Anyone here have an engineering degree but chose a non engineering career?

[HarryD]

I have a BS in Chemical engineering and a MS in Environmental management.

In the 40+ years I have worked, I think I have spent only about 5 years doing "real engineering". Most of my time was spent on construction project management, environmental permitting/compliance, consulting. The degree is a gateway to do what you want. Looking back, what I truly learned in school was how to analyze and solve problems.

He needs to follow what his heart tells him to do. After all, he will spend roughly 50-75% of his waking life at his job. It is much better if your like what you do.

[David]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

This is one reason I left. I loved hands-on engineering and I had fun projects to work on. Then I was "promoted" into a semi-office job overseeing the guys like I had been who were having all the fun. I don't know how it is in the rest of the industry now, but in those days they promoted engineers up the corporate ladder farther and farther away from engineering until they were beyond their actual skill set, ineffective, and frustrated. I saw the writing on that wall and got out early.

I still do a lot of engineering and I wouldn’t be happy if I wasn’t. I’m not a very good manager but at least I get to call the shots and the pay is a little better. I’d likely be miserable if I was promoted up a level. Fortunately (or unfortunately) my superiors see that too.

[onewhippedpuppy]

If he's a social guy, technical sales would be a great fit. It's about 80% sales and building relationships and 20% high level technical. Just having the degree gives you much needed credibility with customer engineers. It also pays far better than basic engineering, particularly for the same level of experience.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by 95avblm3

Good food for thought. Thanks for the comment. I haven't figured out how to make money doing it yet but find it fits well into our lifestyle right now as we are living in Germany (due to my wife's job) and traveling quite a bit. Plus, I've only recently (after doing this for almost 3 years) discovered that I qualify for press credentials at some of the big car shows here. That has been a fantastic treat and much better than sitting alone in my home office all day. I can see where it could wear on you if you end up traveling constantly. But I am nowhere near that point yet.

...sorry for the momentary hijack.

This is going to sound odd, but have you ever looked at jobs at Amazon? We write narative documents for everything, no powerpoints. Good writing will take you far with us

[95avblm3]

Originally Posted by porsche4life

This is going to sound odd, but have you ever looked at jobs at Amazon? We write narative documents for everything, no powerpoints. Good writing will take you far with us

I love this forum! I initially posted to offer some advice (however bad or good it may be) to wayner’s friend and have received a couple of responses including this one which are really interesting and helpful to me! Thanks for the comment. Amazon hasn’t crossed my mind. Not it this sense, anyway but I know what I am going to be doing today.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by 95avblm3

I love this forum! I initially posted to offer some advice (however bad or good it may be) to wayner’s friend and have received a couple of responses including this one which are really interesting and helpful to me! Thanks for the comment. Amazon hasn’t crossed my mind. Not it this sense, anyway but I know what I am going to be doing today.

Feel free to drop me a PM with any questions.

[wayner]

This thread has really gotten some legs!

I want to respond to all of you and not just one of you.
This insight is gold.

Thanks, I'll keep monitoring it for a while and provide some feedback soon