If you weren't an engineer, what would you be? 12

[BrunoPuntzJones]

I've been thinking about this recently. Not because I am unhappy with engineering, but because so many other things also sound so interesting to me.

I'd like to hear from the rest of you. If you had to pick another career, what would you choose?

 

[patrick7]

Explosives Demolition
Heavy Equipment
Construction

If you can't build it, break it

Now that is either initial susess or total failure.

 

[msibille]

Mythbuster team member.

Those guys have so much fun, in spite of the fact that their luck saves their fannies more than their knowledge/research/caution do.

 

[GregLocock]

I wouldn't wish for Tori's luck. I still laugh every time I remember him breaking the swing.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[powerjunx]

" ..If you had to pick another career, what would you choose?.."

Perhaps, a FAITH HEALER.

This opposes to PATRICK, "If you can't build it, break it"

if you break it, i'll mend it.

 

[TechyC]

Please don’t disillusion me – engineering is my dream job. Only been doing it for 9 months full time and where else can I work 35hrs / week get 5 weeks holiday a year for a decent wage and still have a life. I should know already in my mere 24 years I’ve been:

Car Servicer.
Wedding waitress.
Restaurant waitress.
Bugerking cashier.
Macdonalds cashier.
Asda Cashier
Children’s Party entertainer – fire juggler
Bartender.
Worked on numerous production lines packing baby wipes / aeroplane meals and checking cadbury walnut whips for walnuts.
Betting shop cashier.

Can everyone put down your worst jobs as well to remind me why I spent 4 years at uni working full time to get the job I finally have now.

 

[Ashereng]

TechyC,

Each to their own. Success is not predicated on career choice, industry, or market. Success can be had in any career, industry and market.

I know of a guy who has a high school education, started delivering pizza, and eventually, owned a couple of pizza stores (not chains, family business). How do I know him? I tutored his son.

I know a bartender that works about 35 hours a week, at an upscale club. He makes a decent wage, plus tips. Has a life, and a plan for his future. I think in about 10 years, he will probably own a bar, have a staff of about 30, and be very successful.

I know lots of engineers who work 40 hours, live paycheck to paycheck, and wonders what happens when the crude oil cycle crashes, or we run out of oil, or electric/hydrogen cars take over. He's not sure about the future in engineering with all the off-shoring, cheap engineers in India, China and the next emerging nation, and is pondering why he got into engineering in the first place.

You are only 24. If engineering is your dream job, good on ya. If engineering doesn't seem like the job of your dreams, at 24, you still have a lot of time ahead of you to do something that you both are good at and enjoy. Keep your eyes open. Sometimes, our dreams should stay that way - a goal that hasn't been reached yet - instead of the becoming the reality of our life.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[ziggi]

I have to agree with Ashereng,
My parents and most of my grandparents as well as their brothers and sisters all have advanced professional degrees in something, most commonly engineering and architecture, with a doctor or two in there. However the most successful person in our family was my great grandfather, he quit school in the third grade, became a shoemaker's apprentice and eventually ended up owning a huge shoe factory and quarry with over 200 people working for him. My grandmother took over for him, she had a high school education and a certificate here and there, but she was the only one of his children w/ the stones to run his businesses...they also ran booze during prohibition to make extra cash......come to think of it my wife's great grandmother had zero education and ran a brothel and also ran liquor during prohibition...what are the odds of that.

On a side note, I know of a few engineers who haven't gone into engineering.

 

[ScottyUK]

You asked about jobs and places we've worked:

Market stall - age 14-16: great people, great atmosphere, awful conditions, lousy pay. Loved it.

Barman (later Asst. Manager): great people, magical atmosphere, long hours. Loved it.

Production engineer: Ok people, terrible atmosphere, average hours, lousy pay. Hated it.

Production engineer: great people, good atmosphere, good hours, average pay. Enjoyed it.

Design engineer: great people, great atmosphere, great hours, good pay. Loved it.

R&D engineer: great people, great atmosphere, great hours, great pay, lousy location. Hated the place, miss the people and the work.

Electrical & control engineer: great people, good atmosphere, lousy hours, average pay (for the hours), reasonable location. I've been here over seven years and I'm still deciding if I love it or hate it!



It depends what you want in life as to what makes a great job. Your perfect job will be someone else's living hell. The things I value have changed over time. You need to move a couple of times to work out what is important to you.

----------------------------------

I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[Heckler]

In light of Ken Lay's passing and since the US Govenment no longer considers him a convicted felon. Then

If you weren't an engineer, what would you be? - dead six feet deep

 

[ziggi]

Are they gonna harvest Ken Lay's heart and give it to Cheney?
That scumbag probably faked his own death to get out of doing hard time, I guess the thought of a 300lb man named Bubba as your cellie would do that to you.

 

[Maui]

Your perfect job will be someone else's living hell

I actually experienced something like this first hand. I started a new job four months ago, and traveled with my new boss to a steel supplier's manufacturing facility overseas. I asked to see their forging shop, and when we entered it they were grinding the scale off of an ingot about 25 feet inside of the doorway. So there was black smoke in the air and sparks flying. To the left of this was a huge hydraulic forging press. My boss refused to take more than a few steps inside the building, and didn't last 5 minutes in there before returning to the outside again. When I came out 25 minutes later, he told me that it actually looked like how he pictured hell. I told him that it felt like home to me - I had worked in that type of environment every day for the previous ten years.

Maui

 

[Ron]

...Rich

 

[EnglishMuffin]

Dead

 

[l3city]

I met Cancun and the Mayan Riviera, after I graduated as an enginner. Since then I'been contemplating moving there and work as whatever or start a small bussines (don't care if is not engineering related) just enjoy life in the caribbean with blue clear waters, cool & hot weathers, and some hurricanes per year!! yeeaHH)

 

[Reegs54]

Lots of people said they wanted to be a fighter pilot.

Why? How do you know that you would actually enjoy being a professional pilot? Or is it because you like the image of the fighter pilot, and the idea of flying jets?

I was the latter, got onto pilots course, got through basic training, then scrubbed out on advanced course. I realised that I actually didn't want that life: constant training to keep your skills up, endless emergency drills, endless cyclic stress prepping for flights, not to mention having to train for a job you are not likely to ever have to actually do.

If I had my time again I think I would have gone into cooking. I love food, kitchens, working with my hands etc... but I could never get over the bad pay you start out on!

 

[Ductmate]

Gunsmith, possibly gun manufacturer. Then again, that's kind of engineering.

http://www.bloomautomatic.com

 

[wes616]

I think I'd probablly teach & sell pottery. Not that I am good at it, but I think i could be if I tried a little harder and had more encouragement from my family when I was young. I havn't done it in many years now, but at one time I loved spinning clay ang having my hands covered in mud.

And I could work from home, which would make my dogs happier.



Wes C.
------------------------------
Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

 

[FACS]

Professional retiree

Charlie

http://www.facsco.com

 

[ELEcontrol3e]

Not me

 

[kontiki99]

I think Reegs54 makes a good point.

Most people learn about fighter pilots from recruitment advertising, TV and movies.

If that's fair game, how about an idealized occupation from TV.

You know, maybe idiot tool salesman, hot wife, sense of humor (with constant laugh track), that somehow supports a family in a $300k home, has everything he/she needs, with the responsibilities, intellect and concerns of an immature child.

Perhaps the American Dream!