Engineering Career: 4 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Apr 10, 2025

Navigating a career in engineering can be painful at times and comes with its own set of challenges. As you kickstart your journey you often face these questions: 

How do I land my first internship?

Will I get a job in this field?

Should I specialize in a specific domain?

Am I on the right path?

The list goes on.

As an engineer, I’ve lived through that uncertainty. I started out as a telecom engineer and, over the years, found myself pivoting across multiple engineering domains—telecom, networks, software systems, product, robotics, AI, and autonomous mobility systems.

From the outside, it may look like a chaotic string of career moves. But in reality, this journey taught me some of the most profound lessons in my career and gave me the opportunity to contribute to mission-critical programs for the governments of the US, UK, and the Netherlands—as well as to fast-paced startups in Silicon Valley.

These lessons didn’t come easy. They all demanded a lot of sacrifice on many fronts. But it doesn’t have to be that way for you. For those of you, who are about to kickstart your professional journey,  I hope these lessons help save you time, energy, and capital. I hope it helps you build a career that’s both meaningful and rewarding.

While it’s hard to condense this decade-long experience and the lessons that came with it into a single essay, I’ll try to keep it short and actionable.

More specifically, I’ll focus on traps to avoid in your engineering career—especially if you’re just getting started or fresh out of university and about to step into the industry. Doesn’t matter whether you're from computer science, electrical, mechanical, or electronics and telecommunication domain—these lessons apply across the board.

Before we get started, a friendly reminder about our initiative: Boring Sage. 

This essay is part of our Boring Sage initiative founded to help early-stage professionals break into emerging tech—AI, robotics, and self-driving cars—who often lack a clear roadmap or trusted guidance. 

Our courses are built on a principles-based approach and rooted in real-world applications. You’ll learn what matters in your domain, why it matters, and how to apply it. No fluff. No jargon. Learn more at boringsage.com/courses.

And if you know someone who could benefit from this initiative, we’d be grateful if you shared it with them. Thank you. Now we will begin with lesson 1. 

Lesson 1: Diversify Your Course Portfolio — What’s Hot Right Now Might Become Stale Soon

I learned this first lesson early on.

I started my career as a fresh graduate (B.E.) in Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Mumbai and later continued my trajectory in Electrical Engineering with a focus on telecommunication systems at the University of Southern California (USC).

As I started looking for internships in my second semester, I quickly realized that there weren’t many opportunities in the telecom sector in the U.S. Telecom networks had already been deployed, 4G systems were live, and 5G was still years away. 

That meant I was betting my career on a domain that didn’t offer enough opportunities. At this point, I changed my concentration at USC from a telecom major to general electrical engineering and took courses that I believed would be more beneficial in the long run.

I diversified my course portfolio—taking classes in areas like Markov Chains – mathematical probability models that later became the foundation for neural networks, computer networks, cloud systems, wireless and satellite communication, and more. I was pretty much taking just one course per domain—telecom, networks, space communication, cloud, AI—you name it. 

As you’ll see in the coming lessons, this approach helped me shape the trajectory of my career in a big way. Had I not taken that single course in computer networking during this time, I wouldn't have been able to pivot my career later to networking and design network architecture for governments around the world.

Equally pivotal were the space-focused wireless communication courses I took under the guidance of Professor Dan Goebel. Without that foundation, designing mission-critical systems at the national level would have been nearly impossible.

Another turning point was the course on Markov Chains taught by Professor Konstantinos Psounis. At the time, it was viewed primarily as an advanced probability course. Little did we know that these probabilistic models would become the backbone of modern AI models—now powering robots, smartphones, and self-driving cars.

The lesson I want to emphasize here is this:  Don’t let a field define your potential.

You always have the option to pause, reassess the bottlenecks, and pivot. You don't need permission to pivot and explore a new domain. In this case, I diversified my course portfolio so I could keep my options open for the future—and that made all the difference in the years that followed. 

That brings us to lesson two, you should proactively evaluate the bottlenecks, both in your career and your life.

Lesson 2: Constantly Evaluate Your Bottlenecks & Take Ownership

After graduating from USC, I was selected to join a Fortune 500 company, and I spent the initial years building telecom systems. Within six months, I reached a saturation phase. I realized that no matter how hard I worked, no matter what kind of problems I was solving or what initiatives I was taking—there was a virtual ceiling that said:

"You're in a queue. You won’t be given more responsibility or a better position until you spend the next half-decade in this role."

This meant taking matters into my own hands—quite literally. I hadn’t traveled 10,000 miles from the chawls of Mumbai to Los Angeles only to program telecom base stations and run coverage simulations. I realized if I continued in this field further, I would soon reach a dead end in my career. 

At that point, I decided to address the bottleneck and pivot my career—from telecom engineer to network architect. It wasn’t an easy move, because it meant starting from scratch.

Sometimes in life, that’s exactly what you have to do—listen to your heart, take ownership, and be willing to start over again.

Because when you do that, it often leads to extraordinary outcomes.

That’s exactly what happened in my case.

Over the next few months, I mastered the art of designing network architecture and went on to build data centers—first in my small apartment, and eventually for governments around the world.

Was it easy? No.

Was it worth it? Absolutely.

How do you do this? That's where Lesson 3 comes handy. 

Lesson 3: Don’t Hesitate to Start from Scratch—Even If It Means Building Your Own Data Center

Once I made the decision to pivot into network architecture, I committed to studying computer networking day in and day out—for the next eight months straight.

I’d wake up, study for 3 hours, go to work, spend 10 hours there, come back, study again, sleep, and repeat.

At this time, I realized that the material I was studying was too vast, and too scattered. After studying from multiple conventional networking textbooks for a few months, I decided to take a bold step – I went on eBay and purchased servers, routers, firewalls, and switches, and decided to build a mini data center right in my shared rental apartment in LA.

Over the next five months, I taught myself everything needed to understand how to build and run data centers from scratch.  Needless to say, I cleared CCNA and CCNP—two of the most respected networking certification exams— and got reasonably good at designing and building data centers as an architect.

This effort paid off big time in the coming months—as you’ll see in the next lesson.

But the point I want to emphasize here is this: Don't hesitate to experiment with your approach to learning and exploring unknown waters. Even if that means building your own data center. Don’t limit yourself to just one field because that’s where you started. You will unlock new opportunities with every new field that you explore. 

That leads us to the next lesson.

Lesson 4: Create Your Own Opportunities—Even When None Seem to Exist

At the time, I had certifications and in-home experience in designing network architecture. This alone wasn’t enough to land a job in the field. I lacked professional experience—and that quickly became my next bottleneck.

So I did what I’ve always done: took ownership and put the matter in my own hands.

I spoke internally and applied for network architect roles within the Fortune 500 firm that I worked for. Crickets. 

No experience, no role.

Then, I thought, maybe I’ll explore opportunities outside.

I tried. But most companies I interviewed with rejected me for the same reason: not enough formal experience in network architecture.

After three months of rejections, I found myself staring at my home-built data center and certifications, asking myself, what else can I try?

One day, during lunch at the office, I came across an internal announcement. The organization that I worked for had been awarded a massive project in the U.K. to build next-gen mission-critical communication systems.

I knew they were going to build several data centers in this project—maybe 100x the size of the one I had built in my apartment—but the core concepts and framework were the same. They don't change much with that scale. 

So I did what I could. I checked the internal directory, found the name of the director leading the project, and sent him an email, attaching my resume, a photo of my data center setup, and asking if he’d be open to a quick call.

Within a few days, he replied.

He and his team reviewed my resume and technical contributions. They were genuinely impressed by the initiative I had taken.  They offered me the chance to contribute to the program.

Within a few months, I was in the U.K.

And the rest is history.

Lesson here: Create your own opportunities—even when none seem to exist.

You don’t always need to stick to what’s on the menu. Sometimes, you need to create your own menu card.

Jobs are just problems waiting to be solved. If you can show someone that you're capable of solving theirs, you can create a win-win—for them and for yourself.

If you're good at your craft, people will see the value you bring. Doors will open. But you’ve got to be willing to build those doors first—create your own opportunities. 

These are just a few of the core lessons from my journey in engineering so far—and I’m still learning every day. My mission in sharing them is simple: to shed light on the pitfalls I faced, so you don’t have to navigate them the hard way.

I had no mentor, no guide to walk me through this path. At times, it was brutally painful. I felt lost and helpless. That's why we are starting our flagship career accelerator program –Launchpad at Boring Sage. 

This program is designed for engineers and early-stage technology professionals who want to fast-track their growth, address such career traps proactively,  and build rewarding career trajectories. It’s for those who want to go beyond specific technology — to develop solid foundations in systems, product, and business-level thinking. This program is part of our long-term mission at Boring Sage– to help early-stage professionals and engineers learn emerging technologies—AI, self-driving cars, and computer networks.

Explore the library of our courses at  boringsage.com/courses 

If you know someone who could benefit from this initiative, we’d be grateful if you shared it with them. Thank you. 

Cheers,

Prathamesh

Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, business, or legal advice. The experiences shared are based on past events. All opinions expressed are those of the author and do not represent the views of any mentioned companies. Readers are solely responsible for conducting their own due diligence and should seek professional legal or financial advice tailored to their specific circumstances. The author and publisher make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy of the content and expressly disclaim any liability for decisions made or actions taken based on this blog.