Today, I finally got all my books and supplies in for the spring semester. After a count of 15 books needed for 2 classes and 1 lab, I sure am glad for rolling wheel backpacks. All of my scrubs and whites and lab coats are sewn up with the school patch and washed and ironed for when I start clinicals. The sensation of being in scrubs is like being in PJs, which after having worked in a business casual setting for so long is really rather weird. Some people I know who work in medicine say you get used to it and then wearing "normal" clothing feels weird and constricting if you work in a health environment without scrubs.
The more I progress through school, the better I feel about my decision to leave engineering. Unless you've lived under a rock for the past 5 years and not read your IEEE-USA letters, outsourcing really is hitting hard. I don't blame big businesses for this "creative destruction" of engineering jobs, as if I was in that position myself of choosing to pay high 5 figure or 6 figure salaries or paying a McDonald's fry cook salary to an engineer with the same experience and educational background, I would pick the cheap labor too.
At my old work, managers used to hold sending our jobs off to India over us as a threat, which made us fret and did nothing for us in terms of employee productivity, unless you count in the increase in stomach ulcers. Also, learning engineering in the ivory tower of academics (I was an engineering junior before I made my major switch) is nothing like how you implement things in the "real" world or even just work from day to day. Most engineers I know and myself, we spend long hours on writing extremely long word documents specifying on how a system will work. I never once had to use the many semesters of calculus or physics or higher science I took to address a problem. Unless you work at a smaller company, many firms also discourage and actively squash creativity, as shareholders are notoriously very conservative and want to avert risk, which does not foster the best environment for growing yourself from a professional aspect.
I'm also happier from a personal aspect. I did not particularly aspire to be an engineer as a child. My original love is art and my talent from when I was younger actually helped pay for some of my way through school although I haven't picked up a brush in years now. I'm kinetic and love to work with my hands. I pursued engineering because I fell in love with the clean elegance of math and the intellectual allure of great and efficient design. I have a simple faith and see the work of God's hands in the beauty and simplicity of the constants and equations that guide and shape our daily lives. Nursing is just a better fit for me, as I get to combine my love of science, of working with my hands, and compassion in my work to help make the lives of people better in ways just not available to me in engineering.
The more I progress through school, the better I feel about my decision to leave engineering. Unless you've lived under a rock for the past 5 years and not read your IEEE-USA letters, outsourcing really is hitting hard. I don't blame big businesses for this "creative destruction" of engineering jobs, as if I was in that position myself of choosing to pay high 5 figure or 6 figure salaries or paying a McDonald's fry cook salary to an engineer with the same experience and educational background, I would pick the cheap labor too.
At my old work, managers used to hold sending our jobs off to India over us as a threat, which made us fret and did nothing for us in terms of employee productivity, unless you count in the increase in stomach ulcers. Also, learning engineering in the ivory tower of academics (I was an engineering junior before I made my major switch) is nothing like how you implement things in the "real" world or even just work from day to day. Most engineers I know and myself, we spend long hours on writing extremely long word documents specifying on how a system will work. I never once had to use the many semesters of calculus or physics or higher science I took to address a problem. Unless you work at a smaller company, many firms also discourage and actively squash creativity, as shareholders are notoriously very conservative and want to avert risk, which does not foster the best environment for growing yourself from a professional aspect.
I'm also happier from a personal aspect. I did not particularly aspire to be an engineer as a child. My original love is art and my talent from when I was younger actually helped pay for some of my way through school although I haven't picked up a brush in years now. I'm kinetic and love to work with my hands. I pursued engineering because I fell in love with the clean elegance of math and the intellectual allure of great and efficient design. I have a simple faith and see the work of God's hands in the beauty and simplicity of the constants and equations that guide and shape our daily lives. Nursing is just a better fit for me, as I get to combine my love of science, of working with my hands, and compassion in my work to help make the lives of people better in ways just not available to me in engineering.
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