I work as a field service engineer for Agilent, and I like it a lot. The day-to-day work is enjoyable, and it has a lot of quirks that I think solarpunk folks would appreciate.

One is that I travel each day to different laboratories, and see a lot of different operations from the inside. I like that it offers me opportunities to work with really advanced robotics and see the inside of complex factories and such. Obviously, it’s a component of some industries I have complaints with. Many of our customers are big pharma companies, for instance. But and I don’t feel complicit in causing harm the way I would if i were part of the fossil fuel supply chain, since I don’t think pharma research is the problem, but the financial structure of the industry. Helping people do research doesn’t feel dirty to me. And I also get to see places working on regenerative farming and plant-based protein foods.

Class-wise, it’s an interesting and somewhat rare hybrid of blue-collar physical work with the culture and pay of white collar work, and I find it influential that it models this kind of cross-class dynamic that I think should be more common. More blue collar workers SHOULD have control over their schedules and get paid well; and I think more people with degrees would like to work with their hands.

It’s an unusual job, but there’s a lot about it that I think would appeal to people in this community.