Should I Do Engineering?

Maybe it was after being yelled at by a customer over the phone.

Working my 25th week of a 55 hour work-week and feeling the existential dread of having to go back to my car sales job on the Monday.

Or, actually, the slow compound of talking to professionals, universities graduates, engineers with each sales pitch.

One day, as I laid back in my office chair staring into outer space did a thought appear.

"I don't want to make a career out of talking to people. I need to get into something more technical."

So, why Engineering?

I’m currently 20 years old.

I graduated the top 3% of students in high school, rejected university to join the work force.

Three years, and eight jobs later, here’s why.

Meaningful Work

What was my goal after high school?

To make as much money as possible, like every boy who graduates.

Five months in selling cars, I realised that money as a motivator is not enough.

My Sales Manager from my old retail job selling electronics taught me something:

If a customer doesn’t need it, then send them home empty handed.

Car sales felt like the opposite: I needed to sell SUVs to people who needed vans.

(This has happened twice to me)

I lost my ‘why’.

Engineering gives that back. You’re in a field that solves real problems.

Whenever I was in Tokyo, I’m always in awe riding the train line, the same system that transports 20 million passengers everyday.

Engineers helped design that.

They help the worker commute to the office. That family to visit a relative. The tourist to get to his hotel.

That’s meaningful.

You’re helping design stuff that serves people, not just making another dealership richer.

“Help others, and the money will follow.”

Engineering > Business: Problem Solving as a Skill

Put me at a crossroads between Engineering and Business, here’s why I’m choosing Engineering every time.

Statistically, almost a third of Fortune 500 CEOS are Engineers.

As a comment from the video, “Engineering is the new MBA”

“You can teach a physics student business, but you can't teach a business student physics.”

Why?

The discipline of Engineering teaches how to analyse problems, break them down and build solutions. That is what exactly business is.

During my years in sales, a job where I needed to think on my feet, I realised something: I am deeply analytical.

I would spend hours researching the best PC parts for an Engineering student, create a spreadsheet to see if real estate beats index funds, or what KPIs I need to hit my end-of-year goals.

My parents told me I was very analytical. And I didn’t even know.

If analysis is a core part of problem solving, then why not use this temperament in a field that actually rewards it?

The best example that comes to mind is Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify.

Early on in his career, a mentor of his told him to study law. Not to practice law, but learn how to think, write and synthesize information.

That was the meta-skill.

For Engineering, the meta-skill is problem solving.

Learn that, and you can apply it to any field.

Even if you never work as an engineer, those four years of study will teach you how to think.

That’s versatility.

The World Needs More Engineers

Here’s a question I pose myself:

“Does the world need another salesman?”

I don’t think so.

But an engineer?

Australia has a shortage. The whole world does too.

People solving problems in infrastructure, technology, energy, transport.

Like my parents remind me, I am analytical. I graduated in the top 3% of my class. I have an academic gift. It would be a waste to have a God-given gift and not use it on the things that matter.

Again, I have not enrolled into Engineering, yet.

There is a big possibility that I find it difficult, and the passion for it dulls.

It’s like my journey in sales, I wasn’t passionate, but I got good at it and the passion followed.

One of the questions I’d be asking myself is:

“What does the world need from me? How can I make an impact?”

Random note, JFK said two things that stuck with me. Arguably, the president who helped us put a man on the moon.

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country”

“We choose to do [these things] not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

If you have the ability to study engineering, but you chose not to because of its difficulty, what else would that be but a waste?

Do you believe you’re the only one who finds it hard?

What a waste of your potential.

The world has problems. Engineers solve them. That’s why I’m choosing to study it.

Conclusion

Look, if you know you’re wanting to be a doctor, lawyer, nurse, teacher, great. This video isn’t for you.

This is for the fence-sitters. The guys who like technology, who did well in school and aren’t too sure if university will be worth it.

I was there in Grade 10. I chose the hard academic path, graduating in the top 3% of students, then rejecting the university pathway anyways.

I spent three years learning sales.

Now that I’m going back to academics, I’ll be 25 when I graduate.

Will I ever regret the detour?

No.

I had the opportunity to learn how to talk to people and sell ideas.

I can take these skills with me for the next chapter of my life.

Somebody told me:

“Sales isn’t the wrong fit - retail car sales is the wrong mission.”

They were right.

Here’s what I learnt:

It’s not making a decision that is the mistake, it’s not making one at all.

That’s why I’m choosing Engineering.