To be an engineer...

[Christina]

Hey all. Wow, it has been quite some time since I started a thread. But anyway, I have two questions for all you engineers out there: What is the greatest highlight of your engineering career so far? And, what was the worst part of your engineering career so far? And try to keep this to work related aspects, not necessarily strictly FIRST related.

I'm posing this questions to all sorts of engineers (software, mechanical, electrical, etc...) of all ages (1 month, 1 year, 10 years, 50 years of experience, etc...). I'm just curious, really.

I have been an official engineer for a year now. I am a Mechanical Engineer working in the aerospace industry (Northrop Grumman). As a small part of a very big project, sometimes it's hard for me to see the big picture; the way what I do makes a difference. I know that all of us engineers here have an important part on getting a plane built. And, as my mentor at work tells me, there are parts of your career that you go through that makes you realize that all the stuff you've been through is absolutely worth it. I know that the more experience you get, the cooler the stuff gets. For me, the highlight of my year-long engineering career (I'm not really counting internships) is being able to go to the manufacturing site and actually see what I'm designing/fixing. And the down point? I hate cabling (cable routing, drawings, etc...) with a passion. I spent months doing that and it was the bane of my existence.

But, I have very limited experience so I'm expecting some good stories from some of you (*cough*AndyBaker*cough*).

So, lets hear it. What experience have you had with a project that made you say, "this is why I'm an engineer"? And, the experience that made you say, "I spent (enter years here) years in college for this?!"

~Christina