Question about your (life) partner 1

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Ok, here's a few questions I'm interested in hearing the answers to.

How many of you have husbands, wives, girlfirends or boyfriends that are engineers or have technical or scientific jobs?

Would you prefer to marry (or date) someone with a technical / science background or would you prefer someone who works in an entirely different field?

I'll hold off on answering for myself until a few others reply.

 

[lostsailor]

Bruno,
My wife is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I like the difference in careers as it exposes me to something entirely different from what I do.
Regards,
RLS

 

[ctopher]

I'm technical, she's a nurse. I prefer it that way. If we were both technical, we would argue about too much "stuff".

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks 06 4.1/PDMWorks 06
AutoCAD 06
ctopher's home (updated 06-21-06)

 

[DaveVikingPE]

My wife's chief occupation, other than babysitting me, is babysitting. It's what she's best at (she has no college experience).

 

[JRLAKE]

I am married. I would not base my decision to marry someone on what they do for a living.

There are a few questions in life that can't be answered using math, science or statistics. This is one of them.

 

[JStephen]

My wife and I have completely different interests and abilities. But on the other hand, I've gotten along fine with the female engineers I've been around. I don't think there's really a correlation there.

 

[dik]

Although my wife has a masters in interior design, she's been a homemaker all our married lives... about 28 years, now.

We have substantially different interests and personalities but have never had an argument or fight...

Dik

 

[casseopeia]

BPJ, you have asked a question that keeps an entire industry afloat, internet dating!

I don't believe profession has much bearing, other than finding some common ground. A lot of relationship issues boil down to personalities and conflict resolution. It's not the good times that test the strength of the union, it's getting through the bad stuff intact.

And, you MUST agree on which way to hang the toilet paper roll.

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[metengr]

How many of you have husbands, wives, girlfirends or boyfriends that are engineers or have technical or scientific jobs?

My wife is a domestic engineer in our household (no formal ABET accredited, engineering degree program only OJT).

Would you prefer to marry (or date) someone with a technical / science background or would you prefer someone who works in an entirely different field?

Entirely different profession. Keeps things balanced in life.

 

[Zoobie]

When I was single I though that I would never want to marry an engineer. At the same time I always valued intelligence as a trait in the opposite sex...especially in a long term relationship (that's not to say that you have to be an engineer to be intelligent......

Anyways, back to my point. I did marry an engineer. We compliment each other well in that we have different strengths and common strengths that make us a good team. She's also a cheap consultant....a couple of weeks ago I was having trouble with some control tuning on a deethanizer and I called her at home (she's at home with the baby this year) and she walked me through some tuning tricks and tips...she a process control guru and I just pretend to understand.

 

[monkeydog]

My wife is not technical, and we are just fine with that. Can you imagine sitting at the dinner table and discussing Mohr's circle?
I have female engineer friends, but I could not imagine spending any more time with them then I do.

 

[ScottyUK]

A surprising number of friends and colleagues in technical roles have all ended up marrying teachers, myself included. Her career wasn't really a factor in us getting together, or at least it wasn't a conscious one. Previous serious girlfiends have worked in technical and non-technical roles, and it was never a factor then either.

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

 

[davidbeach]

casseopeia, are you suggesting that there is more than one way to hang the toilet paper?

 

[IRstuff]

My wife's a doctor, but I could have gone that way myself.

TTFN

 

[MedicineEng]

My wife has a degree in Sociology and works in HR but before I get married I had girlfriends in engineering and also from other study fields.

As said by others, I don't think that the profession is not really important to choose the person that you want to share the rest of your life.

It's much more important if (s)he is rich or not (eheheh, just kidding)

 

[ScottyUK]

David,

Of course there are two ways to hang bog roll! It either feeds off the top of the roll and hangs down some distance off the wall, or it feeds off the back of the roll from below and hangs near to the wall. It is an immensely important thing!!


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

 

[Quantum50]

I agree that perhaps it's not important what her profession is but it is important how she approaches issues, life, problems. I have envied my friends whom are married engineers (they got the degrees after several years of marriage). They compliment each other well (he's mechanical, she's chemical). They both remodel houses as a hobby.

My wife simply does not understand my approach to problem solving. In fact, she does not even consider the dynamics of "things" around us. After 26 years and two years of counseling, it's on the way out.
:-(

I have to agree with casseopeia. The internet dating seems to be a good way to meet someone whom shares common interest and activities. Good question, by the way!

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

It seems I feel that same as many of you. I'm happy about the fact that my significant other has a career very different from mine. The two major benefits as I see it are (1) I don't talk shop at home, because she won't understand/care/listen and (2) she introduces me to a lot of things that I wouldn't be exposed to otherwise.

I can see how Zoobie's situation could be nice too.

I never meant to suggest that I would use someone's career to judge their potential as a mate. Mostly I was just wondering what the engineer+engineer to engineer+other ratio was.

 

[mog69]

bpz
"The two major benefits as I see it are (1) I don't talk shop at home, because she won't understand/care/listen and (2) she introduces me to a lot of things that I wouldn't be exposed to otherwise"
So mine is not the only household where the evening debriefing is one way traffic !!

 

[ScottyUK]

Every night I get to listen to all the woes and ills which are afflicting the student population of my wife's priamry school. And those afflicting their families. And those of the staff she works with. And their pets. And... Sometimes the urge to scream "JUST SHUT UP!! I DON'T BLOODY CARE!!!" is overwhelming, but I have succeeded so far in just thinking it. She gets too involved in the problems of other people, something which seems to be about par for her profession. I guess it is one of the qualities which makes her good at her job.


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