Live a life and dream a life is 2 different path. Graduated as an engineering student and doing career as an engineer for almost 2 years make me come up to a conclusion; not all geek can be an engineer or may be geek not suitable to be a practical engineer. If you involve with design 24/7 yes geek it is but with the construction life not so much .
One thing i realize in our education system, we don't teach the student the real value of the engineer itself . What guts you should have to be an engineer. For soft stift lady and gentleman out there, think twice before enroll yourself in this career. It's not cool and great as it sound. As an engineer it is known that we can work in many work scope: a) a design engineer ; where geek landed b) a construction engineer or site engineer; the rough and 'sado' guys c)in developer; the bos engineer.
Actually there are more work scope an engineer can involve instead the mentioned scope i.e sales engineer, work in manufacturing and etc., Those 3 up there are the most famous graduate will choose comparing to others.
Out of those 3; no 2 or b is the top payee, since you have to deal with those heat and sacrifice most of your weekend for awful security watching job. Totally not my style as me and sun are 2 great nemesis. You dont deal too much with the brain of designing, but you have to deal with great pressure to meet the deadline. In construction field, gaining respect from your sub unit ie contractor and cow is the most important thing. You not gaining their respect, you will face a total disruption of your work process and for sure komfem kene bambu at meeting room due to LAD and EOT etc.
Design engineer, your salary might be the lowest if you work with not a renown company. Small design company- learn new thing from admin to junior engineer as you are the one who have to handle those thing. Working overtime is normal. Have to complete the report before the dateline, checking the drawing. Most importantly, know the software. You have to master those software and codes2 which you need to design. Being a design engineer quite interesting if you love to deal with computer as for my theory ; hackers makes a good design engineer. Being smart isn't enough, you must knows fews trick behind your sleeve when dealing with difficult bos and client.
Working with developer or client, makes you the bos to consultant and contractor. You get the opportunity to give order to anyone. The most annoying part working with developer is dealing with the authority and meeting with the higher management. FYI, most project always behind schedule, this where the paperwork comes in, tedious and enormously tiring, Work with the developer makes you to be good in writing and speaking in english as it is a must.
Which part am I? I used to work with client for a while, not a great experience I guess since I only got chances to see the end result of my project as I join quite late. Forgot one thing, be good to the Architect. You gonna need their help too. Good architect makes thing easier and faster.
And know, working as a design engineer in a steel tower specialist. Lot thing to learn and still learning, :)