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Well i have about 5 yrs left until i can "retire" from the military, 20 yrs will have flown by. I have been in the flight-line/aircraft maintenance world the whole time. Well i am sick and tired of working on aircraft and everything that involves the flight-line. I grew up on a farm in Iowa and always loved everything about it. Has anybody had any experience or possibly know someone involved in agriculture engineering. I would like to work for one of the major companies someday, i.e John Deere, Case IH, Caterpillar. I know it will be a long road, especially with deployments, TDY's, and just the military life in general, but i need to set myself up for the next "stage" in life.....being a civilian....it's going to be weird. Any help would be appreciated. Thank You.
I'm a structural engineer by training but work closely with ag engineers as my line of work often deals with agricultural structures. You likely know that Iowa State has an excellent Agricultural Engineering program - they offer a power & machinery option that would tailor your studies towards careers with the ag equipment manufacturers. Ag has been one of the few bright spots in the economy over the last 5-8 years so there has been job growth in this sector. But...I do know that John Deere, Caterpillar and Case are highly selective with their new hires so you would need to make sure you maintain a very high GPA.
For what its worth, I would personally steer towards obtaining a Mechanical Engineering Degree over a Ag Engineering Degree. A Mechanical Engineering graduate would still possess the educational requirements Case, John Deere and Caterpillar are looking for, plus its a more versatile degree in case you would want to change career paths or couldn't find work with the ag equipment manufacturers.
Pepe1, i was actually looking at ISU's programs but i have no idea where i will be in the next few yrs so it is kind of hard to get a school nailed down. After more thinking i have decided that a Mechanical Engineering degree would be the best bet, exactly for the reasons you stated.
I was trained in agricultural and applied economics at a land grant institution. As a researcher, I have worked closely with agricultural engineers, mainly in areas related to water resources. It's a very "wide" discipline with numerous subfields. The good part about that is that you get exposed to the breadth of the field, early in your education, and this can open up new interests for you or confirm existing interests.
There is at least one land grant institution in every state. Most of them can be identified in they are called "State Name" + "State University", such as Montana State University and Washington State University. Some are a part of the state's major university, such as at The University of Minnesota and University of Rhode Island. See List of land-grant universities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for a national listing.
These are great schools. I have been on many of these campuses, as a researcher and at professional meetings. You have many opportunities and it's a great field. If i could retrain (at 70) i would mix agricultural engineering with hydrology agricultural economics, since I have been a part of this community for many years...and still going, although I now work mostly on projects in South Africa.
Pepe1, i was actually looking at ISU's programs but i have no idea where i will be in the next few yrs so it is kind of hard to get a school nailed down. After more thinking i have decided that a Mechanical Engineering degree would be the best bet, exactly for the reasons you stated.
Engineering and age discrimination go hand in hand. You'll enroll to an engineering schools at the age many experienced engineers are unable to find an engineering job because of their age (it's perceived that aged engineers are not as eager to learn new things and work long hours). You have to be absolutely stellar student (and not only academically, schmoozing, proper upbeat attitude and people' skills are a must) to break through the wall at your ripe age. I knew a guy who retired at 26 y.o., got his BS in Mechanical engineering at 30 y.o. (2004) but a real engineering job eluded him anyway. Remember, roughly 50% of the engineering graduates don't work a single day as engineers, many career engineers are unemployable (as engineers) past 40 y.o..
Mechanical engineering is a versatile major, and it's so broad, just make sure that you'll specialize in something where older people have reasonable chances to get and hold onto a job. Don't blow your hard earned education benefits. I believe it's exceedingly rare for a person in his 40s to enter an engineering field, but everything is possible, people win lotteries all the time despite the odds .
Has anybody had any experience or possibly know someone involved in agriculture engineering. I would like to work for one of the major companies someday, i.e John Deere, Case IH, Caterpillar.
What kinds of jobs are on those websites?
What are the qualifications for those jobs?
What do you need to do to become qualifications?
Engineering and age discrimination go hand in hand. You'll enroll to an engineering schools at the age many experienced engineers are unable to find an engineering job because of their age (it's perceived that aged engineers are not as eager to learn new things and work long hours). You have to be absolutely stellar student (and not only academically, schmoozing, proper upbeat attitude and people' skills are a must) to break through the wall at your ripe age. I knew a guy who retired at 26 y.o., got his BS in Mechanical engineering at 30 y.o. (2004) but a real engineering job eluded him anyway. Remember, roughly 50% of the engineering graduates don't work a single day as engineers, many career engineers are unemployable (as engineers) past 40 y.o..
Mechanical engineering is a versatile major, and it's so broad, just make sure that you'll specialize in something where older people have reasonable chances to get and hold onto a job. Don't blow your hard earned education benefits. I believe it's exceedingly rare for a person in his 40s to enter an engineering field, but everything is possible, people win lotteries all the time despite the odds .
That doesn't sound accurate at all.
In IT and computers, I have heard there is a lot of age discrimination, but not so much in other fields.
Sure, you might not get a job with Boeing, but there are plenty of other engineering companies around.
while I would recommend Texas A&M and especially their engineering for a vast number of fields of study Ag Engineering is not one of those fields because it is simply a field of study they have moved away from
Mechanical Engineering would be a very good field to break in with Deere and Company and IH and others as well
Iowa State, Purdue, Nebraska (tractor test lab) and some others.....I would say with Purdue they might have a bit of the same issue as Texas A&M where their Ag Engineering is more life sciences and biosciences focused........you will see this a lot in the "rankings" places like UC Davis, Texas A&M and others rank very very high, but if you want to design a planter system or an emissions system for a large tractor or precision planting they are not going to be the top choices to go to......life science based ag and biosciences they are great choices and if you want a high quality mechanical engineering degree and then you want to try and get your foot in the Ag door based on that you will have a great degree with a number of fall back options
you also want to try and be near where tractors and the like are built....that means Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas. Minnesota and the like.....and do not forget about short line manufacturers like Kinze and others that rely on having the best engineered products or extremely well engineered products to stay in business and compete with the majors and sometimes they even produce for the majors as well and just paint it the color the majors need
if you are willing to travel overseas some that will help especially if you speak Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian or one of the languages in India or China
Precision Ag will probably be the top focus followed by water use and efficiency, chemical application (really part of precision ag) and emissions (more so engine manufacturers) will be the major areas
so if you know aviation electronics, electronic to mechanical interfacing, control systems and things that meld technology to traditional you will be especially valuable so with 5 years left in the military that gives you plenty of time to pick something like that up
I would say that Ag Engineering will probably be the least age discriminatory field for a large number of reasons......most farmers are up in their years and getting older so if you are working in the field and you come with real knowledge (as a college educated former aircraft mechanic with a farm background should) you will gain respect much faster than a 24yo that was never involved in farming with a fancy piece of paper and no real concept of what is important to a farmer or why or why all farmers seem "so resistant to change" and so "stubborn and set in their ways"
many people start in farming and then go to school or go to school part time and drag it out for years....many go to school and get a degree and go back to farming and then for various reasons step into industry.....sometimes they are recruited in because they have been a very good research "cooperator" or they have shown themselves to be respected in their area or an innovator and they talk the talk and walk the walk.....so the fact that their "learning" is 10 years old is meaningless because they have been on a farm, running a business and applying that education every day to their operation and maybe even helping out a neighbor and that brings respect......farming is a HUGE business just like education is, but really it can be a very small and personal business as well.....once you get past an undergrad to a masters and especially a PhD (I am not saying you are looking at this route) even though higher education is a major business people start to know each other and know who others are and respect those that produce in meaningful ways.....the same is true in a huge business like agriculture.....if you bring experience and knowledge in a broad way that you can apply in a real world meaningful fashion you can be 90 years old and people will want to see you show up on their farm to offer them the chance to demo a new planter unit while you monitor it and conduct test on it and look at seed spacing or lack of double drops and on and on
I would say that you need to start corresponding with schools now, take some community college courses to get the basics out of the way like English and History, ask the people at the universities you email or call what skills you should bring to the table, make a list of military MODS that you can take (again like instrumentation and electronic to mechanical interfaces and sensors) and ask those professors (contact professors directly not admissions people) what of those MODS that you can take will pay off in the future.....ask about internships (this is where you will land a job the easiest and will be extremely important)....start taking advantage of the military and any training they offer and any hands on experience you can get through them to move your skills to your future desires now and again take some community college or online courses if you have the discipline to make the grades (if you don't as a more mature adult you might struggle in engineering in general) and you will be WELL ahead of the other students and graduates in spite of your age and you age and youthful farming experience and your military experience will become a major asset for you VS any type of liability
you should also go to AgTalk Home - Category & forums listing and sign up and ask your question in machinery talk or in the cafe......it is filled to the gills with real world farmers, some people that work for the manufacturers (though many of them lurk VS post) and a great deal of knowledge about what is going on in ag, where ag is headed, what farmers want, what they demand, and what they respect and plenty of people with Ag Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and other technical degrees that have worked in the industry or gone back to farming or both to tell you all about various university programs and where the internships are as well.......be sure and have an email in your profile (even if you have to make up a throwaway email) so that people can contact you outside of the forum if they have something to share that the do not want to make public......you will get a great deal of help on that site as well
good luck I think you have a real chance to have success with your background
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