tehfrr
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Im a little over a month away from my BS in nuclear engineering and have been accepted into grad school. I am not sure I am all that thrilled with it right now though. When I started studying NE, I pictured myself working in a big nuclear facility, being amongst the equipment, working in hotcells, suiting up and all the like - or at a national lab, tinkering with high tech gadgets, working with large radioactive sources, handling exotic actinides, tinkering with a critical assembly, etc. In reality, everybody wants to just put me at a desk running software all day (both industry and national labs). The idea of sitting at a desk all day crunching numbers for the rest of my career is terrifying! Dont get me wrong, I expect there will be a certain amount of computer and paperwork, but like 98-100%? The few jobs I found that looked interesting, they were all like "oh that's a technician job, you only need a high school diploma for that." I keep telling people where I intern that I want hands on work but it appears they don't listen to me which makes me not want to work for them when I am done.
So what's the deal? Is this how most engineering careers are? Am I doomed to be behind a desk if I decide to stay in engineering? I am worried I just put in 5 years of hard labor (with another 2 lined up) for something that does not sound very enjoyable. Its a bummer too because I really love learning about it all.
So what's the deal? Is this how most engineering careers are? Am I doomed to be behind a desk if I decide to stay in engineering? I am worried I just put in 5 years of hard labor (with another 2 lined up) for something that does not sound very enjoyable. Its a bummer too because I really love learning about it all.