My Dream Job as an Engineer

I had a scary dream, but with a happy ending, the other night. My family and I were flying somewhere overseas (the destination I forget, but it's not relevant to the story). We're on a 747, so it's commercial flight with 300 something passengers. All of sudden, we have to make a crash landing on the sea. Luckily, our pilots manage to land use on the ocean with minimal damage. Passengers have bumps and scraps, but no major injures. And no deaths (woo subconscious for making that happen,and pretty sure my subconscious borrowed that part from the real life, successful crash landing made by pilot Tammy Jo Shults).

Which is great, expect we're all now drifting randomly at sea with nothing but seat cushions as flotation devices. Thankfully the US Coast Guard shows up out of no where with a big enough boat to put 300 something people on it. They attend to the wounded and give us blankets and water. We are all safe and headed home. It's a happy ending!

But the dream wasn't really about a fear of flying and crashing into the sea. I believe the dream was about my day job. I try to stay pretty vague on my blog about where I work to avoid getting into trouble with my company. However, my author profile does indicate that I work on the search and rescue system for the US Coast Guard (and all my friends and family know that's the project I work on, so it'd not that big of secret). So the fact that my family and I are rescued at sea by the US Coast Guard in my dream, well, that was not a coincidence.

I am proud that I work as a systems engineer on the search and rescue system for the US Coast Guard. I have much gratification that a project I work on saves people lives (specifically, people lost or distressed at sea and require rescuing). To me, it's a project that makes a positive impact on the world. And I love that I provide for my family through such a positive project. I'm pretty sure that's why I dreamed about the Coast Guard rescuing my family the other night-- there's great satisfaction that two of my ideals, providing for my family and positively impacting the word as an engineer, can co-exist.

Sometimes I'm not happy with the limited work I've been relegated to, and a lot of the time, I'm not happy with some of the things my company does. My project (the search and rescue system for the US Coast Guard) within my company is pretty great (I really like the team of engineers I work with), but the rest of my company frustrates me. Executive leadership has done some things in the past that show that they care more about profit and shareholders than the employees that work there. They also take on some projects that I'm not sure meld with my personal values and ideals. That is what has made the past couple of years really hard for me in terms of working there.

And while I search for what to do next, I'm going to try and focus on the good that my current project provides (helping the US Coast Guard find and save people at sea!) while I provide a good life for my family. I think continuing to focus on the positive of my current engineering work will make me a better optimist and in turn, will open up the door to my next GREAT thing. That is my dream. I wish that we may all find work that we believe in. May we all find our dream.

To celebrate the coolness of the engineering project I currently work on, again the search and rescue system for the US Coast Guard, I am giving away a small Lego system of Lego City Coast Guard to one lucky winner! US Residents over 18 only, please. Follow the Rafflecopter instructions below!