u/Road_Wizard

Young-ish (30M) engineer at a career crossroads, looking for outside perspective.

I graduated in 2019 with a Mechanical Engineering degree specializing in aviation. I've worked in consulting, engineering, and on the client side, with about seven years of experience. Aviation has always been my biggest passion, and in general, I enjoy seeing projects come to life.

Early in my career, I worked in aviation consulting, but the hours, travel, and timesheet culture burned me out. I eventually moved to the client side at an airport authority, then into the public sector (outside aviation). I currently have a pretty cushy job: excellent work-life balance, short commute, defined benefit pension, little stress, no timesheets, and I make around $110-120k. I've gotten pretty used to the lifestyle.

I've turned down several opportunities to return to airport consulting because I know the grind that usually comes with it.

Recently, though, a recruiter reached out about a small aviation consulting firm focused almost exclusively on military airports and Department of National Defence work. The travel sounds light (1-2 domestic trips a month), the pay is similar or slightly better, and there appears to be more long-term growth potential.

Do I stay in a low-stress public sector role and put things on cruise control? Or do I go back into aviation, the field I'm most passionate about, but also back into consulting?

For context, I'm in a relationship but no kids yet (likely in the future).

New-ish to investing. I’ve ridden this wave the past few months. And I just keep asking how can this keep going up so fast? What and when will be the catalyst to bring us to a correction.

Is it buildup to the biggest IPO in history and that will be it?

Do I ask this to try and sell and time the market? No.

Purely from a curiosity standpoint and a question for the vets out there.