Hands on or paper pusher?

I think I’m going to go for a degree in engineering (most likely mechanical), I’ve heard many good thinks about engineering and some bad. I’ve decided to go into engineering because I love building things and figuring how things work, math, and science. I really don’t want to end up in some paperwork job; I want a job that’s hands on. So how many engineering jobs are hands on and how many are boring paperwork jobs?

There are plenty of hands on jobs and plenty of theoretical jobs. Even hands on jobs will generally involve paperwork you might consider “boring” such as required safety and regulatory permits as well as careful documentation of procedures.

Yeah every job has paperwork, it’s expected. I’ve just heard some awful realities of engineering job being chained to a desk or having mind numbing assignments. Thanks for the input

My degree is in chemical engineering and I worked several different positions, each involving different amounts of paperwork. For the operations support and process engineering jobs at chemical plants I probably spent about half my day out in the plant and the other half doing calculations, working with vendors, participating in safety meetings, working up procedures, developing cost estimates, etc. I also worked as a facilities engineer for offshore Gulf of Mexico oil production facilities, but was based in an office in New Orleans. In those jobs there were lots of phone calls to the field, meetings with vendors and contractors, calculations, etc and maybe one full day per week out of the office to visit the facilities offshore. That was all fine until I discovered decision analysis and loved it. Decision analysts do not typically visit facilities or spend much time in chemical plants, but I never found the work boring just because it was not hands-on. Engineering has a wide variety of positions and if you want to spend a lot of time actually seeing facilities and equipment up close you will certainly be able to do that on a small or large scale.