I’m a Substation Designer.

First, I got down to the root of what I disliked about my previous jobs and why.

I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want anything incredibly physical (I was a martial arts instructor for a while), and nothing that dealt with the general public (veterinary receptionist for a while). I also wanted something creative, but restrictive and structured enough that I wouldn’t burn out creatively (Animation killed my drive to make art), so I knew doing a loved hobby as a career was a no for me.

I needed something that had upward momentum. So I picked up my local community college’s academic catalog and started reading the descriptions of every class that I was more interested in or I didn’t know what it was.

Came across drafting. Looked into that more and it lead me to industrial design. Had no idea what that was, so I looked into that more. I loved the wide array of subject matter it covers, so if I got bored in one sector I could switch to another. I liked that I didn’t need a batchelors to be a designer, you just needed experience and to know your way around a CAD program. I loved that certain aspects are incredibly structured, so there was no way for me to creatively burn out. And I loved that I would be working with a team, and not in front of the general public and have to constantly pretent to be happy and upbeat all the time.

I got my AS in industrial design and drafting for manufacturing. Then I applied to a lot of jobs. The one that hired me was a substation consultant firm. We design the physical and controls side of substations for utility companies and data hosting farms.

I got hired as a drater, learned as much as I could on the job, and took the first opportunity I had to apply for a physical designer position in-house. There’s room for growth and it pays well. I love it. For the first time in my life, I’m in a position that’s fun and not stressful, and I don’t burn out on any hobbies.

Even though I hate Musk now, I was inspired by Tesla’s ambitious goals of creating a mass produced EV and thought becoming a chemist would be a great way to find my way in to the company developing a better battery. A counselor later suggested I take mechanical engineering instead so I switched majors. I ended up bouncing around biomedical companies until I eventually landed a nice gig making satellites.