Quit engineering(3 critical things to know before )

To quit an engineering job is one of the hardest decisions that could make for anyone. Engineers are one of the high paid and most respected jobs in the world. So thinking of making this decision is due to strong reasons that force people to jump.

In this article we’re going to talk about the reason that makes engineering quit their jobs, and Also discover the common careers that engineers shift to.

finally avoiding some mistakes that engineers do during quitting times.

This advices are based from true stories and experiences

not just a personnal thoughts

Why do people think of quitting engineering?

Many people dream and fight to become engineers, But a lot of engineers find problems and situations they could never expect which makes them think of quitting and leaving the engineering field.

So we will list the most common reasons why people quit engineering.

Stress

The one main reason that makes engineering quit their jobs or even a field is stress. Stress is the silent killer and the response of many groups of diseases. So, a lot of engineers decide to leave this field.

Stress relates between work conditions and circumstances, which makes a lot of engineers write off this field.

Responsibility

A lot of people get mad at supporting heavy responsibilities. So they are always afraid of making mistakes that could ruin the job. As result, put them consistently under pressure and draining thinking.

having a lot of responsibilities could be exhausting and lead to burnout. many engineers quit for this reason.

Passion

Finding passion or a fulfilling job is what happens with these kinds of engineers. Many engineers have chosen this field just for financial reasons. Finally, when they find their passion or purpose they decide to shift careers.

For instance, many engineers switch their stem careers to law or teaching students. They accept having massive pay cuts to live happier and fulfilled.

Toxic environments

Being passionate about engineering is not going to guarantee your consistency in toxic environments. In other words, they are many engineers who have been passionate about their engineering jobs but toxicity made them hate everything.

To clarify working with a bad boss, supervisor or toxic college make people hate showing up, which creates confusion. Unfortunately, makes a lot of engineers give up on their passion and leave for anything else.

Get a good work/life balance

working and having a lot of responsibilities and tasks can ruin the work-life balance. Especially for people who deal with high-level stressful jobs. Finally, it could create familiar issues and cause divorces.

So we can imagine going back from home after an exhausting day job. for sure, it will be no time or energy for familly.

Boring work

Feeling bored and lack of purpose is one of the facts that push people to look for other directions. Spending 8 hours in a boring job would not be good, but the nightmare is being compelled to work for 12 hours.

A lot of people burn out emotionally and decide to do something different that could bring them life again.

No advancement possibilities

working and pushing hard doesn’t mean succeeding as an employee. Things are not going like entrepreneurship. So many people feel unfair and not recognized for their hard work. That push a lot of engineers to either change companies or change their major at all.

The majority of these kinds of people decide to build their own businesses.

what most people are doing when they quit engineering?

Many engineers quit this field for a different reasons. But a lot of people are interested to know what are the popular career that engineers switch to. So we will list the most frequent career that quitter engineers go for.

Teaching

Teaching is one of the common majors that quitter engineers switch to. engineers consider teaching as chilling work, don’t have a boss over your head, less stress, and freedom of making decisions.

Most of them as stem majors switch from engineers to stem teaching. As a result much more fluent and easy to get integrated. Because the engineering degree allows them to easily teach mathematics, physics, and also biology.

So they go back to studying and get teaching credentials, studying part-time, which is a hard transition but worthing according to them. Because teaching is less hours working than engineering. That gives them more time to spend with their families.

Lawyers “patent lawyers”

The second thing after teaching that many engineers switch to is law filed, and most law patent. They know that they already have a technical background. So it gives them more preferences to integrate quickly into the field.

Engineering and law have some common principal things in analysis. many people have double degrees one in engineering and the other in law. But the essential that encourages quieter engineers is the high paycheck and technical background used in patent law.

in addition, people are following law after engineering are interested to go into this field because they find it more flexible about freedom and retirement.

Writing and editing scientific and technical content

So many engineers go and become writers and editors. Their job is to cover technical and scientific subjects. the engineering background is what allows them to integrate easily into this field.

For this reason, we find a lot of technical writers who were engineers. this job allows them to work with many companies like magazines, IT technology, or even work for themselves as freelancers.

Programmers

programming is a close job for engineering, for most times is considered engineering. But we mean people who were electrical or mechanical engineers or any other field who quit this domain.

Many of them decide to learn programming part-time and use all the online resources to go into this field, have personal training and quit their engineering jobs. due to the high demand for software development, a lot of got great job opportunities

Engineers who quit this career loved this job of its flexibility like the ability to work from anywhere and have much flexible time work. So engineering was impossible.

Entrepreneurs

many ex-engineers currently have their own business, and using their strong technical background allows them to make manufacturing businesses, technical consulting, product design, etc. So there are many advantages that engineers have over other majors.

In addition, having this strong network accelerates their success and pitch easily their startups. But only courageous people are ready to go into this venture and become millionaires.

Sales engineers

Becoming a sales engineer for extrovert people is easy. Hence many engineers do that. This job needs to have a strong background in technology, educational talent, and marketing intent. Combining these 3 things give us a successful engineer.

This job is based on how to sell technological tools like machines, computers, software anything that relates to technology. So many engineers succeed in this domain by using their experiences to explain and convince customers about the product.

product design

Engineers use their experience in design, especially mechanical engineers. They take their advanced knowledge and long involving years in CAD and apply it to different industries or the same one.

Some of them stay in the same field but work for themselves. for instance, selling products designed on amazon or any other platform. others go and work as designers for magazines, advertising agencies, or websites thems.

Change engineer filed

So many engineers leave the field of engineering but not completely engineering. They change engineering roles. For instance from mechanical engineer to engineering manager. The majority of these kinds of engineers love the field but hate their work environments.

Data analyst

A lot of people work aside from their toxic or hated engineer job to become data analysts. This job is highly demanding these days. So they focus on learning SQL and everything related to databases.

many of them say that data analysis has opened them many opportunities in their life that didn’t expect for. They found this job more practical and time flexible.

managers

Various ex-engineers have become managers in so many industries. They worked with banks, insurance companies, technical managers, and so on. engineers have the solving skill problem which allows them to almost manage anything.

Many engineers work in managing and testing technical products which is an easy job depending on their profound skillset.

For people who are thinking to quit engineering

Quitting engineering is not an easy decision. So before making any wrong movement we recommend following these steps to guarantee a fluent career transition.

Verify the reasons why you want to quit engineering

many engineers work in toxic environments that being said, having to deal with bad bosses or supervisors, toxic coworkers or working for long hours, and not respecting holidays. So not have a feeling of completion.

As a result, being in this position makes you hate everything which creates confusion. So if you are working in a toxic environment engineering career doesn’t have anything with a problem. The solution is to quit and look for another engineering job.

I will let you this video to know more about toxic work environments and burnout.

Don’t quit until you find alternatives

So many people make the mistake of quitting without having something else lined up. Yes, it is good to get inspired by other people’s success. But anyone has his own circumstances. Making wise and rational decisions is good. So not being forced to go back again.

So it depends on the career to shift toward. The recommended strategy is to work in part times, apply for new jobs learn new skills doing anything that guarantees a fluent transition career. that being said quit without fear or anxiety.

Look for the right career

many engineers quit their job for bad reasons like money or raised paycheck. A famous example that happens is going from engineering to patent law. There are many stories of engineers who did that and finally switch back to engineering.

their goal was only for money. regarding the high paycheck they get, Finally, they understand the meaning of passion and how unfulfilling jobs can be miserable.

Conclusion

life is too short so it is worthing to live as we want and spend our valuable times with our lovers.