As many know I am working to go back to school in a scientific / engineering related field that is to be determined.
What careers in either computers / engineering / or science would involve fieldwork or a physical component. I think I would like to find a balance office work with fieldwork. Pipedream or are such careers available?
Something with either cell phone companies, going out and installing/evaluating cell towers/networks.etc…, or maybe something with a solar/wind power company installing/designing new solar arrays/windmills/etc…
Both would be electrical engineering, though obviously different specialties and electives needed, and not all schools will offer all electives needed to get into those fields, but worth looking into, I’d say.
I’m a drilling engineer (petroleum engineering was my degree) and a lot of my days are out in the field. A minimum of one a week is spent out on my rig some times during the busy season I’ll get as many as 3-4 days out of the office. Of course I’m not doing anything physical but I get out, supervise the work and breath fresh air.
If you want to accually get your hands dirty I don’t think much out side of electrical, mechanical or mining engineering is for you. Even the minning guys I know aren’t doing too much labor but they get to push the button that makes things go boom. Some of the metelurgical engineers that I’ve know got to get involved fairly frequently as well but the rest of them are mostly lab rats.
My friend has a biology degree and is a ranger for a city’s watershed. She does a lot of hiking, canoeing and kayaking. And testing water and writing plans and dealing with the EPA. She does a lot of office stuff too.
By “fieldwork”, do you mean going far and wide, possibly outside? Or is a laboratory “field” enough? Plenty of technical folks spend most of their time in a lab.
I’m a civil/environmental engineer and have spent significant amounts of time outdoors in the field, though not as much as I did earlier in my career.
Beginning civil engineers often do surveying, as well as construction inspection and oversight.
Beginning environmental engineers often conduct site investigations, environmental sampling, and oversee the installation of groundwater monitoring wells. They also might oversee environmental remediation operations.
Earlier in my career, I spent a couple of years in which I was in the field continuously, overseeing construction projects as a Field Engineer. I was outside for most of my workday. As time went on and I gained experience, more and more of my time was spent in the office.
At this point in my career I have Field Engineers working for me who do most of these things, but it is still necessary for me to make occasional site visits, which gets me outside now and then.
I work for a computer manufacturer, and we have field service offices all over the world, staffed with people who go to customer sites to diagnose a problem and replace parts. I read their service reports all the time. You have to know what you are doing, work quickly under pressure, and have good social skills.
There are also jobs for people who help bring up and test new systems. These aren’t field jobs, but you are definitely working with components and products.
Yup. I’m a mechanical engineer. I’m involved in automotive research, and I divide my time between my office, the machine shop, and the test cell. In the test cell I might be collecting data from test hardware, or turning wrenches to modify that hardware. I’ll wager the test cell/machine shop activities meet the OP’s requirement of “a physical component”.
I know a “process engineer” at a machine shop. He is a salaried engineer with a university degree who plans manufacturing activities for task orders presented to him (i.e.- build this part, specs as follows… we want it by Friday), and sometimes gets to play around with the equipment himself if no machinists are available or if a machine is broken and needs complex diagnosis.
Engineering jobs at manufacturing plants can often be quite hands-on. Moreso at non-union plants, but maintenance and operations, sometimes technical services (or equivalent) entail a lot of out-in-the-plant troubleshooting. Also, pilot plant work can be very hands-on.
Mostly mechanical engineering. Some electrical engineering for “instrument” type jobs. And – at chemical plants, of course – chemical engineering. As a ChemE I’ve done lab work, pilot plant work, and plant work all as part of the same job. And also a lot of sitting at my desk making charts, of course.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by Field Work?
My husband’s an electrical engineer, specifically working in controls. I currently work for the company he used to work for. While he was here, he’d help with the system builds on the shop floor in the back and was sent to various customer sites for installation, integration, upgrades, or fixes. Now he runs his own company, a sort of engineering consulting firm, and he’s been to a bunch of customer sites for installs and sales meetings and such.
He hates the “fixes” visits, although most of them have turned out well. It’s stressful, as he’s working to fix whatever’s broken while being watched by (sometimes unhappy) customers. He loves “pie-in-the-sky” sales visits, where he can brainstorm and come up with ideas and solutions without any pressure. Mostly customers see him as a rock star, regardless of the visit type, so he’s doing pretty well.
I work for a company that makes an industrial control system. We have field service engineers all over the world (Note - I’m not one of them). They do a balance of application specific office work and actual out in the plant fiddling with valves and such kind of work.
There are some serious down sides to it. When something breaks at 3 am on a holiday, the field service engineer is the one who has to go out to the plant and fix it. Also, most of the time when something is broken, you’ve got a very angry customer standing over you demanding to know when it is going to be fixed because it’s costing them lots of money in lost production.
You need to be the type of person who can handle a plant manager calling you an idiot and saying your entire company is incompetent and that he should rip out your entire system and sue you. Then of course once it is all fixed that same plant manager will thank you for the wonderful job that you did. 
I tend to stay in the home office, but once in a while I go out to manufacturing plants. If you’ve got thick skin, it’s actually quite fun.
Also, PLC work in general involves a lot of hands on work out in the field.
Second on the environmental engineering/science field. Environmental site assessment means going out to the site to collect samples, look for hazards, and other goodies. robby indicated environmental engineering, but in my experience, anybody with a science or engineering background can learn the basics. My background is chemical engineering, which gives me a strong background for the air permitting I do (22.4 liters per mole will get you a long way). With with a couple environmental scientists, geologists, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, and toxicologists.
Travel is more and more the norm…esp overseas (which is harder and harder to avoid). In this telecommuting world and paperless office, (yeah, right) it’s more like a peopleless office since we’re all on travel most (up to 66% sometime spiking to 75%) of the time!!!
geology without a doubt.
Just saw a documentary about mudslides and learned thus that there is a branch of study called “Engineer geologists” - people with geology knowledge to look at a piece of of formation, drill for a sample and determine the possiblity of a mudslide, and the engineering knowledge to devise a solution to it (drilling a hole for a drainage pipe), for example.
My job used to be such, where I spent a significant amount of time inspecting power plants (MS-ME). Many power plant operators and Engineers have a BS, MS, or even PhD and get all the hands-on work they could ever want.
Marine biologist is the first one that comes to mind. I think the jobs in the south pacific are a bit competitive though. I’d guess field work is fairly common for some biologists. Natural products chemists often hunt for odd samples in strange places. There is still plenty of lab work to isolate and characterize the compounds you get though.
Marine Engineering. Limited number of schools though, but definately hands on job.