Would you go down the same path? What would you do instead?
I'm a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry. I think I would have gone to a welding/fabrication trade school instead and have my own business working on racecars.
Would you go down the same path? What would you do instead?
I'm a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry. I think I would have gone to a welding/fabrication trade school instead and have my own business working on racecars.
Medicine.. I'd be an ER doc. Yeah.. I'm crazy.
practically.. I'd be a dermatologist and charge people bank for botox.
My undergrad was Mechanical Engineering then earned an MBA while working in industry. I'm an Engineering Manager for a dietary supplement company. It's a good gig and the company has done well this past year.
Spent time in automotive and consumer products. I understand the stress in the automotive industry.
There are other opportunities out there. Lots of breweries around here needing engineers.
To answer the question...no changes. I like what I'm doing!
Would've liked to have gone to the Air Force Academy and flown planes, either heavies or an A10.
PMRacing said:
I think I would have gone to a welding/fabrication trade school instead and have my own business working on racecars.
Alot of engineers I speak with have the same desire.. I'm toying with the idea of buying a shop of some sort. Boomers are retiring fast and selling their businesses.. 2% business loans right now.
I'd go back to high school and tell myself to get a tutor in biology. I think I'd like being a pediatrician or neonatologist. And I believe I could do it too, but my HS biology turned me off of anything sciencey. Which is unfortunate, I really understand it pretty well now. I'd also learn a programming language.
If I only go back to college, I would have added a finance major to my Mathematics major and taken an extra year.
But I like my career path so far.
When I was in my 20's I'd have hated my current job, but by the time I was in my 40's I realized I needed a change & can't think of anything that would suit me more than the current gig & still pay me to do it.
I do wish I'd stayed in school for 1 more year to get my bachelors degree in EET, though I don't think I'd have liked that actual work. Then again, not having another year's worth of student loans was a very good thing too.
I would have done my current career sooner, then jumped into something else and still kept the first years out of high school the same.
Spent more time in school intentionally on the business side, probably would have dual degreed or 5th year to do MBA at the same time. My skill is translating "nerd" to "dollars" but maybe no matter what that is hard won over a few decades 
Mechanical Engineer who has so far worked on mining safety systems, magnets, headphones and LED drivers and fixtures. Just started in the automotive industry so far my only regret is staying a bit too long at my second job.
If I have learned one thing it is that there is always another job (at least in Engineering) so at worst a job will suck for a bit before something else will come along.
There are some other things I see and say I wish I had done that and then realize if had I'd have no money (or possibly time) to do the things I love.
Looking back, it all makes sense. There was pain, but without it you don't grow/learn/improve. I just wish I had taken better care of my back.
I'm a software guy, and I think the big decisions I've made along the way have been the right ones. I'm pretty good at software, I enjoy doing it, and it pays decently so it's hard to think of a different career that would have turned out better. As for the details (getting a BS in CS, skipping the master's, which employers I chose when) I think that worked out decently well. I mean, sure, one can always make 20/20 hindsight arguments like I should have tried to go work for Google when they were a 100 person startup, but that's cherry picking exceptional results.
Finalized my programming skills and started working on flash trading software. I would own an island now and be retired.
I might have tried selling books on the new thing known as the internet.
I would've gone into medical administration and gone back to law school sooner.
I am an ME that went into management. I am happy with the choice but I had two major forks in the road that I always wonder about:
Fork 1- start my own business, I was close at one point I was making almost as much money consulting as I was on my 9-5. At the same time I almost bought into a garage and stopped being an ME to be a mechanic.
Fork 2- After ~10 years of designing machines I was approached about going to the dark side and being a controls engineer. The logic was since I knew the process and I knew what the machines were trying to do I would have a good background to move into controls. That field would probably give me more options than I have now but pay less.
People always want what they don't have. My wife always says you can't have part of someones life, you have to take the whole thing. With that in mind I am very happy with where I am in life at mid-career so maybe I wouldn't change a thing...
I'd get a government job and have a gold plated pension, and be retired already.
New York Nick said:Fork 2- After ~10 years of designing machines I was approached about going to the dark side and being a controls engineer. The logic was since I knew the process and I knew what the machines were trying to do I would have a good background to move into controls. That field would probably give me more options than I have now but pay less.
I went the other way about 5 yrs into my career (from controls to process) and I think it was the right move.
I kind of got to do that when I went back to work as an industrial mechanic last year. I learned that I LOVED the job, but the guys who are 25 do a lot better than the guys who are 45 phycically and the guys who are 45 are trying to figure a way out so that they don't completely destroy their body. Be careful what you wish for.
PMRacing said:Would you go down the same path? What would you do instead?
I'm a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry. I think I would have gone to a welding/fabrication trade school instead and have my own business working on racecars.
My "Career" has been jumping careers. Go figure.
Went to university to become a lawyer and ended up graduating as an electrical engineer even though I had no HS math or science background. Ended up doing seismic work overseas and then opened a brewery until I got bored and went into automated testing and then MEMs based medical devices.
Oddly enough the most important skill that enabled me to do this was reading and writing that I probably already had down by the time I got to HS.
If you want to do welding and fabrication, don't do race cars. Race car people are all T-Rexes with arms that can not reach their wallets. You also have to have thick skin because race car fabrication is as competitive as racing and they all talk E36 M3 about each other.
Build Hot Rods. More variety and it is money people are happy to spend as long as they see results.
My biggest career regret was not taking the EIT and PE tests in PA when I could do so based on experience without an engineering degree. Otherwise, I don't really have any big regrets. I've been in the right place at the right time and lucked into a few good decisions.
I'm not sure. I am a Mechanical Engineer. I have enjoyed a lot of the work I have done. If I restarted, I would probably do one of two things:
1) Try to head toward design agencies from the start. I really enjoy the R&D, / rapid development side of engineering. The monotonous projects that are 95% the same as the last, I do not enjoy.
2) Maybe head toward computer science or engineering. I enjoy programming & computers. I am jealous that these jobs lend themselves better to working remotely, seem to be more common in places I want to live, and these toolsets can be easily leveraged outside of work for side money/starting your own business. (as opposed to ME where you need expensive software and/or fabrication equipment).
If I went back in time and did it differently I wouldn't be who I am today, but if I had done things differently I wouldn't have been a 34 year old enrolling in a Calculus course at the beginning of 2020.
I would've gotten into commission sales earlier than I did. I spent 9 years in purchasing as a buyer/agent and I would've started in sales instead.
Some don't like the commission end of it but I find it motivating and exciting. I also love Southern California and would've loved to move there to start my career.
Either stuck with it and got my BS in MET (Have a BA in Journalism, PR) or Software Engineering.
Although now in my late-30s I do pretty OK in OK for someone with a PR degree.
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