How stressful is an engineering job?

HPuck35
Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:38:57 +0000

I retired a few years ago. I still do some occasional consulting. I have over 35 years experience in the aerospace world. I was first an engineer, then went into management. Toward the later part of my career I went back to being an engineer as my management job had morphed into something that didn’t really interest me anymore.

I really enjoyed being an engineer!!! There were boring days when I couldn’t wait to go home and exciting times, when I didn’t want to leave work (and sometimes had to stay very late to accomplish the task at hand). The good days definitely outnumbered the so-so days by a wide margin.

I was a structural engineer working on both manned and unmanned NASA projects. With some luck and the confidence the upper management of the company, I was given some very choice and interesting assignments. There were other engineers that weren’t so lucky and their work didn’t inspire confidence. They got the run of the mill (read more boring) jobs.

Was it stressful? Yes, to a point. The “best” jobs were those that were cutting edge and /or contained an element of risk. You were doing something new. Success wasn’t a given, but schedules and budgets were depending on your success. I would wake up at night thinking about it. But, when the job was finished and you succeeded, there was no better feeling.

You didn’t get those type assignments until you had many years of experience. I spent many years doing the less than glorious assignments, but doing them well to get to the point where I did get the choice assignments. Some people left the field of structural engineering claiming it was boring. But, if you looked at each step as a learning experience and did well at it, you progressed and it made it more “fun”.

The times when I didn’t succeed (there were a couple) was typically when I missed a small detail, and many times something slightly outside my area. It pays to know your job very well and the job of those working with you or providing information to you to the point that you can understand whether their inputs are good or not. Knowing more of the task at hand also helps with the stress part. (ie. knowledge = less stress).

So, I guess you could say that the interesting jobs and the stress come hand in hand. You do have to be able to leave it (for the most part) at work and enjoy your family and your friends too.