Career Choice: Engineer vs. Electrician
I have an electronic engineering degree and 2 years of experience as an engineering intern in manufacturing, focusing on reliability engineering and continuous improvement. I generally enjoy the work, but I’m struggling with a major confidence gap.
Currently, I feel like a middleman: I listen to operators, fitters, and sparkies describe a problem, try to verify it (though sometimes I struggle to tell if they've found the root cause), and then ask the maintenance team to fix it. When machines go down, it's the technicians and sparkies doing the hands-on troubleshooting and solving, not the engineers. I often feel like I don't actually know anything practical and have to constantly rely on the trades team.
The Dilemma:
- Financials: It often seems like electricians earn more than engineers (even engineering managers). I know it’s due to overtime, but other salaried staff have overtime as well, and my company never raises the pay. Is this common?
- Interests: I genuinely enjoy engineering work (reliability/manufacturing path) and don’t mind getting my hands dirty in order to gain hands-on experience. However, I do not enjoy routine installation or regular preventive maintenance work.
- The Ideal Scenario: Getting an electrical license while continuing to do engineering work, but it’s not easy to find a role that combines both.
My Questions for You:
If you could choose, would you keep pursuing the engineering path now or spend 4 years to get an electrical license?