In the last month, I've been spending an enormous amount of time studying for the Professional Engineering exam. What I've learned is....
I HATE STUDYING
Who doesn't?
BUT!, Most of you actually LOVE studying. You love learning about new topics that you find interesting. But if you're forced to study for something mundane like a standardized exam instead of what drives your curiosity, then you'll end up in a drag like I am right now.
The exam so far is just a little over 5 weeks away, and I've been hitting the books nearly anywhere from 12-20 hours on the weekends to catch up. If I'm lucky, I might squeeze in 3 hours during the week, which is a FARCRY from my planned 3 hours/day. All of this revolves around work related stresses.
My work stress is bleeding into my life again.
It isn't unknown to the steemians who follow me that I had a really stressful 2017 in terms of work. When we rolled into 2018, I had a long discussion about my future career at the company and I've made an effort to point out to my bosses that I was unhappy with my situation. Work was calm for most of January so I was able to relax and forget about it for a few weeks, but it everything woke up in February and it hasn't stopped.
In that time, I've been falling asleep and waking up feeling like I need to fight of flight and it hasn't been very good for my emotional health. I'm not going to die or fall into depression, but it is significant enough to make feel upset and behave a bit more irrationally. In fact, some of my co-workers have noticed that I'm significantly more irritable than usual and when I reflect on it, I'm pretty disgusted at how I let myself behave that way AND that I can't control it.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of sympathy from my bosses because when I explain to them how I feel, I normally get some nods and an "okay". In fact my boss brought in another supervisor for reasons unknown, and all he did was criticize me for spending too much time doing certain things about projects that he knows nothing about. Then he abruptly leaves.
Everything comes with a price
At this point, I'm back to feeling uneasy about work. The stress that consumed me last year is resurfacing, and it seems as though looking out for your own self interest is the only way to survive in the company. Unfortunately, I hate working under that umbrella because it creates a highly negative working environment where no one elects to compete for the best position within the group. Rather everyone defers responsibility to someone else and the handful of people who care, suffer the most.
Where will I be in 6 months? At this rate, it might not be at this company if I can't reach a level of monetary compensation and authority where I feel like I am progressing as both an engineer and project manager.
ON ANOTHER NOTE, MY SAMPLE STEEM TSHIRTS COME TOMORROW! WOOOOOHOOOOO
Picture of the Day:
The PE exam is an open book test, but since it is a timed skills test, having books to reference is only good if you know exactly what you are looking for. In fact, for many questions, there are multiple ways to arrive to the answer, so it's up to you to know how to get there. Otherwise, there is simply not enough time to try and figure things out on the fly.
These are the books I'm bringing to the exam, and I've learned that some people bring 3-5x more text books. While I understand that you want to have all your resources with you. I seriously question how much time I will have to actually find the book I'm looking for and then search through it for guidance, which I might not even know how to utilize.
So with that said, the simpler I make this for me, the higher the chances of getting the questions I do know, correct.
The proverbial we are here for you. Or referring to myself in the third person plural, I am at least... Anyway I do think that you will persevere, despite the unnecessary and unwanted work related stress.
Good luck!
ps. T-shirts. Woohoo!
Ditto. Hang in there! I was also working OT during PE studying. Usually working like 6 hour Saturdays and holing up for a 6-8 hour study session on Sunday. Not fun but what I needed to do. I did take one weekend off and we took a weekend trip and that was a great break. Maybe you can find one of these weekends coming up to go riding to blow off some steem (see what I did there... I know, I get to make dad jokes though).
Same. I join the we. I know how easy it is to lose balance between work and life and how it can affect you. Hope you can soon find a way to make things work better for you!
I cannot WAIT for those shirts man. I think its going to look sweeeeetttt. I wonder how big the logo will beo n a size small medium up to large. I hope they scale the logo. I gave them a vector file, so it should look just as clean!
I do love to learn new things but I'm not sure if I love studying "University style." I'm an industrial engineer and this picture brings me back bittersweet memories hahaha Good luck with your career ;)
University Style equates to learning under extreme pressure, and from text books that SUCK. I paid for my review course and quite frankly, I find it crazy that I re-read the material and realized that I have no problem understanding new concepts now when they are explained to me in a clear coherent way....unlike school where they threw the book at you!
Thank you for your comment!
Honestly, university style of studying doesny have an iota of happiness in it.. im sorry about the work related stress, ,five weeks isnt too far. Will be over soon.
I should be excited about taking the exam, but im just not unfortunately. But it is worth doing right the first time, so the amount of time im taking to study will be worth it!
I'm sure it will be worth it! Hope to read about it soon ;)
I have a friend that is great working on content marketing but she keeps failing the tests she takes. Traditional education system really sucks.
Amazing post I love it
hard study. 😞
anyways, best of luck ☺️
Totally agree on the number of books. I had the reference manual, Perry's handbook (ChemE ref.) and a couple others, along with my personal binder of material. Saw a few roll in with 2-3 milk crates and a handtruck. That was a bit much!