HELP me with my career choice please
HELP me with my career choice please
(OP)
I am 23 and am attending the local cc. I am seriously considering going into one of the many engineering fields. My problem is that I am unsure about my choice. Is it a stable field, ie; not many layoffs etc?
A little background. Was never really sure about what I wanted to do when I "grew up". Machinist looked fun so I went to a Vocational school for about half a year. I got bored so I decided to try out the work. That got boring, I also didn't like the rush rush get it done perfecly even though I was still learning stuff. Then Graphic Design looked interesting so I checked it out and went through my first year at cc, mostly general stuff. While taking some classes I found out that drawing, playing with pictures on the computer was very boring. This coupled with the fact that the field is highly competitive led me to Engineering. Am I looking in the right direction?
Any and all comments welcome.
-lost
A little background. Was never really sure about what I wanted to do when I "grew up". Machinist looked fun so I went to a Vocational school for about half a year. I got bored so I decided to try out the work. That got boring, I also didn't like the rush rush get it done perfecly even though I was still learning stuff. Then Graphic Design looked interesting so I checked it out and went through my first year at cc, mostly general stuff. While taking some classes I found out that drawing, playing with pictures on the computer was very boring. This coupled with the fact that the field is highly competitive led me to Engineering. Am I looking in the right direction?
Any and all comments welcome.
-lost





RE: HELP me with my career choice please
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
I thought that Engineering wasn't that competitive?
What are the daily duties? Good parts and bad parts about the job?
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
A little advice from someone whos been there, done that! Ok about me...I always wanted to grow up to be a big baseball star. That never quite panned out and I ended up in mechanical engineering somehow. We after 4 years of torturous schooling, I finally got my wallpaper, er. degree! And started looking for a job. I didn't know what i wanted to be, but I always liked designing stuff (not JUST drawing it up...actually conceptualizing, inventing, etc). Anyway, we had a couple of design courses in school. They were pretty neat - the prof gives you a problem and you have to come up with a viable solution to the problem. For instance, design a stair climbing wheel chair, etc.
Anyway, make a long story short, I figured design must be good judging from those courses. So I took a job as a design engineer in an automotive company. Guess what, it is basically a lowly CAD job. Nothing like the stuff in school.
You may consider PROCESS ENGINEERING or something like that...its a better way to go. I would advice you to:
1. Figure out what you want to be. You may ask - how the heck do I do that!? Well, you can start by getting yourself a copy of THE PATHFINDER....its a great book that is supposed to guide you through a bunch of exercises that help u determine what you can get into.
2. If its engineering you wanna stay in, think about which discipline. I would reccomend that you stay away from DESIGN...especially in the AUTOMOTIVE industry!!!!!
As a matter of fact, stay away from anything in automotive!!
3. Ask people who are in the kind of jobs that you can get with your degree and see if you can do what they do for the rest of your life!
If not, then dont get into it or you will be miserable!!
Let me know if you have any more question!
:)
cheers
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
As far as math, yes you need to understand it. I passed my calculus classes with strait C's. However I made Dean's List every semester my Juinor and Senior year, and passed the PE exam. It's not that critacal. You'll use math programs (Matlab, Maple), or a really good calculator (buy a TI-89) to do any advanced math in any of your design classes.
And yes I do work in the Automotive industry.
Will
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
Try posting in the "How to improve myself to get ahead" Forum. Unless you have your heart set on Mechanical , you can get input from other disciplines and maybe find answers you never thought of.
Good luck, whatever the choice.
Wroberts,
I understand about the Calculus, but what I was trying to stress was the importance of having a good understanding of advanced Math techniques as you stated.
RE: HELP me with my career choice please
I am currently a consulting engineer.
If you decide to persue a career in engineering by working on a Bachelors Degree....don't expect to go right into design after getting your degree. You may have to do some other "boring" or "menial" tasks first to get some experience.
Biggest piece of advice.....try to do a Co-op or Intern through school with an engineering company. It will benefit you in two ways: 1) You will find out what it is like to be an engineer/work in that environment before you spend 4 years getting a degree, and 2) You will have some experience when you graduate which will help you land your fisrt job.
Good luck,
Mike