Off topic: If you were 18 again?

mcorrell said:
Also a mechanical engineer but have been blessed enough to be in the automotive power train industry. I've designed injector pumps and turbochargers for all major passcar and commercial vehicle OEMs. I couldn't think of doing anything else. I am now a engineering supervisor and head drawing checker and love my job 90% of the time. Things are changing with the drive for electrification, which will eventually impact my field. I am glad to be close to retirement so that I don't have to deal with that transition.
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Remember, 95% of all electric cars are still on the road. The other 5% made it home.
 
I think about this a lot lately. When I got out of high school I didnt really know what I wanted to do. Our school thought everyone should go for a 4 year degree. I let my brother talk me into going for Tool and Die, that happened to be what his friends were doing. He just knew I shouldnt be a auto mechanic. My last year of getting my tool and die degree the economy took a down turn and I got laid off from the Die shop I worked at. I ran cnc lasers for a company until the big green tractor factory hired me on as a CNC machine operator. I never wanted a production job, but it paid the bills for about 15 years. Then work offered a electrical apprenticeship in 2019 and I decided to jump on it. Its been good so far, but I still dont know what I really want to do with my life.
I really regret not going into HVAC after they told me 4 hours of labor for a furnace install amounted to $2500 plus the cost of the furnace.
 
:)
updraught said:
I didn't study mechanical engineering because most jobs here are in mining which means living remotely.
I did what was in demand as the next up and coming thing and made and spent a lot of money in my 20's travelling. Had $5 by the time I was 30. Money well spent I think. Then applied for a super dull job nobody wanted and ended up running a site for finding stuff on the internet before google. Everyone wanted to know how I cracked such a good job.
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Initiative beats education. Reward well deserved.
 
ronn said:
I have a slightly different approach.......... do what makes you lots of $ in a very few hours per week, and enjoy that $ pursuing the many other interests you have.
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Im living this right now. I was not able to afford college, so I got a job instead. Worked hard, and climbed the ladder to only get shut down when my long time boss, the VP of our region retired. I was told I was not qualified for the position because I didnt have the experience after 17 years with the company. I quite that job and started a new career in the field that I was told I didnt have the experience in.

Five years later, I make my own schedule, earn more money, and get to see my kids grow up. When I was 18, I thought about being a mechanic. Its an honest living, but I didnt want to do what I loved as a hobby, for a living.

When deadlines, budgets, and other peoples expectations are involved its now longer fun, its work.
 
18 now or 18 back then? 18 knowing what I know now or 18 not knowing? When I turned 18 in 1974, Vietnam was still going on. Without putting on rose colored glasses, actually the world was not that great back then either, was not thinking about tomorrow, just each day as it came along. Sure, there was some good times.
Na, don't think I would want to start over because life choices would more than likely I would still end up in the same place in life.
 
A good thread. Lots of thoughtful responses. I have few regrets, but I would have applied myself a little more, maybe taken a few more risks, bought a better house earlier and gotten back into the old car hobby sooner. I have loved just about every job I ever had: consulting, research, sales.
 
Woofa and I share a common love of flying. The high school I attended was across the street from an airport, the next thing I knew I had a job washing airplanes and doing odd jobs in the hangar after school.
When i graduated from high school I had my commercial pilots license and was flying for an Air Line at 23. Looking back on my life I thank God every day for all that I have and 22,380 hours of safe flying. I told my Doctor there were three things that kept me from becoming a Doctor that was grades 10-11and 12.
Gerry Birch Bay WA.
 
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