I work as an undergrad lab assistant in an optics lab at UW-Milwaukee. How I ended up as a mechanical engineer in an optics lab I have no idea. I think they sold me with the words "laser" and "electromagnet" in the same sentence . Before that, I was (among several vocations) also a third shift janitor with GED (well, an HSED) at a Menards store in Plover, WI.