Ok, here is my situation. I’ve an engineer and have what some would call a nice cushy job. I make good money and its really not that challanging. I hate it. I have actually been exibiting many of the symptoms of depression. My LBS just put a sign up that they need mechanics and sales people full time. I am going to talk to them tomorrow about it. The job will most likely pay 1/3 of what i make now, with no benefits. When I do the math i wonder if i’ll have enough money to eat, but i know others do it, so it must be possible right? I feel like i need to do make the change for my own sanity but i’m scared.
Can someone who made a similar change give me a story and a pat on the butt and tell me its going to be ok?
Or can a bike mechanic out there tell me that its sometimes tough to make ends meet but its worth it?
Engineering is a big field… design, maintenance, paperwork, research there is a lot of things to do. You can probably look into another area if you don’t like what you are doing. I’m electrical engineer myself and I ended up doing computer programming stuff. After a lot of trial and error I finally decided for this… I don’t regret it I make more money, work less and I’m happier and still have time to train.
i know of a guy (name to be withheld b/c i don’t know him that well) that gave up a $90k+ a year job to work jobs like waitering and hotel front desks to have more time to train…i think i would work the higher income job for a while (depending on your age) and really save as much as possible and then give it a go when you’ve got some extra $$ stored away…especially if you were considering trying to focus on competing at a high level…now i just need a good paying job
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It is “this shit here or this shit somewhere else.” The grass always looks greener on the other side, I recently had a chance to change jobs- right now I am a director of Phys Ed in a high school, and despite the attractive offer etc… couldn’t do it.
Save the $$$ if you need to jump ship, but be careful as it is not always as good as it looks,
Erik, let me share some input as another engineer (although gone over to the dark side of marketing) who has also been racing tris for 20 years and also in the tech world for in some shape or form for 17 years. We triathletes in the so called corporate world, look at the folks in the “tri industry” and long for their lifestyle. We are looking at their lives through nicely tinted glasses and see all the nice stuff, overlooking the blood sweat and tears. I have many friends who have made the transition that you are suggesting. Some have opened their own stores, become sales people, gone to work for sporting good corporations, worked retail, gone into coaching, etc etc. Every career has its challenges and downside. The tri industry can suck just as badly for a living as engineering, or it can be really rewarding. To some extent, it is situational.
Don’t get me wrong, being an engineer can suck to. Its got to be the profession that you go through some of the most rigorous education and training for a questionable upside (ie you get used like a mule and spit out during the next wave of layoffs). But being an engineer can also have many upsides. Before you throw in the towel (for the moment) on engineering, explore challenges in other organizations. If I recall, you stated that you work for a defence contractor. My early career as an engineer in the Airforce put in a few big ass development projects for radar systems where the time to market for the products was 5 years at best with a life cycle of 25 years. If you go into a company involved in commercial markets where time to market from powerpoint to volume production is less than 12 months and where product life cycles are barely 3-5 years, you might find it a lot more exciting.
But hey, I know what you are saying. I hope to be out of the tech world in 5 years (once my financial obligations to my family decrease somewhat), and doing something in endurance sport related to organizing events, tours and training camps in the long run.
I’m pretty much in the same situation. I have a cushy engineering job making a decent amount. If I found a job that paid 40% less but was something that was triathlon or fitness related, I would jump on it in a heartbeat. In order to make yourself happy, you must take risks. You must be prepared to fail. When you do fail, you must realize that it will be OK in the end.
There are two kinds of people in this world. One kind keeps saying “Man, I wish I could do what you do for a living because it sounds like so much fun” and the others get told all of the time “Man, I wish I could do what you do for a living because it sounds like so much fun”.
It’s scary and it will be tough, but do what your heart says. Money isn’t everything.
I’m a mechanical Engineer and I’m jumping ship in about a month to enter the tri industry as well. I’m finding that the office environment is the worst thing ever for a triathlete. I often walk up the 19 flights of stairs to get to my floor to get a little workout in after lunch. My colleagues think I’m crazy.
I’ve decided that I love the sport so much that I’m more than willing to take on the risk. Life is about being happy and not regretting what you could have done. You can always go back if things don’t work out.
Erik Lake and Eric Hollins, while I understand how you guys are thinking, looking forward one decade, you might find that raising a family, paying a mortage, potentially two car payments, and saving for college education for perhaps multiple children, while at the same time having time to train race and travel, are relatively viable on an engineer’s salary. Just something to keep in mind if you throw in the towel at a young age on the engineering profession.
Let me just say this. If I had the resumes of two 32 year old engineers in front of me, I’ll typically go with the one who has the most years of “relevant” work experience on technologies that the company I work in is most interested in recruiting for.
When I’m on my death bed, I’m not going to be thankful for having a sub-10:00 Ironman time and possibly making it to Kona. I’m not going to be even going to think about some stupid project that I had to do at work that affecing the factory capacity by 0.1% which made the CEO of my compayn $500K richer in a year.
You are also assuming that I want to get married, raise a family, have two car payments, all that other stuff that is usually expected of us but isn’t necessary to have a happy and fulfilling life.
If I don’t throw in the towel on the engineering profession now, it’s only going to be harder later in life. Also, you can make a decent living not being an engineer. I just have to set goals and live on ideals that make me happy instead of having goals and ideals that are set by the rest of society.
Hey guys…and if I were to bail on engineering/tech industry, I sure would not be going into the tri industry. I’d be working in a ski resort in St Anton Austria in the winter as an instructor/guide and in the summer, I would run bike Tours out of Boug D’Oisin, up Alpe D’Huez, Galibier, Croix de Fer etc for overweight and well financed investment bankers from NYC :-).
Seriously, you guys can get a feel for it, by working for 3 weeks during the TdF for Trek Travel. Just take time off your real job and give it a whirl
It’s one thing to know you are profoundly unsatisfied with your current situation (a common phenomenon I think in our accumulation/consumption/status oriented culture). It’s another thing to realize what, in fact, you are meant to be doing with your life other than work in a job that doesn’t suck too much and that pays quite well.
If working with and around bikes is your passion, then you could do a lot worse than to go for it (although before you leap maybe research what “it” is beyond just noticing a “help wanted” sign in the LBS!)
If working in a bike store is more like a fleeting romantic vision and attractive primarily b/c it gets you the hell out of your sucky job, then perhaps better to sit tight for a while longer to think things through.
On the income front, money may not be the root of all evil, but neither is lots of cash a prerequisite to happiness. (Benefits and salary will be important though if you have a family.)
Erichollins, you have a point. I always thought it would be cool to have a family, watch my son grow up and yes have a home (and I only have one car with 8 bikes in my house with no car payments) and have a loving partner, who actually has a big say in things (and you might find that at some point, this might also be the case for you).
I’m not saying you can’t be happy in the tri industry. I’m just saying that you can be an engineer, and be substantially intellectually challenged at work and then also have time and finances to do tri related stuff outside of work. It can be “best of both worlds”…but yes, in the long haul, pretty well all engineers stop doing engineering, whether they do so by going into managment, sales, marketing or other industries, there are relatively few that do it all the way to retirement.
I say follow your bliss. If you think the career change is going to make you happy, then do it. Simple. If it doesn’t work out, in 2-3 years you can go back to engineering. There are always jobs for engineers.
Obviously there are other considerations I don’t know about; family being the most important. But I’m a big proponent of doing everything possible to be happy in your life.
Ok, here’s the situation - standing on your feet for 8 hours a day dealing with unreasonable customers asking asinine questions. All this for a really crappy paycheck. Oh yeah, training? You don’t have time because #1, your legs hurt like hell from standing all day and #2 you work when the boss tells you to (always bad - always weekends).
I worked a bike shops, lots of other retail and for bike manufacturers - and now I have a corporate job in a cube that makes me insane… but it has money and security right? But alas, like so many others it’s not enough…
How am I changing my situation? Easy… I’m following something I love and starting my own business doing it. We all have something we really love and I’m not talking “gee… I wish I could be a pro and train all the time or I could really be a great second guitarist for Black Sabbath…” - no -
We are each talented and gifted in some area. I found the one thing that I truly think I am better in than anything else (and I have a boatload of interests). It’s taken quite some time to build up the knowledge and experience to go out on my own and I still have a lot of learning to do. But I know I’m headed in the right direction because I can imagine myself doing this until the day I die.
I 'm a unix system admin guy and most of my intensive work has to occur on nights and weekends.
It makes it very hard to plan races, to train with a group, because quite often I just don’t know what i’ll be doing on any particular sunday morning at 7am.
sometimes I 'm still awake doing a system upgrade i started at 2 am.
If I had an 8-5 cube job with no pager making what I make now I 'd be friggin thrilled.
if you’re frustrated, go rent ‘office space’
that’ll snap you out of it.
and have those TPS reports on my desk at 8 ,mmmmkay?
Thanks guys, I’ll give a little more background. I’m a mechanical engineer.
One thing i didn’t mention is that i’m going to attempt to get a Leave of Absence from my work to try it out. If i could get 9 months to give it a shot I could really see what it is like, and if i don’t like it i could go back to my cushy engineering job. My fear is if my company decides not to grant me the leave.
I know if i were in AUS or NZ it would be no problem, there they encourage people finding themselves, but here they might frown upon me leaving for any reason other than school.
