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Old 12-18-2022, 09:11 PM
 
254 posts, read 278,603 times
Reputation: 482

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Quote:
Originally Posted by StealthRabbit View Post
Sometimes it's the Engineering Technician who can deliver the best result (for the best price)

We often encouraged and paid ETs to pursue their BS and PE, but most often it was only for the sheepskin (and available higher pay grades). They knew how to do the job.

Usually, an ET is there because they did not have the privilege of attending FT U. (they were often supporting a family while working FT, on GI Bill).

Each has their benefit. I'm grateful for some excellent ETs during 40+ yrs doing invention, they were very practical and came up with FAST solutions that would keep the factory running and invention rolling forward.. Our 'boot-camp' engineers were often paired with an ET to get up to speed faster. And the boot camp engineers documented the work of the ET, as it was more important to free up the ETs to actually WORK.

The video was about considerations when choosing an engineering major. He advised against getting a 4 year degree, especially an unaccredited one, in Engineering Technology for the reasons you stated. Lower pay grade & have to go back to school to get the "real" engineering degree if you want to advance in your career. If you disagree with that & see value in spending 4 years of college to get a degree in Engineering Technology rather than engineering, please elaborate on why that is a good use of time & money. Nowhere in the video was it discussing bypassing school and going straight into the workforce.

In my experience, most entry level engineering jobs don't actually need an engineering degree. Some basic high school math and lab/shop experience along with some programming or drafting or data entry skills and a few weeks on on the job training and they can get the tasks done. It's mostly filler work while they learn the bigger picture of the industry. You have some engineers that are able to apply what they learned in school to what they are doing and advance onto actual engineering. Then you have some that are just going to stay at entry level for whatever reason. That's what I meant by "cookbook engineering". They may have an ABET accredited engineering degree, but from a skills standpoint, they can only follow explicit instructions. I do think some engineering programs are more geared to getting students to figure out how to apply engineering theories rather than memorize solutions than others.

I'm going to stay out of the PE vs non-PE debate, but a large number of engineering jobs operate under industry exemptions and don't need a PE. I understand that there have been some recent changes to the exam, but in the past, it was an 80 question multiple choice exam with a thriving exam prep industry. I think passing it was a lot more about preparation than actual engineering skills. I'm 20+ years into my career and I've yet to run into a real life engineering problem that came with multiple choice answers.
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Old 12-27-2022, 08:48 PM
 
Location: S-E Michigan
4,261 posts, read 5,888,541 times
Reputation: 10785
I am a ME because my desired school (very highly rated, full ride via co-op program, with job guarantee) did not have a Civil Engineering program. Although they did have an option within their ME program which included some Civil components.

Be aware that having a Civil degree will effectively compel you to obtain a Professional Engineer license to have any career growth!

PE's are not required for the other degree choices, and large manufacturing companies have extremely few PE's within their engineering groupI.

I have had my PE for nearly 40 years- eventhough most of those years were spent working for a manufacturing company.
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Old 01-24-2023, 09:22 PM
 
377 posts, read 376,062 times
Reputation: 1063
I'm a former electrical engineer, now a doctor.

I'm going to go on a side rant here.

The word "engineer" is being completely overused.

It used to mean the application of math/science to problem solving, but now "engineering" means the creation of anything, without any relevance to science or math.

I'm sorry but software "engineering" is really computer programming, not engineering. You need ZERO math skills to write code.
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Old 01-25-2023, 10:29 AM
 
Location: NMB, SC
41,674 posts, read 17,264,873 times
Reputation: 34164
Quote:
Originally Posted by platon20 View Post
I'm a former electrical engineer, now a doctor.

I'm going to go on a side rant here.

The word "engineer" is being completely overused.

It used to mean the application of math/science to problem solving, but now "engineering" means the creation of anything, without any relevance to science or math.

I'm sorry but software "engineering" is really computer programming, not engineering. You need ZERO math skills to write code.
Yes I agree that the word "engineer" has been badly watered down from what it used to mean.
For a while everyone got called an "engineer"....like sanitation engineer (garbage man).

When I was in college and had to choose my major there was CS in the College of Engineering and CS in the College of Business. Getting a CS degree from the College of Business was much easier.
I had to take a lot of EE classes to gain knowledge of the hardware as well as the software to make it work.

I chose the College of Engineering and had plenty of required Math courses, including theory courses.
My younger brother chose College of Business when he pursued his degree.

He ended up working with data centers, choosing applications, etc.
I ended up doing systems programming (chip bringup), device drivers, etc.

Both of us had CS degrees but from different Colleges which produced different types of skill sets.

I don't know if that is still the same today though.
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Old 05-30-2023, 08:01 AM
 
19 posts, read 9,418 times
Reputation: 50
Quote:
Originally Posted by platon20 View Post
I'm a former electrical engineer, now a doctor.

I'm going to go on a side rant here.

The word "engineer" is being completely overused.

It used to mean the application of math/science to problem solving, but now "engineering" means the creation of anything, without any relevance to science or math.

I'm sorry but software "engineering" is really computer programming, not engineering. You need ZERO math skills to write code.
Let me push back on that a little bit. It does somewhat. There is a lot of logic involved in writing efficient code, not unlike writing a mathematical proof. Certain areas of computer science like cryptography draw on areas of math like number theory/abstract algebra/combinatorics for example. That said you do not use the math you learned in school in industry for the most part, it's more about the skills developed in your studies that help. There's got to be a reason so many of these software companies like to bring people with math backgrounds and the banks that hire them to write trading algorithms. Noted I do not work in the field yet despite having a math degree and some programming background.
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