Any engineers or engineering students here?

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: jaydee
I am a Soph EE major just finishing up my first co-op with an consulting engineering firm working with Civil E's and Chem E's (which I've been working as) and I go to a school that's 50% Mech E's, so I'd say I'm pretty well rounded in the engineering field. I live ok, I'm going to have to take out my first non-subsidized loan for this quarter, but it should be my last as well. I feel confident that my financial situation will be in good shape upon graduation in a couple years.

My co-op, what do I do?

Civil E:
I work a lot with AutoCAD doing minor league stuff like text edits, playing with linetypes, ect. I've also taken United States Geological Survey (USGS) topography maps and converting cross-sectional areas to elevation drawings to see how (for example) a river looks and use USGS annual flood data to determine the predictability of flood levels.

Drawing elevations of a river using echo soundings over time (2-3 year intervals) to determine whether the river has accumulated deposition or if it scours over time.

Proof-reading technical papers before they go out as reports.

Assorted landfill stuff like Leachate Intercept Trenches (LIT's), the different layers, ect.


Chem E:
Reading/interpreting analytical data reports containing the amounts of mainly aromatic compouds.

EE:
Designing lights to go in a parking lot.



If you want elaboration on any of these, feel free to PM.


Hope this helps,
Jim

sounds like a consulting engineer.

I interned at a Consulting Engineering firm one summer. I still am going into engineering, I just won't apply for a job at a consulting place . . . most of what they do is take specs from a client, and then make sure whatever lights/power/sewer/etc. the client is building conforms to every federal code imaginable.

I would rather work in product design or something . . at my job last summer (not an internship) our engineers did interesting stuff like designing gigantic automated shrink-wrappers (you should see these, they are amazing. The principal of a shrink wrapper is this: cover the target in a plastic bag, heat the bag so it shrinks around the target. You have to start with a bag that more or less fits, so you get a good and professional looking result. We had one machine (the people who commisioned it went bankrupt and couldn't pay for it :-() that would take a sheet of plastic, turn it into a correctly sized bag for whatever was in there, cover the thing to be wrapped, then shrink it. It was amazing. )

I know this may not sound that awesome, but they basically built robots for a living. And that is cool.


Eventually, I hope to go into a job like that -- maybe R&D at some manufacturing place, something involving lots of interesting design work followed by actually building the designs in a shop. That would be cool.

 

[pennylane]

I'm a freshman undeclared. I wanted engineering because I like building things (though never really sure what). Right now I'm planning on going into Mechanical (still don't know what specifically).

 

[Aharami]

have a BSCE degree. but decided that IT is not really what i want to do (esp since all the jobs are being shipped overseas) and i dont have enuff programming savvy to become a application developer. so working in an entry level position in a financial company. pay is not what i want, but thats what i get for switching too late

 

[upsciLLion]

To all the guys in finance here:

How do you like your work? I'm currently a math education major, but the idea of working in some form of finance seems more appealing than it did before. If you guys don't mind writing a bit about it here or through PM, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

ups

 

[PowerMac4Ever]

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever
I'm a Freshman in engineering. Right now nuclear engineering looks the most interesting to me, so I'll probably end up doing that.

NO. If you want a life of absolute job insecurity and taking work wherever and whenever you can get it, and in general being treated like sh!t by your bosses, go for Nuclear Engineering.

Believe me, it isn't what you want to do. My uncle is in the field, is 63 years old, and nowhere near retiring. And he is a very, very intelligent man in many respects. He shied me away from nuclear engineering. It is a dead or dying field. NEVER get into a dying field.

Hmm, that's interesting to hear. I still have one more semester to make a decision, so I will have to do more research.

 

[jaydee]

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever
I'm a Freshman in engineering. Right now nuclear engineering looks the most interesting to me, so I'll probably end up doing that.

NO. If you want a life of absolute job insecurity and taking work wherever and whenever you can get it, and in general being treated like sh!t by your bosses, go for Nuclear Engineering.

Believe me, it isn't what you want to do. My uncle is in the field, is 63 years old, and nowhere near retiring. And he is a very, very intelligent man in many respects. He shied me away from nuclear engineering. It is a dead or dying field. NEVER get into a dying field.

Hmm, that's interesting to hear. I still have one more semester to make a decision, so I will have to do more research.

I too was talked out of Nuclear Engineering. From what I know (albiet, not that much), don't necessarily avoid it like the plague, but don't expect great job security in something of that field. Having a degree in NE, means that you are intelligent, thus have the ability to learn and you should have job opportunities, but you may have to settle for something along the lines of Chem E or worse, so be aware of that. A co-op job for students at my school just opened for a nuclear power plant in Pennslyvania, so it may be a "dying" field, but it certainly isn't dead yet.

 

[jaydee]

Originally posted by: LordMorpheus

Originally posted by: jaydee
I am a Soph EE major just finishing up my first co-op with an consulting engineering firm working with Civil E's and Chem E's (which I've been working as) and I go to a school that's 50% Mech E's, so I'd say I'm pretty well rounded in the engineering field. I live ok, I'm going to have to take out my first non-subsidized loan for this quarter, but it should be my last as well. I feel confident that my financial situation will be in good shape upon graduation in a couple years.

My co-op, what do I do?

Civil E:
I work a lot with AutoCAD doing minor league stuff like text edits, playing with linetypes, ect. I've also taken United States Geological Survey (USGS) topography maps and converting cross-sectional areas to elevation drawings to see how (for example) a river looks and use USGS annual flood data to determine the predictability of flood levels.

Drawing elevations of a river using echo soundings over time (2-3 year intervals) to determine whether the river has accumulated deposition or if it scours over time.

Proof-reading technical papers before they go out as reports.

Assorted landfill stuff like Leachate Intercept Trenches (LIT's), the different layers, ect.


Chem E:
Reading/interpreting analytical data reports containing the amounts of mainly aromatic compouds.

EE:
Designing lights to go in a parking lot.



If you want elaboration on any of these, feel free to PM.


Hope this helps,
Jim

sounds like a consulting engineer.

I interned at a Consulting Engineering firm one summer. I still am going into engineering, I just won't apply for a job at a consulting place . . . most of what they do is take specs from a client, and then make sure whatever lights/power/sewer/etc. the client is building conforms to every federal code imaginable.

That about covers it (but you forgot landfills!). We also choose products that will be implemented as well, but everything else is correct. I've been working at my firm for 3 months and I still don't know the difference between the EPA, DEC and DEP, yet they all have to be considered (and contacted) in most projects. And then you have state and local codes and industry standards to conform to on top of all that...

It isn't the most exciting stuff in the world, but it's a necessary job and someone's got to do it (and they will get paid well to do it, you would not believe the billing rates). There's opportunity to travel, get actual field work once in awhile (as opposed to a cubicle everyday year-round, no hope to see sunlight during the week), and you get exposure to a number of different disciplines (which is invaluable from an educational standpoint).

Now, that being said, I do not look forward to work for a consulting firm once I graduate. But I do feel much more well-rounded having the experience and maintain great respect for people who do make a living out of it.

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: Compton
I graduated in may 03 with a BSIE. IE really does stand for imaginary engineering. And I havent been able to find a job yet, I guess all the jobs are imaginary too. I'd look for a discipline that has lots of jobs in the area of the country that you want to live in. It seems like there's always lots of jobs in CE.

really? what part of the country are you in?
when I graduated with my bs in IE/OR, I was the first one of my engineering friends to land a job (and this is coming out of cal, which I consider a pretty good engineering school).

All the other IEs I knew also found jobs, with the majority going to either a consulting firm, finance, or large manufacturing type places (AMD and Intel where the most popular).

 

[Hector13]

Originally posted by: upsciLLion
To all the guys in finance here:

How do you like your work? I'm currently a math education major, but the idea of working in some form of finance seems more appealing than it did before. If you guys don't mind writing a bit about it here or through PM, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

ups

As I mentioned above, I love my current job in finance. Despite what people think about finance being for business majors, depending on what area you look in, it is very well suited for people in engineering. What I do right now is in a very quantitative group.. relative to my friends who graduated as IEORs, I do more OR type stuff than 90% of them. Again, this is by choice; if you want, you can easily find jobs in finance that require very little math (though I doubt you would want that). For math majors, fixed income (or any related field) is a very good choice. You can also look at jobs dealing with swaps or other derivatives.

Apart from the job itself, it's great to be able to live and work in NYC (assuming you want to work on wall st.) and, like I said above, the pay is GREAT! You will be pulling in 6 figures by your 2nd or 3rd year and the salaries only continue to go up (granted, my rent in NYC is about 4 times what it was in berkeley and my apartment is about half the size!).

 

[upsciLLion]

What do people in finance typically do from day to day? Are their jobs high stress or heavy workload? Any better or worse than the actuary profession?

Thanks,

ups

 

[QueHuong]

Originally posted by: Triumph

Believe me, it isn't what you want to do. My uncle is in the field, is 63 years old, and nowhere near retiring. And he is a very, very intelligent man in many respects. He shied me away from nuclear engineering. It is a dead or dying field. NEVER get into a dying field.

I consider EE, CS, CompE, also all dying fields. With the heavy outsourcing, it'll be hard to find a job. I'm in Biomedical Engineering which is still new, so the US gets to lead the pack for a few more decades before the jobs get to be heavily exported.

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: jaydee

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever
I'm a Freshman in engineering. Right now nuclear engineering looks the most interesting to me, so I'll probably end up doing that.

NO. If you want a life of absolute job insecurity and taking work wherever and whenever you can get it, and in general being treated like sh!t by your bosses, go for Nuclear Engineering.

Believe me, it isn't what you want to do. My uncle is in the field, is 63 years old, and nowhere near retiring. And he is a very, very intelligent man in many respects. He shied me away from nuclear engineering. It is a dead or dying field. NEVER get into a dying field.

Hmm, that's interesting to hear. I still have one more semester to make a decision, so I will have to do more research.

I too was talked out of Nuclear Engineering. From what I know (albiet, not that much), don't necessarily avoid it like the plague, but don't expect great job security in something of that field. Having a degree in NE, means that you are intelligent, thus have the ability to learn and you should have job opportunities, but you may have to settle for something along the lines of Chem E or worse, so be aware of that. A co-op job for students at my school just opened for a nuclear power plant in Pennslyvania, so it may be a "dying" field, but it certainly isn't dead yet.

That was probably Becthel Bettis, in Pittsburgh. They wanted to hire me, until I learned that my uncle (the nuclear scientist) had worked for them, and they treated him like sh!t. Needless to say I didn't return any of their calls.

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: MindStorm

Originally posted by: Triumph

Believe me, it isn't what you want to do. My uncle is in the field, is 63 years old, and nowhere near retiring. And he is a very, very intelligent man in many respects. He shied me away from nuclear engineering. It is a dead or dying field. NEVER get into a dying field.

I consider EE, CS, CompE, also all dying fields. With the heavy outsourcing, it'll be hard to find a job. I'm in Biomedical Engineering which is still new, so the US gets to lead the pack for a few more decades before the jobs get to be heavily exported.

I can see CS or CompE maybe being dying fields, because alot of the computer industry is going overseas. But EE is too broad to ever die. You've got power, signals, communications, controls, I could go on and on. There are many industries here that will always need EE's.

 

[HokieESM]

Eh. There are a lot on the forums. I have a BSME, a MSME (both from NCSU), and I'm finishing up my PhD in Engineering Mechanics (and yes, that's different). I also worked internships every summer in undergrad as well as taking a job (for a whopping three months before I decided it wasn't for me) after my MS.

As far as your questions, engineering CAN be lucrative.... but a lot of the "statistics" on engineers aren't quite "right" as far as that goes. Many of my fellow ME students from undergrad took lucrative jobs doing something other than engineering. Consulting firms (business consulting) value engineers for the logical mind and the rigorous work from undergrad school. A LOT of them took jobs as consultants and after a few years of work experience, went back for an MBA. But they're definitely not "engineers", in that they don't do engineering work. As far as people who DO, they have good starting salaries, but the "pay band" structure at a lot of large corporations prevent them from rising beyond a certain point (for some reason its $100K~$110K for a lot of my friends.... and my dad)--which is ludicrous in saying that a highly trained technical person can't be more valuable to a company than a "level 2 manager"... but such as it is. But you can DEFINITELY make a upper-middle class income being an engineer doing engineering work. Possibly more if you go into management and forsake the technical work.

As far as nuclear engineering and their pay scale--I'm willing to bet a LARGE percentage of the graduates were or are going into the nuclear navy. That's a VERY common thing at state schools--the GI bill, of course. Not to mention, they have a few good deals about going into the nuclear navy as a civilian, where they pay off your college loans. The "civil" side of the nuclear industry is dying--the BIGGEST demand for the engineers is to figure out how to decommission some of the older plants..... the "greenies", being terminally stupid, have shut down all nuclear power development (despite it being relatively clean with no air or water pollution, low noise... and a little work could help solve the nuclear waste storage issue).... despite knowing that we'll replace it with natural gas/coal burning plants. Oh well....

Cliff notes: engineers can make money. school is hard. lots of engineers go into management/consulting to make more money than "technical engineers".

 

[milehigh]

My degrees are in Industrial Engineering and Avaition Tech.

I spent my college years working on Cessna's, graduated and spent 4 years in manufacturing utilizing my industrial engineering degree and now I'm in insurance and financial services (starting my 3rd year).

Sales is the only way to go. With both companies I was with there were acquisitions, plant closings, slow economy, cutbacks, etc...
When the company I was with announced they were moving operations across the border I made up my mind that I was stuck in a situation that no matter how hard I worked, I still had no control over my own destiny.

I really enjoy designing solutions, I just do it with people's finances rather than a production or assembly lines! Insurance and financial services are recession and economy proof and I get to pick which direction I want to go.

I miss the technical stuff though. Perhaps that why I spend too much time lurking around here!

 

[Compton]

Originally posted by: Hector13

Originally posted by: Compton
I graduated in may 03 with a BSIE. IE really does stand for imaginary engineering. And I havent been able to find a job yet, I guess all the jobs are imaginary too. I'd look for a discipline that has lots of jobs in the area of the country that you want to live in. It seems like there's always lots of jobs in CE.

really? what part of the country are you in?
when I graduated with my bs in IE/OR, I was the first one of my engineering friends to land a job (and this is coming out of cal, which I consider a pretty good engineering school).

All the other IEs I knew also found jobs, with the majority going to either a consulting firm, finance, or large manufacturing type places (AMD and Intel where the most popular).

I'm in Louisiana, I graduated from LSU. I'm trying desperately to get the hell out of Louisiana, its not like I want to stay here. I think part of the problem may be that employers don't want to hire me when they can find someone locally. I passed the FE on the first try and I have a 3.0, you'd think someone would want me. Hopefully I'll find something in the new year.

 

[flot]

...holy triple post, batman!

 

[flot]

don't mind this, nothing to see here

 

[flot]

Working towards an engineering degree is a good goal. In general, most "engineers" will make between 35-60k right out of school. However, as of late, there are more and more who are just looking for a job, period. There is also a big difference between being a compentant engineer, and just being somebody who got the degree. (and grades aren't necessarily an indication of being a good engineer)

IMO if you're the kind of person who likes to know how things work, are reasonably good at math, and enjoy finding out all the tiny details about something... lots of the engineering fields will appeal to you. If you couldn't care less about those things, I'd look somewhere else. Good "generic" engineering degrees would include Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering. These are the sorts of degrees that will get your foot in the door in a number of places - but expect to have to specialize in something, and that something will definitely influence your career path. Civil Engineers deal with all things day-to-day-life-service related (roads, water, other public works, etc) which some people are into, and may get you a nice stable job, but the pay isn't necessarily so hot.

I have a CS degree but suffered right alongside all my engineering friends in the math, physics, chem, etc classes. Engineering degrees aren't easy to walk off with - which is good, because it makes you look that much better to a prospective employer.

*where* you get your degree from is very important. If you're just taking a class here and there, plan ahead on spending a year or two at a community college or whatnot, but you really want to graduate from a "real" school. Lots of state schools with decent engineering programs, just check with them ahead of time and plan out what classes you can take elsewhere (and save money on) and still be assured that the credits will transfer towards your BS.

 

[GeneValgene]

Originally posted by: HokieESM


As far as your questions, engineering CAN be lucrative.... but a lot of the "statistics" on engineers aren't quite "right" as far as that goes. Many of my fellow ME students from undergrad took lucrative jobs doing something other than engineering. Consulting firms (business consulting) value engineers for the logical mind and the rigorous work from undergrad school. A LOT of them took jobs as consultants and after a few years of work experience, went back for an MBA. But they're definitely not "engineers", in that they don't do engineering work.

Cliff notes: engineers can make money. school is hard. lots of engineers go into management/consulting to make more money than "technical engineers".

i'm exactly in the situation you described. i got a BS in mechanical engineering, but shortly after graduation i took an offer to work at a business consulting company. pay is pretty good, the work is cool, lots of opportunity to travel, meet people from all over the world...but job security is not so good in the consulting business...and as HokieESM mentioned before, none of what i do is really related to "engineering"

i think engineering is a great first degree to get. it opens up a lot of opportunities to do other things. you can always do something else after you get the degree.

 

[Compton]

Originally posted by: flot
(and grades aren't necessarily an indication of being a good engineer)

Thats the truth. I know a few brilliant people that had GPAs around 2.7

And there were a lot of potheads and cokeheads with 3.8s. Hopefully they'll wash out before they get some body killed.

 

[wasssup]

I feel stupid...I ended up dropping engineering and coming to comp sci (which I enjoy and programming is rather easy for me), and even though I had chances to intern (hookups) I never did it, and here I am with two night classes next semester and still no job

*sigh* ... I need a job so I can buy a cool car

 

[jaydee]

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: jaydee

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: Triumph

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever
I'm a Freshman in engineering. Right now nuclear engineering looks the most interesting to me, so I'll probably end up doing that.

NO. If you want a life of absolute job insecurity and taking work wherever and whenever you can get it, and in general being treated like sh!t by your bosses, go for Nuclear Engineering.

Believe me, it isn't what you want to do. My uncle is in the field, is 63 years old, and nowhere near retiring. And he is a very, very intelligent man in many respects. He shied me away from nuclear engineering. It is a dead or dying field. NEVER get into a dying field.

Hmm, that's interesting to hear. I still have one more semester to make a decision, so I will have to do more research.

I too was talked out of Nuclear Engineering. From what I know (albiet, not that much), don't necessarily avoid it like the plague, but don't expect great job security in something of that field. Having a degree in NE, means that you are intelligent, thus have the ability to learn and you should have job opportunities, but you may have to settle for something along the lines of Chem E or worse, so be aware of that. A co-op job for students at my school just opened for a nuclear power plant in Pennslyvania, so it may be a "dying" field, but it certainly isn't dead yet.

That was probably Becthel Bettis, in Pittsburgh. They wanted to hire me, until I learned that my uncle (the nuclear scientist) had worked for them, and they treated him like sh!t. Needless to say I didn't return any of their calls.

Actual it was owned by Pennslyvania Power & Light, located in Berwick, PA (somewhere in mid-eastern half of the state).