career advice?

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Originally Posted By: HM12460
Originally Posted By: Doog
Just get a basic mechanical or electrical engineering degree and then in your senior year decide what to pursue. Lots of avenues in both depending where you want to live and what the market is like when you finish. You are not too old to do this successfully.








+1, concur. STAY AWAY from the skilled trades. You gotta trust me on this one.


+1 to both. Just get an engineering degree. I noticed in your OP how people with good high paying jobs were discouraging you from entering their field. Watch who you take advice from as many people do not want you to really better your situation. The problem with the medical field is if you're not the top dog DR. you're going to be working around jealous, nasty women who don't want a male to succeed IMO.
 
I've seen a lot of people that are not interested in engineering or computer just chase after the gold and end up dropping out because they couldn't handle the stress or the subjects become very difficult and burn out.

Pick what you are doing the best in, not what in theory make the most money that you may not get there (i.e. MBA graduates in Harvard, lawyers, medical doctors, etc)

Engineering do make a very stable and good income for life. Computer and electrical related especially so (many senior level coworkers I work with are making upper 100k per year, and that's very common), but you do work hard and you get sick of pizza because you work too much overtime and that's your dinner.

The difficult part is to finish all the school work to graduate. Engineers work a lot more in school and I was sleeping in computer lab's couch very often. Forget about doing part time jobs or partying. You'll need at least a 3.0 from any school to be taken seriously when applying for your first job.
 
Originally Posted By: neilLB7
I'm a BSCE, private engineering college, high dollar tuition, good grades etc etc.

My only advice is this: You'll never get rich (or even close) working for someone else.


Quoted for truth. The money isn't what people think it is in many engineering fields, especially in consulting. The one who makes the money are the ones who run there own businesses and have PE licenses.

I'm an EE in consulting and the hours can be brutal and engineering isn't always as glamorous as many think it is....working for clients usually means you are treated like whale poop. In construction the general contractors have all the power.

IMHO going into engineering for $ is a bad decision. You should go into engineering only if you truly have an interest/passion for it. IMHO you can have a cushier job and make more money is many other fields such as banking and finance.

I've witnessed a few engineers who have come and go in the company I work for because there heart wasn't in it and they were only in it for the "money" which wasn't what they imagined it would be slaving away in college. The ones who are most successful in engineering are DETAIL oriented people by far who are interested in what they do. If you are not a detail oriented person you will go mad. Everything minute detail has to be accurate. Sadly I witness many sloppy engineers who take no pride in what they do but that goes with any field of profession.

What I do love about my job is getting to see things average people will never get to see. For me, working on projects in nuclear power plants, mine shafts, underground tunnels, government facilities that require security clearances, etc. I can be hundreds of feet underground one day in an aqueduct or up 300 feet up in a container-ship crane the next. Consulting is perfect for those who don't always want to be in an office environment.
 
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Pharmacist
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If the OP does decide to go back to school full-time, will he still be working ?

Any degree that has lots demanding coursework will leave little time for work/socializing with friends. I knew a guy that was studying engineering at UM and simply could not handle the coursework. The schooling was designed to weed-out the people that can't hack it.

Careers like: Engineering, Physician Assistant, PT, OT and Pharmacist are great fields but require lots of schooling. Not all will graduate.
 
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
The schooling was designed to weed-out the people that can't hack it.

Careers like: Engineering, Physician Assistant, PT, OT and Pharmacist are great fields but require lots of schooling. Not all will graduate.

Correct. I am a PTA and we lost 5 the first semester and 3 more by the 2nd year of the program.
 
Originally Posted By: HM12460
Originally Posted By: Doog
Just get a basic mechanical or electrical engineering degree and then in your senior year decide what to pursue. Lots of avenues in both depending where you want to live and what the market is like when you finish. You are not too old to do this successfully.







+1, concur. STAY AWAY from the skilled trades. You gotta trust me on this one.



+1
 
I seem to see tons of job openings for machinists in the Connecticut area. I don't really know much about being a machinist but it looks like you can make decent pay, and there appears to be somewhat high demand around here.
 
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