EE (Power T&D) reconsidering engineering vs. technical career path

[Eeyore11]

Hello all. I'm an electrical engineer with about 5 years experience working at large investor-owned electric utility companies, in design and planning roles. I don't have my PE yet.

I've received consistently excellent performance feedback in my career, but also felt a consistent degree of dissatisfaction with my work. My job has fewer tangible results and greater ambiguity than I'd prefer. The only projects I've really enjoyed were emergency replacement of failed equipment, where the problem was well-defined, the timeline was short, and the benefits were clear. I'm beginning to wonder if engineering was the right path for me, or if I'd prefer a technical/hourly position such as:
- distribution designer
- system operator
- relay technician
- if I left power: PLC programmer

(I have great respect for linemen and electricians, but don't think I'm cut out for the physical burden and motor skills needed for those trades.)

Would anyone with experience in both areas be willing to compare and contrast?

I've read some great posts on the Electrical technical forums here. Hopefully some of the knowledgeable contributors also read this forum and can weigh in

 

[alchemon]

Do you enjoy moreso the "being out of the office" or "working with your hands"? If working with your hands, engineering will be a tough route. You could perhaps get into a more maintenance supervisor type position in manufacturing. If you enjoy more just "being out of the office" I'd look into technical sales and/or application engineer. Have to travel to see clients and go to job sites. Most utilities also have a well developed "inspector" type role that usually pays well. Normally not engineers, but if you work for a large company - that uses internal workforce for this - there are likely plenty of high profile jobs which management may feel like "an engineer" is warranted. You'll top out as pure inspection in the field, and the eventual future will be working in an office managing other inspectors.

 

[Eeyore11]

Do you enjoy moreso the "being out of the office" or "working with your hands"?

I do enjoy working in the field, but neither of these is the driving factor.

1. I like working with technical details of real equipment. My experience as an engineer has mostly involved working with models at a higher level of abstraction, or making decisions about the design approach and checking a designer's work implementing it on drawings.

2. I generally find it more rewarding to troubleshoot and fix something that is broken than to design something new. There's less ambiguity about the scope and less uncertainty about the need for and value of my work.

 

[alchemon]

Look at getting into consulting vs. utility side. May be a little more design heavy - aka reading the detailed technical specs of actual equipment vs. "process design" which is kind of what I'm hearing you are doing now. You can make good money as a technical design lead at a big consulting firm. You could do utility side consulting, or get into MEP design (building side).

There will be limited ambiguity about what you are designing, as what you design will get built. You'll have plenty of chances to work through "why things aren't working" when the Contractor submits their RFIs during construction.

 

[SwinnyGG]

You also might want to look into commissioning, ie consulting for a third party firm who provides commissioning services on construction projects.

This is very hands on, and on a single project the commissioning agent is involved (typically) from the time that equipment selection starts, through procurement and installation, and then is actually in the field troubleshooting, interfacing with EORs for various scopes, and making things work in the real world.

 

[xnuke]

A lot of equipment manufacturers have electrical engineering (not just technician) positions in field service. I work in one of those positions, and I really enjoy the mix of design engineering, PLC/HMI programming, and hands-on field work that I get to do.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Eeyore11]

Thanks for the responses so far.

My employer does have what is more or less a commissioning department internally. I actually applied for an engineer opening on that team once, but unfortunately didn't get it. (I ultimately got offered my current role.)