Did I Ruin My Career? 25

[dktoao]

So my story:

I graduated with a BSME about 4 years ago during the worst part of the slump into the "great resession". At this time I was offered a job with a small company who payed me $40k per year, which I took. At the time I didn't care about the pitiful salary because I wanted to gain experience and I was absolutely broke and didn't want to move back in with mom. I should have seen the salary as a warning sign because 2 years later I was making $46k, travelling 75% and not making anything in the way of compensation for the travel or overtime I was working. I decided to quit and I decided that I wanted to travel a bit before I started looking for work again because, you know, YOLO. I gave my boss a full 2 months of notice, when 2 months arrived my boss begged me to stay on just a bit longer, and I told him no. I don't think he took this very well and I couldn't have cared less at the time.

My intention was to just travel for a little while, 3 months around the U.S., 1.5 months in Asia and then back to work. Of course, after the 4.5 months I was the happiest I had ever been in my life and decided to do a working holiday in Australia for the next year. In Australia I worked for 5 months in a factory before finding a job in Oil and Gas doing data analysis and data entry. When my visa was about to expire this company really wanted to keep me on and offered me sponsorship to stay and work in Australia. I turned them down because they didn't offer me a wage that was on par with the median wage for an engineer with a few years of experience in Australia (which is around $80k by my reckoning) and I didn't want to stay that far away from my family.

So now the dilema, I have been back in the U.S. looking for work for about 3 months and I have had a lot of interviews but nothing has panned out yet. I think that my lack of success is mostly due to the fact that my resume now looks like swiss cheese with all kinds of different, unrelated experience on it. Usually the first question I get in an interview is usually something like "Why should we believe that you are ready to settle down and get serious about your career?" The second problem is that I don't have the best references, I have one glowing reference from the factory that I worked in and the other two are probably luke warm at best, likely not so good. I have provided secondary references to co-workers that I got along well with but I think these aren't nearly as good using my direct supervisor. The third problem is that I have been very picky in the jobs that I apply for because I don't want just another 6 month stint on my resume with a woeful tale to tell, I want a solid job with a solid company so I am not temped to next go do a working holiday in New Zealand to the further detriment of my engineering career.

Is telling a prospective employer all of this in a cover letter going to make me look like a whiny immature man-child? Should I lower my expectations and just find a job that is unsatisfying? I feel like I have really put myself in-between a rock and a hard place here. Any suggestions on what to do?

Anyone have any advice? What is the best course to get back on the engineering train?

Thanks in advance!

 

[moon161]

X2 on parting shots, they can sting even when you don't shoot them. I rendered some sympathetic and humourous artwork for a friend that seemed unhappy at a formerly shared workplace. I requested, but did not get discretion with my efforts, which were prominently featured in a parting shot. My name was removed from same, but I think few if any were fooled. Useful to remember the taste of egg on your face if you get the same bad idea down the road.

 

[TheTick]

I still don't like you, but here's a story that might help you feel validated.
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130423091401-7070331-my-best-mistake-fired-in-less-than-60-minutes[/url]

 

[jgailla]

Star for you, Tick.

 

[samanaPE]

I'd like to add to the (very) small number of supporting voices for OP. I understand what he's written and the existence of personality types that do not fit into the 9-5 corporate humdrum. It seems that everyone else does to, but have come to believe that these people do not belong in engineering.

The attitude seems to be "that's the way it is, accept your pigeonhole, and be thankful to have a job". It's ironic that there was a thread in one of the other forums here about 'engineering as a commodity' and the poisonous effect that has on one's morale. Aren't we just supporting that notion with post after post telling this person how to shape up into a good little worker, and how to rub the bullshit just the right way to get through hr?

He's trying to get into the 'profession of making awesome stuff' - to me, that's something to be celebrated, not drummed out.

 

[IRstuff]

"profession of making awesome stuff"

Not trying to drum him out, just trying to give him a dose of reality. SOME people get to make awesome stuff, but 99% of engineers don't. You take the awesome where you can, and awesome is indeed in the eye of the beholder. I don't make anything awesome, but I do consider my job to BE awesome, for the simple reason that I get paid to do things that I LIKE!!! Can't beat that; it would have been good to have some of the awesome products get into production or even completion, but you can't guarantee that kind of result, ever.

So, for me, it's awesome, and not AWESOME, and with that, I can be happy and content. If I depended on getting AWESOME, I would be unhappy and frustrated, and possibly be constantly going, "Squirrel!"

TTFN
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[samanaPE]

I'm genuinely interested in how we make the connection between where dktoao currently stands and where the current state of the industry is. That's quite a generalization (and I'd imagine someone will post explaining how creative and fulfilling their engineering job is) but I see it as a real problem.

First of all, many western countries seem rather concerned that STEM-based professions are not attracting new, younger people with curiosity and imagination that hasn't been eroded; and knowing what I know now I'd have a hard time recommending an engineering path for someone looking for more than a comfortable routine job and a middle class salary.

Secondly, and selfishly closer to my heart, how do those already in the industry, having completed many years of education, experience, licensing, etc, achieve real satisfaction with our roles, and not just be commoditized automatons under the control of the local MBA-degreed administrator/manager. I've exaggerated for illustrative purposes, but the point remains.


"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." Quote from a very wise man.

 

[Sparweb]

...Secondly, and selfishly closer to my heart, how do those already in the industry, having completed many years of education, experience, licensing, etc, achieve real satisfaction with our roles, and not just be commoditized automatons under the control of the local MBA-degreed administrator/manager. I've exaggerated for illustrative purposes, but the point remains...

You are raising a very important point; to me it's about engineering, the philosophy, which is not the same as engineering, the job. We don't all have the same personality and outlook on life, but most engineers I know get a lot of satisfaction out of taking any problem, and then solving it or finding a better way. This branches out quickly into invention, entrepreneurship, scientific research, and education, even if many people think that engineering is little more than a Dilbert cartoon.

I detected a tone from the OP a faint attitude of entitlement (which may or may not be there) and carefully chose my reaction to be a jarring one, rather than reassuring or offering encouragement right at the start. Engineering, like science, is an art of solving problems, and this case may be a problem that is not yet defined for the OP. So a few terse questions are not out of order. (BTW he/she may not be reading any more, but if so, please feel welcome to continue engaging with the group, firstly because the network of experience probably can help you here, and secondly the pixels on your glowing computer screen probably can't hurt you). The people who do get the awesome projects have probably grown a thick enough skin to take the failures and abuse that it takes to get to that place.

This morning I heard a smug newsreader on the radio with a statistic to tell us all about: Only 5% of people (in the US) ever put to use the algebra/trig/calculus that they learned in high school. This was proposed as a snub to math teachers around the world, I guess, but I see it quite differently. My personal view is that 95% of the people in the US are denying themselves an enrichment of their life, by ignoring the usefulness of math in the world around them. Their loss.

I don't know many people who understand my opinion, of course.
Except some engineers.

I don't know if this ties together the topics you were bringing up SamanaPE. I hope it's worth thinking about, but could be going beyond the topic at hand.

STF

 

[IRstuff]

samanaPE, might I suggest that you start your own thread about this subject, rather than possibly hijacking the OP's thread?

I partially agree with SparWeb, but I think that the 95% are also denying themselves the tools by which they might even vaguely begin to understand how the world, the economy, etc., work. Then, maybe, there would be more than just arbitrary demonization when Herman's numbers don't add up.

However, SparWeb's comment about personalities is more to the point. The 95% that don't, do so because they don't even care to or want to understand anything about the world, etc., because if they did, then they would have to acknowledge some level of complicity in the state of the country or the world.

TTFN
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[samanaPE]

@SparWeb: Thanks for the post, I liked the part about Engineering - The Philosophy. Sounds like there's a treatise in there somewhere. You seem to have faith in the branching out into a better, brighter tomorrow part, maybe I'm feeling ungenerous when I choose not to see it that way.

@IRStuff: Sorry if you considered that a hijack, to me it seemed a continuation of what OP was talking about, perhaps describing some of the reasons he feels uncommitted to an engineering future.

I'll leave it for now.

 

[Sparweb]

Okay, but feel free to open a new topic if you'd like to pursue it.


STF

 

[GibbsFE]

I feel for the OP, here. I quit my first job of nearly 5 years chasing a fleeting romantic interest, and that simply devastated my career. I then took a engineering contracting gig for a year, then a position in financial software development, and got laid off when the markets tanked.

I moved to California for a couple years to work on my friends' farm. I used up what little savings I had, ruined my credit, and while my acquired skills are impressive, I am seen as a flight risk to potential employers. And deservedly so.

When I did return to engineering 4+ years later, it is like my brain got an upgrade and I can visualize processes, mechanics, and interactions on a higher level. My creativity has soared from having to use different parts of my brain. I can troubleshoot problems much faster, and offer solutions I would never have thought of 5 years ago. I did have to start again at a low-paying entry-level position, though I am a defacto supervisor. It does hurt that I would be earning 2-3X my current pay at any other company doing what I do. But I suppose that's the cost of being "unstable", regardless of the value I add.