I started my career as a plumber (exterior - digging up water mains), and currently I am a corporate IT security engineer.
While the plumbing part was absolutely harder physically, the work was overall more enjoyable and much less stressful. I was outside a lot of the time, I got to play with heavy equipment, and most of the time there wasn’t much urgency to the tasks. I never stared at the ceiling at 2 am worrying what tomorrow would bring.
In corporate IT security? There are days I don’t leave my desk for 6-8 hours straight. I feel a constant need to be connected, and I’m always planning, strategizing and worrying about the next project.
Everyone talks about the sitting at the desk thing, which is an issue, but corporate life is also much more mentally taxing. And that crap adds up over 10-20 years.
There is something about manual labor that office workers cannot simply understand. Sure it’s hard and often times dangerous. But at the end of the day, you feel tired than drained.
Or you just move into management. I still do some physical work, because I never want to be the boss who refuses to get his hands dirty, but most of my days are spent coordinating, tracking and problem-solving and also a fair amount of pointless paperwork.
Pros: tons of time off, rewarding, never boring, great pay and benefits. Will actually be able to retire at 55.
Cons: pretty much guaranteed to get cancer and it’s not even the expected stuff from fires. The AFFF foam we used for years had PFAS – a carcinogen. Even better, it turns out even brand new, unused turnout gear is absolutely saturated in PFAS too.
I’m interested in STEM (I very much have an engineers brain) but I’d like to avoid the office lifestyle and constant stress that you mentioned. Do you have any recommendations about what I shoukd look into?
As an engineer, you’re gonna be stressed a lot. But you have a wide range of what kind of stress you get and how much time you spend in an office. I’m industrial and I spend some days on my feet building shit, some days sitting in front of a spreadsheet until my soul hurts, and most days doing a bit of this and a bit of that with good balance of sitting and standing.
I started my career as a plumber (exterior - digging up water mains), and currently I am a corporate IT security engineer.
While the plumbing part was absolutely harder physically, the work was overall more enjoyable and much less stressful. I was outside a lot of the time, I got to play with heavy equipment, and most of the time there wasn’t much urgency to the tasks. I never stared at the ceiling at 2 am worrying what tomorrow would bring.
In corporate IT security? There are days I don’t leave my desk for 6-8 hours straight. I feel a constant need to be connected, and I’m always planning, strategizing and worrying about the next project.
Everyone talks about the sitting at the desk thing, which is an issue, but corporate life is also much more mentally taxing. And that crap adds up over 10-20 years.
There is something about manual labor that office workers cannot simply understand. Sure it’s hard and often times dangerous. But at the end of the day, you feel tired than drained.
Yeah, I miss that too. I had to get out because my body was beat up.
Or you just move into management. I still do some physical work, because I never want to be the boss who refuses to get his hands dirty, but most of my days are spent coordinating, tracking and problem-solving and also a fair amount of pointless paperwork.
I went the career firefighter route.
Pros: tons of time off, rewarding, never boring, great pay and benefits. Will actually be able to retire at 55.
Cons: pretty much guaranteed to get cancer and it’s not even the expected stuff from fires. The AFFF foam we used for years had PFAS – a carcinogen. Even better, it turns out even brand new, unused turnout gear is absolutely saturated in PFAS too.
Oh and stress, cumulative injuries, etc.
It’s like we made a bad deal with a devil.
Oh you want to be fireproof? Sure. Here’s the catch: cancer.
Look it’ s better than the old asbestos gear
I’m interested in STEM (I very much have an engineers brain) but I’d like to avoid the office lifestyle and constant stress that you mentioned. Do you have any recommendations about what I shoukd look into?
As an engineer, you’re gonna be stressed a lot. But you have a wide range of what kind of stress you get and how much time you spend in an office. I’m industrial and I spend some days on my feet building shit, some days sitting in front of a spreadsheet until my soul hurts, and most days doing a bit of this and a bit of that with good balance of sitting and standing.
I work in municipal development and our civil engineers get to do a fair amount of site inspections.