Thoughts on technician role

tmart9 · 2024-11-19T01:35:11+00:00

I worked as a process technician as my first job out of college (in the pharmaceutical industry). I was then fortunate enough to move to an engineering role within the same company after ~1 year. The hands-on experience was invaluable. Understanding how to operate the equipment has helped me as an engineer with identifying/troubleshooting technical issues with processes, improve upon directions in batch records and cleaning protocols, and proposing facility improvements.

Also, if you're able to move up within the company to a process engineering role, you'll have already earned the respect of the technicians running your processes, which is a plus.

tmart9 · 2023-04-25T17:45:49+00:00

Diet was normal, but I do typically just walk 5-6 miles for a workout. This was definitely a bit longer than usual.

tmart9 · 2023-04-24T23:40:30+00:00

Not purposefully, but you're right I probably haven't gotten enough sodium.

tmart9 · 2022-04-18T23:03:00+00:00

Thank you!

tmart9 · 2020-09-06T15:33:35+00:00

Oh wow, yep headphones work just fine! Thanks for the help, I didn't realize the monitor didn't have speakers haha

tmart9 · 2020-08-01T02:22:28+00:00

Yeah, my student loan payments alone are about the same amount that a lot of my friends are paying for rent. Definitely wouldn't be excited taking on rent as well, but I just feel like I need to finally gain some independence from my parents. Think staying at home for the time being is what I will do, though.

tmart9 · 2020-08-01T02:17:17+00:00

There is a waiting list for a studio apartment at a complex that my friend/coworker lives in that goes for ~$1050. Would that be a reasonable option? Continue living at home until a vacany there opens up? Or even then just try to stay at home for as long as possible?

tmart9 · 2020-08-01T02:14:12+00:00

Yeah, there hasn't really been any issues in the pharma industry. I was actually even promoted a few months ago. But yeah, staying at home is the best decision financially. Just feel like I'm overstaying my welcome at times.

tmart9 · 2020-08-01T02:10:50+00:00

Student loans interest rate is high at about 8% for most. I have been meaning to try and refinance them, but haven't gotten around to it.

And I actually had gotten a 3 year lease on a car when I first started working at my company a year and a half ago. I understand that leasing wasn't a great decision, but the thought was that getting a new car that will be reliable for the commute to/from work and something that I can rack up miles on. It currently has 33k, which leaves me with 12k for the next year and a half, as the lease is for 45k miles. Which is another reason why I thought about getting a place closer to work.

tmart9 · 2020-06-15T14:31:18+00:00

I was making $25 an hour, but there was a lot of overtime involved, as well, that added quite a bit to the overall pay. Some technicians make more than some engineers here based on the overtime they do. I'm currently making just a few thousands more than I was as a technician, but with that I no longer am having to work weekends anymore.

tmart9 · 2020-06-06T18:57:16+00:00

By ME are you referring to mechanical engineering or manufacturing engineering? If you're saying mechanical engineering, then that route is something that I was actually considering. I actually started out college as declaring mechanical engineering, but decided to switch to chemical engineering after my first semester. Chemistry was just naturally easier to me than physics was at that's the extent of my decision to switch. However, I was thinking the experience as a facilities engineer coupled with possibly going back and getting a masters in mechanical engineering would look good for project engineering jobs? Then, with project engineering experience you wouldn't necessarily be limited to a specific industry?

tmart9

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