Question for people with engineering degrees. I am a year from graduating with my BSEE. Last fall I was recommended for an internship by the chair of the engineering department at my school. The job has almost nothing to do with any engineering. I am mostly helping with projects that take existing overhead 15kV power lines and replace them with underground 15kV power lines and install new switches and transformers. This doesn't feel like what I want to do with my degree. Before I left the Air Force I was doing nothing but management type work and I left so I could pursue my passion in electrical engineering. Now I am doing management work again and I feel like I am back in the Air Force.

I am trying to enjoy the job. The people are great. The work environment is laid back. It's close to home. Also the president of the company has an FFL and keeps gun catalogs in the break room if any employees want to order something. I am also worried that I may have a hard time finding something I enjoy locally. I missed out on applying for a summer internship somewhere else, so I am going to see if the company grows on me over the summer.

How many of you with engineering degrees have done or are doing non-engineering work? I am curious about the experiences of others that may have been in a similar situtation.

I am a retired civil engineer.  I worked a variety of jobs , technical and non technical in my career.  35 years

If you are in school and this is an intern job brfore you graduate.  Then stick it out, and don't worry about what you are doing, just work hard and do what ever you are asked to do.

I this is your first job out of school, then do the same as above, but plan to do something else, ie a different job in 2 years

Follow up.  That is a construction related job in power engineering and is related  to your degree, just a different side of it.

Just do a good job for them and look forward to a positive recommendation for the job you will want in the future.

Very common for engineers to move into non engineering roles.  Most important is do you enjoy it and does it meet your goals?  If not, you will never be happy no matter how much it pays.

You have two great things going on, recommendations from dept chair and a summer job in your field.  Part of engineering is also the ability to lead and understanding regulations and working with technicians that will install what you design.  

Think about the law students getting internships making copies and proofreading, they aren't practicing law, note they also haven't passed the bar, or PE.

Enjoy and learn how the things work from the inside.

Take the intern spot and network like crazy. Do whatever it is well and add it to your resume.

Ome of the jobs I had while working through a PhD was as a member of a high voltage line crew.

It was very interesting to watch  and learn how the work was done safely.

Little details like it is not safe until it is turned off AND grounded.

We did a limited amount of 'hot work' on live lines.

It requires absolute attention to everything.

When you reach for a 120,000 volt line it moves away since you are a conductor moving in a magnetic field.

You have to learn to move slowly and deliberately even when you feel the slight tingle as you charge up.

The capacitance of your body and the insulators on the boom truck is not very large but it is also NOT zero.

It is not 'design' work but is still useful experience.

I worked on a HUGE rf transmitter also.

As in SW at the many millions of Watt level.

The final stage power amp 'tubes' had about an 8 inch diameter and 24 inch height.

They had feet of lead bricks around them to attenuate the x-rays generated during operation.

Stray static voltage was discharged using a ten foot long 'hot stick' and touching open points on the conductors feeding the tube.

Older post but I've just seen it.  What everyone said about non-engineering jobs with an engineering degree is true.  I'm a Petroleum Engineer and it's very true in the petroleum field that you move out of everyday engineering tasks.  In fact, even with a masters degree and some extra time towards a doctorate the big $$'s are not in the engineering (unless you design a better mousetrap and own the rights) and I see that as being true in the other engineering disciplines as well.

I think a better question is, "What are your life goals and how does your degree actually help you to accomplish your life goals?"  Once you know where you are going then you can plan your career to get there.  If you want a 9 to 5 without a huge amount of stress, decent pay and decent benefits and then a little savings at the end then....being an engineer is a good way to do that.  If you want more...then you'll have to move into management or entrepreneurship.    It's risk-reward all over again.  You could fail...but trying and failing at a young age is far better than wishing you had towards the end of your life.

Craft your career specifically to educate and train yourself to be what you want or, better yet, need to be.  Petroleum Engineering is a most brutal beast of a career with all of the ups and downs...I started in 1980 and have been continuously employed which is no small trick.  The engineers who wanted 9-5 and who watched the clock, took their sick pay when not sick, etc...not bad guys but they were first to go.  So, where is the value?  Where is your value and how does that fit into your life goal?  I got turned down in an early buyout because a company wanted me to stay...ticked me off because I had plans on leaving and did leave.  Taking charge of my career rather than staying in a job and leaving my career in corporate hands was the best thing I ever did for my family...it may not be your thing.

So looking back at the "pure engineers" I worked with they are great guys and have...pretty much what they wanted.  The line management I knew has the same story.  Their wives have very nice Tahoe's and Escalades.  They have very nice homes in town.  I'm not putting them down but that's their limits and our limits having gone a different route are a little above that and years ahead of their retirement dates.   What do you want and can you do that with a 401k and company pension/annuity and can you keep on doing that after you retire?  If your goal is to fatten a 401K that's a good goal...but the real money is in creating a business, creating wealth...you do that and the 401k is of far less consequence.

Being a fly in the ointment...always challenging and pushing was not well received by most.  There is a "ambition ceiling" in big corporate so be prepared for that and if you are a "fly in the ointment" then recognize it and squeeze out all of the experience you can for your next step...your career evolution.  Once you've made a few $$$'s if you have the push then start your own projects....you can do better than the stock market if you want to and have the drive (and, MOST importantly, a spouse that actually supports your efforts without pissing and moaning all the time).  It's better to have more than one company president who has an FFL and keeps gun catalogs in the break room...can that be you too?

This is true for engineers...but also non-engineers, degreed and non-degreed people.  Anyone who can "self-train" themselves by crafting their career steps and to apply a career to meet a life goal is fortunate indeed----there is no telling where they will end up and it can be done without mistreating or trashing people.  I wish someone could have gotten that through my head in my 20's to plan a career to support my life goals.

By the way....very interesting the post about 120,000 volt lines moving away from you.  I can't see who posted it from this posting page but very interesting.  You Electrical Engineers...and Chem E's are the smart guys.  No kiddin'.

I'm an electrical engineer and worked as one right out of college as a research engineer. Hated it to death. Ten years later, I'm a program manager with the government and having a blast. I still get to play engineer, but I'm involved as much as I want to be. I'm probably twice removed from the "actual" engineer that's creating the widget, but I'm providing rudder steer for the program's direction by determining what the customer/operator needs and executing accordingly. I was prior service as well, which made bouncing around jobs to different parts of the country for promotions a fairly easy task.

If I want to exercise my brain, there certainly isn't a shortage of white papers or technical documents in my office that I can dive into, but there are meetup groups around town that I can go to that allow me to build circuit boards or robots or program (or not).

I get what you're saying, though. Enjoying your job is huge. But you're fairly young and probably make a good salary for your area's cost of living. You can engineer outside of your job if that makes you happy. When I was living in a much smaller town, a buddy (mechanical engineer) would have a build party every weekend and like minded individuals would assist him with his Jeep that he built from the ground up to race at Baja. What's the saying, live to work or work to live?

Your question and its whole premise absolutely blows my mind.  You are a student and it is an internship.  Even without looking into the details, I can tell you that kind of work is pretty involved and requires coordination from many disciplines, and you will most likely face many engineering type challenges.  Take it and learn from it and add it to your resume.  Even once you have your degree, the chances of you getting your "dream job" right away, if ever, are pretty slim, and even if you do get it, it probably will not be what you were expecting.