Engineering Ideas for an Engineering mind, fed up of Engineering?

[some bloke]

Hi all,

I've been working as an engineer / engineering technician for 8 years now, and I have become somewhat disillusioned with it.

I pursued this career course out of convenience, interest and aptitude; I was given a summer job making the floor-plans for an investment casting factory, and then stayed on as first a technician, then as the sole engineer on site when the current engineer moved up to operations manager. The job was interesting, but had led to a dead end, and I moved to another job after being there 7 years. My current job is a lot more red-tape and restrictions, and I just feel like I'm never accomplishing an awful lot. It isn't really filling my heart with excitement any more.

I am wondering what sorts of jobs I could look into as a career change, which capitalize on my inventive and creative mind (I have a natural aptitude for making things work, designing solutions to problems, etc.) but which aren't so hampered by the red tape & endless paperwork of the engineering world. I feel that I just want to create things.

My current thoughts are;

-Invent something, and build a business around it. once the business can support me, quit my job. I have some ideas on this front, but it's chancy and will take years to pull off.
- get an easier job, and then invest my free time in the above. it's less money, meaning less to use for development, but may make me happier in the short term.
- commit to being creative in my spare time and go for a complete career change, to fulfill other things I enjoy - being outdoors and active. Tree surgery, or land management. I spend a lot of free time going for walks in the countryside, so working in the countryside would free up my spare time for engineering-y projects.What other things can someone who needs intellectual stimulation and (fairly) free-reign consider?

I have no degrees, and have been offered a 4-year course to get a foundation degree in engineering through work, but this would require a considerable time commitment to my work. It would also eat into my free time and prevent me from developing any inventions as quickly.

Thanks!

 

[symbolipoint]

This part is extremely significant:

I have no degrees, and have been offered a 4-year course to get a foundation degree in engineering through work, but this would require a considerable time commitment to my work. It would also eat into my free time and prevent me from developing any inventions as quickly.

You are an engineering technician, you have no degree, and you do not like your work. An undergraduate degree in Engineering could change much or all of that, but making the transition will/would be very time consuming. Also current conditions make studying ANYTHING as a student, exceedingly difficult, and probably less efficient. Let's hope some other members have more productive advice to give you.

 

[jrmichler]

If you don't go to school, you can spend the rest of your life getting more and more frustrated. As for the time commitment, engineering students generally expect to put everything else on hold while they get the degree. You will be surprised at what you can do if you put your mind to it. I had a bad semester where a number things piled up on me, and my average work week was 100 hours. That's the semester I started dating my (now) wife.

The degree will give you the background to do develop your inventions better and faster. Skip the inventing for now while you get the degree. See above statement about putting everything else on hold.

Building a business selling your invention is not necessarily a path to success. I did just that. I left my engineering job in a paper mill, and started a business selling a machine I had invented while working in the paper mill. I was paying royalties to my ex-employer to use my own patent. I quickly learned that running a business is 98% running the business and 2% doing fun engineering stuff. But it was good experience and I do not regret doing it.

Beware the trap of getting a mindless job. A friend did just that. He learned the hard way that that is not a good path for a creative person. It is much better to have a job that needs creativity. And you can get that job after you have the degree.

 

[Jody]

I'd like to say for myself, that even with a bachelors degree I often feel very limited too. I've been very lucky I've managed may way into R&D design teams, but I have to really champion myself an effort of climbing Mt. Everest compared to others who might walk in with a graduate degree sometimes with little to no experience at all. I see a lot of times although they are talented and knowledgeable people in certain corners of the field it may not align with the project... they'll still almost always get first dibs, they will have louder voices on decisions in projects, and I can only hope that they'll want me on their team and that I can convince them on my opinion. A lot of people are very stubborn (I am too).

I agree with the others. I might follow up with saying you may have to aim higher. I'm not sure if it'll give you satisfaction, but I'm working on it to find out.

 

[Zap]

You can always try to learn programming and create some kind of virtual product or application. You could become an artist. You could start looking for other jobs and see what you stumble upon. I feel like you could do pretty much whatever you want.

 

[DaveE]

A mostly peripheral comment:

I don't think most engineering jobs are very creative endeavors. It is true that creativity is sometimes involved, but it is a small fraction of the work. This is why there is typically so much emphasis placed on education. The real job of engineering is to learn (and really understand) how someone before you solved a problem and then to use that knowledge, with modifications, to solve your problem.

It is similar to being a carpenter building a house to an architects plan. Most of the time you are using tools that someone else invented. It is your job to choose the tool and use it properly. That often requires that someone teaches you about those tools first; it is too hard to invent everything. It also involves a lot of effort reading about what the people you are working for want you to build.

 

[Joe591]

Maybe you just need a change of scenery after doing the same thing for too long. I am off the opinion that you shouldn't stay in your first job for longer than three years. I stayed in my first job for nine years. If you are in a job for that long you stop growing. Seek employment elsewhere.