A little lost… career change?

[MJB]

Go teach something you know about or start a business.

 

[Bama67]

the comedy show "Tires" had a great line about this "He died like a Man. Under a car, doing a job he hated" lol

 

[SloppyJ]

Not sure that you've clarified what type of Engineering you do but here's my story. I related to what you said about giving back and kind of finding a bigger purpose than just working for someone else.

I took CAD classes in highschool for some reason. It came natural to me and i'm very mechanically minded so it ended up really clicking in my head. When I was doing this, CAD was just starting to get big and adopted industry wide. My friend's dad was a department head at a local civil engineering firm that works nationwide and got me an internship at 17yo as I was about to graduate. I got thrown into a team doing gas station design across the country. I knew absolutely nothing going into it but I started to figure it out, I showed up everyday, and I busted my ass and made myself someone everyone could count on which lead to me being hired full time that first summer. I worked this job full time all the way through college for 6yrs. It took me that long because I was working and I refused to take out any loans. I was the first to graduate college in my family and to me, that made me very proud.

I got to see what PEs did day to day and I wasn't that guy to sit in an office and get fed work through a slit in my door. I wanted to be outside, in the field. I changed my major to Environmental, Soil and Water science and finished strong all while working at the same firm. Once I graduated, I was offered a job at another local firm but they specialized in local work. This was game changing for me. Instead of designing sites, storm drainage, utilities..etc and never seeing how they get installed, I was front and center for the whole ride. I worked on client issues, got to permit my projects through the city and be on-site all the way through final acceptance. This is where I learned everything and it finally started to click. I enjoy new problems and being with a project through construction allowed me to experience all of the surprises and I got to figure out how to fix them. I was basically running as a one man shop from real estate acquisition through design and final acceptance.

The problem at this stage was that I was the AutoCAD guru everywhere I went. At this point I had been running AutoCAD for about 80% of my day for going on 15yrs. I was great at it and there wasn't much that I couldn't do with the software. However, I was burnt out. I was married at this time and we had our first child. I wasn't about to make a stupid move just because I was "unhappy".

One of the guys from the city that I had gotten to be friends with called me one day and asked me if I'd be interested working at the Water Utilities Department to start up their engineering division. I'd be reviewing plans instead of drawing them, I'd be dealing with the public on all sorts of questions, and if all goes well, I'd be building my own little team. I crunched some numbers and with the 28yr retirement, I could shave about 5yrs off of my typical retirement age if I took the job. The insurance was great, I would get off at 4pm instead of 5 and there's a lot of paid holidays. I decided to take the position even though I had no idea about installing or maintaining hundreds of miles of water and sewer lines.

Working with the public has been both frustrating and satisfying at the same time. I've really enjoyed the switch and as of today I have built up a 10 person team and we are accomplishing things that no other water utility in the state have been able to do. I've learned all about an entire new field while still being able to pull from my previous experience to make sound decisions. I've changed so much policy here for the better due to my past experience and hearing people compliment my team and what I've built is always feels like a top tier accomplishment.

So maybe think about how you can pivot. Is there something in a different field that's still related that could be tempting to get into? I would have a hard time starting over from scratch in a field I have no experience in. I'm not against it if that's what I need to do but I've been able to leverage my work ethic, personality, and drive to make it in any experience that I've been put into. At the end of the day, it's a job. I think it's a bit of a fairy tale to think you're going to do something that you love everyday.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

I went through a career change a 29yrs old. Was a financial advisor and then took a job with the feds in the financial sector. Massive pay cut initially, but now 13 years later it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I feel like my job has meaning and even though very few people see what happens behind the scenes, I am providing a tremendous value and service. Plus I make really good money and have a great work life balance (plus awesome benefits).

 

[Pecosray]

Well I watched my son go through this, He was a late bloomer Partied hard drinking and getting in trouble with law until he was 30 yoa, Them finally the light in his head came on and went to work for an electrical company and so now 10 years later he is a licensed electrician make crazy money just in time to really do something with his life. So the trades... Great place to go... Peace..

 

[ELKhunter60]

man - this is a topic I'm quite familiar with. I could write a book. Started out as an apprentice right out of high school. Did the trade for about 6 years. Started to hate it - got bored. Went into management at the skilled trade business - after about two years - hated it - got bored. Moved around a few more places. Ended up starting my own business related to the skilled trade I learned. Was very successful. It was interesting as I built the business - but after about 10 years it felt like a ball and chain that paid well. Can't quit your own business - especially when your house is collateral on the loan you have for the business. Eventually sold the business. Did engineering management, plant management, continuous improvement management and eventually went back and got my degree so some additional doors would open that were not there without it. I've now worked at Nissan for 10 years and for the most part - have enjoyed it. I'll share what I have learned about myself over the past 40 years of my career in a quick nutshell.

1) I am a life long learner. If I am not given opportunities to learn new things on a regular basis, I get
bored. When I get bored, I loose interest in my job. If this goes on for more than about 12 months - I
start looking for new opportunities. Nissan is a large company making a complex machine. I've had the
opportunity to learn a lot about making vehicles.

2) I like teaching people. Nissan has provided me the opportunity to make my own training material and
train engineers in both the US and Mexico. They also give me young folks to mentor - which I like. I
have been able to move around to a few different rolls within Nissan that are related but different. All
of this variety allows me to continue learning while being a valued asset to the company at the same
time.

3) For me, working with good people makes a huge difference in how you view your employment
situation. I've worked with/for some great people over the coarse of my career and I've had three
situations where I found myself with people that weren't the type of folks I enjoyed being around. I
didn't really pay attention to this part of the career equation when I was young, but learned to look for
this over time.

If you are somewhere around 30 and don't like your job - figure out what your next move should be and take it. You have way too long to go to keep doing something you don't care for.

 

[ndfb35]

I didn't read all the pages but if you are looking for something different have to thought about joining the National Guard of your state or a neighboring state?

Serving in the military can give you many opportunities that you will never get in the civilian sector while still working your engineering job. I am over 13.5 years in the Guard and I still find it as satisfying as I did many years ago.