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I am in Biomedical Engineering now. Let me just say this now. If you were hoping to get a co-op, you either better A) know someone in some company or B) have a drat good GPA. It is drat near impossible to get one. I have applied to about 10 companies in the last week for my next co-op this fall and not a single one has responded. Just for shits and giggles I applied to 2 companies in Japan and they both got back to me. They said no, but they were still courteous.  If you study engineering prepare to have no life. And be good at math. EDIT: And prepare to lurk on every forum ever created for answers to physics problems. Trust me. You will need them.
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May 18, 2010 02:56
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The Engibeard posted:If you study engineering prepare to have no life. This is only really true in your first year when you have no idea what you're doing (and during exam periods of course). After that it's up to you how much work you want to put into school.
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May 18, 2010 03:07
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 18, 2010 03:47
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The Engibeard posted:I am in Biomedical Engineering now. Let me just say this now. If you were hoping to get a co-op, you either better A) know someone in some company or B) have a drat good GPA. It is drat near impossible to get one. I have applied to about 10 companies in the last week for my next co-op this fall and not a single one has responded. Just for shits and giggles I applied to 2 companies in Japan and they both got back to me. They said no, but they were still courteous. Biomedical engineering is probably the worst to get co-ops for. Why did you decide to major in that as (I'm assuming) an undergrad instead of electrical, mechanical or chemical engineering?
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May 18, 2010 06:49
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hobbesmaster posted:Biomedical engineering is probably the worst to get co-ops for. Why did you decide to major in that as (I'm assuming) an undergrad instead of electrical, mechanical or chemical engineering? Under the Biomedical Engineering at my school they have a few different tracks to go into. The one I picked was Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. That sounded really cool especially because I would like to get involved with stem cell research. Also, it looks prety good on an application to med school. Yeah I might not have a 4.0 GPA, but I am in one of the hardest majors you can possibly be in. Hopefully, med schools will take that into account.
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May 18, 2010 15:58
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Patience has paid off. I graduated Saturday and got a job offer on Monday. Its with an oil and gas company doing field engineering work. It's definitely not my first choice in a job but it's the only company that offered me one. I have no idea if I am really going to like it but the money is really good. It is a job for now and I guess in a couple years once I have good experience, I can start looking for jobs that are in the field that I really want to work in.
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May 18, 2010 21:03
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Or you can take the job now and jump ship when a more desired one comes about.
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May 18, 2010 22:44
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Dead Pressed posted:Or you can take the job now and jump ship when a more desired one comes about. You are right. The job doesn't start till July anyways so I have time to still job search and even after I start I will continue to look.
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May 19, 2010 05:11
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The Engibeard posted:I am in Biomedical Engineering now. Let me just say this now. If you were hoping to get a co-op, you either better A) know someone in some company or B) have a drat good GPA. It is drat near impossible to get one. I have applied to about 10 companies in the last week for my next co-op this fall and not a single one has responded. Just for shits and giggles I applied to 2 companies in Japan and they both got back to me. They said no, but they were still courteous. I think getting an internship in general is really competitive right now. Most of the people I know getting internships are doing it through connections, while less connected people aren't getting anything. A friend of mine just graduated with a 3.7 in civil engineering and had to take a $9/hour internship for the time being.
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May 19, 2010 16:15
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Yeah I apply to about 3+ different companies every day now in the hopes of getting one. Most people wont even begin to start looking for another month so at least I am getting a head start.
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May 19, 2010 18:16
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So I was wondering about when someone should go back for their masters. I am a ME with still about 2 years more to go if not three. I am at a decent? school (WSU) with a 3.2 GPA though I really don't know how the department is viewed. When I get out of here I partially worry that I will have trouble getting into a good grad school, in particular UW, (because I have heard that the place you got your bachelors doesn't matter nearly as much) due to my lower quality school for my bachelors. Would it be possible for me to get into something like UW with a degree from somewhere like WSU? And even if I could, would it be a better idea for me to get some job experience under my belt before I come back from the masters?
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May 21, 2010 01:40
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korgy posted:Patience has paid off. I graduated Saturday and got a job offer on Monday. Its with an oil and gas company doing field engineering work. It's definitely not my first choice in a job but it's the only company that offered me one. I have no idea if I am really going to like it but the money is really good. Hey I was wondering if you could expand if you know what your job will entail or not. I'm a Physics major but I think I might be able to weasel my way into an engineering job and have been looking at some oil companies, but don't really know what to expect.
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May 21, 2010 02:12
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I'm going to be graduating high school soon, and I plan on majoring on either Electrical, Mechanical, or Aeronautics engineering. I might be locked out of a large number of top engineering schools due to the fact my high school will not let me take Calc, but I can take AP Physics C: Mechanics, which does involve tons of Calculus. So, would my choice of school for undergraduate study really have a large effect on my future career or eligibility for graduate studies at a good university?
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May 22, 2010 03:44
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Globofglob posted:I'm going to be graduating high school soon, and I plan on majoring on either Electrical, Mechanical, or Aeronautics engineering. I might be locked out of a large number of top engineering schools due to the fact my high school will not let me take Calc, but I can take AP Physics C: Mechanics, which does involve tons of Calculus. Would you consider transferring universities? I know someone who went from a crappy university, to the university that's best in his sub-field. But, if I remember right, not-having calc isn't the end of the world, particularly if your highschool doesn't offer it. My program's suggested course list was based on the assumption of no calc.
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May 22, 2010 04:01
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The Engibeard posted:Under the Biomedical Engineering at my school they have a few different tracks to go into. The one I picked was Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. That sounded really cool especially because I would like to get involved with stem cell research. Also, it looks prety good on an application to med school. Yeah I might not have a 4.0 GPA, but I am in one of the hardest majors you can possibly be in. Hopefully, med schools will take that into account. Since I was a bioengineer and now in medical school let me lay it out for you LOUD AND CLEAR: MED SCHOOLS DO NOT GIVE A FLYING gently caress ABOUT HOW "HARD" YOUR MAJOR IS EVEN IF IT IS ENGINEERING All they care about is the numerical value of your GPA. Thankfully the bioengineering program I went to was filled with retards and/or the classes were retardedly easy. But really, bioengineering is NOT harder than Mech, Electrical, or Aerospace. Regardless, med schools don't give a poo poo, and I am the only one of my bioengineering friends that isn't in the caribbean for medical school. Honestly, if your GPA is anywhere below a 3.6 (I'd realistically say 3.7, but that's me being an rear end in a top hat) apply to DO schools or consider the Caribbean. And for those of you considering a bioengineering degree: IT IS USELESS. Nobody will hire you for more than 40k/year unless you are EXTREMELY lucky. Your options then become a) go to grad school to get your phd or b) go to medical school but quickly realize that your GPA isn't good enough to get you there so you revert to option a.
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May 22, 2010 04:37
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 22, 2010 04:38
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Totally Negro posted:Since I was a bioengineer and now in medical school let me lay it out for you LOUD AND CLEAR: Well gently caress me. That's not good to hear.
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May 22, 2010 13:41
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The Engibeard posted:I am in Biomedical Engineering now. Let me just say this now. If you were hoping to get a co-op, you either better A) know someone in some company or B) have a drat good GPA. It is drat near impossible to get one. I have applied to about 10 companies in the last week for my next co-op this fall and not a single one has responded. Just for shits and giggles I applied to 2 companies in Japan and they both got back to me. They said no, but they were still courteous. The mistake you made here is that you only applied to ten companies. I had a great GPA and a good resume and I still applied to dozens and dozens of companies only to get a handful of interviews. It also often takes companies months to get back to you. As a college student, you are worth less than dirt, and so most companies won't give more than a few seconds of attention to your resume.
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May 22, 2010 16:50
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BeefofAges posted:The mistake you made here is that you only applied to ten companies. I had a great GPA and a good resume and I still applied to dozens and dozens of companies only to get a handful of interviews. It also often takes companies months to get back to you. As a college student, you are worth less than dirt, and so most companies won't give more than a few seconds of attention to your resume. This. Everyone I've shown it to tells me I have a killer resume, but I still applied to almost 40 companies, and I thought it was barely enough.
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May 22, 2010 17:17
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Yeah there's a reason why our co-op system gave us 50 active applications per term, and those were jobs FOR US. If you're just cold applying, try at least 100.
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May 22, 2010 17:41
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Well I just switched my major to Energy Engineering, so any one here have experience with it? It sounds interesting, but I don't know much about it. I switched to it because I couldn't get into Civil Engineering. I don't like that I'll have to be doing way more Chemistry and Thermo, but I guess that's the way it's gonna be.
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May 22, 2010 18:19
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Crazyweasel posted:Hey I was wondering if you could expand if you know what your job will entail or not. I'm a Physics major but I think I might be able to weasel my way into an engineering job and have been looking at some oil companies, but don't really know what to expect. It's a company that does drilling and such I believe. I can't tell you exactly what I will be doing because I am not sure yet. I will be doing an 8 month training program that does classroom teaching and field training. They hired mainly engineers with a 4 year degree. They do look for any technical degrees so you might be good in looking at oil companies. I can tell you specifics about the job if you want to pm me. What year are you?
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May 22, 2010 21:12
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Mr Crumbbley posted:Well I just switched my major to Energy Engineering, so any one here have experience with it? It sounds interesting, but I don't know much about it. I switched to it because I couldn't get into Civil Engineering. I don't like that I'll have to be doing way more Chemistry and Thermo, but I guess that's the way it's gonna be. It sounds like one of those cobbled-together specialty majors that doesn't have across-the-board standards like the more traditional chemical/mechanical/electrical/civil folks have (so one university's energy engineering might be a lot different from another). Just looking at the title, I'd guess it'd be a mixture of electrical and chemical engineering? Thus, it'd probably help a lot if you can post a link to your department website. Just speaking from personal experience, it can be sort of hard to find engineering jobs with non-traditional majors (and you definitely limit yourself to a particular field). Look at how hard biomedical engineers have it, and they actually have a decent number of departments now. However, if the specialty is something in high demand (like energy) then I guess it's not such a bad idea. Energy research in departments is pretty hot right now, sort of like biomedical stuff was five years ago. In fact, let this serve as general advice. If you're looking for feedback on an engineering major and it's not chemical/electrical/computer/mechanical/civil/environmental/biomedical or something specialized-but-still-relatively-common like petroleum or mining, please post a link to the department or curriculum. This will help a lot in evaluating the program and what sorts of things you can expect. Edit: Yeah, I don't see 'energy engineering' listed on ABET, so my suspicions were right. Foyes36 fucked around with this message at 21:27 on May 22, 2010 |
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May 22, 2010 21:16
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Mr Crumbbley posted:Well I just switched my major to Energy Engineering, so any one here have experience with it? It sounds interesting, but I don't know much about it. I switched to it because I couldn't get into Civil Engineering. I don't like that I'll have to be doing way more Chemistry and Thermo, but I guess that's the way it's gonna be. Why would you switch to something that you don't know much about? Does Energy Engineering put you on a particular career path? If the answer is "no" or "I don't know", then why are you taking it?
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May 24, 2010 01:17
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I'm at the end of my freshman year and I have given one last chance continue as Electronic Eng./Computer Eng. or change major to Civil/Mech/Industrial. I'm great at Digital Logic and Circuits , poo poo at Electromagnetism , Control/Systems and Engineering Design, while average at everthing else including Math, Mechanics and Thermodynamics. So based on my abilities , what major should I pick? I'm interested in Computer Eng. but if you tell me it's 10 times harder than other majors or too hard for me to handle , I would gladly change majors.
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May 24, 2010 02:25
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The Engibeard posted:Well gently caress me. That's not good to hear. Amusingly, the (last) statistics (I saw) say that you have the highest probability of getting into med school by majoring in music performance. Remember, 1 acceptance for 1 application is a 100% acceptance rate for a major! (I guess if you can fulfill the crazy time sink that is music performance and your premed requirements you should do quite well in residency!) Mr Crumbbley posted:Well I just switched my major to Energy Engineering, so any one here have experience with it? It sounds interesting, but I don't know much about it. I switched to it because I couldn't get into Civil Engineering. I don't like that I'll have to be doing way more Chemistry and Thermo, but I guess that's the way it's gonna be. To over simplify things; Chemistry, fluids and thermo is chemical engineering. Fluids, thermo and statics/dynamics is mechanical engineering. Chemistry, motors and electronics is EE (note: you will have to take upper division electives to get the "chemistry" you want here). What makes "Energy Engineering" special? Energy sounds like biomed at the undergrad level - completely aimless and hard to explain to someone making a hiring decision. Hell, the "definition" of ME that is given to prospective freshmen at recruitment stuff sounds a lot like how I would define "Energy Engineering".
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May 24, 2010 02:29
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Anonymaus posted:I'm at the end of my freshman year and I have given one last chance continue as Electronic Eng./Computer Eng. or change major to Civil/Mech/Industrial. They're all hard. Just do what you enjoy. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, the classes you'll take in a year or two will be hell.
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May 24, 2010 02:57
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Totally Negro posted:Thankfully the bioengineering program I went to was filled with retards and/or the classes were retardedly easy. But really, bioengineering is NOT harder than Mech, Electrical, or Aerospace. Regardless, med schools don't give a poo poo, and I am the only one of my bioengineering friends that isn't in the caribbean for medical school. Honestly, if your GPA is anywhere below a 3.6 (I'd realistically say 3.7, but that's me being an rear end in a top hat) apply to DO schools or consider the Caribbean. Second. BME and bioengineering degree is useless. Who would you rather hire to design a medical device: a "biomedical engineer" or a mechanical/electrical engineer who actually knows electronics and mechanics? Who would you rather trust conducting tissue engineering: a bioengineer or a material science or a molecular biologist who knows stem cell physiology and material properties? I did a biomedical engineering degree only half way through my third year when I realized it was completely worthless and picked up a mechanical engineering degree. BME just simply don't offer enough specialization. You're pretty much a jack of all trades master of none. And also by far mechanical engineering was hands down the harder of the two majors. My BME class was either full of self righteous bastards who think they're cool for picking such a major or kids who were genuinely smart but chose the wrong major.
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May 24, 2010 08:21
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Mr Crumbbley posted:Well I just switched my major to Energy Engineering, so any one here have experience with it? It sounds interesting, but I don't know much about it. I switched to it because I couldn't get into Civil Engineering. I don't like that I'll have to be doing way more Chemistry and Thermo, but I guess that's the way it's gonna be. Also, why are you changing your major to one you know nothing about? What part of that seemed like a good idea? grover fucked around with this message at 10:51 on May 24, 2010 |
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May 24, 2010 10:48
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Kurei posted:Second. BME and bioengineering degree is useless. Who would you rather hire to design a medical device: a "biomedical engineer" or a mechanical/electrical engineer who actually knows electronics and mechanics? Who would you rather trust conducting tissue engineering: a bioengineer or a material science or a molecular biologist who knows stem cell physiology and material properties? I did a biomedical engineering degree only half way through my third year when I realized it was completely worthless and picked up a mechanical engineering degree. Anecdotal evidence: of the 3 graduated BMEs I know, 0 are working as engineers. One worked at a medical device company briefly, but they only had him going through documentation.
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May 24, 2010 17:34
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T.H.E. Rock posted:One worked at a medical device company briefly, but they only had him going through documentation. This is a huge part of engineering ya know.
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May 24, 2010 18:01
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Im a software test engineer for a wireless company. My day usually revolves around working on call boxes (Agilent 8960/RS CMU 200, Spirent Air Access/PLTS, and Racal Boxes). It doesn't require writing a lot of code (although their is a TON of automation code that is involved (TCL/Python), but it does mean having to nail down problems that the software engineers miss in their embedded code. It does require having an understanding of CDMA/GSM systems at a very low level. Right now Im working on M2M (machine to machine) modules that are used in fleet tracking vehicles and for manufacturers (like Ford, Hyundai,etc). A lot of people that are in this field don't have degrees and make anywhere from $30-$50 an hour; a lot of people come into the field with weird degrees (I know a manager that has a PHD in English and is one the best Program Managers Ive ever met). You can make anywhere from 80K to 100K depending on whether its contract or full time. It does require an analytical mind and the ability to quickly solve problems and it is a pretty competitive environment. The job is interesting but it requires a lot of long hours which is hard when you're trying to get your MBA 
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May 24, 2010 18:14
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Cyril Sneer posted:This is a huge part of engineering ya know. Not if that's all they're doing. That'd be a technical writer. You know, someone with a degree in liberal arts. It's also a complete dead end.
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May 24, 2010 18:26
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Kurei posted:Second. BME and bioengineering degree is useless. Who would you rather hire to design a medical device: a "biomedical engineer" or a mechanical/electrical engineer who actually knows electronics and mechanics? Who would you rather trust conducting tissue engineering: a bioengineer or a material science or a molecular biologist who knows stem cell physiology and material properties? I did a biomedical engineering degree only half way through my third year when I realized it was completely worthless and picked up a mechanical engineering degree. I just finished my first year of a bachelor+master's program in BE. I'm considering to specialize in computational and cognitive bioscience, bioelectronics or biomedical engineering. I've actually realized that when I graduate I'll most likely just work in some sort of academic research (this probably includes a PhD) or do research for a company. If I'd just gone for EE I'd have a lot easier to find a job when I graduate and I'd probably be making more money, still in my heart I know I want to do biostuff and especially the cognitive bioscience courses look really interesting. But it would be sooo easy to sell out and go for EE...
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May 24, 2010 18:30
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Zo posted:Not if that's all they're doing. That'd be a technical writer. You know, someone with a degree in liberal arts. It's also a complete dead end. Test Plans, Design Documentation (System Requirements Specification & Functional Specifications) are a HUGE part of the software development process. If you work in a regulated environment, the majority of your time really is spent on documentation.
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May 24, 2010 18:35
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spiralbrain posted:Test Plans, Design Documentation (System Requirements Specification & Functional Specifications) are a HUGE part of the software development process. If you work in a regulated environment, the majority of your time really is spent on documentation. Yes, if you're writing them because it's your design. I also spend a lot of my time soldering and prototyping, but an assembly line worker churning out boards is not doing engineering. Do you see the difference here? His friend got screwed with a lovely non-engineering job.
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May 24, 2010 18:38
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Zo posted:Yes, if you're writing them because it's your design. Yeah I get what you mean. When I was working for a medical device company the majority of my time was spent working on design documentation and test plans that revolved around a single feature. It seems as though regulated companies spend an enormous amount of time on it though as compared with non-regulated companies because of the audits that the FDA puts them through. Whole documentation processes are put under question when this happens. I would say that 75% of my time was working on documentation and 25% actually creating and running automation test scenarios.
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May 24, 2010 18:44
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spiralbrain posted:Yeah I get what you mean. When I was working for a medical device company the majority of my time was spent working on design documentation and test plans that revolved around a single feature. It seems as though regulated companies spend an enormous amount of time on it though as compared with non-regulated companies because of the audits that the FDA puts them through. Whole documentation processes are put under question when this happens. I would say that 75% of my time was working on documentation and 25% actually creating and running automation test scenarios. Yeah I had a co-op job like that. Was doing development on this: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/program/critical_care/cct_infosystem.html Also medical, but also government owned, and the regulation and documentation involved with that job was the stuff of nightmares. Meetings alone would consistently anywhere from 5-20 hours of a 35 work week. Now I'm working as an R&D EE in a small private company and the difference really is night and day. Never again.
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May 24, 2010 18:50
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Zo posted:Yeah I had a co-op job like that. Was doing development on this: http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/providers/program/critical_care/cct_infosystem.html I feel your pain with those meetings. I worked on the wireless systems testing for this: http://www.carefusion.com/images/Alaris_Gateway_Brochure.pdf I took the job because I thought it was going to be stable and I would be there for a while. A year later they laid me off before carefusion split from Cardinal Health. In a way Im glad I was laid off as it really wasnt that fulfilling of a job.
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May 24, 2010 18:58
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T.H.E. Rock posted:Anecdotal evidence: of the 3 graduated BMEs I know, 0 are working as engineers. One worked at a medical device company briefly, but they only had him going through documentation. yea, at my school the BME department only has 3 Biomedical/Bioengineering PhD and the ones that did get their phds in BME did their undergrads in other engineerings. The one BME phd that did both undergrad and phd in BME isn't very smart. He thinks he's smart but in reality he's just fooling himself. The others are Biology, Mechanical, EE, Chem E PhDs. That goes to show you what kind of foundation BME gives you (a lovely one). All my BME friends grads are either not working or having a real hard time finding jobs. While my ME friends are getting interviews all over the place. I don't know how BME or BioE works in the top top top tier BME schools like UCSD, Hopkins or Berkeley but I know in general BME doesn't give you the skill-set to compete with hard engineers like MechE, EE, material scientists and Chem E or hard natural scientists like biochemists, biologists and chemists. Kurei fucked around with this message at 20:43 on May 24, 2010 |
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May 24, 2010 20:40
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