Industrial Engineer

I have a bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and an MSc in Industrial Engineering. The Industrial Engineering degree in Spain includes a mix of what in the US would be Mechanical, Electrical, Manufacturing, Chemical, and Systems Engineering. Lots of fun if you ask me, I would actually recommend it to someone who doesn’t really know yet what to do.

However, I only did the master’s because my professors told me I needed something to be able to “sign-off projects”, i.e. you put your stamp on it and are responsible legally and technically for the thing. Of course my they told me so because they were incentivized to get more students into their courses, and they didn’t know better anyway, most of them did not have any experience in the private industry.

The problem is I took it to heart, and instead of taking the Chem Eng MSc that they expected, I took the Industrial Eng one. That allowed me to sign an ungodly scope of engineering projects and to move to Madrid, which is what I really wanted. This was probably the dumbest decision of my life, although it has turned out very well.

My first semester was super fun because a lot of it was math, physics and even a bit of MATLAB programming all over again. I feel like everyone in Spain that has an engineering degree hated the first years of their degrees because it was a lot of math; to me they were the best parts.

So, when I finished the master’s, ~6 years ago, I decided I wanted to become a Software Engineer, with no degree this time, just practice and books. I had coded a bit on my own and I really enjoyed it. I liked startups and tech companies generally, I felt that that was where the dynamism was (then joined Thales lol). Working conditions were also better than for Chemical Engineers in Spain, so I made the switch.

Since then, I have not felt that the other engineering degrees mattered in any way (you do get a certain mindset), but some days ago, I mentioned it and for the first time I felt that engineers over atoms have risen in status compared to software engineers. I guess the vibe shift to deep tech is truly here.

(I don’t consider myself a Chemical or Industrial Engineer, I really shouldn’t put me in charge of an industrial plant at the moment, it’d most likely blow up)