subject: How I Quit My Civil Engineer Job To Generate Income From The Internet [print this page] How I Quit My Civil Engineer Job To Generate Income From The Internet
After working for over 10 years in my civil engineer job as a freelance site engineer and manager, I quit civil engineering to start generating income from the internet. This allowed me to reassess my goals, my ambitions, my interests and develop are far better work life balance.
My background, in brief, was not a common route through the industry. The majority start out going through university or college and then applying for graduate jobs with a contractor or design consultancy. This was not my path, although I was still able to finish my career after becoming a manager.
I started out after leaving school with decent A-Levels and then completed 1 year of BSc Archaeology degree. I soon realised that I had had enough of academia and wanted to get into work as quickly as possible. So I ended up working for a temporary workers agency as a lowly labourer and then as an engineer's chainman.
That was when I realized my capability to carry out the tasks of a site engineer. I was fortunate enough to be working with some eager postgraduate engineers who were happy to teach me how to use automatic levels and total stations while out on site and earning. So with no industry qualifications, I started my next placement as a freelance site engineer.
There was no deception involved. The client with whom I was placed on each contract was made fully aware of my capabilities and shortfalls, due to no formal industry training. However, I was able to competently carry out my duties and learn new skills along the way.
So fast forward a few years and I had progressed from site engineer to section engineer. This involved me organizing my team of site engineers and being responsible for planning of the works and procurement of materials. I continued to progress and was then placed as a sub-agent, still working for a contractor.
I went on to finally achieve an industry qualification by completing my Level 4 NVQ in Construction Site Management and received my CSCS platinum manager's card. My entire career had been working in a freelance capacity. Working for a company had never appealed to me and I suppose that I had always been entrepreneurial at heart.
Despite my progress within the civil engineering industry, I knew that it was not what I wanted to do for ever more. I enjoyed the income from working freelance but could not continue working the hours required, the commuting and the living away from home.
For many, it is a pipe dream. I decided, however, that I was going to find a way to end my civil engineer work, generate income from the internet and give me the ability to work from home, for less hours and more money, so that I could truly enjoy as much of life as possible.
It took me some time to figure it all out but eventually, I discovered a turnkey internet business that was exactly what I was looking for. So for a few months I continued with my civil engineer job during the days and worked tenaciously on the evenings and weekends to build my alternative income source. It was not long before I put on my steelies for the last time and quit civil engineering.
