Untitled Travels with a Field Service Engineer

Meet John

Born in the USA

He’s been traveling since 2011 and has visited 7 countries and 32 states

Travel Style: Mostly Work, but some Adventure

Interview

What does a field service engineer (FSE) do?

A Field Service Engineer is someone that has the technical skills to work on different types of mechanical/ electrical equipment that need to be maintained. They complete regular maintenance, repairs of broken equipment, and new installations.

How much say do you have in choosing your work assignments and where you go?

This will vary based on your company but for the most part, I get work tickets assigned to me based on my region. Being based out of Texas, I usually expect work in Texas and the neighboring states. However, on occasion, I do have assignments in further located cities like Toronto, Boston, Madison, and Jacksonville. The company wants to be as cost-effective as possible based on your location.

On average, how much do you travel per month? Although you travel primarily for work, how often do you get to check out the local scenes?

I’d say I travel about once a week on average. Now keep in mind, some of these trips may be day trips (based on my skillset). When I first started, I would take my time to see new cities. As for my company, we are able to have two days of travel and one day of work. I would adjust my days to where I could travel and complete my maintenance on the same day, then spend an extra day seeing the city, using the last day to fly back. As you get better at the job, you can play around with your scheduling to still meet company requirements while still being able to sightsee.

Name some of the places you go, and which are your favorite?

At the moment, places I regularly visit are New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, Boston, Charlotte, Birmingham, Memphis, St. Louis, Atlanta, and Auburn (CA) to name a few. There is a pretty long list (the more equipment you work on, the more places you can go to). My favorite thus far has been Toronto.

What’s the best part of being a field service engineer?

The flexibility to create your schedule. For me, this has been extremely valuable because it allows me to have more time to plan around the things that I need to get done. If you’re good at managing your time, you can get a lot done for yourself.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about pursuing a career as an FSE?

This job has some great perks if you are good at the job. But a lot of people underestimate the amount of admin work that is required for this job. Brush up on your admin and be able to complete tasks like scheduling, inventory management, and even being able to sort through technical documentation as this will help you in the long run with this career.

After knowing you for nearly a decade, one thing I admire most about you is your entrepreneurial spirit. Could you discuss a few side hustles you got going on?

Thank you very much, Mike! I pride myself on working hard to earn an early retirement. At the moment, I have 2 YouTube channels (one is monetized earning me a little money), as well as 2 clothing brands (one is linked to my YouTube channel, while the other is separate with a business partner).

What inspired you to become a content creator?

I found myself wasting countless hours of my life scrolling feeds and looking at other people’s content. I figured instead of spending that time watching other people’s videos, why not make my own? I specifically chose Youtube because this is a platform where I’ve been able to get a lot of knowledge and I want to give back. It also helps that these videos I create (once monetized) will earn me money for the rest of my life (as long as they stay on the platform) without requiring me to do any extra work.