a farm.

Wind farm operations and maintenance companies are overwhelmingly looking for qualified tradespeople, particularly electrical and mechanical trades. If you have one of these and you live reasonably close to a wind farm, it shouldn’t be too hard to get a start. The living close is important, because operators often want locals, who are more likely to stick at the job. So if you have a trade and live near a wind farm, you can just do some research to find out who the maintenance team work for, and get in touch with them.

If you don’t have a trade, it will be a little bit harder. Most wind farm operators will take on technicians without a trade, but would always take a tradesperson first. Your best if you have no trade and want to get into the industry would be to try to get a job on a construction project, and then show that you work hard and are capable with engines. The profile that operators will look for is someone who has messed around a lot with engines and machinery, maybe a farmer or a mechanic who has a bit of general industrial experience.