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Need some advice. I've had internship interviews with Companies A and B. A interviewed me first and B second. I had good feelings after each interview so I think the chances of an offer from each are pretty good. I have no offers yet. I would prefer to work with Company B due to it being much more related to my academics. If A offers and I'm waiting on B, I could decline or ask for time... but I also don't want to screw myself if A offers before B and B doesn't give an offer. Any suggestions?
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Jan 14, 2011 02:23
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jan 14, 2011 02:48
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Crazyweasel posted:Anyone have any info or places to guide me on being a petroleum engineer? Finishing my Physics degree but I'm pretty confident I can pass the FE or whatever if I study. Heck half of Halliburton's job entries list it as preferred, not even required. What I'm looking for is something of a forum where I can get some first hand accounts, and being like a field engineer or something sounds like interesting work that doesn't involve being cooped up all day. I'm a Petroleum Engineer, I work as a drilling engineer. I've worked in the field for both service companies and operators and also in the office for an operator. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about it since there's not really anything like a forum
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Jan 19, 2011 02:24
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ch3cooh posted:I'm a Petroleum Engineer, I work as a drilling engineer. I've worked in the field for both service companies and operators and also in the office for an operator. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about it since there's not really anything like a forum I have a few and if requested maybe it would be better to switch to emails but they are pretty broad so hopefully more people can learn something. When I wrote that first post, I was pretty confident in what I was looking for, but I ended up searching for drilling companies in Google Finance and looking at their websites for jobs. My curiosity and experience draws me closer to hands-on and what I would assume is field work. Could you tell me what you did in the field and what day to day operations were like? I'd also be interested in if I'm not looking in all the possible places. On my initial hunt I only had what I assume are the big guys, Halliburton, BP, Transocean, Diamond Offshore Drilling. Also what the plausibility is of getting in as a Physics graduate and the necessity of passing the FE. Thanks a lot!
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Jan 19, 2011 03:15
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Crazyweasel posted:I have a few and if requested maybe it would be better to switch to emails but they are pretty broad so hopefully more people can learn something. I was a Measurement While Drilling field engineer for one of the large service companies and now work as a drilling engineer at a top 10 independent gas producer. I posted some pictures from my last project here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3209369&userid=98786#post383833878 ch3cooh fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Jan 19, 2011 |
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Jan 19, 2011 04:21
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Thoguh posted:If A offers and you haven't heard back from B, call or send an e-mail telling them that you have another offer that you need to make a decision on. Good advice. I'm actually still waiting on a decision from either so I may not even have to consider these circumstances
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Jan 19, 2011 16:01
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Biological Engineering Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Science (BS) Electrical Engineering Industrial Engineering Mechanical Engineering These are the programs offered at the school I'll be attending next year. Which of these offer the best job prospects? I've heard a lot of good things about starting salaries in engineering but how is the opportunity for advancement? Also which of these would be the biggest challenge?
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Jan 22, 2011 06:40
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Disclaimer: I'm a CS major. Software development jobs abound, getting a decent job as a competent CS major seems really easy to me. At the technical career fair at my school, CS was the most commonly desired major, follow fairly closely by EE/CompE, then the rest were far behind. This may be somewhat specific to Utah though since Utah seems to have quite a number of local software places. Plus that's really just ease of getting a job, I believe a lot of the engineering places top out at (slightly) higher salaries than CS. Which is harder will probably depend on your own aptitude. Computer Science is more abstract than engineering, usually, since it's basically a sub-field of math (or at least a lot of parts of CS are sub-fields of math).
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Jan 22, 2011 07:56
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Qwertyiop25 posted:Biological Engineering
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Jan 22, 2011 14:39
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jan 22, 2011 18:11
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Thoguh posted:It all depends on what you want to do. These are hugely varied fields and if you approach it in the manner of "how can I get paid" you are going to hate it. A much more valid question would be to figure out what you want to do in general and then ask for adivce pairing it down between those last two I understand what you're saying but I saw some things in earlier pages about people who majored in Biological Engineering having trouble getting jobs. Right now I'm mostly between ChemE and CompSci or Computer Engineering. What kind of jobs would I be looking at with these degrees?
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Jan 22, 2011 18:55
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Chemical engineers design processes to ensure the most economical operation. This means that the entire production chain must be planned and controlled for costs. A chemical engineer can both simplify and complicate "showcase" reactions for an economic advantage. Using a higher pressure or temperature makes several reactions easier; ammonia, for example, is simply produced from its component elements in a high-pressure reactor. On the other hand, reactions with a low yield can be recycled continuously, which would be complex, arduous work if done by hand in the laboratory. It is not unusual to build 6-step, or even 12-step evaporators to reuse the vaporization energy for an economic advantage. In contrast, laboratory chemists evaporate samples in a single step. The individual processes used by chemical engineers (e.g., distillation or filtration) are called unit operations and consist of chemical reactions, mass-, heat- and momentum- transfer operations. Unit operations are grouped together in various configurations for the purpose of chemical synthesis and/or chemical separation. Some processes are a combination of intertwined transport and separation unit operations, (e.g., reactive distillation). Three primary physical laws underlying chemical engineering design are conservation of mass, conservation of momentum and conservation of energy. The movement of mass and energy around a chemical process are evaluated using mass balances and energy balances, laws that apply to discrete parts of equipment, unit operations, or an entire plant. In doing so, chemical engineers must also use principles of thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, fluid mechanics and transport phenomena. The task of performing these balances is now aided by process simulators, which are complex software models (see List of Chemical Process Simulators) that can solve mass and energy balances and usually have built-in modules to simulate a variety of common unit operations. Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems.[1] Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and hardware-software integration instead of only software engineering or electronic engineering. Computer engineers are involved in many hardware and software aspects of computing, from the design of individual microprocessors, personal computers, and supercomputers, to circuit design. This field of engineering not only focuses on how computer systems themselves work, but also how they integrate into the larger picture.[2] Usual tasks involving computer engineers include writing software and firmware for embedded microcontrollers, designing VLSI chips, designing analog sensors, designing mixed signal circuit boards, and designing operating systems. Computer engineers are also suited for robotics research, which relies heavily on using digital systems to control and monitor electrical systems like motors, communications, and sensors. Note: Electrical Engineers do a lot of the microchip and circuit design. Most CEs do a lot of programming. FYI, you should have just googled this. Instead of copy/pasting wikipedia, I'll just sum up computer science with one-word: programmer grover fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Jan 22, 2011 |
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Jan 22, 2011 19:27
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At my school, required classes in Computer Science cover data structures, algorithms, operating systems, programming languages, computational theory, discrete math, internet/network programming, and software design. If you go for a BS/MS, you'll usually work as a software developer. If you go for a PhD, you'll work as a researcher (there are researcher positions both in academia and within industry at big-name companies like MS or IBM). Lots of CompE majors become software devs too, the major difference is that CompE people usually are coding stuff that's closer to the metal, stuff in lower-level languages like C that can interact with the hardware more directly than say, Java or Python. There's still a decent amount of overlap though. Cicero fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jan 22, 2011 |
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Jan 22, 2011 20:05
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Qwertyiop25 posted:I understand what you're saying but I saw some things in earlier pages about people who majored in Biological Engineering having trouble getting jobs. Right now I'm mostly between ChemE and CompSci or Computer Engineering. What kind of jobs would I be looking at with these degrees? I'm working on a PhD in chemical engineering, so I can tell you a little about that. Chemical engineers do all sorts of things, but the bread-and-butter of our trade is process engineering. Basically, this is the task of figuring out how to make large amounts of commodity chemicals with giant reactors, then figuring out how to separate your product out from all the side reactants/umwanted stuff/etc, optimizing everything so that your plant makes a profit. With a bachelor's degree, you'll likely get stuck on a unit operation somewhere and be told to improve its efficiency by 1% or something. Big industries people go into include food, chemical commodities (such as sulfuric acid or ammonia or something), oil refining, plastics, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, etc. If you go to graduate school though, the field branches out to all sorts of research areas. I do a lot of biotech stuff, others work hard on energy, material science, pure chemistry, etc. It's a great field with a wide amount of material. Our lab does everything from materials science to pure synthetic chemistry to cell biology. All sorts of neat techniques in basically all fields of natural science.
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Jan 22, 2011 20:21
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I graduated last May with a degree in Architectural Engineering, which is only offered at a few school throughout the US. Penn ST. is considered the best with the University of Colorado(my alma mater) coming in second. It is a great degree program that offers fundamentals in engineering (ie. core classes), some in depth architecture classes, and then revolves around engineering systems for buildings. Since it is a wide spectrum, everyone gets to pick a specialty. Some examples are the conventional option (take whatever upper division courses you want), mechanical systems, electrical/lighting systems, structural systems, and construction management. I chose mechanical because I was interested in designing HVAC/environmental control systems and setting up/operating building automation. It turned out to be a great major/specialization... because I found a good paying job within two days of my job search! This was largely due to the fact that the majority of HVAC engineers coming out of college have degrees in mechanical engineering. Of course these people are capable at completing the job that I do, but they require quite a bit of training in building systems, revit, equipment selection, ect. I, however, was pretty much ready to hit the ground running on day 1. If anyone is interested in an AE programs or what it is like in the working world, ask away!
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Jan 22, 2011 20:43
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I can't remember if I replied to this thread before (I'm pretty sure I didn't). Anyhow, I went to school and graduated BSME. At the time I had absolutely no idea what I would or could apply it to. I fell into the medical device industry by chance and essentially I use very little of what I went to school for--I'd say the most useful knowledge (even if not specifically applied) was what I learned in Material Science courses. It's helpful to know that the numbers listed on the material properties are not all inclusive, understanding crystalline properties of [some] materials will never be obsolete: e.g. specifically some of the strongest stainless steels are also terrible at keeping a sharp edge, they are only "hard" on a macro level (martensitic inclusions) and not at closer to crystalline level. Heat treatments, annealing, etc. are always useful. On a basic level my job includes project management and creativity with mostly intuitional engineering involvement and occasional calculation. I don't really regret going to school but what I have learned since then would disposition me towards going to class to learn specific things rather than just a part of a degree program. My only regret is that I did not have ample opportunity (and did not take my own initiative) to get involved with machining; knowing how the bits are made is almost as important as specifying the shape they should be.
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Jan 22, 2011 21:01
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Could anyone help me with trying to figure out the difference between Materials Science and Chemical Engineering? I tried a quick wiki check, but it seems to me that they're effectively the same thing, except Materials is on the small-scale side whereas ChemE is on the huge factory end. Just for reference I'm a senior in high school trying to choose between Mechanical, Materials, and Chemical. This thread has been a huge help in me getting even that far though, thanks everyone!
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Jan 22, 2011 21:56
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DahtBard posted:Could anyone help me with trying to figure out the difference between Materials Science and Chemical Engineering? I tried a quick wiki check, but it seems to me that they're effectively the same thing, except Materials is on the small-scale side whereas ChemE is on the huge factory end. For instance, a materials engineer would select what gypsum material would be used in a piece of drywall, a chemical engineer would design the process to create it, a mechanical engineer would design the machinery to lay it down, and an electrical engineer would design the controls necessary for the process to work. grover fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Jan 22, 2011 |
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Jan 22, 2011 22:17
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And a Civil Engineer would've designed the building that the sheet is going into. A very large part of the overlap is associated with metallurgy. Materials Scientists (especially ones specialising in metals) will spend alot of time looking at molten metal and the phases that metals and alloys will go through as it cools. Metals are incredibly sensitive to the cooling process, for example with steel, the speed of cooling can determine whether you get a hard but brittle steel, or a ductile steel. Having said that, metallurgy is awesome and one of the most enjoyable subjects I did at university (Mechanical Engineer). My favourite comparison of engineering disciplines is "Mechanical Engineers build weapons; Civil Engineers build targets".
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Jan 22, 2011 22:37
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BlackShadow posted:And a Civil Engineer would've designed the building that the sheet is going into. No, it would be an Architectural Engineer! Civil Engineer's would design the parking lot though.
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Jan 22, 2011 23:55
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what exactly is the difference between Electrical and Computer Engineering? Wiki seems to make them out to be basically the same, with Computer being a subset of EE. all of the schools I applied to seem to have them integrated together, so I guess I'm wondering if computer engineering is just EE but with computers? (I'm also a high school senior, so college terminology is kinda confusing)
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Jan 23, 2011 00:35
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computer parts posted:what exactly is the difference between Electrical and Computer Engineering? Wiki seems to make them out to be basically the same, with Computer being a subset of EE. all of the schools I applied to seem to have them integrated together, so I guess I'm wondering if computer engineering is just EE but with computers? (I'm also a high school senior, so college terminology is kinda confusing) The line is crazy, crazy blurred, and to get the best answer, you should contact a specific school. Some schools treat CE as embedded engineers; you're going to be writing a lot of C for embedded microsystems. Others teach you more computer architecture/digital logic design/theory, and you can go off to Intel/etc and design ICs. CEs also might do FPGA/CPLD/etc design as well. Then again, some of my buddies who graduated EEs are doing essentially CE jobs (writing embedded software for the auto market), so it's really up to what job you apply to. FWIW, I graduated as both EE/CE and my job has me doing tasks drawing from both backgrounds. If your position has you doing work equivalent to 3-4 engineers, you still get paid as 1 
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Jan 23, 2011 00:44
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at my school atleast the computer engineering program was just a cross between the EE program and the CS program
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Jan 23, 2011 00:47
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If I were to major in MechE, and wanted to look for a career in the defense industry, which of the following would I be most interested in, when taking technical electives? thermal-fluid science engineering systems and design engineering materials science engineering My guess is Systems and Design engineering? That's what always seemed fun to me at least - designing stuff. Am I right?
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Jan 23, 2011 08:22
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DahtBard posted:Could anyone help me with trying to figure out the difference between Materials Science and Chemical Engineering? I tried a quick wiki check, but it seems to me that they're effectively the same thing, except Materials is on the small-scale side whereas ChemE is on the huge factory end. I don't know much about chem eng, but I'm a mat sci student so I an give you the basics of the field. The general courses that make up a mat sci education are as follows: Structure of materials: crystallography, atomic structure, defects, microstructure, structural characterization, x-ray diffraction, microscopy. Thermodynamics of materials: energetics, enthalpy, entropy, bonding, mixing, phase diagrams. Phase transitions: phase diagrams, solutions and alloys, diffusion, solidification, phase stability, phase segregation. Mechanical properties: dislocation production/motion, slip planes, glide, deformation at the micro and macro scale, tensile testing, creep. Electrical/optical/magnetic properties: Schrodinger equation, conduction, semiconductors, radiation attentuation, basic optics, atomic nature of magnetism. You will then apply the fundamentals you have learned to materials engineering courses, mainly in your senior year. These generally include materials processing, materials design, failure analysis, and similar applied courses.
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Jan 23, 2011 08:57
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Dr. Goonstein posted:If I were to major in MechE, and wanted to look for a career in the defense industry, which of the following would I be most interested in, when taking technical electives? These are all focuses within ME and will have absolutely identical classes right up until your junior year, and probably only 1-2 classes different even then, so you have plenty of time to decide what areas you like and what areas you don't, and what electives you want to take. Design is the easy part. Designing it to be safe and efficient and cost-efficient is where the tricks lie; most of what you do as an engineer will be relatively mundane unsexy work regardless of where you work, like spending weeks and weeks crunching numbers in excel trying to figure out of you need 8" pipe or if 6" pipe will do. When you get down to the actual work, designing 8" chilled-water piping on an aircraft carrier is not a whole lot different than designing 8" chilled-water piping in a building. grover fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Jan 23, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 13:50
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jan 23, 2011 16:10
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Here in Orlando I see jobs mostly for: Mechanical Computer Programming/Web/Networking/Database Design Electrical though lower than what bls.gov says they should make Civil/Structuaral though almost always requiring a P.E. If you want advice for your area, call up a major engineering recruitment firm like Aerotek and ask them. Also don't forget that electrical does a lot more than just work with circuit board components. You could go into microwave radiation, power generation, etc. Lord Gaga fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Jan 23, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 17:29
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I just decided this semester to actually major in EE. One of my teachers says there's a lot of money in power generation.
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Jan 23, 2011 19:39
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Sweet As Sin posted:I just decided this semester to actually major in EE. I got to go to the PowerGen show in Orlando FL this year. Rolls Royce actually brought a turbine into the show room and KBR had free beer and wine for everyone. They have courses that are a few hundred for students but probably worth it to say I went to the PowerGen seminars on a resume plus get you acquainted with the industry. I am hoping to take them next year even though I am a Mech E and planning on doing more of a machining/manufacturing career. EDIT: http://www.power-gen.com/ Welp looks like it is moving to Vegas. Lame. Might still go. Lord Gaga fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jan 23, 2011 |
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Jan 23, 2011 20:12
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Sweet As Sin posted:I just decided this semester to actually major in EE.
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Jan 23, 2011 20:30
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Sweet As Sin posted:I just decided this semester to actually major in EE. I wouldn't say it's a lot of money compared to other engineering jobs. But there are good jobs. Plus doing it for the money is stupid. Do it because it interests you.
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Jan 24, 2011 00:20
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Oh, I was in love with the Mechatronics course but EE won me over, and I really enjoy it. I do still have two more years to finish and only recently got my first job at uni, so I know nothing about making 'serious' money yet. I'm kind worried tho, I have to automate a serious project this semester for a class and I have no idea where to look for a client.
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Jan 24, 2011 04:18
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jan 24, 2011 06:40
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Sweet As Sin posted:I just decided this semester to actually major in EE. Power's awesome, I never took a class on it in undergrad, but I made up for it by working a R&D contract to design/build/test a nice 10kW high-efficiency DC/DC converter. Learned far, far more about power supplies than I thought was possible. I always knew it as basic buck, boost, linear (or xformer/rectify/etc), but there are some really exotic topologies out there that deliver amazing efficiency. Green tech, cars, power-generation for developing markets...everyone needs some tamed electrons. I recommended Power Electronics by Hart, even if that's not what your course is using. He covers all the theory and topologies in great detail. Cars are marching towards electric power even if MEs don't want to admit it, power electronics is going to be in huge demand
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Jan 24, 2011 07:44
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I was reading my chem textbook and it said the use of the Fahrenheit scale is pretty common in the engineering sciences. Why?
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Jan 24, 2011 08:20
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Wolfy posted:I was reading my chem textbook and it said the use of the Fahrenheit scale is pretty common in the engineering sciences. Why? Nevertheless, I do most calculations exclusively in SI, then convert back to american units in the end.
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Jan 24, 2011 11:42
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CpE here. I've never used anything but SI in my academic career, except for PCB layout which is in mils. All physics (kinematics, electromagnetics, and solid-state) was done with kelvin and SI
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Jan 24, 2011 16:26
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grover posted:there are constants for the Rankine scale just like Kelvin and temperature doesn't benefit much from the metric scale, especially in thermodynamics. You've obviously never seen a plot of BTU/ft^2 sec
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Jan 24, 2011 17:26
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computer parts posted:what exactly is the difference between Electrical and Computer Engineering? Wiki seems to make them out to be basically the same, with Computer being a subset of EE. all of the schools I applied to seem to have them integrated together, so I guess I'm wondering if computer engineering is just EE but with computers? (I'm also a high school senior, so college terminology is kinda confusing) I know this is a bit old, but at most Universities the line is so blurred between Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering and Computer Science (to a lesser extent) that you can be an Electrical Engineering Major and take almost strictly Computer Science and Computer Engineering courses. Where I went to school you had to declare your major at the beginning of sophomore year and getting into the 'better' majors was a function of GPA. Computer Engineering was usually the first to fill up and the GPA cutoff was somewhere around 3.2-3.4 depending on semesters. EE was the catch all with no set number of spots on only needing a 2.0 to get into the major. I ended up in EE because I had a 2.95 or something when I applied to the major. After taking all of the lower courses, circuits, transistors, FFT stuff...etc. I took mostly software and control systems courses, stuff like Comp. Arch, Computer Vision (which was cool as hell), embedded systems... I never got to go very far with algorithm classes or really OO stuff which was a shame, but about 70% of my electives as a EE fell under either Comp Eng or Comp Sci. The only real EE stuff that I took was Digital and Analog Communication Systems, and two semesters of Control Systems.
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Jan 24, 2011 17:39
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