Is Engineering for me?

[MasterMaxter]

I’ve just gotten to about the 1.5 year mark out of college, and really debating if engineering is for me. I dislike the stress of the job, and the general attitude of engineers, both PE and non PE. It might also just be the field im in, Power, but I really do not want to work with AutoCAD, drafting standards, and the NEC for the rest of my career. I really like computers, and thinking about switching careers to become a System Admin. (Starting to get the certifications required)

But enough of my inner ramblings, My question is, how did you all know engineering was your passion/interest? I was channeled into engineering because Guidance said this was the way to go for a young male good in Science and Math, and I followed not having a better idea (I was told its where the $$ is). Then came college which I did not find too hard, (just a hella lot of work), but I was never really interested in the EE end of things. Computers/programming always caught my attention, and I love helping/ teaching/ working with others on both EE and Computer tasks.

Should I give it more time, move around the engineering field? Or is it just something you either love or hate? Time is too precious to do something your impartial too, and Id also hate to waste my employers time along with it.

 

[Sideswiper]

I forgot to add that I'm also about two years into my power company job as a junior protection engineer. I started off in substation design but got myself moved away from that pretty quickly because if I loved physical design I would have gotten a mechanical engineering degree.

So I'm also young and inexperienced, and I also hate it, but the protection job seems interesting enough and in a decade or so I'll be one of the only ones that isn't retired, so that sounds good. Also occasionally I go out with test engineers as they check and commission relays and protection panels... I'm at a small company so I can get away with that, I hear that at large companies you are pigeonholed into just one area.

Or maybe I'll change careers entirely after I get my PE license. Who knows?

 

[MasterMaxter]

Well, thanks for the replies everyone. I guess I got some big decisions to make.

As an aside, surprisingly enough, Im ok with the massive pay cut. I live a very simple life and figure I can live on 40K for the time being. But perhaps I should explore the engineering field a bit more before I call quits. Maybe this job is the problem, not engineering.

Ah well, que serra serra

 

[plasgears]

Consider a dual major career like ME/EE, EE/biomedeng. This will give you exquisite entre into diverse industries, but you need the fortitude to do the extra ~2 yrs. A lot of prelims are common to both.