Travel 10

[RudyRuude]

Hi,

I am a recent new graduate in Mechanical Engineering and wanted to get some of your opinions on traveling after completing an engineering degree. Would you recommend doing the travel thing or would you recommend getting some work experience behind me first? The reason why I ask is I have some buddies who are itching to go traveling and to be honest I share the same feeling. But they aren't engineers.

I recently accepted a full time position at an engineering firm because having been broke for the past 4-5 years I was itching to start making my own money and gaining experience towards my PEng. I still think that was probably the smartest thing to do, but I keep hearing all the "you won't be able to do it later", "this is the time you have the minimum responsibilities", "you shouldn't be in a rush to start work" kind of stuff, which I guess has some merit to it.

I wanted to ask other engineers what they thought because I think its a little different for engineer so dropping everything to go traveling could effect your competitivness in the job market when you are eventually looking for a job. I guess I should mention I dont have a whole lot of experience either-roughly 8 months as a summer intern.

Anyways, all opinions are welcome and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Thanks!

 

[miningman]

You accepted the job....... it becomes an immediate no brainer, if you chose to change your mind , you are branding yourself as unreliable , no moral compass, and generally a very poor choice as as a prospective employee. All other considerations are trivial.

 

[IRstuff]

Should have planned ahead. My son plans to travel Europe for about a month after graduation, and he arranged his start date to be in September.

TTFN
faq731-376

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[DHambley]

acoppold, Since you've already accepted a job, go with that for 1 or 2 years to get good experience (and money), then quit and travel. I traveled for 2 years before I went back to grad school, the result being after that my career didn't seem to skip a beat. Hungry in the mountains of northern Afghanistan and getting mugged in the middle of Morocco were adventures which have colored my life forever.

Darrell Hambley P.E.
SENTEK Engineering, LLC

 

[RudyRuude]

Ya well unfortunately I didn't have the same luxury as your son. When I finished I had no offers let alone scheduled interviews even after applying for many, many jobs. Actually,had I had a job lined up for September or something I would have been gone the second I walked out of university for the last time. THAT is a no brainer. But having finished school without any potential job leads I decided to stick around in case I got contacted

Anyways, it seems like that ship has sailed anyways so I should just accept it for what it is.

 

[MikeHalloran]

If you're lucky, the job will include some travel, so you can see the world on someone else's dime.

On another subject, please don't say 'anyways'; it makes you appear uneducated.


Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[RudyRuude]

Ya, I thought getting at least a couple years under my belt first was the way to go to. I finished with almost no money, yet no debt either. So it was either start working, (likely in a restaurant) to save money and quit to go travelling in the summer and hope to lock a job down for September in the mean time, or say screw it and take a loan and go travelling immediately with no plan on what to do when I got back. I was eventually offered a position ~3 weeks after I finished school at the company I had been interning at over the past two summers. SO! that's what was on the table. A single job offer from my old employer starting immediately or take my chances and decline, go travelling and deal with it when I got back. Since travelling wasn't going to happen unless I had some money, I decided to take the position.

I supposed I have to agree with miningman. I'm not a flake and I hate people who are. I've accepted the position and it is what it is at the moment. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed that an opportunity to travel will at some point show it's face. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[steellion]

Take the job as you promised; start saving those vacation days.

 

[JohnRBaker]

If you're lucky, the job will include some travel, so you can see the world on someone else's dime.

I was going to make the same suggestion.

In my professional career, which spans 43 years, I've been to some 31 countries and have flown several million miles (3.3 million+ with American Airlines alone and that's just since 1986) virtually ALL of it on the company dime. Granted, they expect you to 'work' while you're out there spending the company's money, but if you plan it right and can manage to be someplace over the weekends, it's amazing the number of things tha you might get to experience. For example I've managed to walk around Stonehenge, climb the Effiel Tower, wonder thru Red Square in Moscow, visit the Emperor's Palace in Tokyo, drive down the Great Costal Road in Australia, visit Waterloo in Belgium and climb the 'Mount of the Lion', walk through (but only window-shop) the 'red-light' district in Amsterdam, sail out from a fyord in Norway to where there was nothing between me and the North Pole but a lot of really cold water, ride an elevator to near the top of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, drink Singapore Slings while sitting at the 'Long Bar' in the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, drive really fast on the German Autobahn, visit the original 'Legoland' in Billund, Denmark, eat broiled Raindeer in Helsinki, Finland, gamble at a casino in Macau, China, visit the Snake Farms in Bangkok, Thailand, rode across the Hong Kong harbor on one of those overcrowded ferries, took the Bullet Train from Tokyo to Osaka and back and the TGV from Lyon to Paris, and dozens of other 'tourist' type activities around the world.

Yep I could have never been to or seen as many places as I have if I had to have done it all on my own nickel.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[JohnRBaker]

And to not overlook one of the best side trips ever was the day I spent in Agra, India, visiting the Taj Mahal and the Red Fortress.

Definitely find yourself a job where you're expected to travel and then take full advantage of the opportunities that this presents. And with all those air miles, I've managed to take my wife on several of these adventures and in fact, we're already planning a trip to Roman later this year in conjunction with my attending and speaking at a conference in Torino.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[bigTomHanks]

Many people do what you are suggesting. Many engineers enter military service after college and get back into the profession. Delaying your entry into the rat race is no big deal and all you gotta do is get your foot in the door somewhere when you decide to return to engineering. It'll be like you never took the time off after a year or two back. Maturity can be gained in places other than at a company grinding away and that is what sets most people apart.

 

[steellion]

bigTomHanks, it is a big deal if you've already accepted a position. ESPECIALLY for your first job out of college, ESPECIALLY for the company that you interned with that will show up on your resume. What kind of reference do you think they would give for someone that flaked out of an accepted offer to go "find themselves"?

 

[GregLocock]

So, i've got 3 candidates for a job

A) left uni, accepted job, went and worked at it for a couple of years

B) left uni, accepted job, didn't take it up and wandered off for a couple of years

C) left uni, wandered off for a couple of years


Big tom hanks, prioritise the order of likelihood that those people will prove satisfactory.

I think most of us would say B is a bigger risk.

Incidentally I think wanderjahr is an excellent concept, and the older I get the more of them I want to do.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[ztengguy]

If broke, how can you afford to travel??

 

[graybeach]

I spent the first three years after receiving my undergraduate degree working as an engineer saving for just such a trip. Having saved enough to travel on a shoe string and attend grad school (with some help from parents), I traveled for 1.5 years all over the US and Southeast Asia. Right in the middle of the trip, I completed the grad school applications, got accepted, and picked a school. Once I was finished with grad school, I resumed my career. No one was the wiser about the 1.5 year break.

 

[GregLocock]

"If broke, how can you afford to travel??"

Do you have no skills or abilities that can earn you money on the way? Preferably legally? if not then that is very sad.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[dvd]

"The Gift of the Magi" has some significance as a story, you should read it. Why not do something obscure and talk to your new boss? The boss might be putting you to work now for a project that is coming up in a few months. The important opinion is that of your new manager. Be upfront, tell it straight and state that if you are needed now then you are more than committed. Don't regret it later - communicate now.

 

[metengr]

Come on acoppold,
Why on Earth would you even ask such a ridiculous question after having accepted a job?

 

[RudyRuude]

You know what, I'm not really sure why I asked it because I knew the answer the entire time. I grew up playing a lot of team sports and I never missed a practice because I knew I made a commitment to the team by registering and if I wanted to skip practice then I should never have joined. That's just how I was brought up and in my mind this is no different. I guess the reason why I ask is that I've been finding the adjustment from being a student to a full-time employee a little scarier than I once thought. I'm sure a lot of you can relate. Is my life over? By taking the job have I pretty much waved goodbye to my youth? It's those kind of thoughts that pushed me to ask the question. This is my first post on here and I really appreciate the feedback. I'm just going to stick with the job, even if it's not my dream job. Anyone have any tips for a new engineer just starting out? To be honest I've been feeling a little bit overwhelmed with the whole thing. The company doesn't really have a well structured training program, which is a bit of a disappointment. Before you start saying these are things like I should have looked into that before taking the job, I did and knew that they didn't have a training program. Again, I'll be honest and point out that I took the job because I had been left pretty beat up after applying for 100+ positions that I was fully qualified for and received perhaps 2-3 call backs, none of which led to an offer. As I mentioned before, I had worked for this company as an intern in the past and they actually contacted me to see if I was interested in the job. I don't know if I panicked or whatever but I took the job because I had no other leads.

Like I said, I'm going to try and stick it out for a year or two and revisit my options then. Any tips for a fresh new grad engineer trying to make his way in the industry for the first time as a full-time employee?

Thanks.

 

[tickle]

Straight out of school you are poor in money and rich in time. Once you have started work you are rich in money and poor in time.
I finished university, and naively thought that I could get a job, defer the start date for three months and travel. What happened; I waited, I applied for an ever widening variety of jobs, I spent days on trains travelling the country for 1 hour interviews, I opened the inevitable "No thanks" letters. When I eventually got a job six months later, the desire to travel had disappeared, I just wanted to work (not financially but I was bored and needed to use my brain).
I have been to numerous places around the work, both on holidays and through work. But I am always jealous of the back packers who are in control of their own time and get to experience things more like a local than staying in 4+ star cookie cutter hotels. Visiting things on work time is great and I have ticked some boxes that should be on people's bucket lists, but I always feel a slight emptiness that work is the master of my time and the significant other is not there witnessing it with me. But that is just me.
If I was interviewing you, I am sure that the stories of fruit picking in Australia, sailing up the Mekon, camping on the beach in Morocco, living with the Hmong for two weeks, etc, would impress me more and give you more life skills and make you more employable than the average Joe.
If you can afford to travel, do it.