Career question for Engineers or those who hire them

"rotundapig" (rotundapig) 03/30/2015 at 21:36 • Filed to: None

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Don't want my career to end up like this:

Would it be a good idea or terrible one to go from being a salaried engineer in a role that requires a 4-year engineering degree, to a hourly "engineer" (really a tech 3 or 4) job.

Key points:

There would be a 50-75% increase in income in going to the hourly job

I'm really ready to leave the company I currently work for

Current company offers little in the way of potential for advancement

prospective company is tremendous and has many long-term options

I plan on getting my PE, which requires 4 years of "progressive engineering experience", and although this position may be progress in some ways, it would be a regress in others.

I'm thinking there's little risk, other than perhaps the new job somehow not working out before I get a promotion and needing to look for a job with what is basically a tech job as the most recent thing on my résumé.

dogisbadob > rotundapig 03/30/2015 at 21:41

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How much experience do you have, out of the 4 years? Are you planning on going back to school? Because with a master's you only need 3 years experience, and with a PhD you only need two.

The tech "engineer" job is probably union.

Joe_Limon > rotundapig 03/30/2015 at 21:43

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Check with your local engineering association first. That way you don't end up shooting yourself in the foot for potential opportunities later.

I am due for my peng in the next couple months!

rotundapig > dogisbadob 03/30/2015 at 21:45

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3 years, 10 months. One day I'll likely go back to school, but not for the next few years. The job isn't union, but I wouldn't necessarily mind if it was.

dogisbadob > rotundapig 03/30/2015 at 21:48

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Wow so close, just two more months. Can't you just stick it out? It'll probably be that much time before getting hired by the bigger company anyway.

OPPOsaurus WRX > rotundapig 03/30/2015 at 21:54

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compare the benifits, healthcare is a biatch. especially w/ kids. I feel like the longer you wait to go back to school the harder it will be. My brother-in-law (no he doesn;t work at home for Google) works in an engineering office. its a great job, its just how they perfer to pay them. still std 40 hr week

Textured Soy Protein > rotundapig 03/30/2015 at 22:11

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I've worked in technical staffing for the better part of a decade. I'm now the director of career services at a tech school.

When you say "hourly job," do you mean this is a contract position? Because leaving a full-time employee job, even one you hate, for a contract job, has a set of risks you need to consider:

- How long is the contract assignment supposed to last?

- What if any benefits are available?

- How quickly do you think you'd be able to line up a new job if/when the contract ends, and how much of an emergency fund can you stash before then?

- What exactly are these "long term options" and how likely are they to happen for you?

rotundapig > Textured Soy Protein 03/30/2015 at 22:32

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Great things to consider. It's a full-time, permanent position. It's just not an exempt, salaried, professional position like I have now. Benefits are going to be comparable to what I have now, if not a bit better.

The long term options are much better at the company I'm looking at, since it's a ~$25B/yr company and my current company pulls in ~$10M/yr and has all the higher-up positions filled by family of the owner. I've never failed to get promoted fairly quickly in the past, but I've also never taken what I would consider to be a step back in terms of position. I'm concerned about how it would look to future employers (should I need to look outside the prospective company) that I went from an actual engineer to an "engineer".

Textured Soy Protein > rotundapig 03/30/2015 at 22:36

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If it's a full-time employee spot, hourly vs. salary is a pretty small concern to me. As long as the responsibilities are mostly on track with the career progression you have in mind for yourself and will look decent on your resume, and you feel good about the company, I say go for it.

John Norris (AngryDrifter) > rotundapig 03/30/2015 at 23:02

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If you are a normal person, making normal mistakes, you will look back on things late in life sizing up the good decisions and bad decisions. If you get your engineering degree at a young age I promise you, you will not regret it. If you are Bill Gates, go ahead, you don't need a degree. If you are slightly more normal like the rest of is, stick with it. You'll have a lot more options for the rest of your life.

Bill Bennett, famous conservative, former drug czar, educator and author, jokes that he once advised Bill Gates to stay in school at Harvard and get his degree, "Look at all the money you'll be missing out on without that Harvard degree."

1.21 JIGGA WATTS!!! > rotundapig 03/31/2015 at 07:59

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Check this out. Turns out that they voted to waive the requirement that you have to take the PE Exam after four years experience. They still say that you have to have fours years in order to get the license though.

"The Model Law still requires four years of engineering experience for licensure. You don't have to meet the experience requirement before you can take the PE exam, but you do have to earn this experience, along with meeting the education and exam requirements, before you can become licensed as a professional engineer."

Each state can choose whether or not to implement it though. It would be prudent to check up on it. This could allow you to take the PE before leaving your old job and using it as leverage at your new job. Hypothetically, you could pass it, go to your new job, finish your final two months under a PE, and then get your license. Food for thought.

rotundapig > 1.21 JIGGA WATTS!!! 03/31/2015 at 09:07

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That is interesting. The documentation on the CO DORA website is a bit unclear and disorganized, so I need to get in touch with them anyway.

1.21 JIGGA WATTS!!! > rotundapig 03/31/2015 at 09:28

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Yeah, I checked out the CO DORA site, too. It seemed like there was an awful lot of "These aren't the _______ you're looking for," going on...Human interaction trumps a website any day.