The number one question on my blog is something like this –
“Dear sir, I’m working in the second year of my job in a multinational company and I hate my job. I finished engineering and I’ve been working here but I have no interest in this. I think I should be doing something different, something like writing, designing, traveling… I don’t know what I should do. Should I stick to my boring job or should I leave this and try something else? Please advise I’m really stuck.”
Well so that’s the question. That’s the question I get the most often. People have started a job in a big engineering organization, they are super bored, they have interests in other fields and they think that pursuing those interests might be more valuable. In short, they have no idea what to do.
When I read this kind of a question (and believe me, this question comes up so many times), the first thing that comes to my mind is this:
1. Give me a portfolio.
No, I have no idea about your capability in the other interests that you mentioned – in writing, in design, in painting, in sketching, in traveling.
I have no idea of your capabilities until and unless you give me a portfolio i.e. until you list certain experiences that show that you have actually validated your interest in that field (or that at least you know you are somewhat good at that field).
For example you say that you are good at or you have interests in sketching, so just telling me that won’t help. Share a link of a blog where you have posted pictures or you posted your sketches. I can take a look and I can say, “Oh wow you really have a knack for these items. Why don’t you really pursue this seriously?”
The best person who asked me, the best question of this forum that I had got on my forum was something like somebody saying, “I have an interest in pursuing a career in social work” and that lady had actually worked in some NGOs and along with her engineering job she was working on the side in an NGO. Well that puts across a very positive message.
To summarize — that’s my number one feedback – create a portfolio (if required on the side along with your job).
2. Do an MBA
My second input to these people is just do an MBA. This is you know the advice I hate the most personally but it’s probably a required piece of advice. Most people who are bored with their engineering jobs will go on to do an MBA. Some of those will be satisfied with that; some will not. But given the statistics it is most likely that those people will do an MBA and they will not pursue their interest that they speak about. They will do an MBA and that will get them to some other point, they’ll figure out their career from that point onwards but you know most probably people will do an MBA.
So just pursue that option properly, if you do not care about that option well that is another thing. And if you are dissatisfied after even doing an MBA that is totally another thing. But most engineers will do an MBA.
So my number two advice is figure out if you want do an MBA and then come back to my forum.
3. Do you really hate engineering that much?
Alright number three. Do you really hate engineering that much? So people who are bored of their engineering jobs and sometimes bored of studying in engineering colleges are bored because of a reason. These jobs and most professors in engineering colleges don’t know how to make this interesting. So it feels like engineering itself is a boring profession but that’s not the truth.
I learned this the hard way, I also at some point felt that engineering was super boring. And you know in parallel with that, I somehow subscribe to this magazine called IEEE spectrum. It was a pretty technical magazine. Within that there was one section that I liked the most — every year they would come up with a list of 10 most interesting engineering jobs of the year. And when I read that section, I felt, “Oh my God this is super interesting” — somebody’s traveling to Antarctica, somebody’s making the Mars rover, somebody is working on solving health problems, somebody is working on solving social problems. They could be making websites, they could be making robots, they could be making just repositories of data or interesting algorithms. Engineering is so broad; there are so many possible applications. So when you say that you’re bored of engineering it is very likely that you have landed up in a wrong position. Many-many jobs, most jobs in big organizations or in general in most organizations are boring. But there are many interesting jobs, engineering jobs out there.
Final summary
So then to summarize my first advice –
- if you have other interests build a portfolio.
- Second advice – see if you’re going to do an MBA and if you want to do that just do it don’t you know think about you know other interests for now.
- Third advice – do you really hate engineering or are you just stuck in a bad place.
You will find one of these three pieces of advice will click the most, and that will define what you do with your career at this point.
Take the call, take the steps, you will definitely go forward and find something more satisfying.
