Hi,
I’m an engineer in its late 30s and I sometime go to high-school talking about my job, my scholar background, etc… I remember being very stressed about my future at that time, so I try to tell them what I wish someone had told me 20 years ago.
If any teens are reading this (or people in contact with teens), what topics or advice would you want to hear from some random dude like me ?
Thanks for your help
ps: I know most of lemmy users are middle age, but there is no way I create account on shitktok, Insta or stuff.
College is a scam to keep you in debt…Trade schools, also known as vocational or technical schools, offer focused, hands-on training for specific careers, providing a faster, often more affordable, path to employment compared to traditional four-year colleges…the trades are hiring like crazy a master electrician make up to like 200k a year…
No longer a teen, but I remember liking the information laid out by https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
It broke down stats around career prospects, the education requirements to get into that career, the outlook of future job prospects in that career, etc. I didn’t really care too much about what job I worked, just that I had one, and then I could at least enjoy my life outside of it comfortably. I found a few that seemed interesting to me and worked to those. I think having it all laid out for them would be helpful for them to make their own informed decisions.
I’ve also used this very data to justify a raise.
hi, I’m 16, I’m planning to get an engineering course for college, I’m currently on senior high school.
I wanna know how difficult engineering course, and the work itself could be?
Not OP but I can share my journey through my career.
Depends on where you are in the world and your work ethic.
I was a terrible student with a hard time understanding harder maths (due to my schooling, but that is something specific to my region), and I was still able to graduate with a 3/4.3 score. It was a lot of hard work that I wasn’t prepared to do due to my work ethic. I had to learn to be at least decent fast and the first year was brutal.
My experience is that university is a lot harder than the work after university. But the corporate world can be soul crushing. In big corpos, you usually do the same part of a process where as during university, you do a lot of interesting and varied stuff.
My electrical engineering program was generalist with each semester being a different domain of electrical engineering and me being interesting in embedded electronics. So doing a semester of power transmission lines was brutal because I wasn’t that organised and didn’t like the courses.
Society tend to romanticize engineering, but there is a lot of busywork and project management and you get caught in administrative bullshit just like any other job (ask a software engineer thoughts on stand-ups and agile and be ready to hear horror stories).
But, if you really like engineering, there are those moments of pure engineering that makes you forget all the bullshit around and make the career worthwhile.
So life rambling aside, engineering is a worthwhile career. It is not an easy path, but the work is manageable though sometime overwhelming. Treat university like a 9-5 job with some overtime and you’ll do fine.
I didn’t have to worry about the financial side of things because I live a place where school is cheap and student financial aid is plentiful. So keep that in mind when making your decision because I cannot comment on that part.
Depends on the type of engineering. What gets you interested? Amy projects you wish you could help with?
I’m interested in electronics engineering, I would like to contribute or maybe just assemble or repair electronic products
Cool. I do both high power electronics and structural engineering, a lot of my stuff lives in harsh environments and has to run for months without anyone around to check on it.
There’s a lot of cool work related to moving energy around without losing it as heat too. Most of that’s in the University labs right now, but some interesting stuff has already made its way into the real world too.
All to say, there’s electronics stuff you can do in an office, in a lab, or in the middle of forests. Whatever you pick won’t be a bad choice, you’ll evolve over the years to find the thing you’re both good at and actually like doing. Good luck to you!
Asking for my friend right now who is doing Electrical Engineering, he wants to get in to power systems, what would be your advice for him?
Oh, hey, this is what I do for a living.
There’s a lot of math and formulas to learn if you’re designing electronics, but just doing assembly requires a lot less math. There’s a lot of tools to help with the math, though, so it usually isn’t too daunting. When actually doing the work, you’ll need to read through a lot of documentation, like spec sheets, to design your stuff to work with their stuff. When it comes to assembly, you’ll need to know a lot of rules and be able to follow drawings. You’ll need to learn about electromagnetic interference and how to limit it, how to use anti-static equipment, multimeters, hipot testers, how to solder, and so on. Its a lot, but you don’t usually have to do everything at once, so it is managable. Many things, like soldering, takes practice and a steady hand.
Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions!
Hello fellow electronics guy lol.
Hello! Always nice to meet electronics guys.
Not exactly in engineering, but studied computer science and currently am working in IT industry.
I can at least speak for my study: It can be difficult, but it won’t feel as much if you’re actually into it. People’s brain are built different from one another, so in the end it’s case by case and won’t apply to all.
What makes you consider engineering? I don’t mean to sound too discouraging, but if it’s easy money you’re looking for, you won’t find it here.
There’s money, yes, easy money no
I think engineering would great as I look for a stable job in the future
It surely would if it fits you. Otherwise, there are other fields with stable prospect as well.
Of course, you can choose an engineering field and then pivot to something else that you’d find to be better fit. I’ve known a lot of people who do well that way.
But yeah, if it turns out to be a good fit for you, that’s great.
aight, thanks!
Not a teen anymore but a tip I’d tell them:
Don’t just look for what makes most money or makes you most happy. Look at what gives you the most happiness while also having relatively good job prospects. Look at what you like doing (even if it were a duty) and think if there’s a job that matches that.
Labour conditions and having decent colleagues (if any) matter a lot. You don’t want a terrible job. So go unionise.
A job isn’t necessarily for life, but it helps if you have a job that you don’t feel grumpy for. Unless if you’re working in medics or whatever, you don’t need to get cum laudes - just to pass.
If you can, avoid working for a rich CEO, and instead go for something worker-owned, ideally decentralised. They’re excellent.
I’m 16 and currently in my first year in “gymnasiet” (were you in Sweden study for three years, beginning at 16) studying natural sciences. I’m in three years probably going to go to highschool or university, but I have really no idea what I want to do.
Ofc I want descent chances to actually get a job afterwards, and I really would want to do something that’s at least partially practical. Although, I do enjoy studying and ended primary school last year with more or less top grades (335/340 meritpoäng), so I’m probably gonna keep in studying for quite a few years, as I’m in a position to do so.
But more or less, I feel like anything can happen during the next few years, given the state of the world and the development of AI. Given that, I haven’t thought that much of any career in particular. And I don’t really have to decide until spring 2028, so I’ll have to see where we’re at then
I’m so glad my kids have long been out of the house and have well-established job situations at this point, because I genuinely wouldn’t know what to tell a teenager about career opportunities that wouldn’t cause them to fall into a deep depression. All I can foresee in the near future is mass unemployment and war. And goodness knows I’m normally an optimist.
Well, I’ll try not to say they are the doomed generation 😅.
I think it’s not the first doomed generation. The previous one already had pretty high chances of being worse off than their parents (i.e. us). But sad - and quite frankly scared - though I am to recognize it, this one is in even more dire straights.
And the reason I’m scared is, desperate people are rightfully driven to do radical things. I’m fairly sure the desperate kids of today is the generation that will eventually drive the world off the cliff and into WW3. And I won’t even blame them.
There are no teenagers on Lemmy the technological barrier to entry is way too high.
Are you joking or not? If you’re not joking, I think you may be projecting your own stupidity at that age onto everyone else. Teenagers are perfectly capable of signing up for an account on a social media website… In fact, they’re kind of notorious for doing so.
I mean I’m 19 now and made my account when I was 16 it really isn’t hard
Not a teen, but here a few possible conversation topics:
- Mentorship opportunities and helpful online learning resources.
- Strategies for finding work, including ones that helped you.
- Important technologies and certifications that are commonly used in your field.
- Common mistakes people make and how to avoid them.
- Tips for finding a healthy balance between work/studies and personal time, and avoiding burnout.
What are the things you wished someone would have told you 20 years ago?
What are the things you wished someone would have told you 20 years ago?
That diploma doesn’t decide for the rest of your life. They (teachers, familly, etc…) put so much pressure on me to choose the “right” path that I was afraid of screwing my entire life if I didn’t took the right options at school. In the end, diploma choose for the first 5/10 years max. Then, it’s up to you to drive your own life.
That’s a good point to hit. Our system encouraged everyone to get a university degree to find work/career, but it doesn’t have to be the path.
Lots of skilled trades out there that offer lots of opportunity to move up while earning well.
My example, I went to Uni because that’s what you do but ran out of my own funds year one, so had to go back to work to save for next round. I started working on the shop floor at a tooling place. They had openings for designers in engineering so I got in there and learned tooling design using CAD/CAM software, they offered apprenticeships so night school was free. As tooling became more automated it led to learning hydraulics, pneumatics, electrical wiring and controls. Later into Lean philosophy for plant efficiencies, etc. Along the way you are in charge of the project and manage time.
Now after 35+ years and changing jobs, my role is often as a consultant and includes mentoring engineers on how to use various software offerings (auto or industrial), or going into companies to conduct audits and produce reports that hilight what they can do better.
It was an organic path, where each learning step along the way led to something new opening up. So rather than a long paragraph like above I think its important for them to not be to anxious; because you can change paths and make choices along the way and end up with something enjoyable of your own making.
