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Since I began working in the industry, I have experienced challenges every day. I was excited to start my career after graduation, but once I entered the field, I realized I didn't have a true understanding of what working in engineering would be like, despite my internship before graduation.
I encountered terrible managers who yelled at employees for not knowing things, were unwilling to provide guidance, and expected us to use our "free time" to train ourselves. Then, you no longer have free time. I quickly became burned out from long hours and consistently felt as though I was falling short of my managers' expectations. I learned that, in my experience, the focus was more on profit than on engineering.
I often felt overwhelmed, cramming my life into the weekends and always rushing, with hardly any time to enjoy myself. Despite these feelings, I became a PE but the dissatisfaction lingered. After six years in the industry, I made the decision to take a pay cut and seek a more fulfilling career.
Sounds like my current situation where the senior engineer is the only one that knows how to do what he does. Tells me to come to him if I have questions, but won't answer any of my questions when I have them and just tells me to figure it out. Expects me to train myself on how to use his systems. He plans to retire soon yet no one in the company knows how to do what he does. It's very frustrating.
Not really! I’ve studied and trained a lot to get where I am today, so I’m not planning to leave my career in engineering anytime soon.
But it would seem you have already left your “career in engineering” if you are a manager. I think the original post is concerning the technical aspects of engineering.
I have. After getting laid off I considered moving to the trades for similar pay, jobs security, and a more active role.
Yes I considered leaving to do real estate full time but decided to move from public to private instead. I wasn’t happy with the work I was doing and I also told myself I would only move if I could find a remote role. Ended up getting a huge pay bump from the switch. I’m much happier and I rarely do overtime.
Currently planning a pivot from automotive to defense so I can have more flexibility on where to live in the USA. The technology seems cool too.
If it didn't work out, I would likely switch to risk management or consulting. Math is my favorite subject, and I prefer to live in moderate cities with California transplants since I'm originally from Los Angeles. Painfully learned how corporate engineering is different from engineering in university. And I also learned that hands on engineering jobs usually aren't in the city. Still figuring it out.
Only considered it when I started a side business when still working full time as engineer. If side business ever had been successful, I would have worked full time at my business, which was not related to engineering.
I've never really considered leaving engineering in any serious way. If some opportunity happened to come along that wasn't engineering focused I might be interested. But nothing like that has happened and I'm not really expecting it.
I graduated about one year ago and started my career at a consultancy company. I made the wrong choice and considered leaving engineering. No one could guide me there; apparently, I was the only engineer, and the company provided only project management services. I always attended meetings alone, knowing nothing. After seven months, I decided to leave and joined the company where I did my internship during my studies, a large contractor company.
At first, I wasn’t happy with the work. The seniors were also busy and didn’t really teach me. I struggled alone but spent more time studying and learning on my own. Fortunately, my manager is really nice and supportive. After half a year, my bond with co-workers has also improved. I decided to regularly visit project sites to gain more practical knowledge, as I am an office-based design engineer. So far, so good, and I’ve decided to stay in the industry for now. Choosing the right working environment is key.
One day, I had a small chat with a friend of mine, who is also an engineer but hasn’t been able to secure a job in this industry. She mentioned that she really wished to be in my position. It made me realize that, sometimes, we don’t see how fortunate we are, while others might be longing to have what we have. Hang in there!
Not necessarily leave but maybe go to the dark side aka project management.
The impossible deadlines put out by scheduling or schedulers who don't understand what goes into completing the tasks and or projects at hand.
Management or lead people belittling employees.
There's a lot more, but I'm out of time and the schedule won't allow for it. 😁
I've been lucky enough to have several different career paths and I know engineering is a good fit for me. There are some days I would be ok just doing data entry or working at a coffee shop again, just for the opportunity to clear my mind and be 100% done with my tasks. But after a few months of that, I would be bored and want to come back.
Sometimes the headache of working in Engineering gets to me (budgets, office politics)...but I find myself back to my childhood memories about being curious...and that keeps me here...
I’ve only thought about leaving engineering if I were to start my own business. As far as professions go engineering is the very best for me.