Career Choices. What to do!?

[city_ofthe_south]

[QUOTE=LowchevyII;288012]I talked with the high performance engineer at Toyo last month, and its not really what i thought. He is more of just a trend spotter. He told Japan that america needs drag radials, so their engineers came up with something. He told Japan that they needed tires for drifting so they came up with something. Not really what i was hoping to see. Thought it was going be a little more hands on, not relaying info.[QUOTE]

I'll probably get flamed for this and normally wouldn't put in my 2 cents but what the hell. My reposnse to your experience above is unfortunately this country is full of people who don't "make" anything. However, communities like this are full of people with great talents who deserve to be building (and in many cases probably are but I can't guess how many talented folks aren't doing their dream job because it doesn't seem to exist) the products we USE in this country and get paid well for it - guys/gals just like you. You like cars, want to physically engineer something and have a brain for business ... start a car company. Far as I can tell, there aren't any left here. I dunno maybe that's crazy, but Henry Ford was probably crazy too. I guess my post can be shortened to why not make the job you want? Yeah I'm ignoring the money part. Sometimes you get lucky and produce something the world needs and make money doing it. Sometimes you do it cause you love it and only a few people need it.

[GregWeld]

Here's some good advice... Marry well... retire early... do exactly whatever you want to do.

Seriously -- having two kids in college (well - one after this last weekend!)... neither has any idea what they "really" want to do. I don't know how anyone could at this age. What do you have to make a comparison against... not much... right? So how could anyone possibly choose a path and know with certainty that is what they will love to do the rest of their life.

I'd say - think about a career - close your eyes - and what is the first thing that pops into your head... no changing - no managing the thought...

It's like making a color choice for a car project - you have to SEE the same color every time you think about it... and then not waiver and let someone else talk you into changing it. Whatever "it" is. Some people just want to be professional greens keepers... COOL! Some want to be nurses... or programmers.. But I don't think the happiest people make career choices based on pay. That just won't work. Or won't work for very long...

Here's what I've told both my kids -- GET YOUR EDUCATION FIRST... i.e., graduate college... THEN you can be anything you want to be - even if that's a truck driver... but you're a truck driver because that's what you want to be - not because you have to be.

[LowchevyII]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Here's some good advice... Marry well... retire early... do exactly whatever you want to do.

hahah best advice thus far, Greg

But serously, City ofthe South and Greg, thank you guys for the info. Its definitely a hard choice i need to make and come up with something. Need to do some soul searching I suppose.

Keep the info and suggestions coming. Not asking to be told what to do but i am definitely not opposed to suggestions and stories of how you guys got to where you are today

--Jeff

[GregWeld]

Jeff --

Seriously -- there's a stat somewhere showing how FEW people actually end up working in the industry - or doing the job - they got their degree in.

Personally - I'd work for Roger Lee (Ironworks) or Cris (Gonzo) for free if they'd let me - just to learn some better fab skills... because IF I had to work - doing that type of work would make me happy every day. Thank god neither of them would have me in their shop.

Life is what happens to you - while you're busy making other plans....

[bdahlg68]

I have a Mechanical Engineering Technology degree. I interned with a company called ZF Lemforder who happened to have a plant in Brewer, ME, about 10 miles from college. I was a Mfg Engineering Intern. At graduation, I was actually hired as a Sales Engineer after applying for a design engineer position - which was great as Sales was more or less exactly what I wanted to do at that point in time, since I knew I didn't want to sit in front of a tube all day. I ended up moving out to Detroit and the rest is history. It's 9 years later and I still work for ZF Lemforder, but now work as a Global Project Manager. An engineering degree will give you a lot of flexibility. This is especially true if you have some decent experience and are looking to carry that out of engineering and into another field like Sales. Your education will help you into a certain type of position or industry, it's what you do once you start working that defines how far you take it. There is a sign in Jimmy John's that fits to this whole thing. "Do what you need to do when you need to do it so that someday you can do what you want to do when you want to do it."

[SLO_Z28]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

Seriously -- there's a stat somewhere showing how FEW people actually end up working in the industry - or doing the job - they got their degree in.

QFT,
My supervising Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain all have degrees in engineering, and all 3 of them would rather be cops.
I majored in religion, and im a mechanic. Im still on the fence about joining the armed forces though, I wouldn't mind learning to fly.

[OOCustoms]

i definitely back greg on the "get the education first then do what you want".

Im fairly young at 26 and have had too many jobs to list! I started with 18 months at wyotech in wyoming for custom cars planning on doing nothing but customs afterwards. Now, ive done everything from working at a hot rod shop for a couple weeks to a speed shop, building and painting street bikes to owning my own pizza shop for a short time to working on two racing teams now I have my own small custom fab shop and work full time in the roofing industry.whoo! Ive bounced around a lot! I guess i get bored and need a change. I too have been thinking about going back to school and you have me thinking about engineering since it somewhat entails what we love....cars.

All in all, just focus on that education and never pass up an opportunity to learn more or experience something new or to make new friends. you never know what they will do in the future and whether you can use their resources one day. When the time comes for you to find a job, we all can hope that the economy is in much better condition and jobs will be abundant! good luck with it all!

[LowchevyII]

Originally Posted by SLO_Z28

QFT,
My supervising Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain all have degrees in engineering, and all 3 of them would rather be cops.

This is what frightens me to death. I would hate to have gotten my degree in Mechanical Engineering and then wish i would have stuck with getting my management or finance or marketing degree.

kinda of a scary realization ive been having lately

[Bryce]

Originally Posted by LowchevyII

Your job sounds crazy!

out of curiosity, how well does your engineering background carry over to your building of your falcon (which looks awesome by the way)

Well I have designed a few susepnsions and working on two more. I focus on materials and making things as light as possible. So every day in class I would try to apply what i leared to cars and how can I go faster be lighter and stronger.

I love my job it was taylored for me.

[71RS/SS396]

What you are currently majoring in is a very good mix of skill sets. There is a high demand for engineers with business skills, you will have a lot of options once you graduate and if you later feel like you want be in finance you can always continue your education.The degree just removes the ceiling from your income potential.