Engineer working as an Engineering Technician 4

[Itsdc01]

Hey, is it career suicide for a person with an engineering degree looking for entry level work to take an engineering technician position just to get some experience?

 

[jrf]

The answer to this question depends on you, and the nature of the tech job.

If you work as a tech in an organization with a lot of upward mobility, and if you can demonstrate your competence, the tech job could well be a lead in to an engineering position.

That's how it turned out for me.

 

[strokersix]

I agree with most of the posts here. I spent the first 10 years of my career working in machine shops after my BSME because that's really what I wanted to do. My first stint was in a research lab and that was awesome. It went downhill after that. When I finally wised up that Job Shop Supervisor was as good as it was going to get for the rest of my career I quit and went back to school for MSME. That gave me a fresh start and now I'm working as an engineer at an Ag Equipment OEM. The job isn't particularly glamorous but the pay is a lot better!

On the plus side, I think practical hands-on machine shop and fabrication experience is extremely valuable to an engineer. The problem is, most engineering managers don't understand the benefit that experience brings to the job.