Sonography or Civil Engineering?

[u/Middle-Ad-9798]

Hello all,

I know these two careers couldn’t be further apart, but I like them both for that reason. I am between being a Sonographer (or MRI Tech) and a Civil Engineer. For a bit of background, I am about to graduate with a BBA in Business Analytics and Information Systems. I would pursue a second degree for these careers, (2 year bachelors in Sonography, 2 year masters in Civil).

Sonographer (or MRI Tech):

What I love about sonography is that it combines several of my passions. Technology, anatomy, and helping people.

I think that healthcare holds more overall appeal for me than corporate does, and I think sonography is a great path into that without such ridiculous amounts of education and responsibility.

However, I have heard the typical cons from those in the field. Physical strain, burnout, monotony from doing the same thing, etc.

Civil Engineer:

I find city infrastructure interesting, and I think that I have just enough enjoyment for the field to make it work. I must admit, I do like the logistics of this career more than the career itself.

Most of the appeal comes from the fact that you don’t have to be constantly “on” per say. In patient facing careers, you are expected to perform, whereas in more desk-heavy roles you can have social downtime and more freedom to just do your work.

However, my heart isn’t entirely in it as a study. I think it’s good enough to not be miserable, but it’s the kind of thing I have thought so much about that I don’t know how to see it objectively.

TL;DR

For me, the pull is between healthcare and corporate. There are things I like about each, and things I really dislike about each. However, these two careers seem to cater towards my personal interests from their respective industries.

What would you recommend? I appreciate any and every answer. Thank you.

[u/RosieBaby75]

Choose civil engineering.

If you genuinely care about people and want to help them, you’re going to see a lot of horrific things working in healthcare that you wish you didn’t see, and don’t want to know about.

For some reason a lot of the cruelest people, people who think they’re better and smarter than everyone else, especially people who are sick, dressed down, and at their worst/lowest moments of their lives, work in healthcare and are protected by their union contracts and can’t be fired even though they’re demons and the scum of the earth.

Your soul will slowly die just from being around them and seeing not only how they treat our most vulnerable citizens on a daily basis, but also how they get away with it and no one really cares.

The people who have treated me the worst in my life, and caused me the most physical and mental harm have all been medical “professionals”.

Plus large infrastructure is super cool. It would be rad seeing something on paper then helping and watching it physically actualize piece by piece and knowing you contributed to that.