[E92-Lighting]

Originally Posted by NewSong

I did Computer Science and was a software engineer for a while.

Boy. I don't think I'll ever go back to that.

x2. choosing between programming and selling bmw parts, i think i would much better with bmw parts

[E92-Lighting]

Originally Posted by jreich

I have an MSEE. I'd stay away from engineering. I had no life in college, rarely got any ass, studied a lot(graduated with honors)...though the money is great. I'm 24, own a 50k car (only owe 18k left on it) have a nice motorcycle and live in a nice apartment. The only thing that is missing is the ass. Between work, going to the gym, and relaxing, I have no time to meet the ladies(though I just graduated last January). Don't let people kid you, being an engineer isnt the easiest job. I find it to be very stressful at times. If I had to take it all back I'd be a fish and wildlife major and be a game warden.

i think most engineers suffer this, myself included, but life is different once those all-night programming/debugging days are gone

[BillLee]

Originally Posted by jreich

I have an MSEE. I'd stay away from engineering. I had no life in college, rarely got any ass, studied a lot(graduated with honors)...though the money is great. I'm 24, own a 50k car (only owe 18k left on it) have a nice motorcycle and live in a nice apartment. The only thing that is missing is the ass. Between work, going to the gym, and relaxing, I have no time to meet the ladies(though I just graduated last January). Don't let people kid you, being an engineer isnt the easiest job. I find it to be very stressful at times. If I had to take it all back I'd be a fish and wildlife major and be a game warden.

funny, at first i wanted to do something with wildlife. now i'm not sure what i want any more.

[Schmed]

Originally Posted by BillLee

funny, at first i wanted to do something with wildlife. now i'm not sure what i want any more.

It's all about what you are good at AND what you like.

I'm good with numbers, but would HATE being an accountant, for example.

If you have an "engineering" brain, figure out what you would like to do with that and go for it. There are tons of different things you can do with an engineering degree - think outside the box.

I know an ME that works on a Porsche Cup racing team. An ArchE friend of mine does work for ski areas and spends all summer Jeeping up in the ski areas.

[TexAg06]

don't forget Petroleum Engineer. i did finance, but this is what i would have done if i did it over again. so, many people in my field started out as PETE's. you can absolutely bank in PETE as well because so many people are at retirement and no one is filling their spots.

[NewSong]

Originally Posted by E92-Lighting

x2. choosing between programming and selling bmw parts, i think i would much better with bmw parts

I said, "F*ck you" literally to my last "boss" and walked out the door.

But seriously it's the best decision I've ever made.

[MyMorningBJ]

My review of types of engineering:

Chemical -- If you don't like chemistry, its hard to get into this one. They are however highly paid out of school and their field is very unique. This is 1 type of major will you will likely work as a lab rat for many years to come.

Petroleum -- a joke as far as engineering curriculum, this field does little to attract the brightest minds in the field as much of it is simply based on the notion that they started drilling and this is what happened, this worked, this didn't. However, despite your lack of education coming out you will likely make more money than all the other engineering disciplines and many of them are given the ability to quickly move up into management at all the petrochem companies out there. This is the major for frat and good ol' boys.

Mechanical -- Extremely useful field to be in, oftentimes you will find atleast 1 ME on every single design team out there. The field is very broad and doesn't limit you as much as other majors, however you will be studying what, for the most part, is 19th century technology. A couple specialized areas of study within to consider here would be control systems or robotics!

Civil -- Similar to mechanical in curriculum, more specialization towards study in mechanics of materials/solids. If you enjoy the hell out of physics 1 this is a good place to go, starting pay is not as good as mechanical unless things have changed.

Aerospace -- by far the most challenging engineering curriculum of them all. If you really want to understand whats goin on you need to be a physics/calculus whiz. Not a problem for some of us, but it could easily be argued that most of the students from other engr disciplines could not cut it here (unless you are female they somehow tend to slip through the cracks in all of these fields). Undergrad aerospace engineers are not well compensated for the amount of education they require.

Electrical -- Another extremely broad field. If you love Calculus and applied mathematics, you will definitely be able to get into studying circuits or DSP or control systems here. If I were to go through engineering school again, I would probably choose EE over my current major, but alot of the core curriculum has been around for hundred+ years and you can teach it to yourself. IF you plan to go into programming of any type, I'd recommend this over a CS/Computer Engineering major as it will not stick you in a field that will make you want to kill yourself a few years down the road. Embedded and power systems are two fields that are going to absolutely explode in coming years, you may want to look at these.

[TexAg06]

Petroleum -- a joke as far as engineering curriculum, this field does little to attract the brightest minds in the field as much of it is simply based on the notion that they started drilling and this is what happened, this worked, this didn't. However, despite your lack of education coming out you will likely make more money than all the other engineering disciplines and many of them are given the ability to quickly move up into management at all the petrochem companies out there. This is the major for frat and good ol' boys.

wow, you apparently don't know many if any at all PETEs.

Civil -- Similar to mechanical in curriculum, more specialization towards study in mechanics of materials/solids. If you enjoy the hell out of physics 1 this is a good place to go, starting pay is not as good as mechanical unless things have changed.

i personally know 3 civi's that are very good friends. everyone of them says don't do it. no specialization.

[sloshy]

Awesome read, I'm currently working towards an EE major..

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by MyMorningBJ

My review of types of engineering:

Chemical -- If you don't like chemistry, its hard to get into this one. They are however highly paid out of school and their field is very unique. This is 1 type of major will you will likely work as a lab rat for many years to come.

Petroleum -- a joke as far as engineering curriculum, this field does little to attract the brightest minds in the field as much of it is simply based on the notion that they started drilling and this is what happened, this worked, this didn't. However, despite your lack of education coming out you will likely make more money than all the other engineering disciplines and many of them are given the ability to quickly move up into management at all the petrochem companies out there. This is the major for frat and good ol' boys.

Mechanical -- Extremely useful field to be in, oftentimes you will find atleast 1 ME on every single design team out there. The field is very broad and doesn't limit you as much as other majors, however you will be studying what, for the most part, is 19th century technology. A couple specialized areas of study within to consider here would be control systems or robotics!

Civil -- Similar to mechanical in curriculum, more specialization towards study in mechanics of materials/solids. If you enjoy the hell out of physics 1 this is a good place to go, starting pay is not as good as mechanical unless things have changed.

Aerospace -- by far the most challenging engineering curriculum of them all. If you really want to understand whats goin on you need to be a physics/calculus whiz. Not a problem for some of us, but it could easily be argued that most of the students from other engr disciplines could not cut it here (unless you are female they somehow tend to slip through the cracks in all of these fields). Undergrad aerospace engineers are not well compensated for the amount of education they require.

Electrical -- Another extremely broad field. If you love Calculus and applied mathematics, you will definitely be able to get into studying circuits or DSP or control systems here. If I were to go through engineering school again, I would probably choose EE over my current major, but alot of the core curriculum has been around for hundred+ years and you can teach it to yourself. IF you plan to go into programming of any type, I'd recommend this over a CS/Computer Engineering major as it will not stick you in a field that will make you want to kill yourself a few years down the road. Embedded and power systems are two fields that are going to absolutely explode in coming years, you may want to look at these.

well...Petrochem industry is more of a combined ChemE and Mech....
you will need all the Chem guys to figure out process fluids and how to make different types of crudes to become the product...

to design a typical refinery...exclude the overpaid managers, project guys and admins...we need 1/2 chemical engineers and other half of mechanical (for process equipments and pumps, heat exchangers, etc etc), structural, electrical, and enviromental engineers....

[Schmed]

Originally Posted by MyMorningBJ

My review of types of engineering:

Chemical -- ... This is 1 type of major will you will likely work as a lab rat for many years to come.

Me thinks you are confusing a chemist with a chemical engineer. Very little lab work for ChemEs. That's for the chemists. They figure shit out in a test tube, and we figure out how to make 20MM tons/day of the shit. And do it Economically.

[mileydog]

Originally Posted by MyMorningBJ

My review of types of engineering:

Chemical -- If you don't like chemistry, its hard to get into this one. They are however highly paid out of school and their field is very unique. This is 1 type of major will you will likely work as a lab rat for many years to come.

Petroleum -- a joke as far as engineering curriculum, this field does little to attract the brightest minds in the field as much of it is simply based on the notion that they started drilling and this is what happened, this worked, this didn't. However, despite your lack of education coming out you will likely make more money than all the other engineering disciplines and many of them are given the ability to quickly move up into management at all the petrochem companies out there. This is the major for frat and good ol' boys.

Mechanical -- Extremely useful field to be in, oftentimes you will find atleast 1 ME on every single design team out there. The field is very broad and doesn't limit you as much as other majors, however you will be studying what, for the most part, is 19th century technology. A couple specialized areas of study within to consider here would be control systems or robotics!

Civil -- Similar to mechanical in curriculum, more specialization towards study in mechanics of materials/solids. If you enjoy the hell out of physics 1 this is a good place to go, starting pay is not as good as mechanical unless things have changed.

Aerospace -- by far the most challenging engineering curriculum of them all. If you really want to understand whats goin on you need to be a physics/calculus whiz. Not a problem for some of us, but it could easily be argued that most of the students from other engr disciplines could not cut it here (unless you are female they somehow tend to slip through the cracks in all of these fields). Undergrad aerospace engineers are not well compensated for the amount of education they require.

Electrical -- Another extremely broad field. If you love Calculus and applied mathematics, you will definitely be able to get into studying circuits or DSP or control systems here. If I were to go through engineering school again, I would probably choose EE over my current major, but alot of the core curriculum has been around for hundred+ years and you can teach it to yourself. IF you plan to go into programming of any type, I'd recommend this over a CS/Computer Engineering major as it will not stick you in a field that will make you want to kill yourself a few years down the road. Embedded and power systems are two fields that are going to absolutely explode in coming years, you may want to look at these.

Just curious....What kind of engineer are you?

[f=ma]

Make the school you go to is ASET accredited for engineering. ASET approved majors are quite difficult.

[darkphantom]

ex-mechanical engineer....spent 2 years in college....switched to economics and law school next year...

I'd say take statics and dynamics, and if you can pass those two classes with flying colors...you're cut out to be an engineer

[Crimson92]

Network/telecom/applications engineer. Went to school for 4 years


I love my job

[HighVoltage]

Engineering is not much different from any other job. Do what you like. You are going to be spending alot of time doing it.

Focus on your problem solving skills. The ability to effectively isolate a problem and produce a simple solution is the single most important aspect of engineering. The math is just a tool. On the job most of your time is going to be spent on analyzing a problem, not doing calculus. Identifying all of the variables is far more important. We have these funny little boxes called computers now to offload the number crunching so we can focus on the problem.

Secondly work on your ability to effectively construct and communicate your ideas. This is one the most overlooked aspects of engineering but has one of the most serious consequences.

I've been an Embedded Engineer for nearly 10 years. In that time Ive worked with engineers in Mech, Chem, Petroleum, Software, etc and all from the four corners of the earth. In every single instance, I believe others will agree, that the two things I outlined above distinguish from those that are engineers, from those who are just collecting a paycheck.

[jeremyc74]

My title is Controls Engineer, but I've got no degree so I don't like the term. I got to where I'm at through a combination of vocational and military (RADAR Tech in the Marine Corps) training, and job experience.

Most of the guys doing what I do are electrical engineers. I'm just throwing this out there to demonstrate that there are a lot of paths you can take with mechanical or electrical engineering.

The company I work for designs and builds automation equipment, mainly for the auto industry, and employ about 30 engineers. We do a lot of robotics and machine vision systems, as well as design and build the mechanical systems involved.

On any given day we've got guys doing concepts for new machines, quoting the machines, electrical design, mechanical design, fluid design, programming the machine controls (PLCs) and robots. programming the PC based data collection and interface, debugging the equipment, and doing field service and installation.

I say this becuse when electrical engineering is discussed people usually think about circuit design on a small scale (like PCs and cell phones) or large scale stuff like power generation and transmission, and don't think about all the stuff in between.

I like my job, and so do most of the guys I work with. It's challenging, and there's a lot of different aspects to it that prevent it from getting boring and monotonous.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by Crimson92

Network/telecom/applications engineer. Went to school for 4 years


I love my job

I kept telling myself the same thing everyday...it didn't work...

[MyMorningBJ]

Originally Posted by TexAg06

wow, you apparently don't know many if any at all PETEs.

I attended the University with the top Petrol. Engr program in the nation. I was involved in several projects that PEs participated in through honors programs. When it came to getting into the dirty technical analysis of a system the mechanical, chemical and electrical engineers seemed more prepared to solve the problem... that being said we weren't drilling oil wells, but I did have a PE roomate throughout college who now, despite my graduate degree, easily doubles my income every year. Had I gone to work for Chevron I think that would still be the case, you guys get to manage things while the rest of us figure out how to practically implement what you want done. In some regard, I think the smart ones would gravitate towards PETE to avoid the stress in technical analysis of a problem, but you have to assess your individual strengths and go from there... I know I'm better on the technical end of things and have little interest managing drilling operations in Nigeria for whatever amount of money. My summation of thoughts on PETE's was perhaps a bit harsh, I did not mean to attack your field of study. However, my father and both my grandfathers were also petroleum engineers and I have developed a disliking for the field over the years.

As for civil not being specialized, In a broad sense they are more specialized than any other engineering major out there. You design and build structures to support x loadings whether that be from weight, external forces, wind, seismic, whatever. The curriculum parallels the ME curriculum with focus on the above... I'm not sure what you want to argue about here.

Originally Posted by Schmed

Me thinks you are confusing a chemist with a chemical engineer. Very little lab work for ChemEs. That's for the chemists. They figure shit out in a test tube, and we figure out how to make 20MM tons/day of the shit. And do it Economically.

By lab-rat I did not mean to imply that you would be in a lab doing titrations or synthesizing new compounds, you would be correct in saying that this is primarily left for chemists. In my eyes, most Chem-Es end up doing process design or some type of field work for several years in their career before they even have the option to move into something like sales, support or management.

Originally Posted by HighVoltage

...
Secondly work on your ability to effectively construct and communicate your ideas. This is one the most overlooked aspects of engineering but has one of the most serious consequences.

^ single greatest piece of advice anyone has ever given. You can be the smartest man in your graduating class, but if you can't work with others or communicate your thoughts you will be left in jobs with the bottom of the pack. If you've ever heard the saying, "It's not about what you know, but who you know" , this would be a great example of it.

I did my undergrad in ME and master's in CAM. I currently work at JPL and hope to move into consulting in the near future.

[pilipnoi]

This is actually a very informative and interesting post. I'll chime in as well.

I just graduated last year from a 5 year program. The normal program is 5 years, with 3 6-month co-ops in the middle three years of the program. As others have already mentioned, co-op is definitely the way to go. Great experience, and you get paid while being in college. I opted to get my Masters at the same time so I was still able to complete the 5 year program and managed to do 3 co-ops, but if you go that route, be ready to take a butt-load of 20 credit semesters.

After all was said and done I graduated with my BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and got myself a very nice and interesting job working in undersea fiber optic communication systems. Definitely a very unique field. Most likely gonna go back for either my PhD or an MBA though. I'd also have to strongly agree on being able to "effectively construct and communicate your ideas." One day, you might have to give presentations to customers regarding multimillion dollar projects, so it'd be extremely helpful if you're able to do this well.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by pilipnoi

This is actually a very informative and interesting post. I'll chime in as well.

I just graduated last year from a 5 year program. The normal program is 5 years, with 3 6-month co-ops in the middle three years of the program. As others have already mentioned, co-op is definitely the way to go. Great experience, and you get paid while being in college. I opted to get my Masters at the same time so I was still able to complete the 5 year program and managed to do 3 co-ops, but if you go that route, be ready to take a butt-load of 20 credit semesters.

After all was said and done I graduated with my BS and MS in Electrical Engineering and got myself a very nice and interesting job working in undersea fiber optic communication systems. Definitely a very unique field. Most likely gonna go back for either my PhD or an MBA though. I'd also have to strongly agree on being able to "effectively construct and communicate your ideas." One day, you might have to give presentations to customers regarding multimillion dollar projects, so it'd be extremely helpful if you're able to do this well.

+1 on coop....
i'm glad i did coop internships in acutal engineering firm or city engineering...even the curriculum took 5 years instead of 3.5 years....but the year and half working experience is totally worth it!!!

so much better than graduate with ABSOLUTELY NO working experience...

[E90SLAM]

Be aware tho....Petrochem (unless you work for the oil company itself)....industry is very shaky and very dependable on the oil price....which driven my clients to decide which project is profitable....