***Editor’s Note: The “I Became An Engineer” blog runs every friday. To share you story email kasey.panetta@advantagemedia.com***
This week’s story is brought to us by reader Charley Rutherford:
First I should explain, I graduated high school (after being advanced twice) at 17. No ceremony, just went to the front office and pick up my diploma.
The school administrators suggested to my parents that it might be best if I worked a couple of years before starting college. At that time no one in my family had been to college so this suited my folks just fine. So after a long month of job hunting I got hired at a moldmaking company as a draftsman.
After two years, I had long hair and a beard, a hot-rodded car and a steady girlfriend. I was also designing molds. My boss came to me one day and said I needed to shave and get a haircut if I wanted to keep my job. My plan had always been to go on to college so I went to the mall to get a job and go on to school.
As luck would have it no one was hiring so I shaved and got a haircut. I went back to the mold company and I’ve been designing plastic injection molds ever since (47 years).
The plastics industry has been good to me but I often wonder what I would have gotten into.
Read the other stories, here:
A Note From The Editor: An Engineer’s Story
I Became An Engineer: Because Of A Lunch Box
I Became An Engineer: Because of Christmas Lights
I Became An Engineer: Because Of The Cool Jackets
I Became An Engineer: Because My Dad Said Not To
I Became An Engineer: Despite Being Bad At Math
I Became An Engineer: Because of Uncle Chet
I Became An Engineer: Because I Can’t Stop Asking ‘Why?’
I Became An Engineer: Because of Star Trek (Specifically Montgomery Scott)
I Became An Engineer: Because I Was A Really Lucky Nerd
I Became An Engineer: But ‘Nobody Knows’ Why
I Became An Engineer: Because of Nuclear Submarines
I Became An Engineer: Because of a Sewing Machine