An alternative path?
An alternative path?
(OP)
I am a fairly new engineer. I've been in consulting for about a year now. I'm seriously questioning whether it was a good idea to go to school for engineering, particularly civil/environmental. Had I taken my coursework in a different order, I probably would have gone for mechanical or chemical. Regardless, I have these degrees now, but am not really satisfied with my work. Do you know of any paths outside of traditional engineering careers that people with engineering degrees have successfully taken?





RE: An alternative path?
TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering
www.bluetechnik.com
RE: An alternative path?
RE: An alternative path?
If money is not an object, how about an environmental activist. Seriously. (But only if you love it).
Go into politics. They badly need engineers, they just don't know it.
RE: An alternative path?
I've known a log of Engineers that went in to consultancy, sales, SW development...
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?
RE: An alternative path?
RE: An alternative path?
Steve
RE: An alternative path?
I wish you the best of luck. Not sure that a switch to chem or mech would solve it for you at this point, but only you will know that for sure.
RE: An alternative path?
I have to work overtime to get there, but I really enjoy my job.
"Formal education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed." ~ Joseph Stalin
RE: An alternative path?
RE: An alternative path?
Cheers
Greg Locock
New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?
RE: An alternative path?
I worked for a well-known company of consulting engineers a little while ago, and there were a lot of very smart young engineers employed there who had never worked anywhere else. Their lack of real-world operational experience was quite striking and it showed in some of the proposals they produced. Consulting is not the ideal place for a raw graduate to learn, except perhaps if there is a design house attached to the consultancy or vice-versa.
RE: An alternative path?
My initial post was vague, so I'll try to be a little clearer. I am not a 20 something with no experience who walked out of college into a consulting firm. I also have a language degree (BA) and several years experience working for the Federal government at management level. After this, I went back to school for engineering (BS & MS). While in school for engineering, I interned at both a municipality and a consulting firm. This isn't an issue of feeling like I know too much, or grunt work or feeling undervalued. I work on designs for different aspects of water and wastewater treatment systems. I'm finding that this area, just isn't a fit for me. While I'm interested in water treatment, I'm interested more in the research side. But I can't see a way to make a living doing research without going back for a PhD, which is not at all financially feasible for me personally. So, I am trying to get perspective on if there is a way for someone trained in civil/environmental to transition into something else - another field, but something that does not require yet more schooling. What would those paths be or look like? I don't really know.
RE: An alternative path?
Richard A. Cornelius, P.E.
WWW.amlinereast.com
RE: An alternative path?
Engineers can do anything. If you want an avenue into a different line of work that requires no additional schooling, consider learning Python.
Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East - http://www.campbellcivil.com
RE: An alternative path?
A lot of my job isn't design work, but reviewing other engineers' design. You'd be surprised how many stupid mistakes are caught because an engineer is looking at the plans & specs just because we're so detailed oriented. Additionally, we're not always overly impressed by someone having a PE who tries to force an issue without sufficient backing (especially if we have our PE's as well); but non-engineers are intimidated by engineers, especially PE.
You indicated your interest in research. You might see about jobs with the EPA or ITRC or other governmental or environmental agencies/groups. They always seem to need people to do research for conferences and regulations.
RE: An alternative path?
RE: An alternative path?
in the mining industry and in some other countries besides the US, including Canada, a "consultant" is a term meaning a very highly qualified engineer, with a lot of experience. Usually a principal or owner of a firm. These folks charge out starting at $200 per hour or more. On the other hand, there are numerous "consulting" firms in the United States and technically, if you are employed by one of these firms and you are a degreed, registered engineer - than you would likely be also considered to be a "consultant". So with just 6 years experience, passing a test and billing out at $120 per hour, you would be able to call yourself a "consultant". At some point, many years down the road, these newbies might finally earn the title.
RE: An alternative path?
When your local rec center wants a new rooftop AC unit, though, they also have to consult an engineer to have plans drawn up, etc. That engineer probably won't be someone with 30 years of experience plus a few dozen publications to his name.
RE: An alternative path?
Looking back over 30 years I have many friends and colleagues who are doing now something totally unrelated to their education or even past work experience
RE: An alternative path?
RE: An alternative path?
RE: An alternative path?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: An alternative path?
I know a guy who was valedictorian of the class behind me in high school. We both went to the same college I majored in Civil and he in Material Science and Engineering. His plan all along was to grade well which I'm sure he did and go to medical school. I believe he had the photographic memory. It was either him or the Salutatorian of his class that did.
This guy happened to be interning at a hospital in NYC when 911 happened is what I heard. He now is a doctor back in our hometown/county.
As far a Civil Engineering goes I think specializing in something is somewhat necessary especially in a consulting environment if you like earning a pay check. When the economy takes a dive it helps for you to have a specialty if your job goes south. It either gives you a dual usage at your current job or makes it easier to find another job if need be. When I say specialty I mean one of the facets that basically a masters degree can be obtained in. So that would be geotechnical, transportation, structural, and environmental from a consulting standpoint based upon my experience and might also include construction management as well.
I began working at a full services consulting engineering, architecture, surveying, landscape architecture firm straight out of college. They have plenty of employees who are not professionals when they start our will never be. They work on various projects all of which will be stamped by a licensed professional. I started in the field on a survey crew and made may way into the office and back in the field a few times for 9 years there until I got my PE and left for better pay two years before the economy got bad. In the office I worked in the civil/site department which had some association with the Transportation department. I did not however do much transpo so based on my theory I had no specialty other than civil/site which will take a large hit in a bad economy and without a specialty as a back up will make you less useful to your employer.
Also by specializing in something it does allow you to get good at it and perform those tasks quicker and more reliably which the bean counters like. I.E. they can make more money off of you. If you keep jumping around to different areas how much money are you making your employer? Sure it is more fun for you but I doubt that your employer is as concerned about your happiness as their bottom dollar. Somebody somewhere made a budget for what you are working on so you need to be able to get good at one thing before jumping into something else if you want to keep the same employer.
As I was saying earlier I spent nine years with my first employer. I was pigeon holed a lot and felt like it. But I was there long enough (paid my dues) that when I got my PE I could produce a complete set of CE plans including doing all the design, calculation, reports, estimates, and specifications and be somewhat proficient at it I had just never done it all on one project from start to finish until I switched employers. Unfortunately those skills are not as in a great demand when hardly any one is building anything in a bad economic situation unless you have lots of government contracts.
I interviewed with a guy once whose specialty was structural engineering but the economy was booming in the early 2000s so he jumped into land development and civil/site type of stuff. I'm sure that it was fun for him but he had paid his dues as a structural engineer already and had that in his bag of tricks when the economy did bust.
Myself not having a specialty in my opinion got me laid off a few times during the bad years. I more recently went to work for an electrical contractor who was looking for a CE or EE because they only have guys with mainly business degrees if any. I'm about two years in and have learned a lot about site electrical which I was unfamiliar with and I'm getting paid more than I would doing consultant CE work. But I have been applying for some recently opening CE jobs for what reason I don't know. I suppose don't want to feel like maybe I wasted 20 years between schooling, work experience, and a PE. But in a sense I have not wasted anything as I still have that experience which I suppose is why my current employer hired me. I'm just learning something new and having fun with it.
One plus of this job is ideally I was brought in to take over for the owner of the company when I got up to speed so he could look at starting other businesses.
Sorry for the rambling definitely time to imbibe now.