this isnt going to be very well written or coherent but:
look, I'm not trying to be the classic reactionary STEM grad who feels entitled to a high-paid tech position because I stumbled through three years of lectures. I'm not that. I've done a couple of years since graduating in hospitality work and that was generally horrible/couldn't get enough hours to pay rent/got misgendered whenever my bosses were having a bad day. Now that sector is in big trouble too so there aren't any jobs going, even if i could stomach going back into it. And apparently chef's work is a black mark on your CV and a lot of employers will write you off based on that anyway?
people say "networking is more important than qualifications". Well, that's great, but as someone who comes from a working class family, I have no idea how to do that, and never knew it was necessary until after the period I was apparently given the greatest opportunity to do it (university). and now it's like, what, am I just supposed to message people on LinkedIn out of the blue begging for work? with no experience? Where do I even begin with that?
I would love to work on the railways or in local government or something but I don't hear anything back from those roles. My best asset is that I spent 2 years setting up a tenant union in a major city, but apparently that's not good enough to even get an interview for support worker role at a charity that literally supports tenants and homeless people. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Every time I get close to a job, it always ends the same way - interview, feel like I did well, get a call back a couple of days later saying "thanks but somebody else had more experience". My experience was literally on my CV, if it wasn't enough then don't waste my time calling me in to interview!
thanks for reading
Lol, I wondered if I needed to be more specific in my original reply.
I was in engineering school the entire time I worked in catering. I did like it, and often wondered if I should drop out of eng school and pursue formal culinary or hospitality schooling. I looked at the older people in the field, and how there weren't that many and how they all had major physical challenges. Substance abuse is rampant (I'm not excluding myself).I had worked in customer facing jobs in high school and realized I wouldn't be able to survive that long term. I thought catering was similarly steering me away.
Infrastructure engineering is a purposefully vague category, but I love systems, GIANT FUCKING THINGS, and hate capitalism. So that's where I landed. Lots of weirdos here so I fit in.
Same, comrade. Point for point.
Haven’t seen you around before - hello fellow systems enthusiast :) there’s a bunch of us on this site across many disciplines! Glad to have another. I’m in the “biosystems” side of infrastructure engineering
...lol same
Hell yeah. How’s it adopted outside the US? My experience in the US water infrastructure side is it’s treated like the “hot new thing” compared to standard civil engineers, but all I’ve got from that is Cassandra syndrome - watching things fail, knowing why, but rarely being able to contribute.
The biggest roadblock is political - whether one’s in public or private design the funds are appropriated/come from somewhere (city/state/federal combo) - but there’s not a lot of knowledgeable folks (understatement) in that arena to actually plan projects. So we have skilled engineers wasting time on half-baked plans, and then doubling the effort to turn that into something buildable. What a tangled web
First off, I'm a chemical engineer - the shift from civil first was happening well before I started working ( cough 15 years ago cough)
Things are more and less of a shit show depending on where you are in this country and don't underestimate how closely we collaborate with US companies/individuals especially in the industry orgs lol.
I won't dig in more because I will dox myself. The industr(ies) are tiny. I suppose I need an account just for engineering stuff.