Christopher, thank you for sharing this perspective - you've highlighted a very important structural challenge.
I agree that from a short-term economic standpoint, employers may see retraining experienced professionals as less "cost-efficient" compared to hiring entry-level candidates. However, this approach often overlooks the long-term value of transferable competencies such as strategic thinking, risk awareness, stakeholder management, and systems-level understanding.
In many technical sectors - especially energy and infrastructure - the complexity of projects increasingly requires interdisciplinary thinking rather than narrow specialization. An experienced professional transitioning into a new domain may initially lack specific technical depth, but they often compensate with maturity, accountability, and decision-making capability.
Perhaps the core issue is not only cost, but how organizations evaluate long-term human capital investment versus short-term productivity metrics.
I'm curious - do you think companies in highly regulated or safety-critical industries (like power systems or large-scale infrastructure) might eventually reconsider this model due to workforce aging and talent shortages?
Thank you again for contributing to this discussion.
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Darya Stanskova M.ASCE
Cost Estimator, Construction Engineer, Power Engineer, Project Manager
Fort Myers FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-29-2026 11:51 AM
From: Christopher Seigel
Subject: Career Change: Learning New Skills and Overcoming Barriers
Even within closely related engineering fields, I've noticed a common challenge: employers often view it as unprofitable to retrain an experienced professional in the fundamentals of a new role when they could instead hire an entry-level employee to perform the same work at a lower cost. As a result, experienced candidates are typically expected to bring transferable skills-such as project or staff management-if they want to be seriously considered.
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Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer
Original Message:
Sent: 01-25-2026 06:29 PM
From: Darya Stanskova
Subject: Career Change: Learning New Skills and Overcoming Barriers
Hello everyone!
I want to discuss a serious topic - changing careers and acquiring new skills at different stages of life.
I know people with 10, 20, 30, or more years of experience in one or related fields. At the same time, there are people who try to transition from a successful or not-so-successful legal career into engineering or technical fields, where they have zero experience. The questions I'm interested in are:
Do you know examples where this has worked?
How do employers perceive candidates with significant age and zero experience in a new field if they are eager to learn and acquire new skills?
Are there hidden barriers or biases that make such transitions difficult?
Is it worth "changing horses midstream" when you already have significant experience in one field, or is it better to develop new skills within your current area of expertise?
I would love to hear your experiences, success stories, and advice. Let's discuss how to effectively combine previous professional experience with learning new competencies and overcoming career-related stereotypes.
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Darya Stanskova M.ASCE
Cost Estimator, Construction Engineer, Power Engineer, Project Manager
Fort Myers FL
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