Do you like being an engineer?

[crzycav86]

Well, I'm a junior in high school. This is the year we're supposed to be looking for colleges and careers and all that hoop-la.

Being interested in cars, I figured that I would go into a field of engineering, and hopefully have some prestigous job at a car manufacturer... but then I also aspire to be a professional race car driver(like that will ever happen...). Since I know that's unlikely, I would prefer a career with some stability.

And here goes the inevitable list of questions for you engineers:What exactly do you do? Do you like your job? What do you regret about being an engineer? How much do you get paid? <--You don't have to answer thatWhat kinds of occupations are available for me that deal with cars and engineering?What colleges do you recommend for engineering?

[Mayhem_J30]

I'll speak for my GF a chemical engineer as I quit engineering school after I got bored. :rolleyes

Quote » And here goes the inevitable list of questions for you engineers:What exactly do you do? Do you like your job? What do you regret about being an engineer? How much do you get paid? <--You don't have to answer thatWhat kinds of occupations are available for me that deal with cars and engineering?What colleges do you recommend for engineering?[/quote]-She spends most of her time 'engineering' pumps and pipes that are used in the production of the different Freons and Teflons. This involves not only pressures and flows but the ability of the pipe/pump material to withstand corrosion from the fluids/gasses being transferred within.-She loves it.-Only regret is that she didn't start sooner.-A lot. -Not sure, but I guess your specific field would be Mechanical Engineering. I've also heard of Industrial Engineering. Check into both.-Not sure what's around you, but here in Louisville, KY the University of Louisville's Speed Scientific School is one of the best. Surprisingly cheap to even for out of state students. I know many people there.

...Be prepared for seriously intense calculus, physics and chemistry. If you have the chance take pre-cal or cal in High School. Take all the Physics and Chems you can. I took Phys I & II and Chem I &II and pre-cal in HS and it gave me an awesome head start.

I don't regret not finishing engineering school as I walked away with a lot of good knowledge, but it did suck throwing away 4 years just to switch to Business and computer related fields.

Oh yeah, if you do go, go all the way for a Masters degree.

[Eswift]

industrial engineers= plant layout and planning, and the business side of mechanical engineering.

And then there is general engineering, which is really just business.

typically, general and industrial engineers take team managerial positions. Not much of what i would ocnsider traditional engineering work.

ME's are needed for every aspect of both automotive and aero engineering.

companies that are interviewing here the past few weeks: caterpillar, garrett, honeywell, ford, bosch, raytheon, boeing, rolls royce, northrop grumman you name it.

[crzycav86]

Anyone else wanna answer the other questions?

^---thanks for the responses. My future is very important to me

[DAEDALUS]

US News and World Report comes out with a list of top schools every year.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/e...f.php

Getting a degree from a good school really does open up a lot of doors...best to have as many offers as possible--pick and choose. Not mandatory of course, just makes things easier. "I don't care what your GPA is, if you're from CalTech, we have an offer."Like a lot of careers, some jobs are great and some aren't. It's great to solve problems and meet requirements. Fast paced challenges are good. But the tide can be against your company, your industry, or the economy in general, and that can make things tough. Mechanical Engineering is a good *engineering* field because it's so broad. You can work in automotive, manufacturing, aerospace, construction, etc., and in many different capacities. Not the most lucrative field, but the work is there.Big companies are usually more secure and usually pay more than small companies. But small companies can offer more room to grow, and they will likely better prepare you for striking out on your own and being really successful at it, since you have more opportunity to observe and engage in the management of the business. Anyone can be a CAD monkey, but management skills takes training. Also, at a small company, you're much more likely to get your P.E. (Professional Engineer license). Like the bar exam for lawyers, this allows you to legally do work on your own for pay. Consultants make a lot.Currently I'm a mechanical engineer leading a design automation project. I write requirements for 4 programmers, who then code to my documents, and then I test the code and write user documents. It's a lot of process definition, software testing and documentation, which isn't as fun as actual design, but it's definitely challenging.I know you want to work on cars, but the reality is that any job you get out of college, and probably for a couple years after you graduate, will likely be focused on widgets and widget subassemblies that don't really have much to do with cars as you know them. Pop the hood and look at every single screw and bolt on the engine. Engineers spent countless hours designing brackets, laying out components, doing tolerance studies, selecting fasteners, etc. Like looking at a twig with a magnifying glass, not being able to see the finished product (the forest).

[cwc2k1]

For engineering of any type I would say Purdue University in West Lafeyette, Indiana. This school is known nationwide for being a great engineering school. Alot of purdue grads get jobs right out of school because companies go straight to them to find employees. Nice school, nice campus, never attended but I did take a tour of it. Look around NICO, there's a few guys on here I've seen that go to purdue, they'd be great people to throw some questions at. If you have lots and lots of money to spend on school then also check into Rose Hulman Institute of Technology. This is an even better school than purdue which like i said itself is one of the best. Like I said their expensive but I'll let you check em out urself if you're interested.

http://www.cs.rose-hulman.edu

http://www.purdue.edu

[DAEDALUS]

Go Boilermakers! It's a strong name--#9 on the list. I went there for 2 years. Word of warning, if you're not familiar with the midwest weather, get ready for it. Summers are hot and very humid. Winters are severe. Student body is around 35000 I think, so freshman classes are large, some maybe 2-400 students. Kind of a boring place, to be honest, especially if you don't have a car to go places in. Dorms are mostly old, no AC, so summer nights can be rough. Off campus housing isn't bad, but school parking is a *****. Of course, my info is 10 years old, so maybe housing/parking have improved. Simmsled goes there now, he's a moderator.

[EricZ103]

i'm kinda in the same position, besides I'm a senior in HS. I'm probably going to end up at tri-state in angola, Indiana. Its a small school, but mechanical engineering is their main thing. Also its closer to detroit, and I think auto manufacturers look to their graduates for jobs. I'm wondering if any of you did co-op programs in mechanical engineering? If you did, do you think it was worth it?

[DAEDALUS]

I didn't get accepted, but I did apply. It is definitely worth it IMO. It might delay graduation a year, but that is NOT a big deal. You make some money while in school, not a lot, but good enough for college. The thing to do is get an internship at a place you want to work after graduation, since you're almost guaranteed a job *unless* there's a hiring freeze when you graduate. I've seen that happen a couple times. Usually the time spent as an intern counts toward employment time, and this enhances your benefits at the company later.

[EricZ103]

when I visited tri-state they had a list of about 20 places with available co-op positions, but the ME professor there said only about 5 students applied anywhere. GM was one of the places listed. Hey, maybe I could end up in the auto-industry straight out of college. thanks for the advice

[elwesso]

Im glad I found this thread..... Id be curious to see what its like.....

Hmm.... One day I could be designing the next generation VH45DE... Wouldnt that be golden.......

[PalmerWMD]

About College Majors:

The trcik is to pick something that an interested layman cannot have an intelligent converstaion with you, w/o the degree.

Why?Because why bother to learn something, that a regular person can be competent in, w/o learning what you did?

So that excludes History ( even tho its fun) ,psych, polSci, etcetc

But includes all te engineering dsiciplines, as well as all the hard sciences.

Fred...

[crzycav86]

About College Majors:

The trcik is to pick something that an interested layman cannot have an intelligent converstaion with you, w/o the degree.

Why?Because why bother to learn something, that a regular person can be competent in, w/o learning what you did?

So that excludes History ( even tho its fun) ,psych, polSci, etcetc

But includes all te engineering dsiciplines, as well as all the hard sciences.

Fred...

So what is college for? With that logic, college would be a waste of time. You can learn everything in college without ever going to college. Just buy the college books and study them. I think it would take a long time to actually know what the book says, but its possible. Anyway, I think most of what you learn comes from experience, you just go to college to understand whats happening as you experience it.

[MrFox]

Finishing up my BS ME degree - just one more paper to turn in - at Cal Poly (Ranked 5th this year, but in a very weird category because our school doesn't offer PhD programs) I can tell you that engineering was nothing like what I imagined it to be like when I graduated High School. I was (still am) someone who liked to try random things just to see it work, and thought engineering would be the logical extension of this philosophy. It was a rude awakening when I found myself rather out of place in many of my engineering courses. Its not that engineering dosen't reward creativity or a rich imagination, but the degree of meticulousness required in the work you do is overwhelming - you need to be a person who enjoys dotting your i's and crossing your tee's. I'd love to be thinking about designing entire cars or engines, but the amount of calculations required to correctly specify a just a simple bolt is staggering.

The rewards are there if you are willing to stick with it... I throughly enjoyed my time with FSAE, making my contributions in designing, building, and driving an open wheeled race car. I've learned the fundementals workings of the mechanical world, and although I've probably forgotten 90% of the specifics, I know exactly where and how to look it back up. I've also developed an apperciation of fields outside of the scientific realm.

There are many highly respected self-taught engineers out there who never went to college, and there are plently of clueless folks with hordes of degrees. Knowledge and understanding are two different things, and IMHO true understanding cannot be taught, from books, from schooling, or from mere immersion/experience. The interaction with student and faculty in the college environment is simply a guide that tries to provide knowledge with emphasis in the right directions, just like how a text book can provide a easier path to knowledge when comparaed to a general reference book.

[s86d]

sadly my original major was aeronautical engineering but events have pulled me away from military aviation so now i am going for intnl. business. On a small note the beginning was great but by sophmore yr. at college you will definately notice that things are taking a different approach from average person understanding of engineering to having your own seperate language eh at least i can tell my friends/family that i took calc and differential equations .

[Onizuka]

im in the mechanicle engineering program at penn state university, so far i have only taken some intro courses but i have alreadly learned about CAD, Technicle drawing, product design, group design projects and various mathmatical equations. Engineering is all about being very specific and very correct in every peice of work you do. I find it alot of fun seeing a a product you came up with in your head go through all the stages of pre-production calculations and assembly. I cant wait for courses like fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, strengths of materials, etc.

FSAE is also a ton of fun (although i havent been attending lately ), you will learn alot just hanging around the guys.

[shadedoc]

I love being an automotive engineer. Even worked for Nissan for a while. Would recommend it to anyone who has a passion for cars. It's very difficult to answer the posed question without writing a book. Simple ones 1st. You can do a search on salary of specific jobs, entry level automotive can range between 35~70K depending on location, skills, etc. My personal (read biased) opinion is a mechanical engineering degree, but electrical, aero, industrial, and others may fit the bill depending on what interests you. If you are seriously thinking about it, I would suggest contacting your local chapter of SAE (SAE.org), they are always willing to spur young minds in the right direction (even if you are in high school). I've known automotive engineers from universities all over the US, Germany, England, Japan, etc. (the list really does go on). There are lots of really good engineering schools, some are better than other in specific fields. Once you get a good education & your 1st job, the name of the school becomes less important.

One thing most people don't understand is how a vehicle is conceptualized, designed, developed and manufactured. Thousands of companies are involved in the start to end result of manufacturing a vehicle. An engineer could spend his/her entire carreer designing one specific type of part (say oil filters or spark plugs), or they could end up in product planning trying to figure out market trends and what niche there new vehicle will fit in and what the customer wants. You need to experience vehicles and find out what motivates you. Student chapter of SAE does several design competitons (FSAE - is awsome) which gives students hands on experience to figure this out. I have a passion for handling rather than fast in a straight line, pushing cars through corners at the limit, so I ended up in vehicle dynamics rather than Powertrain, HVAC or IP design. I would say, regardless of the engineering discipline, computer skills are a must. Alot of engineers are mindless number crunching geeks, but there are real good engineers who communicate well, have good people skill and are creative. Alot of engineering is applied math, but it's more about the logical process that gets you there, and lots of problem solving. Driving 3/4million dollar cars around closed circuits at 150mph isn't the norm for an engineer, but it does happen for some of us lucky ones. Bottom line, experience as much as you can (electronics, design, IC engines, HVAC, NVH, whatever). Figure out what you are good at and enjoy.

Good luck to all

[crzycav86]

Wow. That was a good read. Thanks

[karay240]

To answer your question by crzycav86 about what's the point of college. Well, to be completely honest, the point of college is to show your possible future employer that you are willing and able to go through a tough time for personal achievement, and that you are capable of learning new stuff. College also gives you a good foundation to build upon. But more than likely, you're hardly going to use the stuff that they teach you there. Most companies have their own way of doing things, and you'll have to start from scratch.

That's pretty much what I've learned going to college, and going through the interviewing process.

Engineering stuff is different, though, as you really have to know the stuff that you were taught way back when. Even the hardest problems are based on simple logic that you SHOULD have learned back in your first year (ex. calc III is mainly theory, but is based on what calc I & II).

If you're going into automotive engineering, good luck to you. It is probably one of the most competitive fields in engineering. Not just in difficulty, but also because many people want to go into it. For example, there are alot more potential engineers who like cars than ones who like farming equipment. lol.

Don't worry too much about what you want to major in your first year. This is America, the land of changing majors. I know people who've changed their major so many times it's not even funny (don't turn into them, though).

Just take a variety of GenEds for your first year. By your second year, you should have more of an idea of what you'd want to do w/ the rest of your life. Just don't pick something just for the money. Engineers get paid a lot, but if you're not passionate about it, you're going to hate life.

[Darius]

I am going to get my masters in civil engineering (roads, buildings, bridges...anything that doesn't move.) I'm specializing in wastewater and water treatment plant design and am enthralled with it. I look for ways to ease the burden of our dumb-asses on the environment (no pun intended)

Anyways, if you can get through your sophmore year in engineering, you have gotten over the hump. The rest of the stuff is fairly easy and focused on your major. Diff EQ sucks the worst and so does physics, but once you get into your major classes it lightens up. I'm working for a firm now and I never use anything more than algebra or trig. Depends on your focus though.

I'd say go into any engineering major first because you can always back out of it. It's more difficult to pick it up after a year of wasting credits on a business major with everyone else. Trust me, one of my buds isn't the smartest, but after 6 years, he had an engineering degree and started at about $35K. Not bad for undergrad in KC.

[rbsileighty]

Yes... sure do. Here is my reply to that other post like this one:http://www.nissaninfiniticlub....55633

Quote »Word of warning, if you're not familiar with the midwest weather, get ready for it. Summers are hot and very humid. Winters are severe.[/quote]

Tell me about it... my school is in Flint, MI and I am from the coast of NC. I hate the location, but I love the school. Good thing I work at Bosch in SC... back on the coast

[Chingon]

well...i'm studying mech. Eng. and Graphic Design, and it's a little challenging balancing the schedule, and keeping up w/the work. Right now i'm taking physics and calc 3 as the "tough courses" but hopefully the load will go down after diff. equations.

My school seems to be a good alternative (university of texas at el paso) for engineers, and it's quite inexpensive. The campus is growing (4 new buildings this year) and we have a good deal of equipment that's pretty cool....(wait 'til you see the "3d printers").It's kinda boring 'til after you finish your core curriculum and some of the math classes, but once you get into the eng. courses, it should be good.

[JDMaholic]

I am graduating from Purdue University West Lafayette with degres in Electrical Engineering Technology and Chemistry. Purdue ranks very high in engineering especially for people going into industry. The best school to go to if you want to be in the automotive field is definitely Kettering University in Flint Mich. It used used to be General Motors Institue, I had a friend graduate with an ME degree from there all kinds of auto manufacturers jumping on him. The only bad part is it's a 5 yr program because you have to co-op, but I guess thats good becasue you get some experience. As for Rose Hulman, I know several people who graduated from there and it is not really considered that great. As for Purdue if you go to the West Lafayette campus be prepared for a culture shock, poor small town farm America. Its cold and nothing to do, not many car people around. Personally If I had it to do again I would have enrolled as Mechanical Engineer and gone to IPFW which is Purdue's Fort Wayne campus (I'm from Fort Wayne so I know some about it). Fort Wayne is a much larger city and tons of automotive stuff(although alot of it's american). The Detroit Pistons(NBA team) were first the Fort Wayne Pistons, lots of local automotive places; Dana, GM, International, Spicer, Victor Reinz, and tons more. The school isn't considered quite as good as the west lafayette one, but I had friends go there who seemed to have real good luck with getting automotive jobs in engineering either with local places, or in nearby toledo or Detroit. Be prepared for the weather though it gets cold and likes to snow. If you have any questions about engineering or Purdue, Kettering, or any other schools

[base9se]

I am a Mississippi State University ME student in my senior year. I have about 3 semesters left of school. Currently I am doing my co-op at DENSO. Responsibilities are to work with the customers to satify their specifications, do engineering changes when needed, run tests to evaluate the product or parts integrity, find other alternatives that meet or exceed the current specifications, and more tests. I love my job because I have always wanted to work in the automotive business and this is my foot in the door. I don't regret anything about being a ME student because I am a type of person that always likes to know how things work. Occupation wise, you really don't have to worry about that if you're a ME because ME's versatile engineers. ME's can work anywhere from production to maintenance. There are plenty of car manufacturing plants in the states, meaning you don't need to really worry about a job. But I do suggest that you co-op because mosts of the auto manufacturers I interviewed with always asked "what experience do you have?". Not like I was graduating yet, but it was worth a shot to talk to the recruiters. Anyways if you're good in math, it will help you out alot in engineering. I think undergraduate engineering just wants you to practice your engineering thought processes (that's what I think). Many classes like Thermodynamics, Statics & Dynamics, Fluid Dynamics, & Electronics, from my experience, shows you the theory and proof on how some things work. My recommendations for a college of engineering are MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, Georgia Tech, but it depends on which field of engineering you wanna be in. I ended up in MSU because of money situation ( I orginally wanted to go to Georgia Tech, but expensive out of state tuition). MSU has a very good engineering program considering its tuition fees, which is reasonable for independent students. Tuition is also lower because MSU is a public university.

[dfw240_EE]

I am not an engineer yet, I am a soon-to-be graduating engineer like a few of the other posters. In my case I am an Electrical Engineering student at the University of Texas at Dallas.

"What exactly do you do?"Surprisingly in my last internship, I wrote alot. I was given a device and told to write a thorough description on how it works so my boss could give a well learned description at meetings. I also wrote a primer tutorial on LabVIEW (no, unfortunately I didn't take that home with me).

"Do you like your job"I was definitely very happy in the environment.

"What do you regret about being an engineer?'Right now I regret a little bit deciding to go into ROTC. I think I bit off more than I can chew. But if it goes right I have a job as soon as I leave college.

"How much do you get paid?"Even as an intern, I would get paid about $15 an hour.

"What kind of occupations are available for me that deal with cars and engineering"Everyone here has said ME, but maybe you should also consider EE. With cars becomming increasingly reliant on computers and electronics, there should be room for that. I remember finding one job posting from Nissan for an EE to help design their stereo systems. Of course there is also the ECU, and with drive by wire taking hold that is another possible field. Already the throttle cable is becoming a thing of the past.

"What colleges do you recommend for engineering?"I see you live in Texas. If you do decide to go the EE route, you should look into University of Texas at Dallas. Only trouble is that it might be hard to get into the automotive field from there, but if you work hard enough I am sure you will get a job in the field. Also as a perk it is a public University, and you are a state resident, so the price is very reasonable. If you want to go ME, there is UT Arlington (public) in this area, and SMU (private, and the 3rd most expensive in the State). I am not sure of the details of Texas A&M or UT Austin.

[FLjason]

alright well i am a first year engineering student at fau. its not a very big school but it is a very good school in my opinion. my major is mechanical engineering and as of right now yea its very difficult. my worst class is general chem, for me its really hard and a pain i jsut dont understand it. also teachers now a days dont care about any students, my math teacher told me to change my major becasue i got a "d" on his test, come on what kinda bs is that. but something i realized i dont care if it takes me 4 or 5 or even 6 years im goign to graduate with a mechanical enigneering degree and when i do, im goign to bring it back to that proffessor and just throw it in his face...... so what im learning is basically set your goals and do it at you own pace, your not comepting with anyone and college is not a race. good luck man and myabe we will both be working for nissan desing new engines..... only time will tell

good luck to everyone,Jason

also dont let your first semseter bring you down becaue its a lot different from high school and guess waht you will fail a class or two...also i cant stress this enough have fun in high school if you dont youll regret it. do stupid things and have fun because college is so much more serious.lol i could write all day about this but i have to go take a test in geography.peace

[BigJuiceSr20]

What exactly do you do? I'm an industrial engineer working in a manufacturing/distribution facility. I'm mainly doing project management duties and have done the classical IE stuff, like work measurement, line balancing, work station design, facilities layout, etc. I used to run the safety/ergonomic program and now run the Kaizen teams and other Lean maufacturing programs. BTW, Lean is the buzzword that spawned from the Toyota Production System. Many companies have jumped on that philosophy in order to be more profitable and make reliable products or service. I've also done one ERP installation (Enterprise Resource Planning software that your company runs on: inventory control, purchasing, all engineering records like routings, BOM's, etc).

Do you like your job? Yes, I love it. It allows me to interact with all associates (from management to the associates on the shop floor). I work on some pretty cool projects here. (Sometimes even some extra curricular activities related to my SR20 and rotary gets done here). :o)I don't do one specific thing so I'm never bored. As IE's, we are basically systems integrators (people, equipment, processes, computer software). You have to be a salesperson, motivator, and people person in addition to having technical skills.

What do you regret about being an engineer? Nothing.

How much do you get paid?I get paid well. Of course, it could be better but I'm not complaining. What kinds of occupations are available for me that deal with cars and engineering?Though I'm not in the auto related field there are tons of jobs out there. Just take a look at Monster.com and careerbuilder.com and you'll get an idea. You can go into the designing/manufacturing or distributing field. I'm actually doing a design of a part right now and hopefully will be able to manufature it.

What colleges do you recommend for engineering?Not sure where you are but for your undergrad try to get into your state university as this is cost effective, provided that state school has a good engineering program.

Resources:http://www.iienet.org/http://www.sme.or ... w.lean.org

[fullthrtl_tech]

i was gonna go to get my ME degree but instead i have 3 semesters 2 go and ill have a degree in motorsports technology. But reading what u guys have 2 say i might continue my education and get my degree in ME. Thanx guys