What did you do for a career and would you pick it again?

[a smile]

I am 2 years out of school employed as a mechanical engineer-in-training and I am quite bored with my job. I think I could be much happier with just a different engineering role at a different company, but I am wondering if I would be happier doing something else.

I enjoy working with my hands and obviously like metal-working in my garage, so should I consider trying to do that for a living and become a machinist or a welder?

It seems that your choice is a little premature, because you are still very young ------

I have a suggestion, you can make some things by yourself in your spare time, as time goes by, your ability will improve, maybe there will be a suitable product to meet your hobby, and you can have enough income. Then you also do what you want!

In fact, I am the same, as a hobbyist, so many years of continuous learning, hands-on, design, production, now also began to make their own invention of small products, and began to sell ---- although I do not know whether anyone will buy

 

[a smile]

@Xyphota：我在加拿大海岸警卫队担任海洋工程师 33 年。从不列颠哥伦比亚省北部、所有五大湖、东海岸一直航行到北极，航行遍及加拿大。大量的动手操作，我做了很多机械加工、焊接、重型机械维修、大型柴油机和小型发动机大修。时间是 28 点和 28 点。船用电工的需求量很大。

我去年 53 岁退休，自从房子还清后，我带回家的钱比工作时还多。这项工作可以像您想要的那样令人兴奋 - 任何工作都一样，但有时它会在水上变得疯狂！我把死去的人从废墟中拖出来，做了一些很酷的东西来修理昂贵的东西，并花了一些时间在它变得疯狂时呕吐。

我喜欢这份工作，但它确实会让你远离家庭，对此百感交集——但现在退休很酷！！

Love this story!

 

[Rauce]

I worked summers at a few bikeshops through high school and university. Being a bike shop mechanic is the job I hold most fondly in my heart and often think of returning to, but of course it's crap pay and really hard to support a family or buy a house being a bike mechanic.

Yeah and the non-retail side of the industry isn’t much better.

Best I did in a shop was $21/hr as a purchasing manager and e-commerce guy. While I had that job I interviewed at a company near Hamilton that’s one of the few component manufacturers in this country (I won’t name them but they’re known for dropper posts) they offered me $16/hr “take it or leave it” to handle their customer service, warranty and tech support.

At the bike company I worked at I made 45 and then 50k in two different departments. And all these wages are 2013-2018.

 

[Bandit]

Well, very late to the talk, I can not tell you what to do, or what you should do. I can tell you what I have done, what I liked and did not like, even that can change due to people, life, weather, and as one said the day of the week, and a big etc. It is very hard to get the education you want or think you need while trying to hold a job, support a family, eat, do some things you want, and on and on.
What I do know is that you will a better engineer because of any hands on work you do. If you pull wrench, you learn about clearances for a wrench, dig a hole, learn need a place to put dirt from the hole and water fills holes. You are doing some machine work and welding,planning, math, material uses, machine uses. This in and of itself makes a better engineer. In many cases engineers do not know how to make things, how to put things together, even how to move things, or even how to talk to workers.
I am not an engineer, never will be. I would have liked to be one, but I had no idea about such things. Yes, any job can be boring, lots of the same old, day after day, however, that 5 minutes of excitement sometimes makes it worth it.
I have sent a few engineers off the job, some had them replaced or I would pull my crew and go home, many times have told some, that if they can not make/ design it to work, don't expect me to made it work, or to try operate it.
The good engineers would even go to shops, job sites, offer to help, ask questions, see how it could be done, what steps needed to be done in what order and so on.
I guess what you can do with the job you have is try to make the best of it each day, but do not let it affect your health and family, try to make the off time,hobbies, family a reward for doing that job.
I maybe a poor one to talk, as I have had many different jobs, sometimes worked for experience, some jobs a day or two, learning that was not it, or like to try that more. Some jobs been fired, layed off, run out of work, left cause of other people, to dam dangerous to do.
What I have learned about engineering, is the letters after the name/job title make the money after there is some experience to go with them. As has been said by many of the others, learning, even a little bit can make it all worth while.

 

[SimonC]

I probably work, I work as an accountant and there is no other professional that has such a focus on ethics as the accountancy profession.

 

[CWret]

Welcome aboard @SimonC This is an awesome group. You’ll get more out of it than you put in, so i recommend being an active member and not someone that just follows along without responding. The forum has been a very big help for me while i was purchasing and getting started with my first mill.

Accountants, like lawyers, need to have work ethics intertwined with all their decisions/actions.
I love your enthusiasm for your chosen profession and I’m extremely glad you place an emphasis on ethics.

Please don’t be offended- but i disagree with your comment “there is no other professional that has such a focus on ethics as the accountancy profession”

If an accountant (or a lawyer) makes a mistake, no one dies!

That’s not the case for some professions like engineers, medical doctors and others.

See the attached quote from Google -
In 1922, the creation of the Iron Ring served as a promise amongst all Canadian engineers to fulfill their professional roles with utmost care and respect for the communities they serve. To this day, the Iron Ring signifies their commitment to valuing the Code of Ethics above all else.

Craig