As a Computer Engineering major, is there any career that would not keep me in an office all the time?

Hey Delanyo, there are definitely computer engineering careers that do not have you glued to a desk 100% of the time. You could look into organizations that bring technology (e.g. fast, reliable internet connection) to developing countries/remote areas and consider them as employers. You can also look into fields like self-driving cars or even commercial space travel, that combine software with hardware which requires to be tested out in the open or in a lab, rather than an office. If you prefer a desk/office job but would like to have some travel time and diverse surroundings, also consider working as an IT consultant or tech support, where you'd be visiting client offices.

These are just a few ideas. I bet if you look into it further, you will find many other opportunities to get the job setting you prefer. Good luck!

Hello Delanyo, you could work in an industry such as agriculture designing control firmware for irrigation systems and greenhouse temperature management or work in water treatment designing control software for water purification and pumping stations.

You could also work on building management systems, solar energy storage and air conditioning

Grant

Hi, yes there are many companies who offer jobs in field services where you would be out in the field installing software, working on digital equipment, programming, etc. There are many engineering jobs that require field based work so you would not be tied to an office all day.

Hi Delanyo!

I had the same question as you when I was going to school!

I did a Bachelors in Computer Engineering and went on to get a Masters in Electrical Engineering. I was not sure what my actual career would look like.

I did a few internships, paid and unpaid, as I tried to figure out what kind of work I would like.

Internships looked like this:

Data Engineer: Office job working with a marketing team where I would write scripts and look at website performance to help out marketing efforts - Interesting because it close to the business.

Software Engineer: What you would expects. Write code, fix bugs, at a super cool brand. However, the job/code I wrote was so far from the business, just back end internal apps, that it did not feel rewarding to me

Marketing Engineer: in Auto industry. This was much less technical, and the industry wasn't right for me but I learned about how to put together business cases. Office and some travel.

Ultimately, I found out about this role called the Sales Engineers (also called Solutions Engineers, Pre-Sales Engineer, Solution Consultant, Pre-Sales Solution Architect, etc)

It was the best of both worlds. I could be highly technical and also experience the business side. Most of the time you are in front of clients (enterprises interested in your companies' software) doing presentations, demos, "proof of concepts", hands on work to integrate your solution into their environments, and most importantly, working with people to solve real life problems. It is an incredibly rewarding and exciting career!

To this day I still believe it is the best job in the world. I currently manage a team of 7 Sales Engineers at my current company where I can help mentor them into this exciting career and field.

Something to think about :)

Good luck

I can speak from experience and assure you that there are opportunities for Computer Engineering graduates to have a career that does not chain them to an office. Early in my career I worked for a global technology consulting company that gave me the opportunity to travel and to work with customers at different project sites around the world. I met a lot of friends and contacts from diverse cultures and backgrounds as a result. I now work for a company that offers flexible remote working and teleworking options that leverage our amazing collaborations technology. I think what helped me get away from being chained to an office, aside from finding the right forward-looking, progressive companies to work for, was a willingness to go out and learn from different types of people, flexibility (when I was younger and did not yet have a family) to be deployed wherever I was needed, being a self-starter and proving that I can contribute and innovate with minimal direct supervision, and learning new skills in key areas like project management and people management.

Hi Delanyo! Like you, I love technology but I didn't want to just be sitting at the desk all day programming. Depending on what other "elements" you'd like to have in your job, you can look for opportunities that are multi-disciplinary.

For example, if you like interacting with people, you could looking into tech consulting. There are several jobs that require deep technical knowledge, such as solution engineering. You'd be working with clients who have specific challenging problems to solve. In this type of work, sometimes you'd be traveling, staying with each project/client for several months, and move on to the next one - just like a consultant would, but you get to learn and leverage your technical experience as well.

Hope this helps!

Delanyo,

There are lot of IT careers that will not get you stuck at a desk whole day. You can look for "consulting" type of roles in the Professional Services or Solution Architecture areas. These roles will require traveling and visiting customers in different places and learning a lot while you're at it. :D