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What questions do teens (14-18yo) have about choosing a career path, or navigating school and education options? (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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Hi,

I'm an engineer in its late 30s and I sometime go to high-school talking about my job, my scholar background, etc... I remember being very stressed about my future at that time, so I try to tell them what I wish someone had told me 20 years ago.

If any teens are reading this (or people in contact with teens), what topics or advice would you want to hear from some random dude like me ?

Thanks for your help

ps: I know most of lemmy users are middle age, but there is no way I create account on shitktok, Insta or stuff.

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[โ€“] 10 points 11 months ago (20 children)

hi, I'm 16, I'm planning to get an engineering course for college, I'm currently on senior high school.

I wanna know how difficult engineering course, and the work itself could be?

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 11 months ago (4 children)

    Not exactly in engineering, but studied computer science and currently am working in IT industry.

    I can at least speak for my study: It can be difficult, but it won't feel as much if you're actually into it. People's brain are built different from one another, so in the end it's case by case and won't apply to all.

    What makes you consider engineering? I don't mean to sound too discouraging, but if it's easy money you're looking for, you won't find it here.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    I think engineering would great as I look for a stable job in the future

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    It surely would if it fits you. Otherwise, there are other fields with stable prospect as well.

    Of course, you can choose an engineering field and then pivot to something else that you'd find to be better fit. I've known a lot of people who do well that way.

    But yeah, if it turns out to be a good fit for you, that's great.

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  • [โ€“] 4 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Not OP but I can share my journey through my career.

    Depends on where you are in the world and your work ethic.

    I was a terrible student with a hard time understanding harder maths (due to my schooling, but that is something specific to my region), and I was still able to graduate with a 3/4.3 score. It was a lot of hard work that I wasn't prepared to do due to my work ethic. I had to learn to be at least decent fast and the first year was brutal.

    My experience is that university is a lot harder than the work after university. But the corporate world can be soul crushing. In big corpos, you usually do the same part of a process where as during university, you do a lot of interesting and varied stuff.

    My electrical engineering program was generalist with each semester being a different domain of electrical engineering and me being interesting in embedded electronics. So doing a semester of power transmission lines was brutal because I wasn't that organised and didn't like the courses.

    Society tend to romanticize engineering, but there is a lot of busywork and project management and you get caught in administrative bullshit just like any other job (ask a software engineer thoughts on stand-ups and agile and be ready to hear horror stories).

    But, if you really like engineering, there are those moments of pure engineering that makes you forget all the bullshit around and make the career worthwhile.

    So life rambling aside, engineering is a worthwhile career. It is not an easy path, but the work is manageable though sometime overwhelming. Treat university like a 9-5 job with some overtime and you'll do fine.

    I didn't have to worry about the financial side of things because I live a place where school is cheap and student financial aid is plentiful. So keep that in mind when making your decision because I cannot comment on that part.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 11 months ago (12 children)

    Depends on the type of engineering. What gets you interested? Amy projects you wish you could help with?

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 11 months ago* (11 children)

    I'm interested in electronics engineering, I would like to contribute or maybe just assemble or repair electronic products

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 11 months ago (3 children)

    Cool. I do both high power electronics and structural engineering, a lot of my stuff lives in harsh environments and has to run for months without anyone around to check on it.

    There's a lot of cool work related to moving energy around without losing it as heat too. Most of that's in the University labs right now, but some interesting stuff has already made its way into the real world too.

    All to say, there's electronics stuff you can do in an office, in a lab, or in the middle of forests. Whatever you pick won't be a bad choice, you'll evolve over the years to find the thing you're both good at and actually like doing. Good luck to you!

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Asking for my friend right now who is doing Electrical Engineering, he wants to get in to power systems, what would be your advice for him?

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  • [โ€“] 0 points 11 months ago

    Get experience in weird and uncommon areas of electrical engineering. The greybeard technicians, the almost bland engineer who gets put in charge of a critical project.. there's a lot of actual art to our techniques, hidden to all but those in the know. AI will never reveal these secrets as working with those guys and gals directly will.

    Build projects, make a portfolio like a graphic designer might, talk is cheap but seeing is believing. Talk about your mistakes almost as much as successes, bit keep everything succinct.

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 11 months ago (6 children)

    Oh, hey, this is what I do for a living.

    There's a lot of math and formulas to learn if you're designing electronics, but just doing assembly requires a lot less math. There's a lot of tools to help with the math, though, so it usually isn't too daunting. When actually doing the work, you'll need to read through a lot of documentation, like spec sheets, to design your stuff to work with their stuff. When it comes to assembly, you'll need to know a lot of rules and be able to follow drawings. You'll need to learn about electromagnetic interference and how to limit it, how to use anti-static equipment, multimeters, hipot testers, how to solder, and so on. Its a lot, but you don't usually have to do everything at once, so it is managable. Many things, like soldering, takes practice and a steady hand.

    Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions!

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    cool stuff, but I'm not that good at math lol, anyways thanks!

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 11 months ago

    Don't let math deter you. Especially if you're more interested in assembly. Most of the math I've done is related to Ohm's Law (which is just basic algebra) and its 3 phase variations. Only occasionally is it more complicated than that. And when it is more complicated, you'll have access to tools that help out.

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