Any Engineers Out There?

[mjs1217]

Being the inquisitive, and sometimes obsessive, person that I am, I'm thinking about a career in engineering, possibly robotics but not sure (The obsessive part is that I'm still a freshman and I'm thinking about 10 years from now). So, can any of you guys please describe an average day for you? For instance, what you usually do at work, if it's mostly fun things (to me, things like trying to solve a problem by using hands-on methods) or mostly paperwork? Who do you work with / for? Does it pay well, or are you underpaid / underappreciated? And overall, do you like your job?

Thanks,
-mjs

[Tunaman]

You need to talk to Tom. He is the best engineer I have ever met.

[brianlojeck]

First, my "resume".

I personally am a Network Administrator/Engineer. I do design work, maintenance work, repair work, etc... on computer networks. I am attending school to be an Electrical Engineer.

My wife is an Aerospace Engineer with Boeing. She worked with the Space Shuttle program, and currently works on the mid-range, ship-launched missle defense system (I forget the name). Her team is specifically dedicated to the control software for the Kill Vehicle carried by the rocket.

I have, in my carrer, worked with software, hardware, space, air, mechanical, and many other types of engineers. I have shaken hands with Jon Postel. Most of my friends are engineers by training if not by career.

Here's my take on it:

Engineering school is about the only worthwhile type of education found in 4-year schools in my opinion. It is the only degree that truly teaches you to think and solve and work problems in your head.

It combines a strong basis in "memorized skills" such as math, with a strong basis in more practical skills, such as physics (using the math to figure out what's really going on.)

In an ideal world, an engineer is assigned to solve a problem, and he and his team work it until it's solved.

In the real world, management and sales types tend to get in the way. (Dilbert is not a joke exactly, it's more like a humorous documentary.). The engineer is typically more stressed about how to make a deadline then how to solve a problem. Budget concerns and management butting in tend to take up a LOT of time.

Most of the work is very mundane. My wife's team on the Space Shuttle program would spend a few weeks during the planning stage of each flight running a massive iterative software, which generated massive massive reams of graphis and charts, which they would have to analyze to make sure the payload of the space shuttle would not cause it to vibrate apart, or go off control, or prevent an emergency landing. My wife worked there for 5 years and never got any closer to the actual space shuttle then her desktop computer. For every engineer making some big dramatic change in the world, there are thousands just double-checking his figures, or testing the strenght of a new bolt design.

The work is mentally tough sometimes, but definitly worthwhile.

However, with that said, an engineering degree does not mean you have to work as an engineer. Many of the big consulting firms (Deloite and touch, Earnst and Young, etc...) prefer to hire engineers (of any type pretty much), even though they are doing business/medical/financial consulting. They like the training and brains.

It is also amongst the hardest of majors. Pre-med and pre-law are hard because there are so many people who are so desperate for money. Architecture is hard because the teachers are essentially competing with their students for jobs, and make it difficult. Engineering is simply tough, with a lot to learn. Drop-out rates are high.

If you make it through the program, and get decent grades, you'll find yourself in a good position when you go out looking for work, even if the specific industry you are looking for has been shipped off to India.

[Mole1119]

I am entering my senior year as a Mechanical Engineering student. It is definetly one of the harder majors in terms of how much work there is to be done but I'm sure it will be worth it in the long run.

You better like math

Emotions of an engineering student

[dwab3000]

im an engineer, who was put up into upper management at EB (i have since then left) i really just had to test, not much use...nothin much changed on subs