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I'll give you all a brief run down. I'm in my second quarter at a local community college. I got a late start in school due to a stupid decision to work after HS and 'think about what I wanted to do with myself'. I'm 20 now, and I'm still trying to decide what path I'd like to take. My plans are to transfer to a state university after two years.
I've always been real interested in how things work. When I was younger, I was one of those kids that enjoyed building things with my legos for hours on end. As I got older, I'd play all the sim games on the computer. After looking into a few degrees, I thought engineering sounded like it would fit me, particularly, mechanical engineering.
So, here are my questions. I've heard engineering requires drawing plans. I am absolutely horrible at drawing anything, really. Would this be a problem? What does your typical mechanical engineer do all day? Lots of computer work? Do they often work in teams or alone? Can they work as maintainers as well as creators?
I suppose I'm just a little confused what the profession entails, exactly. I'm creative, but I have fear that I would not be creative enough! Oh, and how's job security? Is this a career that you move around a lot in, or stay stationary?
I work in the civil engineering field and I know for all our plans we use computer programs, so there is no drawing of plans with your hands. I believe mechanical engineering is the same way. They use autoCAD programs and a few others. Not sure I can answer any other questions about mechanical engineering though..
I cannot speak to anything specific, but I wish I could go back and major in engineering instead of going off track like I did. I have heard that it is a great career field. I'd say definitely keep researching. I think you will find positive information.
I'll give you all a brief run down. I'm in my second quarter at a local community college. I got a late start in school due to a stupid decision to work after HS and 'think about what I wanted to do with myself'. I'm 20 now, and I'm still trying to decide what path I'd like to take. My plans are to transfer to a state university after two years.
I've always been real interested in how things work. When I was younger, I was one of those kids that enjoyed building things with my legos for hours on end. As I got older, I'd play all the sim games on the computer. After looking into a few degrees, I thought engineering sounded like it would fit me, particularly, mechanical engineering.
So, here are my questions. I've heard engineering requires drawing plans. I am absolutely horrible at drawing anything, really. Would this be a problem? What does your typical mechanical engineer do all day? Lots of computer work? Do they often work in teams or alone? Can they work as maintainers as well as creators?
I suppose I'm just a little confused what the profession entails, exactly. I'm creative, but I have fear that I would not be creative enough! Oh, and how's job security? Is this a career that you move around a lot in, or stay stationary?
Thanks in advance!
No biggie waiting a couple years to go to school. I didn’t go back to school for my BSME until I was 25, and it took me almost 7 years to complete And I still don’t know what I would really like to do
I was like you and fascinated by how things work. But I couldn’t see myself looking at code all day, and was never interested in electrical so mechanical was the way to go for me. Most BS degrees may only require a semester of CAD and that’s it. Depending on your career path you might never have to create a drawing, or could spend 100% of your time creating them It is something you will learn eventually. I used to like to draw, but after doing it for a living I made a job change and am now more of a manager. I have to check drawings, make sure they are giving me what I ask for, but I don’t produce them anymore.
I will give you an idea of my job, and others I have had (about 2 new a year).
I have worked alone and on teams. I find that we only get together in groups for design reviews or if I need help figuring something out. It is nice to have peers/coworkers look over your work and for support. Smaller companies may have only one engineer so this might not happen. I prefer working for departments that have senior engineers that I can learn from.
I maintain existing product, but also develop new ones. And by maintain, it could be troubleshooting designs, or going into the shop and getting my hands dirty trying to get something to work. I could spend time redesigning existing parts, or even doing something as simple as changing where a label goes on an assembly.
Unless I am checking drawings, I find that 75% of my work is on the computer. But this depends on the job. I used to be really involved with testing product I designed. There was no test lab so I had to test it myself. I could be in the shop for 3 days straight. For the past 4 years I have worked for larger companies with more resources so it is all about delegating to the correct department. It all depends on the job. Everything is electronic these days so it is not unusual to spend 100% of my time on the computer some weeks.
I really miss getting my hands dirty. I would design a product (including creating all models and drawings), have it quoted, order it, build and test it. Now I package electronics using plastic components. I am still considered mechanical though. Except now instead of designing metal parts I am working with plastic.
ME’s cover such a wide variety of jobs I couldn’t even begin to scratch the surface on listing them. I think it is a good all around degree. EE being another good one.
You could design little components for just about anything you can think of, from a phone, to a stapler. Or large components for a jet or crane. There is also the other areas that you learn in school (and to be honest I didn’t care for), such as fluid design, thermal properties, electrical. Just about everything you can think of, and can see from where you are sitting, probably had a ME’s help in developing it. From the equipment to manufacture it, or the actual product itself, some ME was around to help.
Some of my instructors (the Me’s) worked in all kinds of jobs from manufacturing to power plants.
ME’s I have worked with in the past worked on everything from submarines to nuclear facilities throughout their careers.
I have been involved with Automotive in one way or another for most of my career. From the news you can tell that it is not stable. But in reality it hasn’t been since the early 90’s (from my experience).
Your best bet these days is to stay mobile enough until you can build up experience. But it is not a necessity to move out of state. I could have stayed at quite a few of my jobs for 20-30 years but I get bored fast and am always looking for new opportunities. Depending where you live could have an affect on your job search, but it all depends what you are looking for. A basic example would be naval work on the east coast or automotive in Michigan. Not to say you couldn’t find those jobs elsewhere.
Do you have to be creative? Depends on the job. I have noticed that most companies have design standards that they follow. There is a chance that you will never get the chance to be creative. And remember that you might have to be creative in areas that you don’t think of. Cost, which is a big thing obviously, green, another area, and other creative issues. You can design it so it fits the customer application requirements, but can you afford to produce it for them at a cost they want?
Just remember that a lot of this will come with experience. I think school was harder than what I do now just because of the wide range of things I had to learn
I taught freshmen engineering course last term, so I can give you some insights from my experience:
Personally I am ChemE, so we almost never make drawing as a part of our lives, if I think hard we've used some computer programs to "draw" chemical process diagrams.. that's about it for us,
BUT for ME I think you do need to draw a lot more frequent, nowadays at professional level people use different CAD (computer aid drawing) programs, but the old school way of pencil+paper is still considered a basic skills. We spent huge portion of the entry engineering course to teach kids use pencil to draw isometric and/or orthographic subjects on grid paper. Drawing by hand sometimes helps you better on visualization skills, which is also a must-have quality for a good engineer, esp ME.
A lot of the kids struggled with it thou, but you have to go thru it. In future when you go into industry. Your boss may use a pen/paper to make some quick sketch with you when brainstorming some new design, if you can't read or work with paper then it's your big weakness. you can't rely on computer for everything.
I am an Aerospace Engineer (M.S. in Comp Science), and I would agree with the above poster (zoo_x).
Even though most drawings will take place on a computer with CAD or ProE...etc. Using a pencil, quadrille paper, and a ruler is essential to any Engineers forte. I don't think this takes a lot of artistic talent, and can be taught, but Engineering and Architecture are a form of Art in many ways. To zoo_x's point, computers also go down, just like a battery in a calculator can go out, sometimes you have to fallback on pencil and paper.
Engineering is an amazingly fulfilling career, and I would also agree with sike0000 that school was harder than my jobs. Since I graduated in 96 I have worked in many different arenas from 80 hours a week, Top Secret projects at Honeywell doing vibration analysis to my current 40 hour a week non-classified software engineering jobs.
One thing you will notice is that Engineers are their own breed of people, my wife says that something strange happened to me when I went through my degree. Something where the brain is transformed to have an oblique perspective on structures and life. She describes it as looking through "The Matrix glasses"...
As it pertains to job stability, it depends on what kind of engineering. A civil engineer could feasibly remain in the same region all his productive life, whereas a mechanical or aerospace engineering must expect a layoff or furlough every 7 years (assuming big name contractors), right at the very critical points of life change, like kids, graduations, college...
I have two degrees in aerospace engineering and my biggest gripe with the whole thing is that as much as you THINK you enjoy something, you just don't know what it is that your career really does for a living until it stares you in the face in cubicle city. I came to understand a second too late (such is life), that my chosen field actually is rather removed from the big picture (aviation). In aerospace much of the work is tedious number crunching and data babysitting, and much of the work is done in the cubicle, hardly any testing being done in real world (with the advent of FEM and CFD, gone are the golden days of flight testing and NASA etc etc). It became more of a programming job than an engineering job to tell ya the truth. Rather anti-climatic for all the grade deflation people put up with in college. Nobody is creating the next space shuttle in one sitting, it's really un-dramatic work that goes on today for the median engineer. You'll damage your eyesight from screen glare at work before something Apollo-like comes down the pipe. If the inconsequence of re-dimensioning printer toners one day and data tweaking the next day gives you the same job satisfaction, I'd say the modern engineering job is for you. Otherwise, stay away, you'll grow to hate it and will end up doing a career change (if I had a quarter for every engineer and his 'genius' plan to get an MBA....) you could have avoided in the first place.
Mechanical Eng is the same deal. A lot of my friends who didn't work for the big firms ended up doing CAD work in regional smaller firms and fully admit a high school graduate with a 3 year apprenticeship could do the work and you couldn't tell the difference, it's all template heavy anyways. Hardly any of the big work-intensive math concepts get really put to use, it's all smoke and mirrors. For that reason a lot of my friends are rather dissatisfied with the field. On the upswing, it's mind-numbingly easy to do this repetitive work for a median level paycheck, and once you get your PE license you could bump the pay. But you might want to gouge your eyeballs out before then. Different strokes for different folks. I can say that other than the social currency "value" I got from being recognized as "smart" at the dinner table because I hold two engineering degrees, I got no use out of them, and certainly other than filling the qualification squares in a job application or allowing me to teach students at a whopping 40K a pop, it wouldn't actually guarantee me doing a modern day "engineering job" any better than a high school graduate with a fair grasp of algebra and 2 years watching another person do the task being required of him could achieve.
It really is a lot of busy hard work in school for what people get to do for a living day to day in engineering. Some people find that a plus, I think it's an abysmal waste of effort to forego 5 years of your life for what could be accomplished by an apprenticeship in half the time, and to get paid less and have more family uprooting asked of you than what a gum-popping 21 yo nurse gets to enjoy for less effort....Good luck. My advice? If you can stand office sitting cubicle life doing repetitive accountant-like drudge work and having to move often, do mechanical/aerospace engineering. If you want to spend less time and money for the same experience go to ITT tech and become a technical drafter and do effectively the same job under a different name and get paid a little less. Otherwise, just find a different career that satisfies your quality of life expectations. Good luck!
B.S.M.S mech E here - only have been working for approx. 2 years.
One thing that struck me when I started working was how underwhelming the material was. I was finding it mind numbingly easy to the point of under achieving at my first job. Although it was no shock, much of my day would be churning out test plans, reports and crunching tons of data the "techs" couldn't do. Basically I was a technician with an engineering title and more responsibility. It wasn't fun and I found a new higher paying job right before the markets crashed - many folks lost their jobs last year I got a 20% pay hike.
After 2 years, I got a design job, which poses some more challenges, but is otherwise equally as easy in many regards. I am still learning the ropes and best practices in order to be a good designer, but there is a lot out there to learn. Right now, our company is having set backs, and furloughs, so job security is something on my mind.
As a trade skill, engineering is great. its not like a lot of other fields like psychology, or English because you have tangible applicable skills. Right now is a great time to be an engineer as green alternative energy is booming. Small startups are getting government grants left and right and they need...yup you guessed it....engineers!
My neighbor is doing CAD work and has been laid off going on 3 months. He had to relocate to IL to get a half way paying job. As for myself, I am retired at under 60 and set up my life as doing so before 50 ...OOPPSS! Just a few yearss late but still I am enjoying what I set up to do.
Engineering is a desirable field as mentioned on MSNBC along with Nursing, Police or security work and many other fields including Forenesic Science. Dad was a Mech Engineer and was often looking for work. I, was a Performance Analyst for the Govt. and never had an off day for 35 years. I also have two trades. Plumbing and owned an Auto Body Shop for 6 years which I thought paid very good then but nowadays the Body Shop field is in bad shape.
I always enjoyed Forensic Science and if I could do the growing up thang again I would go towards MD and Forensic Medicine. I do possess dual Masters Degrees, not working while retired drinking margaritas on the beach. Bee right back..Gotta get a refill.....
Engineering is a very diverse field. Depending on which discipline of engineering you go into, even which sub-discipline (I'm a civil engineer which has at least half-dozen sub-disciplines, depending on how they are defined), the nature and pay of your work will vary greatly.
My sub-discipline within civil engineering is geotechnical engineering. I'm finishing up my master's in the field in less than two months. As a geotechnical engineer, especially as an entry-level engineer, you'll spend at least half your time in the field, often supervising a drilling rig collecting soil/rock samples, or performing construction inspection on earthwork projects that are being built. I'm good at math and science, but absolutely hate spending all day in front of the computer screen, so geotech ended up being a good choice for me, as I'll be able to spend a lot of time out in the field, often getting dirty, but yet still spend some time back in the office performing engineering calcs, data interpretation, and design (which I also enjoy). You definitely won't spend 40 hours a week in front of a computer screen like you may as an aerospace engineer.
One of my friends has a degree in aerospace engineering, and works for Boeing. Like hindsight2020, he spends nearly all of his time in a cubicle, in front of a computer screen, often programming. The jobs that a lot of my friends in mechanical engineering took straight out of college vary a lot...two work for the same nuclear power plant, one of them more or less does paperwork in a cubicle all day, while the other works on the various mechanical systems in the plant and has a much more hands-on job. As an ME you can find jobs with a strong hands-on component...one guy I know spends a lot of time in the field supporting geophysical surveys for an oil company, and is currently working in Mexico, and another is on his way straight into management of a plant he works at, after only working 2 years. With an ME degree, the kind of job you will end up at really depends on your own personal skills and ambitions. You could do CAD drawings all day, or never end up really using all of those equations you learned in college and rely solely on common sense and/or people skills.
If you want more of a hands-on engineering degree, and don't want to spend your career solely in a cubicle, I'd strongly recommend degrees in civil, environmental, materials science/engineering, mining, or mechanical engineering. Avoid electrical, computer, aerospace, and possibly nuclear engineering (I'm not totally sure on the latter). Mechanical is a good choice and will prepare you for many, many different types of jobs, and often pays quite well, even with a only a B.S.. I'm of course biased towards civil engineering...it is typically the lowest-paid engineering discipline, and often requires a master's to get a really interesting job, but you may get to work on big, sexy projects like infrastructure, skyscrapers, etc. Or you can design earthquake-resistant buildings, clean up contaminated groundwater and soil, and work on defining flood or other natural hazard risk assessments for communities. As far as career prospects for civil engineers...right now it is rough, but most of my friends who are also finishing up their master's right now have been able to secure jobs, along with myself. Overall it is a fairly solid field.
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And I still don’t know what I would really like to do 
