Travel as an Engineer

I always imagined being an engineer would require me to sit in front of the same computer, in the same chair, in the same room, day after day after… (you get the point). Not only was this a wrong assumption, it couldn’t have ended up further from the truth.

Only a few weeks ago I visited Germany, a place I’ve always respected and had an interest for. The purpose of this trip was to meet customers and industry partners.

I’d say most engineers I meet travel in frequencies of once a year to multiple times each month.

Here are a few other examples of what to expect traveling:

Ask anyone who travels for work – it’s both good and bad. Some people absolutely love traveling, and some get burnt out quickly. I do believe that, for an engineer to be awesome at what he/she does, some travel is necessary. You can’t expect to become an expert in a particular field from behind a computer – for that you will need to go to conferences and tradeshows, as well as visit customers and industry partners. You need to exchange ideas and information, From One Engineer To Another™.

Travel can seem glorious to those who don't travel much, but the next post in this series will discuss being an engineer AND a rock star...