Kind of a long shot but anyone work in the medical field and need an engineer or skill sets an engineer may have?

Do you have a Master's or above in research, statistics, bioengineering, or robotics? Your Licensed Professional Engineer status is a minimum in those fields for Research Engineering, which is a blend of many of those things these days, and kind of a hot ticket in the job market. Also, if you can repair medical equipment, there's a need for that in the market, too.

I work with many physicians, nurses, PhD. level public health and environmental researchers, etc. that have completed their educations and hate their jobs. Between dealing with academic medicine (which is my specialty) and the nightmares involved with the insurance industry and the general public, there are many, many folks out there that are overeducated and underemployed - HR reps take one look at their MD/PhD, and they can't get a job doing anything else.

I know of one PhD who used their department secretary as a job reference, saying that she did data entry in order to get a job as a simple grant writer, because one look at those higher education degrees, and they were automatically turned away from anything entry-level. It is my understanding that she ended up working at a zoo in another city, telling them about her undergrad degree in Zoology and Microbiology. She loves her job now.

My advice would be to think carefully and make a list of things you like or have liked about former jobs, and things you like to do in your personal life, and then figure out what kind of job does those things. See what jobs pique your interest that involve doing what you want and have experience in before you take on $100K in graduate education that will limit your opportunities.

If you have a lot of illnesses, be aware that working in medicine often requires long hours, and is physically demanding, as well as a pain in the ass sometimes - I know of hospitals that will write you up for being 6 minutes early or 6 minutes late, and are very strict about attendance and days off. Not good for someone will a lot of health problems. Know what you want, and go after it. Medicine is competitive, that why it attracts all those students who graduated from college at age 18, but you'll find the downside of that is sometimes those folks don't have the best social skills in the world. Good luck.

/r/houston Thread Parent