[B said:
OldBay[/B]]
I liked your post but am left wondering why someone with a masters in engineering would say that the degree did not benefit them in their career. Did you have another career path and are now semi-retired?
With prior engineering experience you could certainly be doing it again without too much effort, and the pay would be 2-10x what you are making with Uber.
BTW, I get alot of wealthy businessmen who brag about their accomplishments and wealth. I figure they are just practicing their spiel with someone they will never see again.
I suppose you could say I am on an alternate career path, but not, (initially anyway), by choice.
An engineering degree is necessary but not sufficient to starting a career in engineering. I've never been an engineer. If I had prior engineering experience, I could maybe do it again without too much effort, but I don't. Almost every position requires experience and for the rare ones that don't a person who graduated years ago with nothing much to show for it is a less attractive candidate than a person who graduated this year.
I never did an internship while in college, passing one up in order to graduate early, which was quite possibly a fatal career decision. I've applied at a lot of places, and done a lot of interviews but to no avail. In addition to that blunder, my social skills are so far below par, even by engineer standards, that I think it is a major barrier to me getting a job (or enjoying one if I do get one.)
I don't think my story is as rare as it would seem. Everyone says there is a STEM shortage, but the fact of the matter is, less than half of people with STEM degrees get STEM jobs. Companies report a shortage of engineers, but they don't have a shortage of people fresh out of college with a degree... they have a shortage of say, engineers with 5-10 years of experience designing refrigerant units for aircraft... and they know a guy from Asia who has that exact experience but they can't get the VISA to hire him without first posting a job for locals and proving to the government that there are no qualified local applicants.
After years of trying to get an engineering job, I figured what it really took to get an engineering job was to know someone on the inside... so I worked as a machine technician wrench turner for a while as an employee for a subcontractor at a place that hired engineers, but half of my coworkers only had GEDs so I don't really attribute my degree for that one. The subcontractor company was hiring anyone with a pulse and having a hard time keeping them. I made friends, or at least friendly acquaintance, with some engineers at the company. After I left being a mechanic, some of the engineers I had made friends with told me about an opening, so I applied... but yet, I interviewed for it and I was rejected. They probably had others also apply who had real experience rather than merely having connections... and it didn't help that my coworkers still worked there as subcontractors and might not have had nice things to say about me. I refused to be engaged with their constant games of trying to get a supervisor fired so the favorite guy in the click could get promoted in his place. (They did succeed, but with no help from me).
I pretty much gave up even applying any more. Maybe some day I'll get an engineering job, but it seems like a waste of time to even apply unless I've got someone I know on the inside promising me a job, and even that didn't work out for me last time. My current strategy for life is just to do rideshare mainly and work on building my other side businesses which may eventually become so profitable that my time is better spent focusing on those.
If I could be an engineer at a major company now, I'd try it, but regrettably I doubt I would enjoy it and might not stick around long anyway. I'd be paid 2-10x as much as I'm being paid now, but I'm not really in need of much money, and I have a feeling it would just devolve into the same BS as always. Practically every day I've worked a "job" in my life, I've dreaded that alarm going off and dreaded going to work... not because of the working part, not because of the customers, but because of the coworkers, management, politics, and games. I do not dread driving for Uber. I go home and get bored so I go out driving.
I think I'm simply not cut out to work for a company as an employee. People say there is no advancement as an Uber driver, but at least for me there was no advancement in any job I've ever worked. I could work for 3 years at the same company, have top scores on performance tests, and they will hire some new guy from the outside or promote someone's friend on the inside despite them having a poor attendance and performance record.