Shallow Starts to take the FE Exam

Getting started preparing to take the FE Exam should be simple.

Until it isn’t.

What should be a trivial task of studying – something we have done a thousand times before – ends up being a battle, both mentally and logistically.

Test prep post-academia is a different game, and sometimes we just have to be a bit “shallow” in where our motivations come from to get us studying for the FE Exam.

Let’s get in to it.

I’ll admit, I originally had no interest in becoming an engineer.

Heck, I didn’t have much interest in doing anything other than playing football coming out of high school.

For me, it all started when I went through one of those high school career day assessments that concluded that my desires best aligned with that of an engineer.

When the lady told me this, I asked her –

“Do they make a lot of money?”

Look, I get how shallow of a question this is, but when you are a 17 year old small town boy about to be one of the first in the family to go off to college and get a degree, this question is important.

I grew up swinging shovels and picks, knocking almond trees with a rubber mallet and sweating it out in 110 degree weather from dawn to dusk.

I was running down the road of the family tradition of farming the land.

This was all good, but as a recruited athlete coming out of school, I was now told that I needed to study something if I was to continue playing sports.

I knew I liked Math –

And wasn’t the biggest fan of English.

I knew I liked to doodle –

And not so much read.

That’s just where I was at that time in my life…I didn’t know much, and that’s the point here.

Sometimes, our greatest growth happens when we just go for it and take the FE Exam.

We might have questions – maybe a lot.

Some will be important, others will be superficial (or excuses), and that’s OK.

The only thing we need to do at the onset is commit to the path, rest easy with the uncertainty, and just let it ride out.

I still farm today.

I still slang them shovels and fortunately technology has advanced so I don’t have to swing those rubber mallets at the trunks of trees.

I love the simple life.

But I also love what engineering has become to me.

I love the opportunities for advancement, the opportunities to serve, to guide, lead…these times have been special.

And looking back, who’d know that it’ll all start from a need to do something I had never planned on doing in the first place.

I guess that’s the beautiful nature of how life tends to play out.

Maybe this is where you are today.

Maybe you never felt like studying for the FE Exam, or even wanted to, but you are sensing a need to get it done.

Maybe you do know that you need to get it done, but continue to live on the hamster wheel up running in place, making no progress.

Wherever you stand between these extremes, knowing everything about what the journey entails isn’t what is important, right now.

What is, is this:

That you take that first step in the direction, allowing whatever the motivation may be to manifest itself in to action – and let the rest play out as it will.

You got this, we are here to help! 🙂