Finding the Right Path to a Successful Engineering Career: Victor's Story

[energypassion9]

So we love something because we are born to love it? I can't for example learn to love to be a surgeon and be a millionaire out of it?
Yep, painting resembles a very very popular one, same design, I think it's called Moses.
Thanks for the help

 

[jim hardy]

So we love something because we are born to love it?

yep.

I can't for example learn to love to be a surgeon and be a millionaire out of it?

nope. You could however learn to be a surgeon and see if you love it.

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

OK, here's my take:

I have been fascinated with radios since at least the age of five. I KNEW I wanted to do something that involved radios. Here I am, more than four decades later, and I'm still fascinated with radio. However, my work has moved to other things: Control systems, SCADA, and water treatment. However, I still dabble with ham radio from time to time.

Your work does not have to be precisely the things you love. It can be something that just pays the bills. And really, I rather like the work I do. I still get to play with radios and that sort of thing here and there. But my interests have broadened. I also like to fly. I always seek a window seat when I travel on airliners, and I still enjoy flying, even when I have to file an instrument flight plan to get through some gooey weather.

You will find that doing the things you love also involves doing a lot of things you might not like as much. Life is like that. If you only did those things you love doing, you'd tire of it eventually. You should always be ready to branch out to do other things. I took up photography, beer brewing, archery and shooting sports, being a shade tree mechanic, camping, fishing, and many more things. I share these interests with my children.

It is good to branch out. You'll be surprised at what you find.

 

[energypassion9]

Jake,
Thanks for your answer. If I am not going to do what I love, why should i get a degree in something specific if we never know where I would work?Can't I apply for jobs just by knowing how to do the job?

 

[JakeBrodskyPE]

Jake,
Thanks for your answer. If I am not going to do what I love, why should i get a degree in something specific if we never know where I would work?Can't I apply for jobs just by knowing how to do the job?

First, this is not about doing what you love doing. Every job has aspects in it that you will like or hate. That's life. We all have days when we really wish we were somewhere else. Sometimes days like that go on for a long time. I've seen executive administrations ranging from good, to excellent, to those bordering on incompetent. There will be good days and bad days. There will be good years and bad years. But, on balance, if you don't mind doing what you do, it all works out. Look up the Mike Rowe (of "Dirty Jobs" fame) web sites and you'll see what the blue collar world is like. Do note that these people can make really decent money. Assumptions about what blue collar and white collar jobs are paid are rapidly being disproved.

Second, I wish it were possible to show that someone understands the work and move that person right into a job. Sadly, the day when you could look someone in the eye and just go with a gut feeling that they do okay are gone. Today, we have little choice but to play along in front of a Human Resources officer to ensure that all interviews and job evaluations meet legal requirements. This came about because of wide-spread job discrimination practices. However, I regularly wonder if the cure might be as bad as the disease.

Most companies of any size or significance demand a degree of some sort. The degree basically shows that you have the mental commitment and discipline to be able to read, write, and use some level of mathematics. From my own perspective as an engineer, any top performing technician could study to become an engineer.

I won't say that my experience in college was bereft any learning, but most of what I learned I got from other places or with self study.

The problem is that academics are the polar opposite of the practicality of engineering. Academic mindsets are to take the real world experience and distill it to an abstraction. They then teach that abstraction. Engineers take those abstractions and then build real world things. This is where academics frequently get lost. The commercial world has a much wider range of concerns and experience than academic abstractions can describe.

We need those abstractions to describe the fundamentals that a design is based upon, but we don't often speak to each other in those terms.

So yes, you probably do need a degree. High school graduation just doesn't count for as much as it used to. We have lower standards today than our parents and grandparents had. Also we really do expect a more educated work-force these days.

The equipment I work on is highly automated. I need someone with at least enough brains to know what is supposed to be happening next. If they can't stay ahead of the automation, they don't belong anywhere on that plant. To do that, you need a solid understanding of biology, chemistry, regulations, basic math, and so forth and you need to be able to do this on your feet, in the heat and the cold, even fatigued or under stress.

The days when we only needed a warm body to work for us are long gone. So, no, even if you profess to understand a job, you aren't likely to get one on that basis.