B one

My son want's to become a Mechanical Engineer, so I thought I would ask people that have similar hobies as him.

Please no B.S. remarks, remember we are tring to help a kid.
Are there any mechanical engineers out there? Do you like your job? Do you make good money? What are so pro's and con's?

Brandon

Try posting this in the General Boating Discussion forums. You'll get more responses.

happy hours

B-One,

I am ME, graduated in 99. I like my job...most days. All jobs suk to a certain extent, that's why they pay you to go, otherwise it's a "hobby". The pay right outta school is pretty good but the pay scale is pretty flat as compared to business types.

I have always been mechanical type guy but there are surprising lots of MEs that are not, it is varied field for sure.
I knew a kid that had a 4.0 but could not change a flat tire.
What are his hobbies? How old is he? You need a decent math skill set to get thru school then it is not as important as universities tell you it is. The program is tough so either you gotta be smart or be willing to work your as^ off at school. (I am not very smart so I did not have a fraction of the fun my buddies did while at school )

Cons: Engineers are mostly dorks so the social life thru work is terrible. Life in a cubical/office is not for everyone. If you are in Military side (I am) it is fest or famine, so lay-offs are a way of life. Tons of our industry is flowing overseas, not just engineering but is starting to effect it. (whole outer subject, don't get me started)
Pros: Very wide field, with a ME degree you can tons of things and live in lots of places. Decent pay. Some fun projects and interesting work , if you are a dork :-). Self satisfaction to seeing something you sweated over and developed actually become real product.

Feel free to ask away anything else I can answer.

kennyo

That with a construction management Minor would be good. The automotive industry side does flatten out drastically. I'm trying to guide my own Son on this same issue.

B one

My son is 18 he just started collage. Very athletic,very strong. He is very strong in math doesn't have a problem with the engineering classes. He has been boating all of his live. This summer he and my younger son and I rebuilt a storm damaged 1989 33' Donzi you cannot tell, everyone thinks it is brand new. This is thier third boat to rebuild. I own three constuction companies so my son has alot of hands on exp.

Mike if you like the outdoors with some indoor work have you thought about a project forman's or supper's job? Wouldn't you education fit right in or once you labled as a M.E. your stuck there?

czy40p

What about civil engineering? One plus would be it is hard to off shore that profession, the internet is changing the whole game, we get designs in from Korea and India. There is a big world out there that is looking for any crumb they can get their hands from the good ole American apple pie. I am not trying to paint doom and gloom, but there are white collars jobs that they predict are going to be off shored in the next ten years. I still think the US only gradates about 5-7% of our students with engineering degrees, so the numbers would be in his favor.

Good Luck.

Chris Sunkin

My wife used to be a department administrator in a big manufacturing company. They had over 100 ME's and EE's and some specialized guys- most physicists. They were the biggest collection of dorks you'd ever want to meet. They could do their jobs miraculously but couldn't tie their shoes. She was more or less a den mother to a group of men that were all her father's age.

There were a small group of folks who had both the tech background and personality. They had both left-brain and right-brain skills. They were the managers and directors. As soon as they spotted a new hire with these traits, they grabbed him and fast-tracked him, giving him the best jobs and supervisory exposure. These guys ruled the roost and got paid handsomely. Their phones always rang with recruiter's calls.

In most places where the product is manufactured or technical in nature, most senior management is going to have a strong technical background. Think about it, could you run a software company and not know how code is written? Could you run a refinery and not have a background in chemical engineering?

The downside- if you find yourself in an industry that's very specialized and that industry slumps, you could get stung. In her case. alot of the work moved off-shore. Since all the companies were doing the same thing, there was no work at competitor's. Some of these guys had very specialized skills and had assumed they had employment for life where they were. They never sought new projects in different areas and many had only had one employer in their career.

Wally

iTrader: (1)

Tell him no matter what degree he gets he more then likely will end up doing something completely different!! Only one of my friends actually uses his degree. I for instance have an electrical engineering degree and am in the Hydrodynamics field now working for a company that makes chemical transfer pumps. As long as he has some sort of degree he can do most anything...they (the employers) look for degrees now more then experience it seems...

stevesxm

i am an ME and the education has proved invaluable. i think it was ross brawn that said " if you know why, you know how" .

the knowledge and the skill set that came with the degree allowed and still allows me to extrapolate that into whatever i need to know regardless of the discipline.

if your son succeeds in his degree, he will have the tools he needs to do anything he wants and has the iniatiative and drive to accomplish.

the stereotype as drawn above about engineers being dorks and geeks is a popular one..... generally held and promoted by those that aren't smart enough to have a conversation with one and prefer to rely on voodoo and myth for their technical expertise.

Chris Sunkin

So true.

My neighbor was telling me this same thing a couple weekends ago. He's a ChemE with a BIG company. We were talking about our kids (they both just starrted college) He said the first boss he had told him on his first day "you know all that stuff you learned about over the last 4 years? Forget it all. We'll tell you what you'll need to know and do."