Finding work to be tougher than school

[u/stormchaserr123]

It’s been less than a year since I started work in a refinery. Ngl it’s been pretty tough and I’ve found it more challenging than school. I feel like I have so much work and stress to get things done and often have to make decisions that I honestly don’t feel I should be making considering my inexperience. Idk if it’s an industry specific thing but I also spend 12 hours a day regularly at work and feel like it takes me longer to get things done. I was wondering what yall thought?

[u/GravyTrainComing]

School doesn't prepare you for the real world, nothing really does. I can assure you everyone else is/was in the same boat until they gained more experience. However, it is also possible that your job just sucks. Learn, but plan accordingly.

[u/Frosty_Cloud_2888]

What problems are you asked to solve?

[u/sistar_bora]

Making decisions early will make you better in the end. So many engineers end up being scared to make calls and decisions because they were never given the opportunities. Just try to stay in your scope as much as possible and develop a good engineering basis for your decision and document as much as possible to cover yourself if something goes awry.

[u/astralpariah]

I find the stress of school far outweighed what I found in my professional life. In many ways I feel school psychologically hobbled me at the onset of my career. The professional world is real and there is a thriving community that truly gives back on the job. Academia being a microcosm was unhealthy for me, having to pay to spend my time there and compete in order to stay, this among peers with perhaps sub-par social skills and no life experience. I am happy to have survived the life that lead to this moment but for me school was a torment I wish I ended sooner. There were a string of suicides at the small engineering school I attended, I don't get the impression any of my co-workers at any of my jobs showed even the slightest hint of a depression.

I wish you the best, have you considered moving to a different role or different industry? Semiconductor's really cool!

[u/Cauliflowwer → u/astralpariah]

I literally feel exactly the same. I started my internship at my now permanent career of 2 years during my senior year. And it was like a breath of fresh air coming to work.

I'm actually allowed to be collaborative. I'm allowed to be wrong without being punished. I'm allowed to tell others that what they're going with might not be the right path. Creativity is actually allowed instead of following very specific procedure for problem solving (I'm talking about like math classes or labs with very specific steps. Obvs we have procedures, but not for everything)

School was hell. Like literally torture. My friends thrived but I barely felt like I was surviving. My career has made it clear to me though, that this was 100% the right decision for me and I'm glad I made it through school to get here.

[u/Elrondel]

Yeah, you're also getting paid now. That's life when answers aren't defined.

School (except for maybe like senior design) revolves around testing you on known answers. Work revolves around providing value by solving things that don't have known answers.

[u/lod001 → u/Elrondel]

Where I work, we usually say, "If it was easy, we wouldn't need an engineer on the payroll."

[u/cmiles1985]

Which part of the refinery are you working in? You'll find that certain companies will put more stress and work on the rookies. You may also be stuck in more of a problematic area or utilities. If you are in utilities, feel free to DM me. I've been training refinery utilities engineers for quite some time.

[u/MistakeMotor9466]

I work as a commissioning engineer of large air separation units....More often than not I'm asked to solve problems that are basically to be solved by respective equipment vendors.....but I like to take those as challenges & surprisingly 90 percent of them get solved if we just apply basic common sense......

You're new to the plant culture which is why you think too much about the pressure....if you can keep up you will see the pressure won't bother you anymore after some time......& Please make decisions based on common sense backed by your technical knowledge........ You will not be correct every time but your knowledge will expand with each decision you make......

[u/admadguy]

It's your first year, it'll get easier. -er is the operative part. It'll never be easy. But by the 2nd or 3rd year you'd have seen most of the things that happen commonly.. so you'll be on autopilot and will be playing catch up less.

[u/FilthyFrank4]

Work is exponentially harder than school

[u/Distracted_Gen]

I feel and with being 10 yrs in chemical industry and working in 4 different industry initially it is really tough to take decision and as you mention it is scary to go to your shift and do the task and take decision but with experience you will feel it like normal and easy to go.

[u/Necessary_Occasion77]

Talk to your boss more about how you are feeling. Do your work and when there is a decision tell them why you would decide to do something.

Also, if you are making a poor decision likely someone will stop you. So, if you are making your small decisions and no one is stopping you, they probably are happy with you.

[u/Crazy-Gene-9492]

Definitely consider earning some Licenses/Certifications. At leadt in terms of Licenses, unless you're officially Licensed for something, people won't hire you to do it.