Engineering Career Decision
Engineering Career Decision
(OP)
I am looking for a little help making an academic decision.
I am currently a non traditional student who has finished the 1st 2 years of engineering school. I hold a master electrician's license with about 25 years of commercial power distribution installation experience and 4 years of experience as a chief electrical inspector for a city of about 120k. I resigned to attend school full time.
Although I thought I would focus more on electrics, I have begun to gravitate towards the civil/environmental discipline. I have interests in working with hydrology/groundwater remediation, etc., but do not want my electrical experience to be wasted!
I would like to hear the opinion of any engineer out there about the usefulness (if any) of having electrician/inspector experience as an environmental engineer. Is it helpful? My goal is to obtain my BS and continue my studies for the MS degree. I am about to transfer from a community college to a university next semester.
I thought I had it all figured out before I came to school because I am older...NOT the case!
Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help.
I am currently a non traditional student who has finished the 1st 2 years of engineering school. I hold a master electrician's license with about 25 years of commercial power distribution installation experience and 4 years of experience as a chief electrical inspector for a city of about 120k. I resigned to attend school full time.
Although I thought I would focus more on electrics, I have begun to gravitate towards the civil/environmental discipline. I have interests in working with hydrology/groundwater remediation, etc., but do not want my electrical experience to be wasted!
I would like to hear the opinion of any engineer out there about the usefulness (if any) of having electrician/inspector experience as an environmental engineer. Is it helpful? My goal is to obtain my BS and continue my studies for the MS degree. I am about to transfer from a community college to a university next semester.
I thought I had it all figured out before I came to school because I am older...NOT the case!
Any suggestions would be very appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your help.





RE: Engineering Career Decision
I must say that I hope that you are doing this because of a passion for the subject as I would think you would be financially worse off for at least the first few years after graduating.
RE: Engineering Career Decision
I personally left that field 15 years ago and never looked back. It's far more romantic in concept than in reality, and what I do these days provides more benefit for the environment (at the front end of the pipe) than that work ever did.
RE: Engineering Career Decision
RE: Engineering Career Decision
RE: Engineering Career Decision
I have gone through a strange phase (no pun intended) of not wanting to stay in the electrical engineering arena. I am slowly changing my mind back to the EE track. It's not because I just didn't like it, but that I simply knew little about the facts surrounding the opportunities in the EE field. These forums help a lot.
I have sat down with several different engineers over the past two years to ask them basically "what do you do all day?". I have to admit, especially for environmental, it wasn't what I expected. There are very strong romantic notions of CEE for us in school like standing in the middle of a creek all day with a squirrel on our shoulder, doing super green things. It wasn't hard to notice the phone book size regulation reports they were having to compile to allow a proposed state road that was going to impact a wetland. Looked like months or more of paperwork for one project. Does this sound about right?
Maybe my original plan was best? To simply obtain a BS in EE and hybrid the MS in a more diverse direction when I get there (in about 3 years!)if need be.
Thanks again for everyone's time and have a good summer.
RE: Engineering Career Decision
RE: Engineering Career Decision
As cvg noted, there's a ton of paperwork in environmental; I spend most of my day interpreting regs and helping clients understand how to comply.
As for standing in the creek, I have a tech to do that. I would not be paying an engineer for most field work. And as far as helping the environment? Well, my job can be described as helping my clients get permits to spew as much pollutants as is legal.
RE: Engineering Career Decision
RE: Engineering Career Decision
RE: Engineering Career Decision
May be even something that will combine Civil; EE; Sustainability; Commissioning - connecting wind farms and solar panels to the grid.
Ok, they say "live as if you were to die tomorrow and learn as if you were to live forever" BUT, that does not mean learn in School.
I'd see you more as a teacher than a student at your age. Go help people out there that really need your knowledge and experience (a mind is a terrible thing to waste isn't it?) - There is a lot of personal satisfaction in transferring knowledge to the new generation.
RE: Engineering Career Decision