Is Engineering for me? Please read my long story....

[Adaneth]

<p>Here's my long story, a little about myself. See if you can help me.</p>

<p>I don’t really know if I will like engineering. I’m currently an RN, and thinking about a career change.</p>

<p>However, I’m gonna research this to death until I find something I really like before I make the big jump.</p>

<p>I LOVE to research stuff on the internet, and love to learn about everything in life.
I started to get really bored with the routine stuff in nursing. However, when the new stuff happens, I get nervous when I don’t have enough time to figure out what’s wrong.<br>
I like to think things through carefully, and find the best answer. Nursing doesn’t allow me to do that. It is a fast pace environment that demands fast and critical thinking, and going with your gut feelings.</p>

<p>I hate it when I’m bombarded with too many problems at the same time. And each problem can be dealt with by a number of possibilities. Sometimes there is no definite answer, and you just go with what you’ve got. I’m not the kind that lives on adrenaline and get excited when I don’t know what’s coming through those doors.</p>

<p>I usually like to know all the facts and have time to carefully analyze them, especially when I’m dealing with human lives. I like to think methologically and to focus one problem at a time, not thirty.</p>

<p>I feel rewarded when I figure out something that has got a lot of people puzzled or looking foolish. </p>

<p>I think I’m creative, but not an artist. So don’t know how well I will do in designing things.</p>

<p>I get bored easily. I usually start on a project and master it, and then get uninterested. That happens a lot with my crafts and hobbies. I learned how to play all kinds of instruments, learned stained glass, painting, making jewelry, how to knit, and crochet, and tons of other crafts…but I got bored easily and gave up on every one of them.</p>

<p>I feel rewarded the most when I’m doing something that will benefit others, but it has to do with something that I create or thought of. That way I feel like I have a part in it.
I think I do like solving problems. However, it’s sometimes questionable because I get frustrated when problems arise in my nursing career. I think it’s because we have to think too much using our gut (intuitive), and not our logic (sensing) in nursing that makes it hard for me. And problems usually come all at the same time, and you have only a second to decide how to do it all at once, using time management. I think my sensing side takes over when I’m stressed. I don’t necessarily have the curiosity to take things apart and study them and find out how they work. But I definitely like to help someone when they can’t figure out a problem. And it feels really rewarding to me when I have an “AHA!” moment. I also love playing solitaire, puzzles, trivial and logic games.</p>

<p>I like working with projects where I can see the results. </p>

<p>I never really built things with legos as a child…I don’t know if that was more of a guy thing. But I did build sand castles whenever we were at the beach. I don’t remember if I was in love with building. What I did build was forts with the sofa cushions and played house. Also, I would plead my parents for their boxes and cut windows in them and played house. I placed that cardboard house on a little red wagon and dragged my sister along in it. I think that was my first idea of inventing something. Another thing I did in high school that I was really proud of was, I made an entire display of the house in the book “Tortilla Flat” completely out of paper mache, and then painted it all with nail polish. I even made a miniature rifle to go with the scene, and my teacher was impressed. </p>

<p>I wanted to be an astronaut when I was younger. Basically just because it was the highest goal I could ever wish for. I sort of dream of overachieving.</p>

<p>I’m very persistent. I can be a very hard worker. I can sit by the computer and do research all day long. Or work on a project all day long. Very focused when in that state. Most of the time, I’m lazy. But once I put my mind on achieving something, I won’t stop. That’s how I got my nursing degree. However I don’t like it when I’m force to lead people or when someone is breathing down my neck watching my every move. I enjoy working alone, but I think that I will enjoy being a part of an excellent team of workers who are serious with their work. I hate working with people who are non-compliant, and who are not serious about their job. That happens a lot in nursing, and it screws up my work and efforts, and most of the time I have to take the responsibility.</p>

<p>I am however a go-by-the-rule person though. I read that engineers don’t like to follow the rules. I follow the rules to the T, EXCEPT when I don’t agree with them. Then I don’t.</p>

<p>My personality is ISTJ, but I’m thinking that my S is actually an N half of the time when I’m my normal self. When I’m focused or thinking it is mostly S, but when I’m quiet, and relaxing, I find myself day dreaming up the most craziest possibilities and ideas (N).<br>
I find that I’m a very critical person. There goes the following the rules personality again. I see that I do that with art and design, and everything that touches human lives. I look at things and notice that it doesn’t function well, or that the designer missed something very crucial. I love interior design magazines, but I think it’s because I love how the interior of the houses are built to fit the lifestyle of humans. Sometimes I wish I could design my own dishes, because I simply can’t find anything that fits my needs or taste. Same goes for the sofas. </p>

<p>I’m thinking between engineering or Architecture. I love the design of homes, but I don’t think I would want to limit myself to buildings. When looking at the functions of a home or an object, I think about stuff such as what you might learn in ergonomics or human factors. My pet peeve is to see homes or objects that do not function well or are poorly designed. It doesn’t fit the needs of people.</p>

<p>I want to feel like I’ve done something meaningful in my life. Nursing’s not cutting it. It doesn’t feel rewarding even when I’m better at it than others, or even if I helped patients. </p>

<p>I used to play around with HTML codes for my myspace, I got good, but I wasn’t too interested in it. My RN job gave me an opportunity to play with health informatics. I only had about one week of training, which was not sufficient at all, but I think I did really well. While helping staff use the computer system I really felt like I was getting to know the stuff even better than the ITs that were helping us. It just surprised me that they couldn’t answer some of the questions the staff were asking, when I already knew the answer to them. I asked myself why, and there could only be two answers. Either I was really good at it, or they are not competent in the system. But I can’t see myself doing that for many years…I think I’d get bored to death. The system lacked a lot of charting functions that the nurses needed, and I was irritated at that as well. Poorly design and hard to navigate and find info. </p>

<p>So what do you think? Am I engineering material, or should I look elsewhere?</p>

[ViterbiTrojan]

<p>So…First off, engineering a discipline in which you sometimes have to deal with various problems. When you are working on a project, you have to take into account how whatever you my be working on will affect the rest of the project. For example. if you want to create a an aerial robot, you are obviously going to want it to achieve flight. However, you must solve the weight problem, but then this might affect the amount of space that you have for the electronics, which might lead to more problems. Especially if you are working on a group project, you might not have problems with your task but the other groups might tell you of a problem they have that will affect your task which means you will deal with multiple problems. My point is, since you dislike being bombarded by multiple problems, engineering may not be for you.</p>

[NeoDymium]

<p>Describing your own personality in detail and asking other people to decide for you isn’t going to give you any real insight into what you actually want to do.
You can research any of the engineering fields in enough detail to know what they’re about. It’s not hard to do at all. But you’re the one who has to actually make the choice. What good is the decision if we make it for you?
Figure out what you actually want to do and go with it. If that’s too hard, pick just one thing and see how it would work out.</p>