June 9, 2022
Jun. 9th, 2022 06:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizzybuffy20089. Why did you decide to do the work you are doing now (or if you're retired, the work you were doing prior to retirement)?
I had a series of jobs that going into the first 3-6 months were interesting (until I fixed most of the problems) and then became boring. In the last of those jobs, I had been promoted and was told by the CFO that I had the highest level of anyone without a degree and was encouraged to get into school and at least "look like" I was going for a degree. I was taking classes the next semester. I was lucky, because the area we lived in had a military base and classes were offered there at night with a condensed semester (8 weeks, instead of 16,) so I was able to take 2 classes each time. At first, I took basic things (algebra, english) that I would need and then branched out into things that interested me (astronomy, anthropology) and things I thought would help to get a business degree (management.) I found that I was really bored with the management and anthropology (could have been the teacher,) but loved the astronomy and was quite good at math. In passing (at a restaurant) I heard someone talking about biomedical engineering (I have always had a big interest in the body, but thought I was too old to consider med school.) I investigated what BE was, liked it and decided that is what I wanted to do. I quit my job, enrolled full time for summer semester, and went full steam ahead.
I had a series of jobs that going into the first 3-6 months were interesting (until I fixed most of the problems) and then became boring. In the last of those jobs, I had been promoted and was told by the CFO that I had the highest level of anyone without a degree and was encouraged to get into school and at least "look like" I was going for a degree. I was taking classes the next semester. I was lucky, because the area we lived in had a military base and classes were offered there at night with a condensed semester (8 weeks, instead of 16,) so I was able to take 2 classes each time. At first, I took basic things (algebra, english) that I would need and then branched out into things that interested me (astronomy, anthropology) and things I thought would help to get a business degree (management.) I found that I was really bored with the management and anthropology (could have been the teacher,) but loved the astronomy and was quite good at math. In passing (at a restaurant) I heard someone talking about biomedical engineering (I have always had a big interest in the body, but thought I was too old to consider med school.) I investigated what BE was, liked it and decided that is what I wanted to do. I quit my job, enrolled full time for summer semester, and went full steam ahead.
no subject
Date: 2022-06-09 10:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-06-09 02:54 pm (UTC)In 2003, he was offered a job in our current location (30% increase in salary and less than half the cost of living,) we moved and I telecommuted for a while, but when my project ended, the company relocated and went in another direction and I have been at home since then. When the later temporary assignments happened, it was a good thing not to be working in a job that I liked, since it would have meant being apart again.
I don't regret the degree, the short time I actually got to work as an engineer or even the time apart that we spent. All three made me a stronger, more self sufficient person.