Thankfully I suck at that, but holy crap it is prevelent in this industry. The alcohol abuse is cray. Doesn't help when you travel constantly. I don't travel much anymore, but the people who spend 90+% of the year in the field, while having a family, are fundamentally broken. Fun to party once in a while, but when they do this shit multiple times a week, I don't understand.

[–] PolarKraken@programming.dev 8 points 5 days ago

Couldn't agree more. Field service is one hell of a drug. Money's good, variety is fun, the chaos and travel are fun too, and you learn a lot quickly. The latter often because some or all of the mfg. plant you're visiting needs you to fix your stuff so they can run, and no one is coming to BFE to help you, lol.

But that all wears off, in time, and it starts to take a huge toll like you described. Never met a long term field service engineer with a healthy home life, or with their health in general. I got out because both of mine were crumbling, for real.

[–] Lazycog@sopuli.xyz 5 points 5 days ago

Yeah holy shit. When I was starting out and tagged along a senior on a trip he literally hauled a big backpack of spirits with him.

Got out of that industry after a few years when I realized why every senior was drinking. The money was just not worth it for me.