wuchy143
Member
Hello All,
I"m not 100% sure if this is the correct forum for my type of "issue" but I know that smart, intelligent people are on here and I think I need to tap into that. Also, I'm not 100% sure if I don't like engineering. So, I hope some seasoned professionals/hobbyists can shed some light into my 1/4 life crisis. At least I think it's one. You can be the judge. Also I think this post could be benficial for people that are thinking of being an engineer or for someone who's in my shoes now as well. I am trying to be as honest as possible in this post. I haven't reached out to anyone yet about this except my girlfriend.
I'm going to try and make this short and sweet. Again...I'm going to try So, I"m almost 26 years old. I'm a guy. I graduated in 2006 with a degree in Electrical Engineering(bach.) from a state school. I had a 3.0 GPA and think I was a "decent" engineering student. Once graduated I eventually found a job as an electrical engineer. Basicly I'm a tech though who designs keyboards for the military. I do mainly re-designs of our existing technology. Once in a great while I will do some actual "design" but usually it is something really small and I wont do it again for months and months. For example on one of the designs I had to figure out what type of DC to DC converter to use and do it in a way so that I don't make it get too hot. I then take my re-designs of the keyboards/trackballs(we do trackballs too) and work with an outside company to get the keyboard layout complete. The board then gets delivered so I make a BOM which enables production to stuff the PCB and wallaa we got a keyboard. If I didn't mess up it works. This is 100% not the case. I never get it right the first time. Granted I know that I"m not going to be a perfect engineer but I feel like I'm a very bad one. My job consists of that(making the PCB), making cables for products and test cables, fixtures for testing, EMI troublshooting, production support when needed, release ECO's for product enhancement or for new BOMs, and that's basicly my job. All of which I don't feel like I"m very good at. I feel like a hack. I don't expect this all to happen overnight but I feel like I have made very little progress in 2 years.
When I was in high school i knew 100% that engineering was what I wanted to do. Then when I got to college it was hard. But, I was given advice from my mom to stick with it. So I would say to myself.....I like this! I got this! I can be an engineer! I got myself thru the weedout courses like diff eq...physics...and all those types of classes. I scraped and crawled for my 3.0 and have no problem admitting it. I was and still am proud of what I did in college. It was the best time of my life. As it was getting close to graduation I got depressed. I think I knew deep down that this gig wasn't for me. But I still searched religously for a J.O.B. I kept trying to be positive. It took me 6 months to find my current job.(long but not too long..I'm not complaining about that) It's a very small company and I was hired to re-direct some of my bosses work so he had more time being an engineering manager and not doing designs. I"m the only person other than my boss that is capable of doing my job at my company.
So, here is my dilemma. I've been here now almost 2 years. During the two years I have never truly liked my job. Maybe in the beginning it was somewhat new and exciting and I wanted to be excited about it so I think I was more "into" my job when I started but that faded quick. I"m just not happy with my job. Now I'm not saying I don't like my job because I want a "cushy" job where it easy and I don't have to do anything. Or that I want to not work at all and live off the governement tip. This is not the case. I don't enjoy what I do. I make mistakes left and right eventhough I take a million years to do the littlest tasks checking my work trying to make it 100% right. I make tons of mistakes which frustrates the documentation guy/my boss and in the end it's usually still wrong and I then frustrate production becuase I made a goof which makes more work for them. I don't like the responsibility where the work I do has such an impact on what others do. I don't like how when I mess up and have to re-spin a PCB it costs the company about a grand to do so. It makes me sick to my stomach. I no longer like electronics like I thought I did. I do to a degree but when it's your job it's no longer "fun". I"m not saying it isn't fun for people. I just don't enjoy myself doing it.
Now here is where I am going to ask for advice from people that have been where I am. Or anyone who has some advice as to something else I could do that could be more of a fit for me. It's not that I want to completely change careers. Although i'm open to that. Perhaps there is another type of job where an engineering degree would get me the job? I need a better fit for my job. I'm not unrealistic where I think I going to get a job where I'm going to be in love with it 100% of the time. I'm just so incomfortable, unhappy, and a little depressed that I know I need to do something about it. So instead of just complaining about my job I want to be proactive about it and approach it with a level head. I don't want to make a rash quick fix and then hate another job even more. So this is where YOU come in. Please give me your most honest replies. Brutally honest is fine. I just need some direction in this but understand that unltimately it's my decision/problem and there is no quick easy fix. I know that no one can just give me the solution to my problem but I think you can point me in a direction where I will be capable of doing that given some time.
Thank you for any replies! They are much appreciated.
-mike
I"m not 100% sure if this is the correct forum for my type of "issue" but I know that smart, intelligent people are on here and I think I need to tap into that. Also, I'm not 100% sure if I don't like engineering. So, I hope some seasoned professionals/hobbyists can shed some light into my 1/4 life crisis. At least I think it's one. You can be the judge. Also I think this post could be benficial for people that are thinking of being an engineer or for someone who's in my shoes now as well. I am trying to be as honest as possible in this post. I haven't reached out to anyone yet about this except my girlfriend.
I'm going to try and make this short and sweet. Again...I'm going to try So, I"m almost 26 years old. I'm a guy. I graduated in 2006 with a degree in Electrical Engineering(bach.) from a state school. I had a 3.0 GPA and think I was a "decent" engineering student. Once graduated I eventually found a job as an electrical engineer. Basicly I'm a tech though who designs keyboards for the military. I do mainly re-designs of our existing technology. Once in a great while I will do some actual "design" but usually it is something really small and I wont do it again for months and months. For example on one of the designs I had to figure out what type of DC to DC converter to use and do it in a way so that I don't make it get too hot. I then take my re-designs of the keyboards/trackballs(we do trackballs too) and work with an outside company to get the keyboard layout complete. The board then gets delivered so I make a BOM which enables production to stuff the PCB and wallaa we got a keyboard. If I didn't mess up it works. This is 100% not the case. I never get it right the first time. Granted I know that I"m not going to be a perfect engineer but I feel like I'm a very bad one. My job consists of that(making the PCB), making cables for products and test cables, fixtures for testing, EMI troublshooting, production support when needed, release ECO's for product enhancement or for new BOMs, and that's basicly my job. All of which I don't feel like I"m very good at. I feel like a hack. I don't expect this all to happen overnight but I feel like I have made very little progress in 2 years.
When I was in high school i knew 100% that engineering was what I wanted to do. Then when I got to college it was hard. But, I was given advice from my mom to stick with it. So I would say to myself.....I like this! I got this! I can be an engineer! I got myself thru the weedout courses like diff eq...physics...and all those types of classes. I scraped and crawled for my 3.0 and have no problem admitting it. I was and still am proud of what I did in college. It was the best time of my life. As it was getting close to graduation I got depressed. I think I knew deep down that this gig wasn't for me. But I still searched religously for a J.O.B. I kept trying to be positive. It took me 6 months to find my current job.(long but not too long..I'm not complaining about that) It's a very small company and I was hired to re-direct some of my bosses work so he had more time being an engineering manager and not doing designs. I"m the only person other than my boss that is capable of doing my job at my company.
So, here is my dilemma. I've been here now almost 2 years. During the two years I have never truly liked my job. Maybe in the beginning it was somewhat new and exciting and I wanted to be excited about it so I think I was more "into" my job when I started but that faded quick. I"m just not happy with my job. Now I'm not saying I don't like my job because I want a "cushy" job where it easy and I don't have to do anything. Or that I want to not work at all and live off the governement tip. This is not the case. I don't enjoy what I do. I make mistakes left and right eventhough I take a million years to do the littlest tasks checking my work trying to make it 100% right. I make tons of mistakes which frustrates the documentation guy/my boss and in the end it's usually still wrong and I then frustrate production becuase I made a goof which makes more work for them. I don't like the responsibility where the work I do has such an impact on what others do. I don't like how when I mess up and have to re-spin a PCB it costs the company about a grand to do so. It makes me sick to my stomach. I no longer like electronics like I thought I did. I do to a degree but when it's your job it's no longer "fun". I"m not saying it isn't fun for people. I just don't enjoy myself doing it.
Now here is where I am going to ask for advice from people that have been where I am. Or anyone who has some advice as to something else I could do that could be more of a fit for me. It's not that I want to completely change careers. Although i'm open to that. Perhaps there is another type of job where an engineering degree would get me the job? I need a better fit for my job. I'm not unrealistic where I think I going to get a job where I'm going to be in love with it 100% of the time. I'm just so incomfortable, unhappy, and a little depressed that I know I need to do something about it. So instead of just complaining about my job I want to be proactive about it and approach it with a level head. I don't want to make a rash quick fix and then hate another job even more. So this is where YOU come in. Please give me your most honest replies. Brutally honest is fine. I just need some direction in this but understand that unltimately it's my decision/problem and there is no quick easy fix. I know that no one can just give me the solution to my problem but I think you can point me in a direction where I will be capable of doing that given some time.
Thank you for any replies! They are much appreciated.
-mike