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Heli0s posted:Any advice on what I should ask for in terms of pay? Really just going into this to get some experience but I guess the shop monkey gets paid. Minimum wage? Again, depends on what you're doing. I'd say about  /hr minimum if you're doing stuff used in production. More if they have you in the office.
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Jun 6, 2011 11:53
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After a few years post-high school (I'm 23 now) of just trying to get by with little success (working as a driver, then working at a law firm and dealing with lawyers all day before being laid off), I've decided to go back to school (thanks FAFSA for your arbitrary age limit of 23 to be declared an independent student!). My grades in high school weren't the best (I admit, I slacked off and ended up graduating with a 2.7), but the classes I did well in were the math and science classes. In high school, I really enjoyed chemistry (took two years on the AP track, got a 5 on the test), but I've heard that the pure science might not be, shall we say, the best option for employability. Given this bit of information I've overheard - Would it be a good idea to pursue chemical engineering? Since my high school record isn't exactly the most stellar thing, I'll have to go to a 2 year community college (California student here, live in Orange County) before I can transfer to one of the UC (probably UC-Irvine or UC-Los Angeles if possible) schools. From there, I intend on going to grad school if possible for a master's. Am I a fool for attempting this path? Should I look into any alternate disciplines (Electrical Engineering)? Or should I just say "gently caress it" and go back in to the world of low paying office jobs with no benefits?
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Jun 6, 2011 12:01
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I might as well have not gone to high school because I didn't learn anything meaningful even though I took AP calculus, physics, etc. and I had to retake them all again in college anyway so I wouldn't worry too much (at all) about what happened in high school as long as you have good study habits now. You should also probably just study what you find most interesting because any degree with "engineering" in the name is going to get you a job much easier than pretty much anything else.
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Jun 6, 2011 15:30
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Shipon posted:After a few years post-high school (I'm 23 now) of just trying to get by with little success (working as a driver, then working at a law firm and dealing with lawyers all day before being laid off), I've decided to go back to school (thanks FAFSA for your arbitrary age limit of 23 to be declared an independent student!). Edit: does anyone have any suggestions on books about manufacturing/lean tech stuff? I might have an opportunity to work as a lean tech at a pretty big company and I'd like to have at least some idea what I'm talking about before I go to interview. T.H.E. Rock fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Jun 6, 2011 |
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Jun 6, 2011 16:35
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Brendas Baby Daddy posted:If you've been working 5 years, why do you consider yourself entry-level? You are limiting yourself. 5 years is lots of experience. A company is never going to believe you're not the right person for a job if you don't. I haven't been working for five years, I've just been using SolidWorks for that long. I'm still an entry level employee. My professional experience consists of a 2 month internship and 2 years of VERY off-and-on freelance work.
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Jun 6, 2011 21:15
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2011 22:38
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This just made my day...
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Jun 6, 2011 23:06
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T.H.E. Rock posted:Edit: does anyone have any suggestions on books about manufacturing/lean tech stuff? I might have an opportunity to work as a lean tech at a pretty big company and I'd like to have at least some idea what I'm talking about before I go to interview. Lean for Dummies is what we give to most new guys. Googling everything Thoguh mentioned would probably be sufficient for an interview. If you do end up getting the position, hope they have something like eVSM. It makes Visio not a huge pain in the rear end.
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Jun 7, 2011 00:32
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Cheesemaster200 posted:This just made my day... Congrats! I'll be finally taking that in October.
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Jun 7, 2011 00:55
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Cheesemaster200 posted:This just made my day... Grats fellow MD April 2011'er! I just found out today I passed the Civil PE. MD sure took their sweet time releasing results.
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Jun 7, 2011 01:16
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SeaBass posted:Congrats! I'll be finally taking that in October. Let me know if you have any questions in regards to the test. I found that the practice exam was a bit misleading on the type of content on the actual test. quote:Grats fellow MD April 2011'er! I just found out today I passed the Civil PE. MD sure took their sweet time releasing results.
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Jun 7, 2011 02:02
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All right: management blows. My boss was on vacation last week, and I took over a lot of his stuff. I didn't do ANY technical work - just putting out fires with the client over stupid poo poo. gently caress that noise. Or if I do ever have a stroke and decide management will be right for me, I'll try to do at least a half day of real work each week.
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Jun 7, 2011 02:10
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Cheesemaster200 posted:This just made my day... Admit it- you already ordered your stamp, didn't you? 
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Jun 7, 2011 02:11
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Phlegmbot posted:Or if I do ever have a stroke and decide management will be right for me, I'll try to do at least a half day of real work each week. Hahahaha keep up that dream buddy.
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Jun 7, 2011 15:19
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Phlegmbot posted:Or if I do ever have a stroke and decide management will be right for me, I'll try to do at least a half day of real work each week. In the consulting world at some firms, managers are required to bill a certain percentage of their time to engineering. Whether or not they actually do the work is suspect, but they certainly bill out like they did.
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Jun 7, 2011 18:23
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jun 7, 2011 20:26
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I only have one boss but we're a small company with less than 50 employees spread across a few govt contracts. He sit in the cube directly across from me and we haven't talked about anything work related in several weeks and I am mostly autonomous. The customer comes directly to me with whatever or I just invent my own work to do if they don't have anything for me.
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Jun 7, 2011 20:29
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IratelyBlank posted:I only have one boss but we're a small company with less than 50 employees spread across a few govt contracts. He sit in the cube directly across from me and we haven't talked about anything work related in several weeks and I am mostly autonomous. The customer comes directly to me with whatever or I just invent my own work to do if they don't have anything for me. Same situation here. I love working at a small company. Basically zero bullshit.
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Jun 7, 2011 20:54
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I work at a large multinational conglomerate and I only have one boss. 
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Jun 7, 2011 22:54
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Thoguh posted:Who's lucky enough to have only one manager?  My boss leaves me alone for the most part, and aside from tasking me more and more work (sucks being the go-to guy), never questions me on technical matters.
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Jun 7, 2011 23:04
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plester1 posted:Same situation here. I love working at a small company. Basically zero bullshit. I work for a small company (250 over 4 locations), and they must be trying to emulate large company bullshit because it can be off the charts.
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Jun 7, 2011 23:25
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Last year I had a good 6 months without so much as eye contact with my nominal "manager". Right now I have half a manager and he's on vacation.
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Jun 8, 2011 00:52
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I work at a real small company of 11 total people and its great. Not a lot of time to spend worrying about stupid bullshit when the boss is too busy being the owner/manager/head engineer/dealing with customers.
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Jun 8, 2011 06:10
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Advice needed. I graduated with a bachelor's in biomedical engineering a few years ago. I've been working on a biomedical thing for a year and a half, it's ophthalmic implants. They're not really very complicated products though so even though it has been good experience in the sense of understanding some design aspects of medical devices and understanding the process of making a medical device and all the needs and stuff, it's not exactly made me a full-fledged designer of anything (which I wasn't before, since as has been mentioned here before, they don't really teach you to make anything in BME). This job actually ends in December (it's funded by the local govt (this is outside America) and we're close to finishing anyway). So I'm going to grad school in October. I applied because 1) I could tell that this job wasn't gonna be extended after the thing ends and also even if it did, there wouldn't be anything worthwhile to do and 2) I pretty much wanna leave the country I'm currently at and it's simpler through studies than through trying to score a job. So it's Grad school for biomedical engineering, focused on biomaterials and biomechanics stuff. So my question is, what coursework should I add (that's outside the scope of our general 'biomedical' classes) in mechanical engineering in order to have a better knowledge base and better job opportunities? I was originally thinking design, though I dunno if manufacturing might be a better idea. Or both, though I dunno how possible that is in terms of credit hours and time. I'm thinking in terms of 1) job opportunities in the future 2) what I'm actually good at / not terrible at 3) abilities that could potentially allow me to make a living for myself. I tend to like structural/stress stuff and trying to model problems. I didn't enjoy what little electrical engineering I took in school. And like, products. I'm kinda wanting practical skills in something that isn't too limiting. And yes I realize BME itself is limiting, but that ship sailed a long time ago.
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Jun 9, 2011 16:25
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Somehting to keep in mind is that almost every single thing you see around you was either made by a machine tool or made by something that was made by a machine tool. If you want to be a practical employee know what it takes to run, setup, use and some basic of design of machine tools.
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Jun 9, 2011 17:06
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Agreed 100% with Lord Gaga. I'd say manufacturing, and if that doesn't float your boat, focus on materials. Your field will be pretty specialized, but getting real familiar with the kinds of materials used in human implants, and their benefits and limitations seems like something that would be really valuable.
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Jun 9, 2011 21:32
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This is probably a dumb question, but why doesn't current flow through the ferromagnetic core of a transformer?
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Jun 10, 2011 05:58
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OctaviusBeaver posted:This is probably a dumb question, but why doesn't current flow through the ferromagnetic core of a transformer? There are eddy currents in the core, but there's no current through the core because the windings are insulated. I'm not particularity knowledgeable about transformers, though.
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Jun 10, 2011 06:09
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I work at a top 10 independent natural gas producer. I'm lucky in that I have just one manager but unlucky in that he thinks his job title is "head engineer" not "director of operations." So he spends most of his time doing our work for us and treating us like techs who gather data for him to make engineering decisions. Consequently we have no techs on staff. It's very frustrating.
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Jun 10, 2011 13:49
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OctaviusBeaver posted:This is probably a dumb question, but why doesn't current flow through the ferromagnetic core of a transformer? If you picture your right hand somewhere inside the ferromagnetic core of a transformer, you'll note that the electric field produced will be exiting out the side of the transformer- EG, it has nowhere to go to complete a loop, and thus no current. The only place the magnetic field can induce current is in the coils of wire surrounding them. As Jyrraeth pointed out, though, there are some eddy currents created *in* the transformer core; if there was some way you could look with a microscope, you'd see little loops of electric current all through it. But you'll also note that most ferromagnetic cores are not a solid piece of iron, but stacks of thin iron plates with insulation between then. This is partly for ease of manufacturer, but also to reduce eddy currents, as they are a loss of efficiency- wasted electricity and extra heat.
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Jun 10, 2011 16:17
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Auditore posted:Looking at going into engineering at Uni next year, I'm final year high school in New Zealand right now. I'm thinking of doing electrical which is a four year degree. Also probably rather branch off into electronic (like circuits etc) instead of the power station side of things. Small world - I'm a civil engineering student at the University of Auckland. What uni were you planning on going to? If you're able to go, I'd certainly recommend UoA. I don't know much in the way of jobs since its not my field. If you want to get stuck into Engineering really soon then you should sniff around for internships at the end of second year (or first year if you're really onto it, but don't expect much). With regards to your uni years, it all depends on your work ethic. If you procrastinate like the rest of us, you'll certainly have some V-fuelled sleepness nights. If you manage your time well then first year will be pretty chillaxed. And most importantly: acquire a taste for beer before uni starts!
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Jun 11, 2011 10:53
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Coritani posted:Small world - I'm a civil engineering student at the University of Auckland. What uni were you planning on going to? If you're able to go, I'd certainly recommend UoA. This world is tiny as heck. What's your (and others from NZ)'s take on other universities that offer Engineering as an option? For example, AUT, Waikato and Canterbury? I'm trying to get into AUT at the moment, have to do their foundation semester with B+ average.
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Jun 12, 2011 12:59
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Well I got accepted into Purdue's School of Engineering at the IUPUI campus. This is going to be a giant kick in the balls after being out of school for 6 years isn't it.
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Jun 13, 2011 06:28
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Coritani posted:Small world - I'm a civil engineering student at the University of Auckland. What uni were you planning on going to? If you're able to go, I'd certainly recommend UoA. Just checked this. What year are you? Got an older sister doing 3rd year Mechatronics at Canterbury and I'm probably going to go there next year, (I'm from the bottom of the SI) despite the earthquakes, like today. Re jobs: hopefully I get a scholarship to work at the local aluminium smelter during the Uni break (my sister also got one), for about 3 summers. This also counts for my required ~200 hours of work experience plus I'll be getting paid around $8000 for shift work for 8 weeks.
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Jun 13, 2011 10:28
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To the PhD's out there: According to some PhD biologists, they said not to go for a PhD thinking that it would improve job prospects, because it only prepares a person for academic research, which isn't what most companies are interested in. Does this hold true for engineering? I'm pretty sure the field I want to go into (satellite design, and hopefully stuff beyond Earth) has no corporate or military presence so academia is where I should stay. Confirm/Deny/Wildly Speculate? Edit: entomologists posted:NEVER get a PhD because you think it will improve your job prospects. PhDs are trained to do research in an academic setting, for the most part. And that is….not, frankly, where the majority of jobs are. You will be disappointed and frustrated if you think getting a PhD will make getting a job “easier.”
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Jun 14, 2011 00:05
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Kire posted:Wildly Speculate?
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Jun 14, 2011 01:10
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I didn't think there were any satellite jobs that DON'T involve military or corporate involvement. There's a gigantic Echostar uplink site right down the road from where I work, and one of my coworkers used to do satellite stuff in the Marine Corps.
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Jun 14, 2011 01:24
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In all of my dealings with the military-industrial satellite complex some of the corporate program managers and many lead engineers were PhDs, typically astronautical, aeronautical, or electrical. That's my weak anecdotal sample size, though. As a PhD you could still hammer out a career in academia--their research groups are forging ahead on nanosat and other emergent things in the field. I do agree with the general 'love your field, love science' stuff. You've got to in order to do a PhD in my opinion.
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Jun 14, 2011 04:58
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Kire posted:To the PhD's out there: According to some PhD biologists, they said not to go for a PhD thinking that it would improve job prospects, because it only prepares a person for academic research, which isn't what most companies are interested in. Does this hold true for engineering? You should not pursue a PhD unless you're interested in a career in research. My company hires PhD engineers. They start off at the same pay grade as someone with a masters degree in the exact same position. In the five years they spent earning that degree, they lost out on what, a quarter million before taxes? Honestly, I feel badly for the guys. I had a job offer to work in satellite design with a masters in electromagnetics. You don't need a PhD.
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Jun 14, 2011 05:02
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Will getting my BS in Engineering at the ripe old age of 32 hinder my job prospects that much?
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Jun 14, 2011 06:51
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