I am about to turn 24, and have spent the first 5 years of my professional career at one shop doing CAD drafting and trying to soak up what I can about manufacturing. We are a full service shop, so I have had the opportunity to learn from a wide variety of projects from fully fabricated frames to small machined brackets.
That being said, I think I'm beginning to seriously doubt my ability to succeed in this field. I am 5 years into my career, I have built up a decent foundation of design skills (I know to most, if not all I am still wet behind the ears and 5 years is a blink of an eye for some of you). I have started to look for other opportunities at different shops, for various reasons, financial and work environment, but have come to the realization that not having a college degree, it really is a "who you know" situation when trying to find other employment opportunities especially in the engineering/design field. My current position has had me under direct supervision from the VP where I learn a lot and responsibilities have grown, but am very insulated from talking to customers or vendors in general. I haven't built any relationships outside of current coworkers, most of which talk about how they've used personal networks of people from companies they worked with to find and gain employment. I am worried I am wasting valuable time of my early 20's trapped in a job where the shop seems more of a place for people to come and grind out a paycheck as opposed to building careers. I guess this is my long winded way of asking if you guys have ever felt trapped at a job in an environment meant for people about to retire, rather than younger people looking to grow and advance and what you guys did to get out of that situation.
That being said, I think I'm beginning to seriously doubt my ability to succeed in this field. I am 5 years into my career, I have built up a decent foundation of design skills (I know to most, if not all I am still wet behind the ears and 5 years is a blink of an eye for some of you). I have started to look for other opportunities at different shops, for various reasons, financial and work environment, but have come to the realization that not having a college degree, it really is a "who you know" situation when trying to find other employment opportunities especially in the engineering/design field. My current position has had me under direct supervision from the VP where I learn a lot and responsibilities have grown, but am very insulated from talking to customers or vendors in general. I haven't built any relationships outside of current coworkers, most of which talk about how they've used personal networks of people from companies they worked with to find and gain employment. I am worried I am wasting valuable time of my early 20's trapped in a job where the shop seems more of a place for people to come and grind out a paycheck as opposed to building careers. I guess this is my long winded way of asking if you guys have ever felt trapped at a job in an environment meant for people about to retire, rather than younger people looking to grow and advance and what you guys did to get out of that situation.