|
I love my TI-89, why would you ever not use a calculator outside of a test that has banned them.
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 07:44
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 09:59 |
|
|
So you can do well on that test?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 14:14
|
|
|
Because it dulls your mind, and often many operations can be performed faster mentally.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 14:28
|
|
|
Plinkey posted:I interviewed with them ~5 years ago when I graduated...and their facility was the most depressing place I've ever seen. I think about 30% of all offices/cubes were empty, looked neglected and hadn't been updated since the 60s. Is it any different now? I assume this is the Groton facility? Yeah, groton. The building I interviewed in was one of those old ones, but it was completely full and busy. They just bought the old Pfizer hq across the river and are gonna be moving offices into there and out of some of the old buildings, so those are improving (albeit slowly).
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 15:28
|
|
|
smashczar posted:This calculator chat is timely because the other day in calculus (1st year BSc undergrad here) we were told to try and 'wean ourselves off' calulators - this in a class that includes and engineering stream. I come from NSW, where graphic calculators are banned in state schools but am studying in VIC where they aren't - and now we are being told to avoid using them as much as possible. They just want you to know how to do the problems, how to think it through, how to analyze, etc. This is a good thing. But, in 5 years when you're working in an office you're probably not going to do some 3 page long, 30 minute math problems. You're gonna use your computer or bust out the calculator and get it done, quicker and less room for error. Don't kid yourself.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 16:08
|
|
|
TI-89 with RPN mod. I will never go back. Has anyone taken the Civil PE, especially in CA? I have about 5 months before I can register for it, but my plan is to start studying for it so I can pass it ASAP, and escape this horrible <top 5 Civil firm> that is sucking my soul and makes me want to set fire to things at the end of the day. I know Grover, you recommended the FE reference. What are some other books I should start with? Another more general question, I'm Civil now but am considering other avenues such as Environmental. Will I be doing myself a huge disfavor in terms of career field advancement if I decide to switch tracks?
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 17:29
|
|
|
.
Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Aug 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 17:37
|
|
|
FooGoo posted:TI-89 with RPN mod. I will never go back. You're a civil; so when you ask which book you should bring, the answer is "all of them". All your college textbooks, all your professional references, all those binders you put together, all of them. You're likely to end up needing a different reference book for every question on the test. Civils are notorious for bringing entire libraries to the test. (Meanwhile, I like 5 books for the EE PE and only used half of them.) A civil here might be able to give more specific advice. grover fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Mar 26, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 17:43
|
|
|
I'm having trouble deciding on what path I should follow as an Engineer. I've just finished community college and the idea of becoming an engineer is really attractive, but god drat if there aren't so many drat branches and fields. What are generally the most flexible Engineering fields? I'd assume Electrical Engineer is one of them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 20:13
|
|
|
Thoren posted:I'm having trouble deciding on what path I should follow as an Engineer. I've just finished community college and the idea of becoming an engineer is really attractive, but god drat if there aren't so many drat branches and fields.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 20:26
|
|
|
I'd say mechanical is a little above electrical, but both of those fields will probably have the widest array of jobs that are available to you.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 20:26
|
|
|
grover posted:Electrical, Mechanical and Civil are all very broad fields and a degree in any is very flexible. The real question is, which do you enjoy most? That's the problem I have no idea what I enjoy most! I'm totally new to this idea entirely. I originally wanted to become a scientist of some sort but the fields seemed too intangible and I like stuff that's way more technical anyways. My main two choices would be Electrical or Civil, although I know far less about Civil Engineering in general. Another idea of course would be Software/Computer Engineering/Programing but I already spend enough time in front of a computer already.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 20:47
|
|
|
Thoren posted:That's the problem I have no idea what I enjoy most! I'm totally new to this idea entirely. I originally wanted to become a scientist of some sort but the fields seemed too intangible and I like stuff that's way more technical anyways. EE is really broad; many parts of what people consider Comp E are actually EE anyway, and you can branch off into programming your senior year electives if that's your thing. Whichever way you go, you can always reconsider after you start to take more specialized courses your junior year.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2011 20:54
|
|
|
smashczar posted:This calculator chat is timely because the other day in calculus (1st year BSc undergrad here) we were told to try and 'wean ourselves off' calulators - this in a class that includes and engineering stream. I come from NSW, where graphic calculators are banned in state schools but am studying in VIC where they aren't - and now we are being told to avoid using them as much as possible. I'm studying EE in WA. Calculators are great for doing complex number arithmetic or converting between hex-binary-decimal super fast. But comparatively few of your engineering marks are going to come from correctly doing arithmetic as opposed to setting up problems in the right way. e.g. They'll give you some funny looking volume and you'll have to come up with an integral for it, and pick the right coordinate system for the job, but in the end the integral itself will be pretty trivial to evaluate. Calculators are an awesome safety blanket though. Before algebra became burned into my soul, I'd use my calculator to double check basic rules whenever I froze in a test.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 03:35
|
|
|
SB35 posted:don't worry about it. you just have to do better than your classmates I was poking around and it seems like there's multiple FX-115 models, and it seems some are banned for exams and some aren't, is there a consensus on which model to get?
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 03:58
|
|
get a casio FX-115 right now and learn how to use it, do your practice exams and problems with it.
|
diospadre posted:I was poking around and it seems like there's multiple FX-115 models, and it seems some are banned for exams and some aren't, is there a consensus on which model to get? See the NCEES Calculator policy here: http://www.ncees.org/Exams/Exam-day_policies/Calculator_policy.php I'm relatively sure that all the FX-115 models are pretty much the same outside of a few features like solar power, or "textbook display". They can all do the same calculations, it's just aesthetics.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 04:12
|
|
|
Thanks, I'll be sure to grab the prettiest one then.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 05:02
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:I am looking at their employment webpage, and it doesn't look like it's been updated since the 60s either. Yeah, they should really get on that. I actually had a job offer from them last week but turned them down for another promising job. And like the other guy said, they have bought the Pfizer buildings and are planning on moving most/all of engineering over to them this summer. Which is a good thing, because the old buildings are seriously outdated and depressing and since they were doing a bunch of hiring recently they really needed that promise to attract new talent. And their vacation policy sucks btw.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 06:37
|
|
|
I'm a Materials Science & Engineering major with a concentration in nanomaterials, 3.7 GPA. For the past two summers I did nanotech research in the labs over at NIST, working in the cleanroom and on stuff like graphene. I applied again this summer, but I'm getting the sinking feeling I didn't get in for some reason, since a lot of my friends already heard from them weeks ago. Am I screwed for getting an internship if I applied now? I realize I should've had a backup plan, but it never occurred to me that I wouldn't get in. How do I even go about searching for internships? There's a "last minute" career fair at my school that I'll go to, and I'm gonna ask my professors and old boss if they know of anything, but I'm worried it's too late. Ideally I'd want to get something nanotechnology or semiconductor-related.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 14:10
|
|
|
Two months-ish should be plenty of time. Most of the A+ tiered jobs may be taken, but you should be able to find something, I would think.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 14:25
|
|
|
.
Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:49 on Aug 10, 2023 |
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 15:33
|
|
|
Thoguh posted:Do you have the contact info of the people you've worked with in the past? Have you tried writing them an e-mail and asking? Yeah, I emailed my old boss as well as the guy who was in charge of the interns for the department, hopefully I'll get a response tomorrow. I was pretty friendly with some of the people who worked there, I used to bake the department brownies, so hopefully I can get a good recommendation or two for where to look, even if I don't get into NIST.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 15:50
|
|
|
How do companies verify that you actually graduated from whatever university you claim on your resume and/or what GPA you claim you obtained?
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 19:07
|
|
|
thenickmix posted:How do companies verify that you actually graduated from whatever university you claim on your resume and/or what GPA you claim you obtained? They... contact the university? At least for the graduation part, I'm not sure if universities will freely provide GPA, but I think it's as simple as that. EDIT: Plinkey posted:They have you order an official transcript sent to the HR department. This too. Sleng Teng fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Mar 27, 2011 |
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 19:11
|
|
|
thenickmix posted:How do companies verify that you actually graduated from whatever university you claim on your resume and/or what GPA you claim you obtained? They have you order an official transcript sent to the HR department.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 19:15
|
|
|
They could also toss your SSN over to the Student Clearinghouse to verify attendance, but the transcript is usually easier (and they don't need your SSN or anything).
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 20:11
|
|
|
Or, in the defense industry, they do massive back ground checks because if you can't get a clearance you're nearly worthless to them. So, yeah, they check.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 20:14
|
|
|
I'm not even in the defense industry and I got a pretty thorough background check.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 21:17
|
|
|
At my school you can give your employer your ID number and some other stuff and they go to a webpage and it says what my current status us.
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2011 21:19
|
|
|
edit: Never mind.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2011 06:06
|
|
|
Lord Hamsterbottom posted:I'm a Materials Science & Engineering major with a concentration in nanomaterials, 3.7 GPA. For the past two summers I did nanotech research in the labs over at NIST, working in the cleanroom and on stuff like graphene. I applied again this summer, but I'm getting the sinking feeling I didn't get in for some reason, since a lot of my friends already heard from them weeks ago. I got a call from a company a week before summer vacation started back in my day so it's not out of the question. Just send out a shitload of resumes to companies in your geographical region and hope some hr dept was slacking. Start talking to profs that do summer research. You may find one that could use help. Meaningful experience, even with low/no pay, is better than sitting around eating lucky charms while you watch the price is right all summer....actually that sounds good too.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2011 04:35
|
|
|
thenickmix posted:How do companies verify that you actually graduated from whatever university you claim on your resume and/or what GPA you claim you obtained? As already mentioned, usually a company will ask for an official transcript. Lately though, more than a few places have started asking people to bring in their physical diplomas for inspection. This is a problem for me as one of mine is in Latin, so there's a good chance I'd have to get it translated and then get said translation certified by a public notary.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 03:27
|
|
|
Ugh, I am really torn here. I am rounding down my third year in ME and I have started to look longingly over at Cpt S, due to the high quality of the jobs software engineers have. The problem I have is I don't know if I would be happy as a programmer, OR a ME. After this long I would think I would have learned, but having never been into cars and hands on work I haven't experienced much things mechanical, and I have done little to no programming. In fact the classes I can say I really enjoyed was more mathematical analysis like dynamics/dynamic systems. Would it be worth it to switch over a little blind; or if I stuck with the ME major and worked on a Cpt S minor and got a good background in programming? I am assuming a ME that can program would probably be more useful than a Software Engineer that knows how to deal with energy and mechanical systems.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 07:15
|
|
|
Maybe you should try a little programming and see if you like it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 07:16
|
|
|
BeefofAges posted:Maybe you should try a little programming and see if you like it. Yeah, do this...working on software has the lowest cost of entry of basically anything.
|
|
#
?
Mar 30, 2011 14:19
|
|
|
resident posted:I got a call from a company a week before summer vacation started back in my day so it's not out of the question. Just send out a shitload of resumes to companies in your geographical region and hope some hr dept was slacking. Start talking to profs that do summer research. You may find one that could use help. Meaningful experience, even with low/no pay, is better than sitting around eating lucky charms while you watch the price is right all summer....actually that sounds good too. Yeah, I've been sending out resumes to pretty much every engineering company in Connecticut. My research advisor says I could stay here to do summer research, but... I'm kind of sick of my research lab here. I'm thinking of taking the summer off to travel/practice painting/learn the theremin/etc. Would doing summer research in the same lab I've been working at three years affect my resume at all? Obviously if I can get industry experience that would be helpful, but if staying here and doing research for the summer wouldn't really matter career-wise, I'd rather not do it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2011 06:19
|
|
|
I have started to look at programming and was wondering, is there any really worth in getting a minor in something like EE for a ME?
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2011 07:08
|
|
|
Ingenium posted:I have started to look at programming and was wondering, is there any really worth in getting a minor in something like EE for a ME?
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2011 10:50
|
|
|
That's assuming you could minor in EE. You'd probably have to double major. I don't imagine there is a lot of overlapping classes between ME and EE, so I hope you like the 5/6 year plus plan.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2011 13:02
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 15, 2024 09:59 |
|
|
I know two people who did/are doing the ME+EE route. The guy who finished his did it in 4 years and had a large amount of job offers before graduation. The other is probably going to continue onto grad school. Both double majored, didn't do a minor.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2011 15:00
|
|