×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...
6

Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

(OP)
Just to get a sense of how Mechanical Engineers are doing these days.
What are the most and least interesting fields/jobs that you, Meche's, find themselves in? What do you find interesting/ uninteresting about your jobs?

I personally work in HVAC consulting. It would have been dull if not for the kind of buildings we work on.

Cheers.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I work in a hybrid area.  I am a structural engineer, but my career has been entirely related to fabrictaed plate products used as pressurized equipment...  such as storage tanks, pressure vessels, bins, silos, stacks and a bit of piping.  I say hybrid as this is a practice area for structural, mechanical and civil engineers.  

One neat fact about these structures is that the maintenace performed on this type of equipment is often woefully inadquate.  Therefore, it is often used to failure (hopefully it fails by just leaking).  So a lot of my work is related to inspection, evaluation, development of repair plans, repair oversight and documentation.

As a specialty consultant, this leads to heaps of work.  Much of the work is in response to fairly intense calls for assistance at times of great need, such as an emergency shutdown.  The adenaline starts pumping and the job gets done.  The clients are relieved, they pay their bills willingly and all is right with the world... until next time.  This is great profession!

Steve Braune
Tank Industry Consultants
www.tankindustry.com

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

This is a great question. I hope it draws a lot of stories...

I started out supporting plant ops & maint. at a nuclear power station.  The pay was good, but the work became frustrating when rigid regulations and high costs stood in the way of any creative improvements I wanted to make.  However, it's good to be skilled at finding low-cost enhancements.

I was then seduced into the high-tech world of semiconductor manufacturing.  In the late 90s, it seemed there was no end to the money being spent on new construction and new product lines.  Everything was so fast-paced.  I travelled all over the world purchasing new machines, then got them into production as quickly as possible.  The best part was solving problems for which there was no design handbook or code to go by, because no one had faced that particular problem before.  It was also fun to see a whole department evolve from infancy into mature operational consistency.

Corporate financial woes finally created a vacancy for me out on the curb.  I took the opportunity to get my P.E.  I'm now doing facility management at a data center.  It's a bit dull sometimes, but I'm learning how to deal directly with the customer.  Generally, I'm glad I have jumped around some to collect various skills.  I might like to be picked up by a design firm at some point, if I can convince them that my non-design experience is valuable to them.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I work for an aeronautical engineering consultant.  We engineer modifications and repairs to aircraft and helicopters.  The job is great (though it's slow these days) because I can climb around inside all kinds of different aircraft, in various states of repair, and really see inside how they work and are put together.  The variety of machines I see gives me a perspective on what's universal, and what's odd about the details in any particular aircraft.  I have the latitude in my job to take projects completely under my control and steer them through the drafting, testing, and approval phases with as much supervision as I want.  All this, and I didn't need a degree!  It's my first job out of college, and a good fit for me.

Much of this relies on effective communication with the engineers that approve everything in the end.  This skill is not one of my strong suits, but one that's improved since I started, so I can chalk up many different dimensions of personal improvement due to the work I do.

Could I stay in the office late every night?  Of course I could!
Do I do so, instead of bouncing my 3-year-old son around?  No way!

"Simplicate, and add more lightness" - Bill Stout
Steven Fahey, CET

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I love designing something mechanical and trying to make it fit in weird cramped spaces, eg...sensors in aircraft engines (all in solids)
The most intersting/fun job I ever had was an automation engineer for production machinery in aircradt production.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

2
To Sparweb:
Your statement:

Could I stay in the office late every night?  Of course I could!
Do I do so, instead of bouncing my 3-year-old son around?  No way!

That's a perfect statement, nothing to add to it.

SACEM1

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

pavlik,

For me everything I have done has been interesting.  I started out as a process engineer in the Wire and Cable industry...working on optimizing the processing conditions on rubber and plastic jacket extrusion over copper and cabled wire.  Seeing the interaction between temperature and screw RPM and die and guider configuratrion.

After 2 plant closings I switched to the OEM Clutch and Torque converter market for the go-kart, utility vehicle market as a Manufacturing engineer.  I designed fixturing, gages and tools used throughout the shop, and nothing was more satisfying than the operator coming to me saying the fixture solved a particularly painful or annoying problem for them.

Now I am in the Tool and Die industry as a product designer and the direct customer interaction is a whole new level of options.  After 4 months it is showing itself as a new world and I am enjoying it thoroughly (sp?).

All this and I'm only 6 years removed from my BSME.

Enjoy the Mechanics of the world theres more to it than some think.

Look at the entry angle of a bowling ball into the pocket as you run off the front 9.

Alan M. Etzkorn  
Product Engineer
Nixon Tool Co.
www.nixontool.com

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Most people I meet say I have one of the coolest jobs.  I develop and tune suspensions on upcoming new model cars.  I choose the parts, and then test on the track or ride road and change as needed.  Keep in mind theese are all very secret vehicles I'm driving all the time.  Everyone says it sounds great.  But in the end, I go to work just like the rest of you.  I put up with the same office politics you do.  I get bored out of my mind when it rains (maybe that only pertains to my job).  But really.... I always reply to people in ahh of my job with, "It's just work and it pays the bills."  After you get past the privilage of driving a $500,000 prototype vehicle and testing it at it's limits, it is still a stressfull job with time constraints, budgets, and saftey regulations in your face at all times.  I think most engineers feel similar in the US.  As long as it's my job... it's only a job.  I think that is why a lot of US engineers jump around every 4 yrs or so......our lives and jobs get boring.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

analytical modelling of a oil reservoir
and
designing surf boards and submarines

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I think part of the bore in working is that the top brass does not take the time to credit the lower ranking engineers if they do something that increases productivity or efficiency, take this personal experience:

As a recently graduated engineer I got a job in charge of production in a brass foundry in the local plant of the US company Badger Meter (Inca Brass - Peru), there we cast 100 green sand molds a day each with 3 water meter bodies, so basicly we had 300 bodies/day.

I got the idea of rearrenging the bodies in the mold plates to fit 4 bodies in each mold in that way we would increase our capacity to 400 bodies/day.

The local top manager said "you are nuts, are you triying to say headquarters in the US have not tried that and found it is no good? Do not even try it.

Well I'm stuborn, and with the plant foreman help in our own time we made molding plates with 4 bodies/mold and started casting each day just one mold to see how it worked, well we carried very strict performance stats so one good body was remelted every day sop that we did not have a surplus one.

The day came when we where sure that what we where doing was right and cast the full run with our design plates and there we had 400 bodies in our hands with the same stats of performance than with the other 3 body/plate molds.

Well it was reported to the US headquarters, they telex a reconfirmation of what had been done, they phoned directly to reconfirm and said don't touch those plates, sure as hell the next day 2 guys came from Badger and took the plates to the US and told us to make another set for us,
well in one month time all the Badger plants around the world were using our plate design, next month newsletter said "Our engineers have deviced a new mold plate that has increased our production by 33% and so ......"

It was not said that we made that work in Peru, nor we got a simple letter of recognition from Headquarters, you know what I quit the job 3 months latter and whent on my own, that was 29 years ago and right now I do not regret having done so. (I have a 46 worker metal working factory specialized in heavy weight or large parts machinig for the mining industry and right now around 70-80% of my work goes to the States where they mostly reexport them to other countries)

They say the Japanese stimulate a lot the rank and file development, suggestions or ideas but US companies might be too much inpersonal right now and engineers like SusTestEng stated switch jobs every 4 or 5 years and the company loses what is called acumulated experience of that lost worker, I do not think that life employment is practicall neither for the company or the employee but neither is job jumping.

SACEM1  

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

"They say the Japanese stimulate a lot the rank and file development, suggestions or ideas but US companies might be too much inpersonal right now and engineers like SusTestEng stated switch jobs every 4 or 5 years and the company loses what is called acumulated experience of that lost worker, I do not think that life employment is practicall neither for the company or the employee but neither is job jumping."

Actually I work for a Japanese company!  They literaly expect you to stay no matter what and they take advantage of it.  They don't care if you work 80hrs a week, with no compensation past 40.  After only 3 yrs at my job, I am responsible for all the tuning on every north American made car, as well as checking over the tuning of the imported cars.  Have I gotten a promotion for doing this for the company, while my boss sits and reads email and has no idea what kind of work is involved, nor can he share the burden of the testing, because he doesn't have the first clue how to do my job.  Most of us are just burned out and not appreciated, so we jump ship and take our knowlege to the next company and at least get paid more or get a promotion.  The automotive industry in the US is really strange.  Everyone seems to know everyone else and so on.  This is because everyone changes jobs for promotions or new opertunities, so you end up working with everyone in the industry.  Where I work, I think someone in the office has worked for every other manufacturer.  Wich at times is useful, because you can ask how the other company does this or that.  It seems an odd way to go about it, but it the easiest way to be promoted, and appreciated in this field.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Hello SusTestEng:

I said "They say...." I have no personal experience working with japanese firms so you are much more qualified to comment on that.

The 40/80 hour issue is another matter the japanese are as a nation workaholics and that is a scientifical fact the point is they expect that all their worker (from any country work like that)

If you switch jobs from Ford to GM the nation does not lose your aquiered experience but if you swith to an oil rig in the Gulf then your past experience is wasted and goes down the drain.

SACEM1

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I build oil field tools...Specifically Measurement While Drilling..

Sounds boring right? The stuff I build (and I do mean I in the singular, Im and THE Engineer in the company) has to work at 20000 psi pressures, at 350F in a hole in the ground with nasty fluids going by at 30 to 50 ft per second...all in a package no bigger than 2" in diameter...

Plus the 1000 g 1 ms shock requirement and the 20g 50-500 Hz vibrations?

Also all on battery power...

And couple this with telemetering the data up to the surface in real time...without wires or RF of any kind...

I love my job...I got into it right out of College and got my MS while I was doing it...I get to do Mechanical stuff, electrical stuff, Analog and Digital design, FEM, CFD, testing and basically everything else...very challenging...sometimes rewarding...not bad for being in my 20's...

Cant say that Im happy though...I hate the stress and politics...couple that with a boss who insists on paying me 20% less than market value in return for that stock option carrot..which is always a few months away...After 5 years of this I'm leaving sometime in the next few weeks to start my own business...

Ill still be working in the big bad oil industry, but at least Im selling my soul for profit...

MG

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I have been lucky enough to have good jobs without the bad ones.  

While a senior in college, I was a Bio-Mechanical Test Engineer.  We prepared and tested human spines in an MTS machine pre and post simulated spinal fusion surgery to judge motion impacts of the joints above and below the fusion.

First job out of college I spent 2 years designing custom interior cabinatry in the fastest private jet available for purchase.  Keep in mind, sky's the limit, money no option for most of the buyers, everything was dynamically certified in the plane.  I have spent more time in a $19 million than most people.

My current job is Program Manager setting up a production line for a defense article, for export no less.  Building machining fixtures, set up a weld cell, both manual and automatic, budgeting, dealing with export controls, DOS controls, plus now overseeing 2 engineers.  All this and I will be out of school 4 years in May, hoping to sit for my PE exam in October (definitely a big goal for myself and the company to get a PE on staff).  

I wish everyone had the luck finding jobs that I have...

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

See my post in "Switching Jobs."

My best job was in technical publishing on an engineering magazine. It carried greater prestige that any other engineering job I had. It involved a great deal of travel, which I enjoyed at the time. In technical publishing there is a soft conflict between graduate engineers and graduate journalists. The journalists claim to be better qualified in technical writing. I don't agree. I garnered three editorial awards in one year that were generated from reader surveys.

My worst job was in automotive actuation in which engineering managment was infected by QC types who spoke QS9000 but no engineering. They were essentially promoted draftsmen with QC training. It's like a doctor reporting to a practical nurse acting as manager. The auto industry needs to look at this very critically.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Started like maintenance engineer in an oil company 12 years ago in the 3rd world.
After 3 months I got my first projet, the rebuild of a portable Failing drilling rig. Fresh from school with 2 mechanics, 2 welders and 2 helpers. We teared it down and rebuilded it.
I was project leader (buy the parts in the store or make purchase requests for what was not in stock, driver, draftsman, dealing with painters, machine shops, etc..., and supervising the craft). I learned a lot from these guys, and of course after the job, the two first test holes, were technically my responsibility. Means running 12 hour shifts with the drilling crew.

After that maintenance planning & scheduling, CMMS, heavy equipment maintenance, implementation, running a Refinery Operations shift during 4 years.
I have been on the maintenance side, and on the operations side, now I am back at maintenance again. I am charge of the 2nd T&I turnaround of our refinery.

Worst job: I was assigned to a team to implement ISO QS9000, we got the certification, but imagine you have to explain paper pushers and bean counters, that you find it BS to create a procedure to instruct an operator how to use a thief hatch.


Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Hello,

You have to remember that one person's idea of interesting, could be another person's idea of tedium.

As can be seen from my handle, my job title is Draughtsman. However, in my current position, I have worked on a drawing board. We then purchased 2D CAD, and recently purchased 3D CAD.

We also get to use Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Visual Basic.

With the 3D package, we do solid modelling, surface modelling, assemblies, welding, draughting, animation, finite element analysis.

We are currently implementing parametric modelling, using Excel and Visual Basic for the calculations and the text file to regenerate the model/drawing.

To some this may really dull, especially taking into account that the products are not overly complicated. But i realy enjoy it, as one job may not entail using just one software package.

Because of the Parametric side, which we are hoping to put on the web allowing anyone to obtain quotes of our products instantly, the higher echelons of management are aware of our work and are really impressed with the progress.

And the pay is good!

----------------------------------
Hope this helps.
----------------------------------

maybe only a drafter
but the best user at this company!

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

onlyadrafter,

It's good to hear that all of the issues you posted in another thread about "frustrations" have been resolved and that you finally got up-to-date software and recognition for your efforts.

It's good to hear about something positive happening.

Keep up the good work,

ietech

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Question for the group:
Does anyone use both Excel spreadsheets and MathCad?  If so, how do you like MathCad?  We do not have MathCad.

As far as what has been most interesting job or least interesting job for me brings up some thoughts.

In most interesting group: Design of progressive dies and troubleshooting them as well as sharing ideas with other die designers.  To design a new hand tool and hear positive feedback from the users.  Better machine cells layout and clear instructions.  The satisfactions of seeing a production person grow in knowledge and skill with my assistance and encouragement.  To work with other engineers and earn their respect.  Writing better instructions, and discovering new methods of training and the joy of seeing the light bulb go on in their face (I got it now).  Strength testing parts and materials with some use of FEA.  Using DFA to design new products.  Automating work cells or just segments of the events with PLC's and other electronic controls.

For least interesting to just be the data entry person when the bills of material are entered in the production system.  To handle minor engineering changes where time or budget will not allow you to make "true improvements" but just enough to keep the machinery going.  Developing drafting standards (needed, but very boring and dry).

Have a productive week, John

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I think someone has already said it but interesting is in the eye of the beholder.

I design HVAC equipement (water chillers). It is way less interesting than a helicopter, the only thing you can see move is the condenser fan.

The interest and excitement comes from buying or making a whole pile of parts and putting them together in a way you thought of with a set of constraints. And then to actually have it all work right. Those constraints may be customer requirements, size, operating conditions, and/or cost.

It also becomes interesting when you become involved with how your product interacts with other things to become a "system."

As you grow as an engineer I think you either go deeper into optimizing the performance of a "part," or get into systems that get larger and more complex.  I think you satisfaction comes from being able to go in the direction that suits you.

Clyde

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

In looking back at my career thus far I would have to say
that my most interesting position was with a rail
car manufacturer.  The equipment was always custom designed
and the other engineers were easy to work with and very
willing to share their knowledge/experience with a younger
engineer (as I was then).  They seemed to have a passion
for what they did and I looked forward to going to the office each day. The position did not last long
due to the economy but I would have liked to stay there.
The equipment always had a certain "elegance" to it and
the workers in the shop areas took pride in manufacturing
and assembling it.

The worst position probably is the one I have now.  I like
the type of equipment the company produces. The aspects of
the position I do not like are that more and more of the
design/manufacturing functions are being outsourced to our
parent company overseas and we (the engineers) are basically
shuffling paper most of the time.  Some of the managers in
the company are also difficult to work with and there are
too many little "kingdoms" in the office and none of
them work together.  The US offices have also
"downsized" themselves to death and right now are forcing people to work longer and harder to make up for this. This
was done to lower costs and remain competitive.  All this
has done is burn people out. I am seriously looking to
leave here as soon as possible. I understand that the
economy is not good right now and that companies are in
some cases fighting for their very lives, but I feel that
the way they are going about this is very self destructive.
I am not one who who gives up when the going gets tough but
I do not see this company surviving for much longer at
this rate.  I actually feel sorry for them.

Irish engineer

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

  This is an interesting topic.  My own personal opinion(s):

  There are very few jobs that are 100% engineering (if any) and there is a big difference between the type of engineering needed for a product and the actual job itself.  For example, you may be really interested in aircraft design and love the engineering that goes into it, but if the reality of the job is that you can spend only 10% of your time on engineering and 90% on regulatory paperwork, it may not be very rewarding.  A lot of engineers could say "I love what I work on, if only they'd let me work on it".

  My own personal preference is to work on products that are small enough to be engineered by no more than a small team of people.  It cuts down on the non-engineering problems due the to the complexity of the organization and when I see the product on TV or in the store, I can say "I did that" not "I helped on the testing of the 12th widget in the 3rd assembly of that".  Feels more like I accomplished something somehow.

                                   - Rich

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Hi all,

Some pretty good enjuneirs around these days...

I started my career in one of the biggest family owned companies in the world. I trained as a project engineer and was sent to turkey to supervise the construction of our new $US90 million processing plant.

Best experience ever, can't compare the joy of turning on the valve at the very end of the process and 15 km of stainless steel pipe and getting out what you are supposed to.

Now I'm back in Aussie, no plant's to be built here, they're all being built overseas in south-east asia. So what do I do now? I sit on my bottom designing HVAC systems for the building services industry, Im the guy that specifies the equipment that Clyde Mule designs. It just does not compare!

Totaly not where I want to be...totaly wrong career path. I would much rather be drilling for oil on an offshore oil platform out in the Timor sea. Now that's a good enjuneirin' job, simply heaven. :)

But at the en of the day, I too want to be home bouncing my 9 month old boy on my knee. :)

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Any engineering job can be what you make of it.  By all means though, if you find you don't enjoy it, try to evolve on to something else.  Thankfully there are people who enjoy what others would consider mundane work.  It still needs to get done.  I had found early in my career that sitting in front of a CRT doing designs all day was not my forte.  I always wanted to see what happened next so my career evolved into an industrial/mfg role.  Now I am involved in the complete product cycle and truly enjoy my work.

Regards,

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Hi all,

As a recently graduated engineer i got a job in a tyre industry through campus recruitment. Most of my assignments are in CAD/CAE like solid modeling, Finite element analysis, statistical analysis and some design and fabrication jobs. You can consider my job as most interesting.


Jeyakumar
CEAT Tyres Limited

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

In my 42 years in the workforce, I can honestly say that I have enjoyed every bit of it and have no grandois ideas of how nice retirement might be.  I am not a workaholic but do enjoy my work.

At present, I work in a large car assembly plant designing all sorts of conveyor systems, a little structural and some HVAC type work. I like the diversity and there is always lots of change and challenge in the auto industry.  I think the diversity is a big plus after being in the auto industry for 24 years as I had worked at various consultants where I was the conveyor guy, then there was the HVAC guy and so on. I also do the field work, design and the CAD work.

Before the auto industry, my conveyor experience was in coal mining and the worst place I have ever been is at a coal seam with about a 6 foot headroom almost 5000 feet down.

My first and most interesting experience was serving a Mechanical Engineering Apprenticeship at John Brown shipyards in Clydebank, Scotland.  I went through the various trades before getting the required academics to get into the drawing office. What made this most special is that my training took place on the building of the QE2. I swear there is a part of me still aboard that ship.  I also had the pleasure of sailing in her in later years but wasn’t able to show my family some of the places I had been privy to during her construction.  Ah! Memories.

Haggis

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I've had a few lousy jobs in twenty years, but only for a year at a time. I am very glad I went into automotive, as it has lots of money to throw around (how many other consumer items have development costs of the order of 0.5-6 billion dollars?), which is fun.

Also we have reasonably short cycle times - I am working on my 3rd new suspension in 8 years, so even bad projects (and it is possible to have a lot of fun even on a bad project), don't blight your life for too long.

Also we are totally cost and marketing driven (despite the big budgets) - which means we are always searching for new techniques. If you want to see cutting edge computer simulation techniques, you'll probably find them in automotive, not aerospace, or marine, industries.

On the other hand - 2% return on capital indicates to me that we are always going to be in danger of going out of business - look how much of the shareholder's money the Daimler Chrysler merger has burned up.

If we spend half a billion on a new model and sales halve compared with projections, that's about half a year's pay for each employee in bank debt that the company will have to carry for 2-4 years.

Scary? You bet. But also exciting.

Cheers

Greg Locock

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I think you make the job as interesting as you want it to be..or as interesting as you can handle.

I started my own company from scratch 7 years ago. Our clients are now:
Hospitals (mortuaries, theatres, wards, maternity etc)
Banks
Building Societies
Schools
Computer Rooms
Museums etc

You can't get more veried than that. (and equally it can get frustrating)

Sometimes you fly by the seat of your pants and stay one step ahead (but only one)

The down side...regulations, particularly health and safety. I think we have gone way over the top. Not that I'm against H&S, but we have to be reasonable about it.

Friar Tuck of Sherwood

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I have had seven positions between 1989 and 2005. My first five years after school I was laid off three times.

My toughest job was as a technical liaison at a Seattle shipbuilder, getting departments to more seamlessly interact. The average age of the long term employees there was - I trhink - about 110 years old - and no 20-something ex-Navy kid with a degree was gonna tell them anything about doing anything different. Great fun taking the boats out into the Pacific for two and three day sea trials, but working 6-7 days a week, 9-12 hours per day sucked big time.

My best job was with IR Seattle Winch and high Capacity Hoist and I say that proudly because the field work at customer refineries in Asia, Africa, and North America was an honor and a privilege, the bosses were damn good people to work for, and the whole staff was good family. My boss(es) - two of them over time - gave me design autonomy and trusted me to represent the company to our customers alone and without interference.

My worst job was presented to me as another Applications Engineering job and turned out to be just about the single most miserable paper shuffling cubical world hell that I could ever have gotten myself lied into. It turned out to be an "inside sales" customer [and whining salesman] secretarial job that downright threatened my engineering [technical] competence and was well worth leaving after 11 months.
and

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I used to work with someone who did pretty advanced (for its day) simulation work to design intake and exhaust systems for all sorts of vehicles.  Quite interesting stuff: simulate it, build it, measure it.  But it was the way he sold it in conversation...

Q. Hey what do you do?

A. [in low, boring tone] I design exhausts [dramatic pause] for mopeds.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

2
I used to work with a guy who did infra-red imaging, for ladies' underwear makers. Basically he got to watch models walking around in underwear while he determined where the largest area of chafing was occuring.
Sounds very....tedious :) to me.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

My most interesting job was working in the machine shop at Moog Music while in college (Bob Moog, inventer of the synthesizer, who passed away recently). If you had a band you could borrow a synthesizer for the weekend. I took one home a couple of times to play with. Emerson, Lake, & Palmer visited one day and I got to make a part for their equipment.

Years later I worked for an aircraft company and they provided free flying lessons. It was an abusive company to work for but the flying made up for it.

Worst was a project engineer at an aerospace company. I was naive at the time and didn't realize the job was a revolving door. You were only there to take the blame for deadlines being missed. Mercifully it came to an end after a year.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

EngJW,
the project engineer job sounds like a bit of fun to me, I always enjoy a good argument and if I know that the other person is full of nonsense AND they're blaming me for something I did not do, I let them have it and I enjoy every minute. It would be the most relaxing job in the world, b/c I know that I would be in trouble no matter what so I would just take it easy and argue with people all the time :) .

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Interesting discussion -

I started as an enlisted Reactor Operator in the USN on a submarine - one of the best jobs I had, but not engineering.

After BSME - worked as a design engineer at a couple of nuclear power plants (not that much different than McCormick93) - but wanted to find a position with more flexibility and personal satisfication.

Worked at a DOE facility in KY for a couple of years, but it was as bad as the nuclear power plant as far as red tape and restrictions - but got my PE.

Spent 1 1/2 years working as an HVAC engineer on commerical buildings.  Didn't mesh well with the company and people - turned out to be very frustrating and eventually was laided off.

Spent 2 1/2 years as a consulting engineer at the DOE facility working to reduce their utility cost - we made significnat progress and this was very satisfying.  However, the company I worked for went out of business.

Spent the next 11 months as a technical assistant to a manager at a nuclear power plant - I did ~10% technical work and 90% administrative work - not why I became an engineer and was not upset when was laidoff as part of a larger corporate downsizing.

Now work as a plant engineer as part of a group that provides plant enigneering for 3 coal fired power plants.  IN the 3 months I have worked here, I have done at least as much field work (completed) as in 3 years at a nuclear facility.  Great job and hope that it last - still have 15 years to retirement.

Generally, I can honestly say that I have been in good and bad jobs - sometimes due to the work, but more frequently due to the people in the organization - supervisors, corporate leadership and peers.  I don't think that I have quite figured out how to pick the right organization - which is probably why I agree with the advice - keep your resume on the street for at least 6 months after you start a new job.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Ziggi- not much time to argue sometimes. Management makes a promise they can't keep, the contractor comes in and demands action, and the company president says the project engineer is at fault and some people will be replaced. You are out the gate before lunchtime. Project Engineer = no authority, all responsibility.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

I'm usually diplomatic in most cases, but when I know I'm not appreciated and that I will get dumped on, I don't bother. In hopeless situations like yours was, you might as well just let the fecal matter hit the fan, and not even bother dodging whatever comes back. In essence you're screwed anyway, you might as well make it fun.
Besides my ego is huge and I am impatient at best, so I always feel as though I need to take on any challenger who challenges me personally, hmmm that's probably why I lose at poker so much.

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

The job that I enjoyed the most was the construction of a power plant.  This was fairly early in my career (early 30s), but was getting old enough to be listened to, at least occasionally.  This was for a retrofit and adding of an Electrostatic Precipitator and changing the boiler from forced draft to induced draft.  The shear size of the plant was unbelievable, two 1300 Megawatt boilers, over 8 million man-hours for the construction of the addition.  We added six fans with 5000 hp electric motors, per unit, to change the draft system.  If I remember right, they had 1320 volts at 440 amps.  Installed several 120 in valves in the cooling system.  The new ductwork was say 20 feet by 20 feet in cross section, made of ¾ inch thick ship plate.  If any of you enjoy construction, to me, these mega structures are by far the best.  If you get a chance to work at one, do it.

John

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Lord Baden Powell the founder of scouting was at one time the youngest Brigadier General in the British Army. It was then discovered that he did not meet the minimum age requirements for the rank and reverted to a Colonel.

He credited his success by stating that he found every job he ever had as interesting and one that he would apply himself fully to.

I have almost 30 years construction management experience, sometimes the demands of the job require me to cast concrete test cylinders, hold a survey rod or other duties normally assigned to a new graduate or junior technician. I try to do these tasks to the best of my ability and still can find them interesting.

Sometimes the demands of the position require me to participate in high level contract discussions involving large sums of money, pricing large contracts, developing implementation strategies and other senior level work. I try to do these to the best of my ability and find them interesting as well.

Bottom line is that any job can be interesting and any job worth doing is worth doing to the best of your ability.



Rick Kitson MBA P.Eng

Construction Project Management
From conception to completion
www.kitsonengineering.com

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Having worked in three different "areas" of ME (product design, HVAC/MEP, and forensic) I would say they all have their positives and negatives.  Product design is enjoyable and I think what a lot of people dream of when deciding to become an engineer.  Just the other day my nephew said he "wanted to be and engineer and design cars" for example.  The dark side of product design is (at least my experience) that it was coming under pressure from outsourcing.  Either that or engineers had to fly to China for a month while a product was being started up.  That scenario was not acceptable to me during college football season:).  In addition this area seemed prone to layoffs or rumors of such all the time.  That being said I am sure there are segments of product design where the experience would be different than mine but I swore it off after 5 years in the businees.  Looking back, I think if you are VERY selective with who you go to work for and do a lot of research product design could work out for you.  

For three years I worked as a forensic engineer which basically involves working for attys and insurance companies to reconstruct vehicle accidents or product failures.  This was actually very interesting work although the calculations used are very simple (1st year college physics for the most part).  Other positives are the pay SHOULD be good for this field as it can be lucrative.  Expect to get your PE license.  A positive to this field is the difficulty to outsource the position.  Another positive is the work is pretty steady (people get in accidents regardless of what the economy is doing).  THe downside of this business would be getting grilled by attys on occasion (depositions and trials) while testifying in court and really the lack of opportunities (i.e. if the company cuts you loose finding employment elsewhere).  One thing I noticed about this field is that many engineers that were so called "experts" in product failures and product design never worked as a product design engineer!

That leads me to my current occupation as an HVAC/MEP type engineer.  Primarily our work is renovations which acts as a positive thing by making outsourcing difficult.  A positive to this field is it feels like "real engineering" compared to the forensics.  In this business you are selling your knowledge and it is not one that can be picked up in first year physics.  This business takes a good while to really become an expert as the variety of systems you can use requires that.  Other positives are if you get your PE and some years of experience you can make a nice salary.  Negatives I have noticed would be repeat, easy designs (office buildings with a bunch of heat pumps) which are more "plug and chug" than a challenge to design.  Other negatives are that the work is there as long as building is going on.  If for whatever reason building slows down you can get cut loose (but I would say it does not compare to product design in that regard).  Living in the southeast, which seems to be growing all the time, does not hurt I am sure.

Hope all that helps!

RE: Most/Least Interesting MechE Jobs...

Ever since I bought my first home, I have been free lancing in landscape design. We don't grow up with a knowledge of horticulture and landscape design, so we muddle along making mistakes with our home exteriors. I took a correspondence course in landscape design, and proceeded to sell designs to owners of large and small properties.

Engineers are qualified for landscape design because it involves spacial visualization, construction, drainage, and other disciplines. The key to my work is making design elements work in many ways, not just beautification (screening, framing the view, creating a vista, shading, seasonal color change, winter landscape, etc).

In the Chicago suburbs I sold some nice designs to doctors and land developers. It snowballed into a nice seasonal sideline. Word of mouth really works wonders. It's important to sell the job before you make the walk around and give away ideas.

Currently I am providing quote packages, which help the owners make decisions on contractors for the various elements of the job. The owner probably gets my fee back in competitive savings.

Lfetime Career Schools was based in LA, and it was sold to a company in PA. Contact them on the internet if you are interested in their correspondence course.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources