MrDudeMan
Lifer
- Jan 15, 2001
- 15,069
- 94
- 91
I host high school kids at my property every so often for a few hours on Saturdays to teach them about engineering. During the opening presentation, I jokingly refer to myself as a space plumber because I build radios for ground stations and vehicles. One of the parents interrupted me to take exception to my use of the word plumber because I'm not a licensed plumber and he allegedly was. He then questioned my entire educational background and postulated about my inability to do any tradework at all. I wasn't going to take the bait in front of the kids until he called me a typical engineer who knows nothing about how anything is done in the real world. After he said that, I explained to the kids what was about to happen and I let him have it because I didn't want them to develop a negative feeling toward any engineering fields.
Note: my undergrad is in electrical and computer engineering, my graduate degree is in space operations and orbital dynamics, I'm a licensed professional engineer in 17 states, and I'm a master electrician. I also have training in residential structural engineering. I explained all of that to him before letting him know he was standing in a building I designed and built. The kids and several parents loved it, which I could see by the looks on their faces, but no one said anything and I didn't beat him up directly. It was really annoying, though.
I felt like a douche for shitting on the guy so hard, but he asked for it in my opinion. "Space Plumber" is very obviously a pun/joke and I've never had anyone take exception to that phrase in the past. On the contrary, usually people love it because it truly does accurately describe what my designs do. Anyway, you reminded me of that experience with your post.
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