We have discussed enjoying what you you do deal, you know the saying , if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life!Originally Posted by Panichunter
We have discussed enjoying what you you do deal, you know the saying , if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life!
I'm a Facility Engineer. I've built 3 manufacturing plants and a corporate office. In my field there will always be buildings to take care of.
I issue contracts for engineering services. One piece of advice I will provide, is to include effective communication as part of your education. I see many bright engineers that fail to communicate well. Engineering is about communication your ideas and application of Engineering concepts. The college curriculum is so heavy on Engineering, many lack the ability to write well. Those who understand this tend climb higher in the field.
Seriously wrong here. Demand is tied to production volumes, not price.
These are starting wages, graduating from college.
I'm Mechanical, but in our area any of the big 3 (Mechanical, Chemical, Electrical) are pretty much assured a good job. Also have the ability to go anywhere in the country to get a job. When I graduated college I had offers from Seattle to South Carolina... I personally wouldn't push him too hard toward specialization unless that is what he wants. There's nothing wrong with it, but no matter what field he goes in most of the specialization is going to come from his employer, and too much specialization in college could limit his job opportunities a bit. Controls, Automation, and Petroleum are good fields to specialize in if he does decide to seek a more specific field. I know plenty of standard Mechanical Engineers that got hired into petroleum jobs in Texas though.
+1 on this. The engineering field will always be a good field to go into. My daughter is currently in her sophomore year for her civil engineering degree. She was originally thinking biomedical but after starting she really enjoyed the civil part. Should be no issue with getting a mechanical degree with a focus on some specific area of that genre.
Boatless Bank Trash for now
It can vary. Colleges and Universities can and do loose their ABET accreditation when unexpected things happen. I completed my masters degree in 2006 at Ohio University during the fallout related to the plagiarism scandal involving the Mechanical Engineering Department masters program a few years earlier. They had to make significant changes to maintain their accreditation. Prior to that no one would have ever guessed that could even happen to jeopardize their program. It made life absolutely miserable for us.
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Thats completely false information right there about being ABET accredited. Without going to an ABET school you need 7 years of experience before you can sit for your test with a MS degree.
With an ABET school:
Engineering tech degree = 6 yes experience with bachelor's, 4yrs experience with masters.
Engineering degree = 4 yrs experience with bachelor's, 3yrs experience with masters
Engineering Technology degrees involve more hands on/field based classes.
Engineering degrees involve more theory and management classes.
Most firms do require you to be a PE in order to hold a manager position or be a partner/owner.
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That's not the case in most states. In WV, PA and Ohio it's ABET or you're not sitting for the exam. Florida and California are tough too. Each state is different and all states have been gradually doing away with the various non-ABET / grandfathering options for license.
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Yeah that would suck, and a good reason to always check even if the school is well known.
Brandon
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I work for a large medical device company, they love engineers.... Especially EE's. Many people in high level Manager, Director, and Executive positions started out as Engineers. I think if you have an engineering degree and take as many internship opportunities as possible and you will be successful if you have a good work ethic.
what a debacle. yes they turned all the FE over to fieldcore and those guys sure aint happy. i was able to stay GE but im in the now defunct power and water division. some went to fieldcore, some went to baker hughes and others like me are forgotten
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I know all too much about it, we (my group), are just in limbo waiting for the ABB sale to be finalized. Hopefully, it's a good thing that the Industrial Solutions sale was announced prior to the Field Core debacle. Otherwise, I'm sure we would have also lost it all and been forced to go that way too.what a debacle. yes they turned all the FE over to fieldcore and those guys sure aint happy. i was able to stay GE but im in the now defunct power and water division. some went to fieldcore, some went to baker hughes and others like me are forgotten
Sorry to hijack OP....
I'd Rather be Fishing
I was #1 of 12000 to get “right sized” 2weeks ago. Best thing that has ever happened. So long to those all employee “The View” broadcasts. I digress. Engineering is a great field. Work your tail off for that degree
I would have to agree with this as well. I work as a floor electrical/control technician and most of the so called control/electrical engineers that I have worked with were clueless, now these were engineers hired by big companies and basically pushed paper but were paid very well because of their title. The controls engineers that work for the smaller OEM’s are usually really good and know their chit. Lots of stuff to learn when they come out of school if they want to succeed but seems that the bigger companies will hire these kids out of school and pay them well but they never really do anything except manage projects and rely on other engineers to do their work because they can’t. The best controls engineer I have ever worked with actually held a degree in mechanical engineering but taught himself everything when he got out of school.
I manage a group of people for an oil and gas firm. There may be good values in your table, but I can tell you how many petroleum engineers we've laid off.
I feel taking any path down, or close to, anything automation related will provide him with a ton of opportunities. Consider a dual major as an Electro Mechanical Engineer
Most college engineering majors are general in nature for the the first year without any specialized courses. The freshman year is science and math courses. The specialized courses for the various majors appear in the second year. Thus a student has a year or so to decide his major.
Some colleges have co-operative programs where the college arranges for the student to work some semesters with a company or government agency. Then attend classes for a semester, etc. It’s an excellent experience that can help the student decide on his career.
My daughter was a co-op chemistry major at Virginia Tech, working in a lab for the Food and Drug Administration. It was an excellent learning experience because she realized she didn’t like lab work. It was a positive experience because she didn’t make any bad career choices in her career.
My best friend in college was a co-op civil engineering major who was placed with a small engineering firm that specialized in sewers for new housing developments. He decided to specialize in sewers, resulting in us making fun of him. Moving all of the sh-t around town, we would say.
He eventually established his own company that did sewers. He developed some sewer software. Sold the company for millions. An amazing story.
I got the electronics bug in high school in the late 50,s, and went on and got a masters in electrical engineering, specializing in communications engineering.
I now work for the government in Washington, where I am a policy developer and analyst, specializing in radio frequency spectrum management, among other things looking for more spectrum for broadband wireless for your smart phone. Very nice work with a nice salary, etc.
I thought that I wanted to design and build things, but my experiences as a radar antenna design engineer were not very good. I am just not mechanically skilled or oriented, so I moved into analysis work where mechanical skills are not required. I’m a klutz mechanically.
Electrical engineering has many sub-fields such as communications, electrical power, computer design, etc.
Chemical engineering is also a broad field where the graduates can work in various plants producing materials. Can also go into gas, petroleum, etc. They call chem eng process engineering in Europe.
I would be happy to have provide more info. Please send me a pm.
Last edited by BlaineFred; 12-20-2017 at 02:44 PM.
Engineering degree's from any good school will find work. I'm a EE with MBA but never practiced. Ended up in a more business role.
The trouble with EE, at least 30 years ago, is it is very abstract. Mechanical engineering more intuitive. Some of my EE friends went to Mechanical and have had great career. One I graduated with became a Surgeon. Acceptance rate of a good EE into med school is about 100% but you want to talk about foolish punishment.
I made it through EE because my Father is a true EE and he coached me and my friends in the 2 courses meant to change my major.
My son is 16 and thinks he not smart enough to follow Dad and GrandDad(s), and uncle. I pause. His grades better then mine. The biggest difference is I did not have any standardized tests to tell me I was not good enough and I was a hard working competitor. My son is hard working xbox expert
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It really depends on what your kid enjoys doing. I started engineering school, realized I hated the electrical side of it and switched to civil engineering. Now I work for a contractor doing deep foundation work. The engineering field is very broad, and you kid will learn a lot of information in the gen-eds that he will never need to use in real life.
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