More reasons to escape an engineering job

I have some more reasons to escape my job to share with you. Surprised?
In a previous post I discussed three of the main reasons to escape an engineering job.  Those reasons were the nasty commute through traffic, how unfulfilling a job really is, and about how a job is typically not your route to freedom or wealth.

After a bad week of traffic, I even had a major rant post about commuting in traffic.  This is a topic that I have a passionate distaste for – in case you didn’t notice

As an engineer you are pigeonholed.

How often do you hear “you’re an engineer, you can’t sell” or “you’re an engineer, you don’t care about the price/profit/ROI”?
Congratulations, you’ve been pigeonhold as a Dilbert.  People think that all you care about is having a comfortable paycheck and not having to deal with the evil salesmen.
Yes we do have the knack, but that’s not enough for most of us.

Want to make more money?  Well you have to get that master’s degree or put in more time at the company.
You can’t be paid on performance or earn a comission.
As an engineer I feel very pigeonhold, it’s difficult to get away from the stereotype of being a gearhead that doesn’t care about profits – But that’s not true at all!

No opportunity for advancement

I work for a small company and was the first engineer tht they hired.
Sure, I’ve built a department of engineers and deigners around me, but where do I go from here?  Things are comfortable, but how do I advance from here?
Hope for the company to grow and be named a VP?
Can I become the sales manager too – No.  It would violate the time/space continuum to allow an engineer to manage the sales staff.  Can I become the president of the company?  No the owner kinda has that tied down.  So I guess I’m stuck.  No the path to advancement for me is to build my own business, to work less time for my money, or to outsource most of my work to a virtual assistant.  So for the time being I will be content with my pay and position, and build up my cash runway.  Having the company hire students and junior engineers to perform most of the work and simply spending my time on managing this staff and building my own businesses. Honestly, once you are the engineering manager, I don’t see much room for advancement at a small company.

I hate working for others

My current boss is a great guy and deserves all the success that has come to him. I’ve learned a lot about business from him and his paycheck has given me a decent middleclass life. It is a really good gig for an employee minded individual. The problem is, I have spent enough of my life pursuing his business goals.  I no longer agree with trading my life for a paycheck, where the profit I generate has no bearing on my own wealth.  In this industry, every dollar of profit that I generate increases the equity value of the company by $5 at least. Good for them for convincing others to make that deal.  But it’s not for me anymore.  It’s time to build my own equity value.  A company that profits $250,000 per year can provide a very good lifestyle. But depending on the industry, it can be sold for one or two MILLION dollars.  Think you have directly contributed at least $250k profit to your employer in the past year? They should be thanking you, since you just increased their equity value by a cool million or two. Now it’s time to do that for yourself!
This is one of my major reasons to escape my engineering job.

Time just slips by

Time is your Primordial fuel.
One of the major ideas to grasp from MJ Demarco’s book, the Millionarie Fastlane, is that you have to remove time from your wealth equation.  This is necessary to obtain massive wealth and to really enjoy your life.  Think about it, the payment from most jobs is entirely dependent on time.  Either you earn an hourly wage or an annual salary.  If you are on an hourly wage, the way to make more money is to work overtime.  Most of us are on an annual salary and are out of luck.  A quote from his book is roughly “Have you ever heard a wealthy 20 or 30 somthing say they earned their wealth in mutual funds or other retirement investment”?  In case you are thinking about this, let me answer for you – NO YOU HAVEN’T!  If you trade time for money, you will not enjoy your wealth young.  Though you can be the richest guy in the retirement home.  Premium adult diapers here we come – oh yeah!!
The goal of this section is to point out that time slips by when you are an employee. In fact, time flys by.  You may not live paycheck to paycheck, but they do seem to define time.  Not a good thing when you only get payed once a month.  You just get into the routine of wasting 60 hours per week with no real goals other than making it to the next paycheck.

This is one of the best books to read if you are interested in escaping your job – or in wealth

Above are four more reasons to escape your engineering job.  But be strategic about it. You don’t want to just quit and start living off of your savings.

Follow along on this blog as I share how I am hacking my own current job, building an online business, consulting, and ultimately escaping.

Have your own reasons to escape? I’m sure you do. Please share them below.

Tags: Beginner, Freedom, Why Escape?