In the last article, I shared some professional lessons learned and now I want to focus on personal and financial lessons learned. For most, finances are a general extension of your personal life, but for those with businesses, it is not. Either way, I wanted to bring extra attention to it.

Top Life Lessons Learned from My Engineering Career (Part 1)

Finances

Personal finances is the number one under-taught course in school. In my opinion, it should be required for all high school graduates. I will be teaching it to my children (all home schooled) before they graduate.

When you get married, most fights will boil down to raising children, finances, sex and in-laws. My wife and I haven’t argued over finances since our third year of marriage.

Take a personal finance class

I can’t emphasize this enough. I had a 24 hour drive to make the first time I went to college. We made this trip as a family and my parents handed me a short book on personal finances to read on the trip. I’m a slow reader, but I finished this on the drive. It was thrilling to me and has had a profound impact on my life.

As I graduated from college, I was already in a financially good place. My student loans were reasonable, about $21,000, and I had less than $500 in credit card debt. I owe a lot of this success to my parents giving me that book.

For those of you who have not taken a personal finance class, I highly recommend it. I can’t say enough about Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. It is a wonderful course that is reasonably priced.

Live Far Below Your Means

No, I’m not telling you to live in tiny house, but your dwelling should fit your budget.

My wife and I are not extravagant people. Part of this is natural and part of it has been learned. We are on a cash budget and when there is no money in the envelope, we don’t buy. Over the years, this has caused us to prioritize our spending and say “no” to many unessential things. The result: less stuff and more money.

The hidden benefit is that this gives you financial freedom! We aren’t living paycheck to paycheck and we have around 5 months of living expenses saved, a healthy retirement plan and college savings for the kids.

When we finally decided it was time for me to leave my job and start my own business, we could only do so knowing that we wouldn’t be taking on any debt and we had months worth of living expenses.

That is what I call financial freedom!

Budget

Yes, you need a budget. And it will be a blessing if you stick with it! Trust me here. When my wife and I were first married, we both had full time jobs and no kids (DINKs). We had money coming in and we spent it, most of the time on good things like paying off half the mortgage in 4.5 years. We also built a large deck and remodeled the master bedroom and bathroom.

Anyway, with kiddo #2 on the way and moving to a new state, we were down to one income. Ouch! My wife suggested that we try this cash budget thing some guy named Dave Ramsey endorsed.

I was skeptical, but didn’t want to go into any debt again. We tried it and I remember that first month, I got $120 to spend on myself and another $120 to spend on the house. I remembered thinking that there was no way that this was going to work.

However, having a cash limit made me prioritize purchases and I found out that I rarely ran out of money and usually had a few dollars to carry over into the next month.

All in all, it has been a very freeing experience. I have all that I need and most of what I want within the budget. The things that I want may take a while to save for. The anticipation either makes me want it more or realize that I can live without it.

A budget can also be your best ally against doing things that you don’t want to do. You can always claim that, “it isn’t in the budget”.

So get your budget together and take that first step to financial control.

Cars

We also choose to drive used cars. I used to joke that we don’t buy a car until it is fully depreciated. All jokes aside, I have not had a car payment since 2006 and don’t plan to start anytime soon.

Right now (2020), we have a 2007 Chrysler Town and Country and 2000 Saturn SL. The Saturn so far is my all time favorite car. I inherited it from my In-Laws for relatively free and have put less than $2500 into it.

For those of you who like the reliability of a new car, I totally understand. However, even buying a car that is 2 – 5 years old will still offer that reliability you desire but save you a lot in depreciation.

For those of you who are handy, there is a YouTube video for just about any issue on your vehicle. Just last month, I was worried that my minivan was about to go. I watched some videos and was able to fix all the problems by myself for less than $200. Now, I have no doubts that my car will last awhile longer.

Be Your Own Bank

Remember how I just mentioned that I have not had a car payment in 14 years? I can do that because I am my own bank. The best thing about being your own bank is that it charges no interest with very little paperwork.

I can do this because I set aside money every month from my paycheck specifically for things that I will need to buy.

Cars are a great example. We put aside $300 – $400 a month for car repairs and replacement. Many of you have car payments that are over this amount so as soon as you pay it off, keep paying yourself the payment. Once the car dies, go buy another car with the cash you saved. If you save $300 a month and drive your car for an extra 3 years, you will have nearly $11,000 to purchase a car with.

Another benefit of being your own bank is you can get deals. Ask for a cash discount. Many places will give it to you because they avoid the cost of the credit card transaction. Let me give you two examples.

I once went to a used car lot. I mentioned that I would be paying cash and the lady told me to take $1000 off the cost of any car. I walked out with a $6500 car for $5500! Awesome. I know that I couldn’t negotiate that.

Another time, I needed my transmission rebuilt. The cost was around $2000. When the repair was done, I brought cash and asked for the cash discount with the cash in hand. The owner told me there wasn’t one so I put the cash away and pulled out my credit card.

Realizing that he was about to loose some profit, he quickly offered me $150 off.

Have Diversified Income with a Side gig or Passive Income

Rich people generally have five or more sources of income. Many of these don’t require any on going effort. This is called passive income.

Most people only have one source of income, their job. This is not good. If your industry has a hard time or suddenly collapsed, you might be left penniless.

I know that most engineers got into engineering because they wanted a secure and stable career. Take it one step further and diversify your income streams.

A side gig is where many people will go to earn a quick buck. Uber or delivering pizza are great examples of this. However, that is not where I want to direct you. The side gig requires your time and that is a precious commodity. A side gig while working full time will be exhausting.

Passive Income

Passive income is where you want to focus. Musicians are notorious for this. Think of big bands life AC/DC or U2. They wrote songs years ago spending hours perfecting and recording it. Once published, they get money every time the song is played on the radio or streamed. That is passive income that will go on long after the band breaks up.

For passive income, you will want to think of a product to sell. This may be a physical product or an informational product. In his book, the 4-Hour Work Week, Timothy Ferris describes how he outsourced all parts of his body building supplement business so that he works one morning a week and still receives a profit check.

This is the information age so selling information can be very profitable. You can use your knowledge in any area to create passive income. This website is Exhibit A. Websites like Income School can help you turn your expertise into dough by writing about it.

Personal Life

You’re Wrong!

This is a tough one. In the fall of 2010, the Lord laid upon my heart that everything I knew was wrong. Well not everything, 2 + 2 still equals 4 and gravity still accelerates an object a 32.2 ft/sec^2.

But the things that I had learned about God, money, parenting, family, nutrition and what I should expect out of life were wrong. At the very least, it all needed to be reexamined.

This led me down a path of new discoveries and revelations that have been very rewarding. I tried to inquire why I thought or did certain things a certain way. Many things that I had believed, changed dramatically. Some things didn’t change because I could explain why I did them a that way.

The most noticeable change was how I received input from others. I now believed that the way I saw things may not be correct and I was willing to listen and be proved wrong.

Never Stop Learning

Never stop learning goes along with always having goals, mentioned in the previous article. This doesn’t have to be related your field of study. Lately, I’ve been wanting to paint a car so I’ve been studying how to do that.

With the advent of the internet and YouTube you can pretty much learn the basics of just about anything. Take advantage of these resources but don’t stop there. Do them yourself.

Right before I left my job, I took the opportunity to go on a photography retreat. This was three days of seminars and photography outings. Here, a bunch of photographers came together to brush up on their photography skills. Everyone learned something new; even the instructors! It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with people that were unsure of their abilities like me. (It was a good thing; I was shooting my first wedding two weeks later and this helped.)

Read

A good way to never stop learning is to read.

When I was 26, I considered myself ‘functionally illiterate’. I could still read, but I had not read a book since college and did not care to. Reading books for school left me with a horrible taste in my mouth.

You see, I’m a slow reader. Even to this day, I can only read 20 to 30 pages at one sitting. In school, there were often times when I was assigned 50 or more pages to read per day. That is not a pace I can keep up with.

My functional illiteracy was discovered one day at work when I was reading one paragraph of a customer specification. After reading it the first time, I had no idea what it said. So I read it again. And again. And two more times.

Then yes, I finally understood what this paragraph was communicating but not until the fifth reading. Sadly, it wasn’t very technical or complex. I had just fallen into bad habits.

Since then, I made a goal to read 5 books that year and they needed to be around 200 pages. I’m now up to 8 books a year with several other monthly publications a year. (Remember, I read slow.)

It is a well documented fact that successful people read! A lot!

Almost all ‘financially successful’ people read at least 30 minutes a day. Most will finish at least a book a month. Bill Gates reads roughly 50 books a year and Warren Buffet reads 5 to 6 hours per day.

Of all the books you read, I recommend, Getting Things Done by David Allen. In our world that is ever changing, it is difficult to feel in control of everything that is going on. This book will give you the tools to do that.

Take Care of Yourself (Be Safe)

When I was younger, there was no fear of getting older or my mortality. At 41, I’m not afraid to die, but I do feel my body wearing out. There are certain things that I just don’t want to do anymore.

When it snowed this year, I stayed inside. I’ve had enough of being cold and wet. I watched the kids play outside through the window. While sitting next to the fire. It was great.

I also don’t like to climb ladders more than 10 feet. It’s not that I’m scared of falling, it’s that I now have a family to support and an injury from a fall would jeopardize that.

Have a Life Outside of Work

We live in a world where employers think that they have access to you whenever. There must be boundaries.

You may love what you do. But if you do anything too much, you will get burned out and eventually loathe it. A friend of mine shared with me that his wife was in labor for 17 hours. He quickly followed that up with, “I can’t imagine doing something I liked for 17 hours.”

And that is true. I can’t imagine doing one thing for more that 6 hours now, even if I like it.

Hobbies

Hobbies are a great escape from work. Most allow you to learn new skills and push yourself. Other hobbies are just relaxing and allow you to reflect on the day. Some hobbies are great because they give you a sense of accomplishment.

Nevertheless, hobbies are essential to your mental and emotional well being. Don’t neglect them by spending too much time at work.

Family is Equally as Important as Work

I only have only one calendar. Whether it is for work events or personal events, it goes on the same calendar. Why? Because both events weigh the same.

For men, our identity is rolled up in what we do. We elevate work to a high level. We do this in part because we feel that we are providing for our family, and we are. But they need you to be present as well.

In 2012, I traveled more than at any other part of my career. While it was exciting for me, it was a burden to my wife. She was 100% responsible for child care with little reprieve. Fortunately, this season of travel only lasted a short time, but it taught me that I needed to be fully present at home with them as well.

Spend One Night Away with Your Spouse at Least Once a Quarter

Sometime in 2011, my wife and I went on a date. Our first date in over 4 years since we starting having kids. We agreed to not talk about kids on the date. For the first 15 minutes, we seemingly had nothing to talk about.

That was a problem.

I can see how many married couples drift away from each other and realize it after the kids grow up and move out.

I did not want to follow in those foot steps that I could clearly see that I was on. We immediately changed our budget to include dates that would cover dinner, an event and babysitting each month.

I later talked with a retired friend and he recommended an overnight outing at least once a quarter. I liked the idea and we implemented it immediately. This is a good idea because there is a lot of rejuvenation can happen in 24 hours. We typically like to leave in the early afternoon and return after lunch the next day.

We found that this could be implemented quite easily and usually with little cost. When we planned vacations to visit family, we would ask them to watch the kids for one night. (Sometimes 2 to 5 nights). This generally saved us a ton of money in child care.

Also, we have a wonderful neighbor who will watch our kids. As a result, one of our most frequented hotels is in the same town!

Don’t Move Halfway Across the Country While Your Wife is 7 Months Pregnant!

This should be pretty self explanatory, but I’ll shed some details.

The fall of 2008 was a giant leap of faith in our lives. My wife was pregnant, the economy was headed into recession and I was looking for new employment. I was offered two great jobs, one in Chattanooga, TN and one in Durham, NC. After accepting the job in Durham, we then looked for a house.

The company was gracious and allowed us a trip to do some house hunting as well as providing professional moving services. Because of the pregnancy, we wanted to move right into a house instead of finding an apartment and scoping out the town.

We ended up finding two houses we liked and could not make a decision. Before we left to go back to Texas, we knew that we needed to place one house under contract. My wife was so emotional and stressed out over the whole situation because of pregnancy related hormones.

The morning of our flight, we walked into the realtor’s office ready to make a contract, but still undecided. The realtor eager to make the sale spouted off some specifications on each house. One detail was the property taxes.

One house was in the county and one in the city. The county house was roughly $1100 a year less in property tax. That’s nearly $100 a month. We bought the county house and still love it!

After settling into work, we had our healthy baby girl, Amber.

You Won’t Have as Much Time and Money as you Think

I remember when my wife was first starting out in her nursing career saying, “there’s so much money out there, I just want to get my hands on some.” She wasn’t being greedy, just stating a fact and she was thrilled with the opportunity to make a substantial income for the first time.

The sad truth is as your income grows, so do your expenses. Unless of course you purposely live on less than what you make. (Hint, hint: that should be you.)

Also as life progresses, demands for your time increase. You will split your time between work, spouse, kids, kids activities, church etc. Time is really only the true commodity you have.

Time can get you money. Most people will trade their time for money at a job. (This is where passive income comes in handy in getting back your time.) Money can somewhat be treated as a commodity, but in reality it is based on time.

For most of my career, I have had more money than time. As a result, we have almost paid off our house (down to the last $10,000) in 11 years. This year however, I have had more time than money. It is an interesting change of pace. But it has led to some really cool opportunities.

I have been able to have lunch out with my kids during the week, go on hikes, and play Lego with my son.

I also have plans to paint, as my son says, “the bumble bee” car. Yes, one of my dreams has been to paint a car. So I am going to paint my 2000 Saturn from maroon to yellow with black racing stripes. (Coolest Saturn Ever!) Why yellow? I heard it was the hardest color to paint a car. I wonder if I will start getting speeding tickets with a yellow car….

At the end of the day, you need to budget your time and money because you have a finite supply of both.

Don’t Forget Your Dreams

For a number of years, I sadly stopped dreaming. I had checked off all the personal and career goals I wanted to and starting coasting through life. I like roller coasters, but this wasn’t exciting. It was as if the lift hill was only 40 ft tall and the drop decent was only 5° as it slowly rolled back to the station.

At age 39, I was happily married with 3 kids, a great paying job and a successful name for myself as well as many other things. On paper, my life was great. My wife and I were struggling with feeling unfulfilled and one day she asked me if our best days where behind us. Ouch! But I felt the same way.

It was at this point that we sought some wisdom from others and came up with a plan for me to leave my job and start my own company. Looking back, it was terrifying and thrilling at the same time. I’m super glad that I did it.

Almost two years after that, I have pursued and accomplished several new dreams. So write your dreams down or make a bucket list.

Life Purposely – Get Started Today

As previously mentioned, you only have a finite amount of time and money. Life has a natural way of making your dreams vanish if you are not living purposely.

Don’t be like me, if you don’t have any dreams or goals, make some. Spend a weekend writing down things that you want to do or accomplish in your life. Download a bucket list from the interweb and let that be a guide to inspire your dreams. Be sure that your list is stuff that you actually want to do. Don’t live someone else’s dream.

The hardest and easiest part is to pick one of those items and do something to make it happen. For me, I started watching videos on how to paint a car in your garage. Take that first step and get your life in motion!

Read Part 1

Even though my engineering career is far from over, I wanted to look back and reflect. I realized that midway through my career is probably the right point to do this because if I wait too long, I’m sure to forget many of the early lessons learned.

So far in my career, there have been many lessons learned both personally and professionally. I wanted to share a few that are universally applicable. Just to give some background into my life, I have had a very rewarding career as a mechanical engineer so far. Here are a few highlights of my journey.

• 2002 – Graduated from Baylor University – One of seven graduating engineers (28 total) with a job already (post 9/11 recession). Got married three months later. Laid off five weeks after that.
• 2003 – Finally got an engineering job – Whoo Hoo! Only 46 weeks after getting laid off. My part time job as a snow cone engineer finally paid off!
• 2004 – My career really took off and I was advancing quickly gaining skills and knowledge. The sky’s the limit!
• 2007 – Kiddo #1 was born on Friday the 13th of April.
• Fall 2008 – Expecting Kiddo #2, we decided to move from Texas to be closer to family in PA, so we moved to North Carolina for a new career opportunity. Career blossoms.
• 2009 – Kiddo #2 was born and passed away 4 months later. We realized how blessed we were by the support of our church family. We reassessed our lives and dove deeper into our faith.
• 2010 & 2014 – Kiddos #3 and #4 born. (Yes, I sometimes call them by their number. Who can remember names?)
• Christmas 2017 – After being burnt out at work, I decided to take three weeks off to reassess my career path. Returned with the following dream.
• April 2018 – Left my successful career and stable job to start my own design firm, Rasmussen Designs PLLC, with the goal of not having to go back to corporate America.
• July 2018 – Started the Mentored Engineer as a way to share my knowledge with young engineers.

Enough about me. I don’t really like to talk about myself because it feels like bragging. I just wanted to mention these things so that the rest of the article has some context.

I have summarized the lessons learned into three separate categories: Professional, Financial and Personal. This article will contain only professional lessons. Financial and personal can be found here. Some of these lessons are sad and some bring a smile from ear to ear. They are all my experiences and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

I wanted to share these lessons with you because the career and life you envision may be much different than reality. That is life.

Professional Life

You Will Sit Behind a Computer for Long Periods of Time

I like computers! They have simplified the way we do so many things. As a result, they will forevermore be a critical component of how we live. But they can be overwhelming to look at day in and day out for years. We need a break from the screen.

It Takes a Full Year to Get Used to a 40 Hour Work Week

For most engineers, you are expected to work a 45 hour work week and that takes a lot of time to adjust. In college, working 45 hours was a breeze and often it was closer to 60 or 70 hours.

There is a difference in the way we are taught in school and how you are expected to work. In school, you have set classroom time, but you then have freedom to do your assignments at your leisure.

In corporate America, your employer will expect you to be at your desk at specific times. Those may not be your most productive times to work. Oh well. I was always able to start an hour before everyone else to get uninterrupted work done.

But having to go in at 7:00 am every day and leaving at 5:00 was a nightmare for me. I needed reprieve, but it never came.

It was really bad when we switched from daylight savings time to standard time in the fall. It now got dark right after I left work. I tried to rig up outside lights so that I could get some work done, but I realized that I just needed to do it on the weekends.

After the first year, I had adapted, I mean gave up. I was the working stiff now.

Take a Lunch

Yes, eat your lunch. But don’t eat it at your desk. If its not raining, go outside and eat even if it is cold. Enjoy the day. You need the change of pace. If it is raining, eat near a window and watch the storm. I like watching people scamper to their cars.

If you have the budget, go out to eat with a coworker. I like to do one-on-one lunches to really get to know someone.

Eating away from your desk allows you to decompress a little and separate your morning from the afternoon. If you still decide to eat at your desk, the day will seem longer than it does and you will go home a zombie. It may take a while to get to full zombie state, but it will happen. (Plus you get food in your keyboard.)

Management is the Natural Path Forward in Your Career

Like it or not, this is the natural tendency. Personally, I’m an “in the weeds” guy with the technical details. If you are a hands on person, there may be friction in your career long term. I was able to avoid moving up the management ladder (I don’t like lots of paperwork).

If you don’t see yourself as management, consider these two things. First, you may grow into it. More than a few times I’ve said that I would ‘never’ do something and then changed my mind. (I stopped doing that by the way.) Second, consider working at a smaller company, because management may not be a full time job. Many small companies have working managers where less than 50% of the workday deals with management.

Smaller Companies Will Provide Greater Flexibility

Small companies usually lack formal structure. This is a good thing because you can be used in a wide variety of facets. In my first real engineering job, I was an engineer, project manager and IT guru. It gave me a lot of experience in a very short amount of time.

In my last position, it was a much larger company and the engineering groups were very departmentalized. As a result, we didn’t work together across teams very much other than a quick question here and there.

I found my growth there to be much slower and there was a definite resistance to trying new ideas.

Avoid a Company Cell Phone and Laptop if You Can

Yes, most companies will give you a cell phone and laptop the second you walk through the door. If this is the case, try to resist it. Here’s why.

By giving you a cell phone, the company is secretly expecting you to be available at all hours of the day. While it may be fun and exciting at first, it will become a burden at some point. You will know this when they wake you up at 2:00 am or ask you to come in during your kids soccer game.

If you have to have a cell phone, see if you can leave it at work when you leave for the day. If not, have clear boundaries as to when to answer it and never, ever, ever sleep in the same room with it.

I actually was able to get rid of my cell phone at work because I just left it next to my keyboard all day.

The laptop is very similar in nature. There is a hidden expectation that you will be able to work from anywhere. This may be great once in a while, but it grows tiring when you are expected to check email daily or work when traveling.

One benefit of having a laptop and cell phone could be to work from home (or anywhere). If you are not required to physically be in the office, you could work from anywhere. I’ve read stories of people actually living abroad and no one from the office knew. Check out the 4-Hour Work Week for more information.

Write Down Lessons Learned as They Happen

I once knew a guy who wrote himself a letter when he would break up with a girlfriend. He wanted to remember exactly why they broke up, because our minds get fuzzy and we forget why we broke up in the first place.

I thought this to be funny at first, but it’s a great idea. Not only that, but we should do this with all lessons learned. It’s far easier to lose details about how and when you knew things in the midst of a problem. Take good notes as events happen.

You Will Get Laid Off or Fired

While I have never been fired from a job (I have been fired from non-paid work things), I have been laid off. Most times, being laid off or fired will turn into a good thing even though it sucks at the time.

When I was laid off for 46 weeks, it really gave me an opportunity to assess my life and prepared me mentally for the beginning of my career and a wonderful opportunity.

If you get fired, this is probably the biggest blessing. Since you got fired, the job wasn’t the right fit for you. This happened because you didn’t want to or weren’t able to perform well. Good, go find another job where you can thrive.

However if you find that you have been fired three times in a row, do some soul searching and make some changes in your life.

If You Don’t Enjoy Going to Work – Don’t

One of the worst feelings in the world is to force yourself to go to work when you don’t want to. Everyone has days or even a week where you just don’t feel like going: that is not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about that feeling when you are “Done” with this job. Many people feel trapped in a job for many reasons most of which are financial. The result is he or she will stay far longer than they should.

I recommend that if you are “Done” with a job, have the difficult conversation with your boss first and air your grievances. Sometimes things can be worked out. After all, they have invested lots of time, money and effort into your training so he may make efforts to keep you. Or, he may tell you to go pound sand.

If you get the sand option, make plans to leave within 6 months.

Always Have Challenging Career Goals

Never stop learning!

As we get older, things generally become boring. As you graduate, the whole world is your oyster. You are embarking upon a new career, maybe marriage and kids are in your future, and there is a whole lot of life to LIVE!

As you check off these things, boredom and complacency set in. Been there done that.

This was a problem for me starting around 2016. As an engineer, I had accomplished all of the career goals I had made for myself. On top of that, 2016 was hands down my best year as an engineer.

I didn’t set any new goals for myself and became complacent and then bored. I had some depression with work and it spilled over into the rest of my life.

Always having and updating goals is critical for a successful career. Have written goals and be sure to be specific and have a plan for how to accomplish them. You don’t have to know all the steps but you should have a clear ‘next step.’

Despite All Your Technical Ability, If You Don’t Play Nicely With Others It Doesn’t Matter

So instantly, Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory comes to mind. In a lot of ways, I’m like him. Hopefully not to the same extent.

The truth be told, this is one area that I will forever be working on. It is one area of my yearly evaluations that was constantly a weakness.

As with Sheldon, people will put up with that behavior for a while, but they will grow weary eventually. You see, it is not that I don’t have the ability to be nice and everything. It’s just that I don’t desire to do that. (Yes, I know that I am my greatest problem.)

So does it work? Yes! From mid 2017 to 2018, I did an experiment at work. I made sure that I was super nice to everyone at work, but I let the rest of my work slide. The company got less work out of me, but I was pleasant to be around. As a result, I was offered a new position and eventually a promotion.

There was a catch. I hated myself. It took so much effort to be nice and suppress my God given nature. If you have issues with playing nice with others like I do, don’t do a 180 like I did, but make working on your people skills a higher priority.

You Can Keep Your Job for a Long Time by Showing Up on Time

True, as previously mentioned, I spent most of my last year performing less work, but I always made sure to show up on time. Watch this video for three other ways to keep your job.

It’s Difficult to Take a Sabbatical in Corporate America

All I wanted to do was to take 3 – 4 weeks off unpaid. Man, in corporate America, there is no way to do this. I either needed to take medical leave or an extended leave of absence. Ouch!

You Will Hit a Plateau in Your Career

If you’re not continually challenging yourself with new goals, you will hit a career plateau or peak. Mine was in 2016. To avoid this, keep dreaming and learning new things. You may need to be more drastic, like me, and quit your secure job to start your own company.

Be Hands on – Get Dirty

This one I love. I like getting dirty and being hands on. That’s where engineering skills are honed. Every shop I’ve worked in, there have been complaints that the engineers just don’t spend time learning how things are fabricated. A good engineer must know how to design things that can be built.

Sitting behind a computer will only get you so far in your design / engineering skills. The rest must be learned by being hands on. I mean you need to talk with the fabricator / assembler for advice and then ask them this hard question: “Can I do it?” With this question, you will gain the respect of the shop personnel and gain valuable skills for future designs.

The latter part is most important. I remember assembling a lift with the shop guys and we got to one point where the hydraulic assembly was complicated and awkward. I asked a few questions about the process. The shop guys figured out the best way to assemble and got complacent with the extra effort that was needed in the design.

I took this opportunity to dig deeper and found that a few small changes could greatly speed up the connection of hydraulic hoses saving nearly 30 minutes per build (pretty substantial).

One position I applied for, the manager insisted that I would be working on the shop floor for one month before performing my job. I said “yes.” He asked me twice more in the interview if I would work in the shop. I can only assume that other applicants didn’t want to.

On another note, when working in the shop, it is never beneath you to lead the cleanup effort by sweeping the floor. I see a lot of engineers come down and do work and then leave a mess behind.

In Summary

Despite my best efforts with this list, you may not be able to avoid learning these lessons yourself. I’m sure if you did avoid the consequences mentioned here, you would come up with a whole list of new lessons you learned. Remember, life is about the journey, not the destination.

Top Life Lessons Learned from My Engineering Career (Part 2)