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

[wayner]

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

I'm looking for some examples to share with someone who got the degree but somehow has become "allergic" to traditional engineering work.

He sees his degree as holding him back from other opportunities.


Since he regrets his choice of programs, it is giving him tunnel vision regarding other opportunities.
I've told him to think of it as just a university degree and go from there.

I'm looking for some good examples of people who have excelled in other areas, how they got into those areas and as a bonus, if the degree actually gave some sort of advantage over others in those areas.


Thanks in advance

P.S.
He's good with people, innovative with ideas, and creative.
He's also staying away from fields such as accounting, law, compliance and the like.
( I think you can see at the pattern here)

[id10t]

Did he do a BS or Masters? Going thru some business courses and picking up a project management degree/cert may be an option... Engineering background will let him call BS when appropriate on some things.

Has he considered working in education? Again, will depend on what level of degree he got.

[wdfifteen]

I worked as an automotive engineer ( for General Motors) and an aerospace engineer as a contractor to the Air Force. After 10 years I’d had enough, quit, and started a publishing company, which led to a string of entrepreneurial endeavors. I made more money and had more fun than I ever could have as an engineer.
Just getting the degree was an advantage. It taught me how to be analytical, which is useful in most aspects of life (except marriage - lol).
Being good with people and being an engineer is a rare combination. He could capitalize on that.

[stealthn]

There are a ton of Engineering disciplines, I know many in O&G that do not do their degree, Chemical, Electrical, etc.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I have an aerospace engineering degree and an MBA. Most of my career has been in some variety of project, program, sales, or business development role. Lots of tangents available without taking a full on departure from the base degree.

[dad911]

Graduated EE. I was programming in the 80's, then Builder/developer.

My only regret was not taking PE test, and getting my license.

[pwd72s]

Evren, the friend I made the caretaker of my old 911S, has degrees from MIT. He and a partner started their own private equity firm.

[wayner]

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far.

Here are some of the types of things that he is trying to avoid
-project management
-I.T. environments
-Engineering of any discipline (he is young yet has already work in civil and aerospace)


Those are all very similar work environments that he is trying to avoid.
(I know, nice problem to have)

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Evren, the friend I made the caretaker of my old 911S, has degrees from MIT. He and a partner started their own private equity firm.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

... After 10 years I’d had enough, quit, and started a publishing company, which led to a string of entrepreneurial endeavors. I made more money and had more fun than I ever could have as an engineer.

...Being good with people and being an engineer is a rare combination. He could capitalize on that.

Good examples thanks.

Keep the examples coming everyone
I appreciate it.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by id10t

Did he do a BS or Masters? Going thru some business courses and picking up a project management degree/cert may be an option... Engineering background will let him call BS when appropriate on some things.

Has he considered working in education? Again, will depend on what level of degree he got.

Ha, I love the calling BS comment!

His degree is mechanical at a BS level with top marks, but he doesn't want to pursue that any deeper, or invest in much more education without knowing which direction he wants to head.

One example that I gave him is a friends son who was a mechanical engineer who became a trauma surgeon

Another was an engineer who became a commercial pilot (and conversely one more who was a small commercial pilot but could not get hired by a major airline because he didn't have a science degree.)

In both those examples for those people the fact that they had a degree (any degree) provided value and opened the next door. They hadn't wasted 4 years. They got value for it and it satisfied a necessary check box.

His schooling and career advisors and friend were all breathing their own exhaust, telling him that if he doesn't work in engineering he has wasted his money and 4 years of his life. To further confuse things, his degree says "Bachelor of Engineeringing" and I can't convince him that it is just a Bachelor of Science if he chooses to see it that way, (or even just a 4 year diploma if he wants to pursue some arts type job which he actually seems well suited for).

His friends all told him I'm full of **** (I think he needs new friends)

He's been brainwashed into tunnel vision around what an engineering graduate can do.

I'm trying to find some examples for him of people where having an engineering degree isn't limiting, but rather opening a bunch of doors instead.

[MBAtarga]

Well, the previous owner/host of Pelican went to MIT. He opened up an internet based Porsche parts business.

[Alan A]

Went into software.
If I was doing it now I’d do something that can’t be outsourced. My go to example is always plumbing.

[MRM]

Look at any manufacturing Fortune 500 company and you’ll find most of the salaried employee and almost all of management and executives have engineering degrees. Few of them have ever worked in the lab or in a manufacturing plant or have ever worked as a real engineer. Typical non-engineering career paths for engineers (that often require an engineering degree to start) are technical services, sales, marketing, all manner of logistics, technical writing, compliance, and purchasing/acquisition.

The shortcut to a senior position at a Fortune 500 company is an engineering undergraduate degree and an MBA. Few of them ever worked as an engineer in real life, but they need to be able to speak to engineers and understand technical issues when they sell, service, move or manage the widgets their company manufactures.

Another thought is that if he can do engineering, he can do math. If he can doMath, he can do finance. Also, if he likes the technical challenge of engineering but doesn’t like the actual engineering part of being an engineer, he might consider law school to be a patent or intellectual property lawyer. He could probably get a company to hire him full time and send him to school just to get him to work for them as a patent lawyer. They are in that much demand.

[red-beard]

My Patent attorney.

Degree in Mechanical Engineering. And he is an artist (painter) and almost went fine arts!

If he wants to go into business, I'd suggest an MBA.

Commercial Sales

If he is more hands on, Field Engineering is a lot of fun. You go out and are directing labor on large equipment.

Jeff on here is an Architect, yet he tried his hand at being a Pilot.

And how about being an Astronaut? NASA is advertising RIGHT NOW for the next astronaut class.

[stomachmonkey]

My original degree, Bio Medical Engineering.

Been in video games for ~30 years.

The number of PHD's running around the video game industry would make your head spin.

Everyone thinks it's a bunch of Mountain Dew drinking live in mama's basement stoners.

The density of smart people is staggering.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

My original degree, Bio Medical Engineering.

Been in video games for ~30 years.

The number of PHD's running around the video game industry would make your head spin.

One of my high school computer buddies, both of us decided on not going the Computer Science route. I went Aero Space/Mech E/Power Engineering route. He went Phd Biology. We both used our extensive computer knowledge to further our careers. And he went back to CS 25 years ago.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by red-beard

One of my high school computer buddies, both of us decided on not going the Computer Science route. I went Aero Space/Mech E/Power Engineering route. He went Phd Biology. We both used our extensive computer knowledge to further our careers. And he went back to CS 25 years ago.

And yet, you can't fix a WordPress site?

Sorry, just ribbing you, but you did dive head first into that one.

[Instrument 41]

Have a M.E. from LSU and have been in technical sales for 32 years.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

And yet, you can't fix a WordPress site?

Sorry, just ribbing you, but you did dive head first into that one.

Time. And it turned out to be a Database, which was easy to fix, for someone familiar with it.

My "programming" career ended a few years out of college. My focus was elsewhere and most of what I needed was able to be worked out in spreadsheets.

[craigster59]

I was a (12B) Combat Engineer in the U.S. Army.

I became an Art Department slave (a Carny with a dental plan) in the motion picture biz. Does that count?

[SCadaddle]

I've got a friend that got his electrical engineering degree. He "practiced" at a large plant for about a year then went back to school and got a law degree. He's doing the medical malpractice thing now.

My Dad's former Cardiologist (since my Dad is no longer here) started out as a mechanical engineer. My Dad being a P.E. Civil Consulting liked him from his engineering background explaining things relative to fluid dynamics. I always wanted to ask his Cardiologist with the M.E. background "Being a former Mechanical Engineer, and now a Heart Surgeon, do you think the heart, as it functions as a pump, was a result of evolution or a part of "Intelligent design"?" but I never got around to it.