How Does An Engineer Change Career Paths?
There’s no doubt that engineering can be a seriously challenging field. It’s one that can come with all kinds of stress and obstacles that you need to overcome. The reality is that working as an engineer isn’t something that everyone necessarily wants to do (parents pressure, peer pressure or something else within the boundaries of love life). Of course, if you find yourself in a position where you’re considering some kind of career change, you don’t just need to throw away all of the valuable knowledge and experience that you have gathered as an engineer. With that in mind, here are just a few things that you might want to consider as an engineer contemplating a career change.
Upward career movement
The most obvious thing to consider when looking to make a career change as an engineer is to climb up the ladder. There are all kinds of ways that you can climb the ladder. The key is to make sure that you know where your skills can take you. This could mean anything from taking on a design role in an architectural firm to working on large scale government contracts. The key is to know what specific abilities you can bring to any role and how you can continue to rise up through the ranks to achieve your goals.
A lateral career change
Of course, you may find that moving up the career ladder as an engineer doesn’t provide the change that you might otherwise have wanted. Instead, think about what it is that you’re looking to get out of a career change. It could be that you want more freedom and working on a more freelance basis is the best option for you. Or perhaps you’re looking for something completely new and anything from doing a degree in counselling to starting over from the very bottom of the career ladder in any number of new directions is the best option for you. Starting over is never easy but it may well be just what you need.
Academia
Just because you’re looking to change your career doesn’t mean that you should give up all of that valuable knowledge and skill that you have developed over the course of what could have been many years. Instead, why not turn those skills to academia. Whether it’s working in a teaching role or a role that is more heavily dedicated to research, there are a lot of different ways to convert engineering skills and knowledge into a valuable and successful career in academia.
No matter what you choose, there’s no doubt that a career change can be a seriously scary prospect. In fact, a lot of people put off something as significant as a career change simply out of fear and the knowledge that there is comfort and safety in keeping things the same. Of course, as comfortable as keeping things the same can be, the reality is that you’re never going to be able to truly make the most of your skills and your career unless you’re willing to embrace risk and change.
