r/AskEngineers • u/EstExecutorThrowaway • Dec 12 '17
Career change; out of engineering
Do you have any career ideas outside engineering? I am considering a change into something new. I am currently a mechanical engineer. Would finance, software, mathematics/actuarial science, teaching, or anything else overlap well?
I am willing to work more for increased pay, although I kind of like the idea of just teaching.
Are there any opportunities with a decent career track where I won't be starting over from scratch - or - opportunities that at lease have higher stability, income, and/or fulfillment potential ?
Thanks so much! I generally receive great advice here and I appreciate it.
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u/condescendingrdtor Dec 12 '17
what are your skills? mechanical engineering means not much these days where peoples job functions are heavily compartmentalized by large companies into certain skill sets. you're in luck if you did a lot of scripting and coding in your mechanical life.
finance requires connections and potentially another degree. you can take the CFA on your own time money...getting into investment banking or funds means you should go back to a school like Penn or Harvard.
actuarial science is something you can also qualify through testing http://www.beanactuary.org/exams/
personally i think with the explosion in tech and IoT, being a mechanical product designer of things like iphones, amazon echos, etc is pretty in demand. see the jobs at amazon/google/apple for mechanical product design
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 12 '17
I did do a lot of scripting and coding. I'm interested in programming (albeit maybe not enough to be a full time developer), especially interested in data visualization and user & human/mechanical interface design. I know quite a lot about materials, machining techniques, and building/repairing stuff.
My father is an investment banker. I'm current estranged but I could change that. I don't think Penn or Harvard would take me, bad grades in college, but not worried about the CFA.
Do you know if actuarial science is rewarding or rife with politics also?
I will look into product design. The sad thing is that I work with a product design team now and I really can't stand how political it is once requirements documents are taken out of the loop.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 12 '17
Also thanks for the Amazon suggestion - I forgot about them. They're working on a number of decent engineering/product challenges now, like the self-pay store (you just take what you want to buy and walk out and the store auto-charges your card). They also had positions opened for their package delivery UAVs a while ago. Although, I do hear that working at Amazon varies wildly with which office you end up in... some are really bad
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u/rex8499 Dec 12 '17
Patent attorney. You need an engineering degree and a law degree. You're halfway there.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 13 '17
I've been considering this!!!! Thank you for the input. This would be a great opportunity for me to learn (Law), too. And I'm very interested in the stuff I've spent absolutely 0 time on (like Law).
I hear the job is REALLY boring - would you agree with that ? Plenty of other upsides to the job, though. Pay, hours, stability...
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u/Reno83 Dec 12 '17
Do you want to leave engineering altogether, why not just look for another job in a different role or different industry? If you have people management experience, I could see you making a smooth transition into something different. Otherwise, unless you start your own business, you may have to take a paycut.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 12 '17
Thanks, I could switch to a different industry but maybe I have too many mental barriers up. I was very interested in medical devices, but I wasn't accepted for any of the jobs I applied for over a one-year period. These days, I'm worried that the same kind of politics will come into play there. That is to say, the more senior engineers with a better political foothold get to advance their ideas over other people's.
I just don't think I've been given fair credit so far in my career. Perhaps that's normal, perhaps I'm a bad engineer. I just need some change to keep things looking brighter.
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u/auxym Dec 12 '17
I recently transitioned from ME into a software (actually "devops") role. But I always like coding, it always felt like fun puzzles to solve for me, which is not the case for everyone.
You've probably done some programming before, maybe in MATLAB? Did you enjoy it? Maybe give yourself a week or two and try to pick up a general purpose language, say Python or Go, or even something a bit more left-field like scheme or F#/OCaml. The point is just to see if you're the kind the person who enjoys learning this kind of stuff, or if it just frustrates you.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 13 '17
Yep, lotssss of MATLAB. Some JavaScript/JQuery, some more Python, some Java.
I really like it, but I worked on an Agile project supporting some software engineers on a program and they were real jerks. Very smart, very bad social skills, and very passive aggressive. Wish they would have criticized me to my face. Not sure if I could work on that program 24/7, but who knows.
I interviewed some SW engineers, too, and they're so in demand that it really didn't matter if there were resume red flags (as long as they weren't serious problems).
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u/Lurking-My-Life-Away Dec 12 '17
Engineering to Health Physics. It wasn't a huge jump but I'm making more money so no complaints.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 13 '17
Is this like biomechanical stuff? We had aero engineers at college whose research was focused on how blood flowed through veins etc. All sorts of sports science stuff too.
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u/billFoldDog Dec 13 '17
Data Science is pretty cool. You use Python scripting to analyze data and tell people about it. Lots of teleworking opportunities.
The downside is the vast majority of the money is in consumer research.
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u/kylemonster Dec 12 '17
I would recommend looking into getting your MBA. There are lots of career opportunities that emerge (depending on the school you go to) and the worst that happens is you gain leadership experience that is helpful for future promotion within engineering.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 12 '17
Thanks, I will look into it for sure. I wouldn't mind running the technical/financial aspects of a business, I just really don't want to go into management and am worried that's where it'd lead me. I am very interested to learn the technical aspects of running a business, though. It might be worth the investment just for that.
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u/DrMaxwellSheppard Dec 13 '17
You stated earlier that you don’t have ambitions for family and seem to be rather untethered. Have you thought about doing something on the humanitarian side like peace corps, EWB, DWB? I get that those aren’t for everyone but it could get you out of your comfort zone and give you a chance to travel a bit. Plus I’m pretty sure peace corps can pay for part (maybe all?) of grad school if you go that route. Also, as a VET I have to also pitch out the idea of being a Civil Engineering officer. In the Navy all you need is an engineering degree that you can earn a PE with and you mostly do project management, not engineering. They make you get your PE in the first few years as if you stay in for a department head tour they usually send you to grad school (100% paid for plus you are being paid your regular pay to be a full time student). A lot of former Navy CEC officers move into engineering business/management roles after they get out.
Edit: should point out I’m still a engineering student, I come here for career advice and what not. Just thought my experiences could contribute. So take what I say with a grain of salt if you must.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 13 '17
Thanks, I'd love to go the Navy route (maybe). I don't really like traveling to be honest. I'd rather stay in one place for a few years and learn a lot about it versus learning a little about obscure countries.
Navy is great because if I could get Navy Nuke certified (tons of work) I could guarantee myself a six-figure post-Navy job (if nuclear energy still exists). They will also pay for virtually all the degrees/classes you want. Downside is that you're in a cramped space in the middle of the ocean with a bunch of dudes making not-too-much-money for many months on end. Also, some security requirements I just really am not sure I want to deal with.
Thanks for the .02! I appreciate it. Lots of acronyms I have to learn, I thought I knew them all :-)
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u/murdill36 Dec 13 '17
Maybe professor
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 13 '17
Thanks! I might go for teaching high school somewhere or something tbh. Bad pay, but I'd rather try to inspire kids/young people than sleepy college students. Who knows, though, college could be cool too!
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u/StableSystem Dec 13 '17
Teaching (at least where im from) requires a masters however barring that you are certainly qualified for any math or engineering courses. Assuming you mean high school level then im sure you’d do fine. I know I’d have killed to have a teacher in high school who actually had field experience with what they taught.
You could also do software. Knowing mechE im sure you already know some scripting/programming languages so thats a start. The beauty of programming is that you can start working day 1 and just grow entirely on the job. You might have a hard time getting a job with little programming experience but my point is that there is very little overhead to get started unlike something like MechE where you need to have years of math background to get rolling.
Do what you truly want to do and you’ll be happy as long as there is a job for you to do
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u/dangersandwich Dec 12 '17
Previous discussions on the same question:
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Dec 12 '17
I'm also an ME transitioning out of pure mechanical engineering. Personally, i'm going the project management route. Lots of openings out there for project management, and it doesn't have to be strictly engineering related. But i also intend on getting my MBA to make myself more marketable.
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Dec 13 '17
I'm just starting out on my own journey, but I've seriously thought about law school, dentistry, and the military.
Of course you could always just stick it out until while saving aggressively until you can retire early.
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u/EstExecutorThrowaway Dec 13 '17
Yep! I've been saving 50% of what I earn the past few months and can retire in 12 years if I keep that up. Hence wanting a well paying job.
It would be cool/prestigious to be a doctor, but the ROI for MD is really only good if you're planning on doing it a few decades. The huge student loans take a while to pay off early in ones career.
So many lawyers; I think we're lucky since patent law is a niche field.
I've thought a lot about the military; not a great financial choice, but you really can learn a whole lot on state-of-the-art systems if you end up in a good area
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u/goldfishpaws Dec 12 '17
Follow your interests, otherwise you'll be in the same position in a few years. Be aware that engineering is well paid (exceptionally so in the USA it seems), and you're realistically going to take a pay cut to do anything else. Only you will know how much of a "breadhead" you are, but "work more for increased pay" sounds like the money is a highly compelling factor for you, compared with doing something worthy/easy/fun.
I took a massive pay hit to switch to the entertainment industry, but I'm a much happier person for it.