engineers get ITT!

[mrsleeve]

I guess mrsleeve and I will cancel each other out. He'll be figuring out how to use oil, and I'll be figuring out how to not use oil! :D

Yeah well kinda, more into how to get more of it outta the ground and how to move it from point of extraction to point of consumption, That and I only want to work 6 months a year, 3 months on 3 months off, and still get to live where I want to live.

[hoveringuy]

BS in Control Systems Engineering.
MS in Information Technology Management.

It still pisses me off that I went off to a real 4 year college and some of my lazy friends got 2 year associates degrees in Computer Science and started working for a little company called Microsoft.

I should have been more of a slacker...

I passed my EIT right before graduation. I didn't think much of it at the time and the test was actually easy. I would have a tough time passing today without a lot of remedial studying. Do it as soon as you can!

I sat and passed the EE Professional Engineer boards 2 years ago. EE seems to be one of those fields that has unlimited opportunity. I see lots of available work. The power infrastructure is crumbling and green initiatives (solar, windmills...) will result in lots of jobs into the future.

I'll retire in the Navy in a few days after 20 years. I'm glad I have a "real" skill to fall back on for my second career.

[Nic01101011]

Get in it if you feel like you'd enjoy it. Don't joke yourself if you're just thinking about making decent money. Otherwise, get into business and be the boss of the engineers.

Not how it works.
It's ok to be modest or conservative, but don't be cynical.
Don't think bro bro with an MBA is the boss of anybody.
Look up the numbers if you must..

I'm looking for jobs right now and a lot of the companies are recruiting engineer majors for management type positions. A lot of the highly technical positions require some graduate degree or lots of work experience, but there are neat jobs out there.

It's really like anything else. It's who you know and what you do with it..

[e30serg]

Yet another MechE here. Let's see....work you ass off the first couple of years, the later years are way more fun. Do as many interships as possible, it'll be much easier to get a job after graduation. With an ME degree you have a super-wide range of jobs to choose from. You can go into machine design (automotive, aerospace, electro-mechanical, medical device, etc) or HVAC (Efficiency, building systems, power plants, thermodynamics, etc), fluid mechanics, micro-fluidics, etc, etc.

Take the FE/EIT while still in school. Don't wait too long after graduation, otherwise. Plan to take the PE soon after too. You'll need to be working under at least one PE to do that, so look for a job where there are couple of them. It'll make it easier to find a job later, especially with the state.

Don't forget to learn some electronics, programming and computer stuff. Pretty much every machine that has motion to it has something that controls it or powers it. Don't ignore that type of knowledge.

[trackjunkie21]

Thanks guys for all the help, Sorry for the ignorant question but what do all those acronyms stand for? BSME, BS, FE, FI? This thread has helped me alot and I will refer back to it in the future for obvious reasons. You guys are a great help!

[McGyver]

im a junior ME(concentration on nuclear)/Physics majors at VCU in Richmond. its cheap and has a great program! calc is easy when you know algebra (which i suck at). if you can "see" things in 3-D and have basic common sense, engineering will be tough but doable. just remember to only party as hard on the weekends as you worked during the week. i try to get everything done mon-thurs so fri-sun are mine.

[McGyver]

Thanks guys for all the help, Sorry for the ignorant question but what do all those acronyms stand for? BSME, BS, FE, FI? This thread has helped me alot and I will refer back to it in the future for obvious reasons. You guys are a great help!

BSME - bachelors of science in mechanical engineering?
BS - bachelors of science (opposed to bachelors of the arts)
FE - Fundamentals of Engineering (basic engineering test that you should be able to pass straight out of school)
PE - Professional Engineering (you get a BS and FE, work for 4 years and then get the PE in your state. it basically lets you sign off that everything was done properly and everything is safe. if its not, you're in alot of legal trouble)

oh, and mechanical engineering is not automotive engineering, but it is the broadest degree and can be applied to basically anything. (and at my school the ME's drink the most :p)

[Sagaris]

Who here has taken the FE exam? I am going to be taking it this next year and I was wondering how prepared you felt for it.

[bimmer_E30]

I like this thread <3/

[Bimmerman325i]

ME Senior here from CU-Boulder. I got into engineering for the cars, did FSAE, then got an internship with BMW in Munich. Realized I didn't want to do my hobby as my profession, and am changing tacks a bit career-wise. Looking to do consulting instead. Yay 5 more years for graduate school and the PE exam.....

Regardless of what branch you choose, an engineering degree shows you are willing to put in obscene amounts of work to get it, and employers recognize that. Even if you never work as an engineer, the degree is always a plus.

HOWEVER-- you will not be partying every weekend, or even all that often once classes get going. If you do, your grades WILL slip. Engineering's fucking hard. It's totally worth it and worthwhile, just don't be fooled into thinking you can hang out with your non-engineer friends and go drinking every single night. You will put in a shitload of work.

Some advice, get a co-op (rotations between a job and school every other semester) or a few internships. An engineer who has no experience will have a hard time finding a job after graduation. Everyone wants the graduating engineer to have experience in industry.

This could not be truer. The engineering students who don't have internships or other practical applications (FSAE, Fhybrid, Ecomarathon, etc) are noticeably poorer engineers, and companies know this. They aren't nearly as comfortable designing/analyzing, fabricating, testing, etc as those who have worked. The only engineers now who are getting hired are the ones who have gotten internships and/or Co-ops. To get those, you need good grades. Part of getting good grades is being envious of your friends in the Arts and Crafts or Drinking(business) schools and their weekends.

You don't want to know how little sleep I average. It's already paid off though.

[BlueBMW]

ME Senior here from CU-Boulder. I got into engineering for the cars, did FSAE, then got an internship with BMW in Munich. Realized I didn't want to do my hobby as my profession, and am changing tacks a bit career-wise. Looking to do consulting instead. Yay 5 more years for graduate school and the PE exam.....

That is the exact reason why I've gone back to school. I've been working as a tech at a BMW dealer for about 5 years now and I've realized I just don't like doing my hobby all day every day and then again on weekends! (well sometimes, but not year round)

[drumad]

This is bullshit. We're going to have to start going AZ and asking for papeles to prove our education. Lol. There can't be that many of us here. Unless e30s are only attuned to the educated. Aha.

[BlueBMW]

There is definitely a link between high intelligence and e30 ownership. :)

[e30rapidic]

in skool now for civul enginearing. halfway thru and taykin suma skool.

;-)

[jackbenny]

ME Senior here from CU-Boulder. I got into engineering for the cars, did FSAE, then got an internship with BMW in Munich. Realized I didn't want to do my hobby as my profession, and am changing tacks a bit career-wise. Looking to do consulting instead. Yay 5 more years for graduate school and the PE exam.....

Regardless of what branch you choose, an engineering degree shows you are willing to put in obscene amounts of work to get it, and employers recognize that. Even if you never work as an engineer, the degree is always a plus.

HOWEVER-- you will not be partying every weekend, or even all that often once classes get going. If you do, your grades WILL slip. Engineering's fucking hard. It's totally worth it and worthwhile, just don't be fooled into thinking you can hang out with your non-engineer friends and go drinking every single night. You will put in a shitload of work.



This could not be truer. The engineering students who don't have internships or other practical applications (FSAE, Fhybrid, Ecomarathon, etc) are noticeably poorer engineers, and companies know this. They aren't nearly as comfortable designing/analyzing, fabricating, testing, etc as those who have worked. The only engineers now who are getting hired are the ones who have gotten internships and/or Co-ops. To get those, you need good grades. Part of getting good grades is being envious of your friends in the Arts and Crafts or Drinking(business) schools and their weekends.

You don't want to know how little sleep I average. It's already paid off though.

All of this,

I went to university of missouri - columbia, not known for engineering as Rolla is the preferred choice. It was a good fit for me and made a lot of good friends that I still keep in touch with. But is HARD work, especially if you do it in 4 years like I did. Summer school, heavy class loads, I didn't get to have the party "college experience" until my last semester.

If you know what field/company you want to work for, you can check and see where those companies recruit. I would't pick a school like this though. I did better in a smaller school. Some do better in a big school. Some do better to take the first year or two at a community college and then transfer in so they can get pass the Weed-out classes.

Internships/Co-ops are excellent experiences. I did an internship with 3m. I also did FSAE which was a highlight of my life but let me know that a career in racing simply isn't for me. Better to find out then then later. The path I went is aerospace and it has been a pleasant career thus far working on biz jets, fighter jets and passenger jets.

I've been in the industry for 12+ years now. The market is pretty depressed right now but is cyclical. For aerospace this cycle seems to be 10 years or so. Eventually there will be a new airplane and engineers will migrate there. Its scary how small the aerospace community is too.

Pick a path and school you feel comfortable with. This will help the pain of all the classwork you will do. It will get tough and you may want to quit, I know I thought about it after some rough semesters. I stuck with it and for me, it was worth it.