Advice on my Future

[rustyjvan]

Hello everyone, I have a fork in my career that I would like some advice from fellow professionals.

I currently work as an electrical design engineer for a high voltage EPC company. I worked in the corporate office where most projects we engineered were around $200k and some capital projects up to 100 Million, most all of which is brand new equipment. The company does work in transmission, utility, and industrial sectors. The corporate office is about 150 people which are made up of teams of 8 that consist of 4 engineers and 4 drafter/designers. At this office, we have an electrical systems studies/relay settings group that does the systems studies, coordination and relays settings for the engineers. Our role as engineers is to create bill of materials, physical drawings (cable conduit schedules), grounding and lightning studies, and electrical schemes. At this facility there is a great chance to move up into management, but what is gained in management opportunities, I feel is lost in deep technical understanding.

At this company they have a unique rotation program that allows the engineers to be placed in the field services division. During this rotation, I got the opportunity to perform maintenance testing, commissioning and acceptance testing on new electrical apparatus that our engineered department engineered. While on my rotation, I also started working for the Field Service Engineering. This engineering group is a niche group that does smaller projects,usually under $100k, but within the scope of the projects they do there own engineering, system studies, and relay programming and drafting. The work is mainly upgrades and retrofitting existing equipment with newer to increase reliability. The group I worked with is 3 engineers. The three are some of the most technically sound engineers I have come in contact with. I believe this is due to the close work with the field technicians, the trouble calls they receive, and the unique engineering jobs they get to work on.

I am having a hard time deciding whether to go back to the corporate office or stay out in the field office. I see the advantages of both, but ultimately I would want to make myself the most marketable for a job opportunity in the far future. Like previously stated, the corporate office gives one a great place to move up the chain into a management position. On the other-hand, the field office offers a place to grow my knowledge of troubleshooting and advance my technical ability.

Just looking for some objective advice.

Thanks,

Rusty

 

[Desrod2]

There is no magic path. I worked first for a number of years in the technical field at a utility, became a specialized power system engineer in Transmission and then move into operation as a manager in Distribution and I am now managing a specialized consulting team of engineers and nerds in the private sector working in T&D.

There are great opportunities in all fields and careers. Build a good network offers and interesting challenges will come to you.
On an humorous note, you might try flipping a coin: on the first result, if you reject the choice and decide that it should be a 2 out of 3, you know what your sub conscience wants!

 

[Jebb]

It all comes down to what you want. I think you learn a lot more in the field than in the office but being "on the road" can wear on you after awhile. Right now in my career I've been back in the office most of the time but I'm finding out I miss the field work after doing it on and off for +20 years. I did about a year as Management and hated it, I'm not a people person, I'm an engineer/fixer......

as Desrod2 said "if you reject the choice and decide that it should be a 2 out of 3, you know what your sub conscience wants!"....

 

[arrehman1]

It is progressively difficult to be out there in the field especially on call... As you get older and have children, this may not be ideal for you. That's certainly a loaded response with many dependencies. It really depends on your personality etc etc...

I would advise to stay in the field as long as you can... Because the doors of the corporate world are always open... Especially for those who have field of experience

Good luck!

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