[chassis]

cnofar Network into Stryker's organization in Kalamazoo.

[Graviticity]

Also graduated with an ME in 2019. Started with a tiny company and was with them for 2 years before moving to a larger company. The Mechanical field is so wide, there’s something for everyone in the industry. I would recommend a small company that does something you’re at least somewhat interested in, because you can get experience with all kinds of projects and work your role into what is most interesting to you!

[cnofar]

Originally Posted by chassis

cnofar Network into Stryker's organization in Kalamazoo.

Much appreciated, will into that. Thank you!

[hassmaschine]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

Define engineer. I'm not quite sure , but I think US engineer not equal Canadian engineer , right? In US I think having a bachelor/master/phd degree means professional engineer ?

You don't technically need a degree to get a PE. You do need experience (defined by the discipline) and to be able to pass the PE exam.. which is not easy to do without a degree. But I know several engineers who have gone that route. The differences between countries (and states!) is more due to the governing bodies/exams and code requirements. Canada is actually really similar to the US, and I know of a few PEs that have a license in both countries.

Otherwise, yeah, welcome to engineering. I feel like I need to make one of those graphics - what people think engineers do, vs what they actually do. I do build a lot of models, but most of my time is spent in meetings, managing people, and tracking schedules/budgets.

On the flip side, the people who just do the number crunching or modeling and nothing else are usually more limited in their careers than the people who can also do the other necessary tasks (even if they are boring).

[oVeRdOsE.]

thanks.

Yeah here you can't use eng if you don't have at least a bachelor degree (min 4 years) + a exam. We don't use professional engineer, your are a engineer or you're not.

In my email sig I use p.eng solely because we have few US clients.

Everything related to an engineer work and not having at least a bachelor degree , we call it ''technician'' (civil, mech, elec, prog, etc technician).
And yes 90% of the time they are more competent than p.eng

[Josh-PA]

I got an BSME degree in 1997 from Lehigh University. I've worked in product development in a number of different industries since. I picked up an MBA from Penn State while working. I currently lead my company's NPD, Product Marketing, Marcomm & Tech Services groups. My engineering degree served me very well and I love what I do.

[JP10]

BS in mechanical engineering. Also a second BS in sustainable design engineering. Half a master degree in ME too if that counts for anything. Work in defense, it's awesome. Currently our Engineering Manager at our facility in private industry. With that said, started as a civilian on the government side. The civilian role was filled with travel all over the US - tons of experience on a wide array of equipment. Very squishy role of 40hrs a week, tons of paid leave, with that said the down fall was a redundant amount of training and there is no internal motivation as the government cultivates lazy individuals (obviously there are exceptions). This role did allow me to travel immensely and from a stress staindpoint it is very minimal. They also offer rotations at other bases which is great. I would recommend looking into this as it allows you to see such an abundance of different work being performed all over the country whether it be shipboard or at a production plant. They will also pay for you to continue your education while working - that is how I got half that masters degree haha.

Ditched that role into my current as a project engineer and worked into management. I have an absolute ball every day even though I now work probably 60hrs a week. Not only that, but I get to continue supporting this country from the outside looking in.

The great thing about being an engineer is you can essentially pave your own path. Just do what ever you want to man.

[5.M0NSTER]

Finished my BSE in computer engineering in 2004, and a MS in Engineering Management in 2008. I’ve been with my current company for 16 years now, and lived in Japan and Germany. It’s a giant multinational Tier1 Auto supplier, but not only. Also took work trips to India, Korea and Sweden to name just a few. I’ve been an engineering manager for 6 years now, and looking to develop further.

If you enjoy design and project management work I think there is a good future here.

Good luck!

[hassmaschine]

Originally Posted by oVeRdOsE.

thanks.

Yeah here you can't use eng if you don't have at least a bachelor degree (min 4 years) + a exam. We don't use professional engineer, your are a engineer or you're not.

In my email sig I use p.eng solely because we have few US clients.

Everything related to an engineer work and not having at least a bachelor degree , we call it ''technician'' (civil, mech, elec, prog, etc technician).
And yes 90% of the time they are more competent than p.eng

Yeah, if you go the route of "technical experience" and take the test for the engineer license, you're still an engineer. The tests are normally intentionally difficult and have a high failure rate (the civil/structural PE has like a 25% pass rate), so if you know enough to pass then there's no real difference.

Agreed, on the "technician" part - by the time you've got enough experience to pass the test, you will have way more real life experience than somebody who was in school for 4 years and has never worked on a real project before. Also, most engineering licenses require continuing education and training, so you're always learning something new anyway.

Nothing wrong with either way really. I'm not sure what would happen if you did the "technical experience" route for a license and went to a different country like Canada. I should ask one of my Canadian engineer friends.

There are also differences in states. Some of the tests in the past were really easy, but now they're hard enough that even experienced engineers are challenged by them. That's probably a good thing I suppose when they are designing things that can fall over and kill people..