Apparently I didn't need to learn Maxwell's Equations

Per the comments, I also am concerned about my growing Milwaukee based fans. Now, I’m confident that one of those comments came from Super Dave, my long time partner in crime and the inspiration for the character of Josh in my novel. (At the present moment Josh’s main characteristic is using the word “dude” in every sentence, which actually isn’t a Super Dave trademark but it seems to work.) However, Super Dave is the only person I know in Milwaukee so whoever made the other comment: welcome. Hope you stay a while.

(Ok, just a random comment here but Mike Huckabee still received 10% of the vote in the Indiana primary. True, he stopped campaigning and it doesn’t matter but that is still more than what Ron Paul got. So please, for those of you who still have Ron Paul bumper stickers on your car, can you just remove them already. It’s over. Let’s move forward.)

I’m kind of searching for a topic here so I just flipped over to Wikipedia to find out that HP has created the fourth type of passive electrical components. Now everyone knows the three main types: resistors (measured in Ohms), inductors (measured in Henrys) and capacitors (measured in Farads after one of my heroes, the legendary Michael Faraday). We now have the memristor, which…which…ok, I don’t have the faintest clue what a memristor is. I have a degree in electrical engineering and have read this article twice and yet I am still lost. True, I have been drinking tonight but I feel more confident that Wikipedia is just now making stuff up. Either that or I should not apply for engineering jobs any time soon.

Speaking of that, as part of this career coaching experience I have signed up for I was given a self-assessment to determine what jobs I am most suited for. I’ve done a ton of these in the past and they all turn out the same way. I should work on something numerical and analytical with the phrase “you should really be an accountant” appearing somewhere in the official paperwork. Except for the fact that I find that work boring and tedious. Incredibly easy since in accounting you know at the end of the day your debits will equal your credits so as long as you know how to add and subtract you can be an accountant but still, not the most satisfying job in the world. I am also always told that I should avoid physical labor and the outdoors just in case I suddenly start dreaming of becoming a lumberjack.

(Of course being a lumberjack is perfectly ok. You sleep all night and you work all day.)

What’s interesting is that I actually scored low on whether I should be an engineer. Typically I am off the charts on that metric. I mean, I’ve been an engineer. I’m trained in that field and despite the fact that I switched careers I still don’t feel as if I have ever left. I dug into the results some more and I found out that I shouldn’t be an engineer because I do not take projects one step at a time making sure that each step is properly completed before starting the next one.

Whoever made this test has no idea what life is like as an engineer. If I did everything step by step I would have been fired by week two. Being an engineer means being able to think on your feet, change direction on a dime and know how to multi-task and combine steps at a moment’s notice. You simply don’t have the luxury of being meticulous; you just have to get the work done. I still don’t know if I would consider myself a good electrical engineer (I’m admittedly weak on theory and intuition surrounding electricity) but I was a damn good power systems engineer. I could tell you how power flows through a grid better than almost anyone. You don’t do that by being meticulous. You do that by being so well versed in a complex and abstract subject. I shouldn’t be an engineer? That might be true (because I think I want more out of life) but trust me, I have all the skills required to be one.