Hi all,
I'm not sure if I'm in a slump, if I'm tired of my company, tired of the specific work I'm doing, or tired of the engineering field in general.
I apologize in advance for the long post..
A little backstory: I have a bachelors and a masters in engineering. I originally worked for a government agency. While I liked the work, I found it a bit repetitive, not to mention the work was really not engineering related. It technically qualified as engineering, but it really wasn't engineering. After working there for a few years, I started working for a consulting firm. I've been with the consulting firm longer than I have been at the gov't agency. I do have my PE (recently acquired).
In the past few years, I've been increasingly complaining (to my wife, haha) about the work that I do--both about the specific work I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, but also about the field in general. I'm quite good at regulations, so I've been stuck doing regulatory work. While I don't necessarily mind doing this type of work, it's, again, very repetitive. I don't know how many more forms I can fill out before I up and quit (which I don't want to do). I've actually voiced my concerns to both my indirect and direct supervisors, but it fell on deaf ears. (While they are both very nice, long story short, I'm not particularly fond of either.) I've asked for a mentor, but that's not going to happen. I used to have one until that person moved to another firm. In fact, all of my coworkers that were in my group moved to other firms.
I find myself daydreaming way too often (for a good portion of the day), and I don't feel like I can put my all into the job at hand. I do my job, but I don't go above and beyond, which I used to do. I honestly don't know what kind of work would make me happy, but I feel like I haven't been given the chance to experience different types of work to give me a feel for what I want. The work I do like seems to be related to research, modeling, or anything that really challenges me... NOT filling out forms or rewriting reports on a daily basis.
Another issue I have is that with the amount of experience I have, and the salary requirements I would demand at a new job, I'm afraid I'm a bit too 'specialized' to get a new job, most of which require a broad range of experience and knowledge (at least that's what the job postings say). I fear that being restricted to regulatory work has really put me in a tough spot career wise, which my superiors don't really care about. I'm a bit more expensive than some of the other engineers, so I don't get picked for fieldwork. I've heard often that I'm "too valuable" or my "experience is needed elsewhere". I do think my superiors are afraid of me leaving, as they do want to keep me--there's no one else that does the work that I do (without a considerable learning curve).
I'm feeling really stuck, and I don't know what to do. I don't have anyone that I really trust to talk about these issues with, aside from a few friends that feel the same way with their jobs. I have a good amount of work, and people (internal and clients) continue to come to me asking for work to be completed. Despite not 'giving my all', I do still think I provide a good work product.
I don't necessarily want to change careers, especially this late in my career and with a PE under my belt, but I'm just tired. I see family and friends around me that literally get paid a fourth of what I do, so I hate complaining about stuff like this considering what I get paid. But at the same time, I would like to at least not dread coming to work.
Do others feel the same way? Is this something that's related to the field in general or just my job/company?
I'm not sure if I'm in a slump, if I'm tired of my company, tired of the specific work I'm doing, or tired of the engineering field in general.
I apologize in advance for the long post..
A little backstory: I have a bachelors and a masters in engineering. I originally worked for a government agency. While I liked the work, I found it a bit repetitive, not to mention the work was really not engineering related. It technically qualified as engineering, but it really wasn't engineering. After working there for a few years, I started working for a consulting firm. I've been with the consulting firm longer than I have been at the gov't agency. I do have my PE (recently acquired).
In the past few years, I've been increasingly complaining (to my wife, haha) about the work that I do--both about the specific work I'm doing on a day-to-day basis, but also about the field in general. I'm quite good at regulations, so I've been stuck doing regulatory work. While I don't necessarily mind doing this type of work, it's, again, very repetitive. I don't know how many more forms I can fill out before I up and quit (which I don't want to do). I've actually voiced my concerns to both my indirect and direct supervisors, but it fell on deaf ears. (While they are both very nice, long story short, I'm not particularly fond of either.) I've asked for a mentor, but that's not going to happen. I used to have one until that person moved to another firm. In fact, all of my coworkers that were in my group moved to other firms.
I find myself daydreaming way too often (for a good portion of the day), and I don't feel like I can put my all into the job at hand. I do my job, but I don't go above and beyond, which I used to do. I honestly don't know what kind of work would make me happy, but I feel like I haven't been given the chance to experience different types of work to give me a feel for what I want. The work I do like seems to be related to research, modeling, or anything that really challenges me... NOT filling out forms or rewriting reports on a daily basis.
Another issue I have is that with the amount of experience I have, and the salary requirements I would demand at a new job, I'm afraid I'm a bit too 'specialized' to get a new job, most of which require a broad range of experience and knowledge (at least that's what the job postings say). I fear that being restricted to regulatory work has really put me in a tough spot career wise, which my superiors don't really care about. I'm a bit more expensive than some of the other engineers, so I don't get picked for fieldwork. I've heard often that I'm "too valuable" or my "experience is needed elsewhere". I do think my superiors are afraid of me leaving, as they do want to keep me--there's no one else that does the work that I do (without a considerable learning curve).
I'm feeling really stuck, and I don't know what to do. I don't have anyone that I really trust to talk about these issues with, aside from a few friends that feel the same way with their jobs. I have a good amount of work, and people (internal and clients) continue to come to me asking for work to be completed. Despite not 'giving my all', I do still think I provide a good work product.
I don't necessarily want to change careers, especially this late in my career and with a PE under my belt, but I'm just tired. I see family and friends around me that literally get paid a fourth of what I do, so I hate complaining about stuff like this considering what I get paid. But at the same time, I would like to at least not dread coming to work.
Do others feel the same way? Is this something that's related to the field in general or just my job/company?