I'm an engineer - Oh God!

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I'm in my final year of a Mech Eng degree and have no idea what to aim at afterwards. My problem is I don't think I like engineering. By that I mean, there's no way I see myself as a designer at a CAD station, for example, even if it were in F1! Any suggestions what to do now appreciated by my liver. Albert

It's always great if you at least know what you DON'T want to do for a living - it lessens your chances of going down a track and getting stuck in a job you hate.

Broadly, you have some basic choices to make.

Firstly, there's a huge number of different fields within engineering, energy, automotive, green, marine, civil, electrical, electronic, etc. etc., so start by looking at industries that are of interest to you.

Secondly, within any one of those fields there are many different roles, other than design engineer, that you'd be eligible to take up (production engineering, process engineering, technical support, research, development, and so on) so consider what appeals most.

Thirdly, as a degree-qualified engineer, you're eminently employable in a wide variety of roles, other than as a straightforward 'engineer'. For example, in sales, marketing, customer service, manufacturing management, purchasing, supply-chain management, etc. All of these could draw on your training and experience as an engineer, but engage you in a completely different way in each case, so give thought to what type of activity might most suit your interests, character and ambitions.

Clearly, all is not lost!

Good luck.

By Jon Gregory