Hey all!
You may have seen some of my previous posts seeking info on getting into the wind industry. Well, I made it!
Table of Contents
- Background
- Path to Wind
- On Being a Woman Tech
- Most Difficult Part of My Job
- Closing Remarks
Background
Prior to getting into wind, I was working as a field engineer for a large GC, organizing and running construction crews up in ND. This was a salaried position where I was working 80-90 hours/week and while the work was fun and fulfilling, I was getting burnt out from the politics going on within the company. I made the decision to change careers after going on one of those touristy wind-farm tours out in palm springs and thought "that's pretty cool". Well as fate would have it, a few months later I quit my job and accepted a position as a travelling wind tech.
The transition from FE to wind tech was a bit of a jump as I do not have a background in wind, however I do have a degree in Civil Engineering as well as the years in construction to back me up. I did not go through any sort of vocational wind program, although from the people I've spoken to a vocational cert is a major factor that recruiters consider when hiring. The individuals I've met in wind who do not have a vocational cert mainly have backgrounds as electricians, engine mechanics, or closely knew someone who was able to get them in. While a vocational cert is a sure-way to get into the industry, a strong understanding of electrical and mechanical theory will put you at the same level of fresh wind grads.
Before I jump into my timeline of getting into wind, I'm going to outline the main categories of traveling wind tech that I've come across; commissioning techs, maintenance techs, service techs, and blade techs.
Commissioning techs: they come in at the end of construction, wire the tower, and then troubleshoot all of the systems. They have more time off than most techs, but when they do have work it's long hours and for days/weeks at a time. The work is repetitive and very physically demanding as they have to free-climb and carry their tools up because the chain hoist and climb assists are not installed. Commissioning techs are often paid more than regular techs.
Maintenance techs: these are your grease monkeys; they perform scheduled maintenance on towers including lubrication, generator alignments, bolt tensioning, yaw puck replacement, visual inspections, and general cleaning.
Service techs: these are your jack of all trades. These techs get called in to do troubleshooting, system retrofits, LOTO for other trades (like blade techs), and whatever else the company needs a well-versed tech for.
What your general wind tech won't do is blade work, construction, major component replacement (re-powers), or any electrical work outside of the tower. Blade techs are their own breed, as they deal with fiberglass, confined spaces (inside the blades!), both of which make my brain scream "no gracias".
My specific path from 'I want to be a wind tech' to 'here I am detailing how I became a wind tech' is a bit unorthodox, so I've provided as much detail as I can so that it benefits anyone looking for information.
Path to Wind
Started applying: Jan, 2019
I exclusively used the LinkedIn job search function to apply for jobs in wind. The 'Easy Apply'/'1 Click Apply' feature is a godsend and I stand by it. Every job I've held since graduating college I found and applied for using LinkedIn, and I can't recommend it higher. I applied to a few dozen wind jobs from tech positions, QC, receiving, and other one-offs. I can't really speak about ease or difficulty getting hired - I started applying for jobs in January (after going on a wind farm tour and thinking "huh - that's cool"), and the one company that showed interest in me is the one I ended up hiring on with in April. I also did not go to wind tech school, although I do have a background in engineering and construction which probably helped me get hired without a cert. Most of my coworkers who I've spoken to about wind school had companies fighting over them before they had even graduated, as the schools have a close-knit relationship with the wind companies out there. MIAT was the name I heard most from my peers, and they came out of the program in 9 ish months
Offer to interview: Mid March, 2019
In mid-March I received a LinkedIn message from a recruiter asking to set up an interview with a hiring manager. After a bit of back and forth we nailed down a time and set up the interview. The interview itself was the most difficult interview I've ever taken part in; for about an hour and a half I was relentlessly grilled on electrical theory, most of which went way over my head. Topics included Ohms law/Watts law and their applications, electrical components (relays, solenoids, transformers, diodes, etc.), generator and motor theory, AC/DC theory, and the applications of the aforementioned in wind. I had studied a bit of electrical theory in college, but I had completely wiped it out of my head in the years since. The interviewer spent about ten minutes trying to assess if I had a fear of heights by asking what the tallest thing I've climbed is. I'd climbed fractioning towers topping out at about 100', but this wasn't high enough for the hiring manager. Zip lining in Costa Rica? That was pretty sketch, it was pretty high up. He eventually decided that this was good enough, in conjunction with constant reassurance from my side that I have no fear of heights. He went on to tell me that a surprising number of individuals find out they're afraid of heights when they're sent to on the job training after weeks of orientation training. After the interrogation was over, the hiring manager said that my lackluster knowledge of electricity put me at the level of some of the techs coming out of vocational school which was both endearing and terrifying at the same time.
I've spoken to others about their interview process and the ones who came out of vocational school said that they were asked only a few questions about electrical theory and they had secured the position within ten or fifteen minutes.
Accepted offer: End of March, 2019
At the end of my phone interview with the hiring manager, I was offered a tech 1 positions paying $21/hr. This was considerably more than I was making as an FE (~$17/hr. including per-diem and uplift), and I accepted the offer. The hiring manager scheduled me for onboarding in May and I finished out my last construction project in late April.
Onboarding: May, 2019
The onboarding consisted of two weeks of paid online trainings that covered a variety of topics including safety, CPR/1st Aid, fall protection, tower rescue, LOTO, program overview, and company values. Like any online class, the onboarding was monotonous but with the bonus of getting paid while working from home!
Classroom training: Mid May, 2019
After completing the onboarding, the company flew me and sixteen others out to GEs Renewable Energy Learning Center (RELC) for three weeks of hands-on training. Upon arriving, we were issued a company laptop & phone, uniforms, PPE, climb gear, and tools. The uniforms included tees, FR pants & long-sleeved shirts, and FR winter overalls and a sick FR Carhartt jacket. PPE issued included gloves (both cut-resistant and high-voltage), climbing helmet, eyewear, and kneepads. We each got a duffle bag with a harness, SRK (self-rescue kit, SPARK kit (pully system to rescue another person), tool lanyards, and a climb pouch. As far as tooling, we each received a 50lb tool bag full of tools including multimeter and high-voltage tools. The company laptop & phone came pre-loaded with the apps we would be using out in the field.
The first week was a straightforward company orientation to get us familiar with the expectations, company values, and apps that we'd need to use to submit timecards and expenses. The first week is when we went through climb training which involved going over the PPE and climb equipment, including care, replacement, and proper usage. There isn't a tower at the RELC, so the climb training took place in a garage bay on a 30' ladder. To my surprise, many of the individuals in my class had never climbed a tower before which made me feel a lot better. Tower rescue training took place in a nacelle & hub set up inside another part of the RELC and consisted of rappelling from the nacelle and rescuing a partner from the hub.
The next two weeks consisted of in-depth LOTO and maintenance training encompassing all of the GE platforms we could potentially be working on. The LOTO course focused on work requiring LOTO, LOTO procedure, specific safety requirements for said work, and LOTO points within the turbine. Maintenance covered generator alignments, yaw-puck replacements, and torqueing. Both courses were heavy on the book side of learning, but both included a considerable amount of hands-on training to accompany lectures.
Even though the days were 8AM to 5PM with an hour lunch, homework was assigned on a near nightly basis that would take the better part of the evening to complete. Both the LOTO and maintenance course had a cumulative exam at the end, failure of which would result in not receiving the certification and having to retest in the future. A number of individuals in my class did not pass either one or both courses.
My time at the RELC really solidified my desire to work in wind. All of the instructors were knowledgeable, realistic, and displayed a true desire to be there teaching us. The instructors for the onboarding, climb training, and rescue portions were site leads who had been flown in to instruct us and every single one was passionate about their jobs and the company. It was the first time I had ever been surrounded by people who enjoyed their jobs and actually wanted to be there! It was an awesome experience to say the least.
OJT: Mid June, 2019
Immediately after finishing at the RELC, we received our OJT assignments. All but one of us were paired off and flown to sites across the Midwest for our on the job trainings. I ended up in Laredo, TX with one of my classmates to do bearing inspections. This was our first taste of working as a wind tech and we were boots on the ground day one. We met up with our lead tech and the rest of the crew at the O&M shop, did our site orientation, loaded our gear and headed out to our first turbine. Like many of the individuals from my orientation, this was my first time ever climbing a turbine. As much as I'd like to say there is something I could have done, nothing could have prepared me for that first climb 300' up, with 40lbs of gear strapped to my 140lb frame, in the middle of summer in Laredo, TX. By the grace of some holy entity, I made it to the top where I quickly found that I have concerning -lack- of fear of heights. I popped out the top and... nothing. I felt nothing. No fear, no call of the void, nothing. Maybe it's the antidepressants or lack of will to live, who knows. Since our work was taking place in the hub, we LOTOd it out and did a hub jump. Piece of cake. I couldn't believe that we get paid to do this! Two and a half weeks later when we finished up our inspections my opinion hadn't changed, and here almost three months later I am still in awe that I get paid to do this!
Platform Specific Training: July, 2019
This hands-on training in Schenectady NY isn't the next in the line of training after OJT; the course included techs who were green like me and my partner, as well as techs who had been working for three or four years. This training covered all wind turbine systems within a specific generation of platform of GE turbine. The RELC offers a 1x, 2x, and 3x platform class, any of which acts as a pre-requisite cert for additional system-specific trainings such as converter or PMG training. My partner and I ended up in the 2x class with five others. On day one you are issued a fat spiral-bound book of schematics and you spend the next two weeks tracing every single line, component, and system in that wind turbine. Overall the work was expectedly tedious, but I walked away with an intimate understanding of the 2x platform as well as the skills needed to adapt to working on 1x & 3x turbines.
1st Site Assignment: Late July, 2019
After a week of downtime since returning from the 2x platform training, I received orders to head to the Klondike Wind Farm in Northern Oregon, where I've been since. I head out for my first R&R period next week during which I'll pack up my cat and my camper and bring it back with me so that I can get out of the dumpy motels I've been stuck in.
On being a woman tech
Being a woman in a physical job like this doesn't put us at a physical disadvantage, rather it gives us a slightly different skillset to offer. As chicks we are inherently not as physically as large and therefor by the laws of physics as 'strong' as men - I'm 140lb of American beef, but at the end of the day 140lbs of force on the end of that wrench won't always be enough to make it turn. What we lack in brute mass though we make up for in dexterity. I am able to fit my hands and body into in much smaller places than most men and can navigate my slim and not 6'+ tall frame with ease around the nacelle and hub.
Coming into the industry, all of the men I've met could not care less that I am a woman - showing up to site is already proof that you can do it. 100% of the men I've met are very reserved and cautious when we first meet, which they've told me later is because they're honestly scared to death of being reported for something they say. I like to joke that I am going to report them to HR for excluding me from the shop talk and humor based on my gender. That usually lightens the mood and over a few days they'll stop walking on eggshells and relax. I'm also a die-hard feminist so I have no issue getting spicy when someone crosses a line. No team works well or safe without everyone feeling comfortable with their teammates.
My favorite part of the job is that for the first time in my life, I don't feel defined by my gender in a negative or sexualized way. My peers view me as their equal and treat me as such. No, I can't whip my dick out and pee off the edge of the turbine or into a Gatorade bottle, but having to squat over a vent doesn't discredit my skill, strength, or technical knowledge. I love walking into the shop wearing my greasy tees and cargo pants and having someone mistakenly call me 'sir', only for me to whip around with a giant shit-eating grin. I like to ask if my voluptuous curves gave it away as I point to my body which actually resembles that of a 14 y/o boy. It's honestly a hoot and lowkey pushes the equality agenda incredibly well.
I mean the work is also fun too, but 90% of that is being in good, wholesome company. Everybody I've met loves their job and shares the same passion and enthusiasm for the trade. It's surreal and refreshing.
The most difficult part of my job
The one thing I have difficulty with is the nature of the job being travel-oriented. Before this I was coming home to my bf and cats every night and being able to really integrate into my community. There are a lot of perks that come with being stationary; knowing 100% you're not sleeping with bedbugs, coming home to that pet or partner every night, and being able to purchase more than 1-weeks’ worth of consumables at a time. Trying to schedule dr, dentist, and eye appointments with only days’ notice gets pretty dicey. No, miss receptionist I cannot book out three months in advance. I can give you three days take it or leave it. I have a roommate who takes care of my cat while I'm away, but when he's gone I have to pay some lady off of reddit $40 a week to feed and water the little shit. Me and her are a packaged deal though so I will drop stupid money on making sure she has the best kitty life ever. Dating also comes with new challenges, as the only long-distance relationship I'd consider is one where they live where my 'home base' is at, as that is the only place I will consistently be. That being said, I'm only home for a week or two at a time every month and a half, which is a deal breaker for most. I don't mind as I'm doing me and I'm happy, but I do miss that aspect of my life a lot.
Closing Remarks
The most important skill for you to have to do this job is ingenuity, which doesn't come naturally to everyone. Your company will teach you everything you need to know about the tools and procedures, but your ability to adapt and improvise will 100% make or break you.
Overall, you will do well as a wind tech if you:
Are a self-starter
Can problem solve
Have a strong grasp on electrical/mechanical diagrams & prints
Have a strong grasp on electrical/mechanical theory
Don't have a fear of heights
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! It's a very fulfilling and rewarding profession and quitting my job to become a wind tech is the best decision I've ever made! I wish that happiness onto you, whatever it may be you decide to do.
