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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 24, 2011 16:22
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Shoren posted:(PS once you get an interview make sure you send a thank you email to the interviewer within 24 hours. I've been told it makes or breaks job offers) I've had people I interviewed send me a thank you note (or not send one) and I really don't care at all. All I want is for them to demonstrate skill, knowledge, and a good personality. Does anyone else hate interviewing people, or is it just me? I don't feel like I've ever been given enough time to really get a feel for someone. I've always only been given 30 minutes with potential candidates, which really isn't enough, especially if they turn out to be a talker.
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Sep 24, 2011 17:01
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I've gotten the impression that most engineers hate interviewing people. A lot of them seemed to feel pretty awkward/not know what to ask when I was looking for work. The worst was a panel interview for a job I didn't really want ($45k in NYC) where no one had any idea how to interview and would just ask "so...any questions?" every couple of minutes. That was also their first question. My best luck with getting interviews was just applying to the engineering jobs on Craigslist in the Northeast. Write up a nice, concise cover letter showing what you have to offer w/rt the job and proofread it. Never got much response applying through company websites - 1 phone interview out of hundreds of applications and it was to make Hormel canned meat products.
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Sep 24, 2011 20:18
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I could use some advice.... I am now in my junior year of college and still have not really decided what kind of engineering I want to do. I am finishing up some of the last engineering 'gen-eds' like dynamics and DFQ this semester so come spring I have to choose. I completely loving loathe both coding and chemistry, so that knocks out a pretty nice chunk of the possible options(EE, CE, ChE). Aerospace seems interesting but I hear the field is saturated because everyone wants to be aerospace. For civil /construction the job market is supposedly not fairing well so I have been warned to stay away. So it's really down to either industrial, or mechanical engineering. Both interest me, and have extremely large job markets. But I am trying to figure out which one of these would entail less cubicle work? While I guess there will be plenty of that in either field, I know I would enjoy a job that would keep me active and moving about, even if it's just to collect data or something. The harder course load of mechE is also somewhat intimidating, but I am sure if that will get me a more fun job, I can buckle down for a few years to make it through.
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Sep 26, 2011 05:02
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Shoren posted:(PS once you get an interview make sure you send a thank you email to the interviewer within 24 hours. I've been told it makes or breaks job offers) Its funny how I thought this until I was involved in a hiring process. Though - do HR people care?
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Sep 26, 2011 07:04
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Do HR people have literally anything else to care about?
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Sep 26, 2011 07:55
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Any Industrial Engineers have jobs that aren't totally lame? I graduated last year in IE after returning to school from five years of software development. I failed out of EE and got talked into finishing an engineering degree rather than switching to something else. I've been working at a restaurant for a year and a half and enjoying my life. I'm depressed at the prospect of going to the next career fair and selling myself to get into a job that I will loathe.
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Sep 26, 2011 08:38
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Then keep working at the restaurant. Sounds like you don't want to be an engineer. Your degree doesn't have to be your career. Unless you have to pay off gambling debts or something.
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Sep 26, 2011 10:50
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Pimp Cauldron posted:Any Industrial Engineers have jobs that aren't totally lame? Most of my IE friends work for Disney or GM and love it. Disney because it's Disney and being in the engineering department is actually hilariously fun and avoids a lot of the crazy stuff that the rank-and-file hourly types have to deal with. GM is fun because it's real-life Dilbert with good pay and a workload you set yourself, because again it is a caricature of an American corporation. If you want a job where you can slide by on your rear end without doing any real work, look no further than the North American automotive industry.  If you're happy in the restaurant life though, and used to be a software developer, you should start doing iOS apps or something and make some money. Apple2o posted:I could use some advice.... The upside, and downside of MechE is that it's really loving broad. You could be a simple CAD jockey, you could be doing materials, you could be doing a huge amount of different stuff. Lots of options for graduate school too; I know MEs from my school that went to materials out at Colorado School of Mines, fuel cells / alternative energy at Northwestern, biomedical/biomech, prosthetics, and many for the typical MBA (one chick got a full-ride to Harvard). I know the guy that went to materials intended that from the start, and he just treated his ME degree as a "general engineering" degree. So if there's something you want to do at the graduate level (how much work experience do you have, by the way?), consider the undergraduate pre-requisites for it. In my humble opinion, biomedical is a bad undergrad degree to get, but an excellent graduate degree to pick up after ME or EE. Now, I know you said you hate coding, but the fact is that in modern engineering, having the ability to code will make you immeasurably more effective. It's obvious why for EE and CE, but as a MechE, you could write scripts / automate your workflow to greatly improve your efficiency. As an EE, it's possible to focus in an area that isn't very coding-intensive, say high-power/high-voltage, but coding will always lurk around the corner. Perhaps the software packages that high-voltage guys (Delta-Wye are you here) tightly couple with MATLAB and you need to write scripts. If you can get over your hatred of coding, engineering will be much better for you. (Hell, you can impress the boss by spending 10 minutes writing some VBA to automate his spreadsheets) Also, if you want to avoid cubicle work (at least initially), most engineering fields will have field applications or similar positions that are perfect for college grads. You learn about the company and they pay for you to travel around and support their product. Great for the single guy (or lady). My trainer for AMI on BIOS coding spent 40 weeks a year on the road, and AMI pretty much paid him to teach classes during the day, and then expense away drinks and entertainment, and get laid nightly. A fraternity brother of mine is an IE, and right now his time is 70/30 split between the manufacturing flow, and doing things with numbers in his cube (Minitab, Excel, other stats stuff). movax fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Sep 26, 2011 |
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Sep 26, 2011 15:44
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movax posted:Thank you for the excellent response. I don't really plan on going to grad school, as while my scholarships are covering a decent amount of my tuition, my college fund will be running dry about midway through senior year so I will be going into a decent amount of debt to finish up. My hatred of coding mostly stems from the fact that I took C programming my first semester of college as a comp sci major(when I was one of the many wide-eyed freshman CANT WAIT TO MAKE VIDEO GAMES GUYS  ). I can say that it easily had the workload required of my current classes, and I was not at all prepared for that yet. I stumbled and clawed my way out with a 55%(my first C ever), and promptly switched to engineering. The initial classes like calc 1 and physics 1, while hard, were not as intense so they let me ease into the workload over time mixed in with gen-eds. Chemistry just doesn't click with me in general and I barely got a B in intro to chem for engineers. As for work experience, I have held a part-time / summer job as a deep water lifeguard at Disney World for the past few years. I did a few interviews for internships / co-ops and all of them pretty much ended with 'come back when you have more relevant classes'. I actually love Disney as a company, if I could get hired as an IE I would be loving ecstatic. 
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Sep 27, 2011 03:38
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Apple2o posted:Thank you for the excellent response. I don't really plan on going to grad school, as while my scholarships are covering a decent amount of my tuition, my college fund will be running dry about midway through senior year so I will be going into a decent amount of debt to finish up. I you have a part-time job of some sort I don't think that one semester of university is going to throw you into significant debt. Unless of course your university is super expensive, in which case, that sucks. Same thing happened to me as far as coding is concerned, took C++ and just. didn't. get. it. It really didn't click with me. I've never really had to do a lot of coding, even as an EE. Mostly a bunch of Matlab kind of stuff. In all reality, I probably should learn some coding skills to make myself more valuable as an Engineer. Any ideas on where to start with that guys?
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Sep 27, 2011 04:13
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SB35 posted:I you have a part-time job of some sort I don't think that one semester of university is going to throw you into significant debt. Unless of course your university is super expensive, in which case, that sucks. Learn some Python, it's easy and it's nearly universally useful.
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Sep 27, 2011 06:17
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So, all you Computer Engineering majors, what did you end up doing after graduating? I'm a freshman now, so I still have a semester or two before I really have to start taking courses based on major, but I'd love to hear any experiences you guys have. I don't have it narrowed down completely yet, but I'll likely end up an ECE, CS, or maybe even ISST depending on how my classes go.
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Sep 27, 2011 06:53
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2011 15:21
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Thoguh posted:What is ISST?  http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/academics/undergraduate/curriculum/handbook/2010/majors/isst.cfm
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Sep 27, 2011 16:20
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Wolfy posted:First hit on Google was from Cornell where they teach it out of the engineering college and the curriculum looks like nothing you'd see in a typical MIS degree. Yep, it's that. They don't have a straight Information Science major in the Engineering school, but we can concentrate in it within the ISST major. Same thing with Electrical and Computer Engineering. But there's an IS major in the arts & sciences school?
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Sep 27, 2011 16:56
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Gogey posted:So, all you Computer Engineering majors, what did you end up doing after graduating? I'm a freshman now, so I still have a semester or two before I really have to start taking courses based on major, but I'd love to hear any experiences you guys have. I don't have it narrowed down completely yet, but I'll likely end up an ECE, CS, or maybe even ISST depending on how my classes go. My job's a mix of EE and CE, but if I had to pick CE-specific stuff I'm doing, I guess it would be FPGA development. Designing a PCIe <-> proprietary bus interface using a FPGA and writing the driver software for it. All depends on your school, really. Mine had only one comp arch course (granted you learn a lot more about this in grad school) and seemed to really shoehorn CE majors into being glorified IT guys or embedded MCU developers, which sucked.
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Sep 28, 2011 16:04
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If you use SolidWorks to do any sort of force modeling or anything like that please go here: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3440094&pagenumber=1&perpage=40#post395990644
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Sep 28, 2011 21:06
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 28, 2011 21:18
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I just got done with three interviews on campus today for full time positions (Iowa State, so you've probably interviewed in the same room I have, Thoguh). It's a relief that they're over, now I just have to wait and see if any of them invite me back for on-site interviews. Any tips for these? Also, you generally have a pretty good shot at getting the position when you're invited on site, correct? My greatest nightmare would be getting invited for a second interview three times and not getting any of them.
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Sep 29, 2011 00:14
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 29, 2011 01:10
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Dr. Mantis Toboggan fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Aug 11, 2021 |
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Sep 29, 2011 01:37
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I figured that would be the case. The ones I've interviewed at are all rather large. Still, I figure if anyone's willing to fly me half way across the country to interview at a plant, they must have a good feeling about me. On a different note, can anyone share any experiences with consulting? I've dealt with consultants in my internships but actually being a consultant isn't something I know too much about right now, and I'm interested.
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Sep 29, 2011 18:59
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Lord Gaga posted:If you use SolidWorks to do any sort of force modeling or anything like that please go here: Seriously guys go read this thread it is amazing and not for any of the reasons the OP intended.
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Sep 30, 2011 04:48
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Gogey posted:So, all you Computer Engineering majors, what did you end up doing after graduating? I'm a freshman now, so I still have a semester or two before I really have to start taking courses based on major, but I'd love to hear any experiences you guys have. I don't have it narrowed down completely yet, but I'll likely end up an ECE, CS, or maybe even ISST depending on how my classes go. I just graduated with my ECE degree in May and I've learned that a lot of people don't really know what it is. Most of the time the engineers I work with just assume I'm CS or EE. This could also be that I work for a smaller company and I'm the youngest guy here by about 20 years. I don't think Computer Engineering existed when most of these engineers were in college. The head software guy here (only software guy before I was hired) did his undergrad as EE and master's as CS so I guess that's as close as the older generation got. What I actually do is probably skewed again cause it is a small company. Sometimes I end up doing technician type work, testing/debugging hardware. I do a fair amount of programming on embedded systems and as of recently my time is now being spent creating magnetic models of battleships and submarines (Not at all what I expected to be doing).
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Oct 4, 2011 15:18
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Apple2o posted:I am now in my junior year of college and still have not really decided what kind of engineering I want to do. I am finishing up some of the last engineering 'gen-eds' like dynamics and DFQ this semester so come spring I have to choose. My biggest recommendation as a senior in ME is to look at your schools clubs that involve allot of different types of engineering. Through this I have come to learnt hat I love programming and want to start driving my career in the path of control systems. Largely being able to work on the different aspects of a project and see which one most excites you will definitely help you understand what route you should take.
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Oct 4, 2011 17:01
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Ingenium posted:My biggest recommendation as a senior in ME is to look at your schools clubs that involve allot of different types of engineering. Through this I have come to learnt hat I love programming and want to start driving my career in the path of control systems. Largely being able to work on the different aspects of a project and see which one most excites you will definitely help you understand what route you should take. I'm interested in control systems. Can you tell about what you've found out about pursuing that?
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Oct 7, 2011 08:32
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Placebo Orgasm posted:I'm interested in control systems. Can you tell about what you've found out about pursuing that? Not as much as I need to. I am currently trying to personally learn as much as I can about different control system, but in terms of job pursuing I have focused more on getting my foot in with a company, even if the offer is outside of control systems. Have you already taken your control system classes?
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Oct 7, 2011 16:34
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Placebo Orgasm posted:I'm interested in control systems. Can you tell about what you've found out about pursuing that? Take every controls class you can (sometimes they masquerade under weird names, like Dynamic Systems) and take some extra high-level math. The extra math really helps out I think, seeing as controls is heavier on math than say pure circuits or semiconductors. Personally, I escaped with my EE degree without taking a single controls class whatsoever (  I know). I taught myself controls with Ogawa's book last winter, studying it for a few hours each night after work to fill in that gap in my knowledge. I can't say I like controls engineering, but I feel much more comfortable as an engineer now that I've filled in that gap in my knowledge. I still would have rather had a class with a lab though.
movax fucked around with this message at 06:18 on Oct 10, 2011 |
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Oct 8, 2011 07:27
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movax posted:Personally, I escaped with my EE degree without taking a single controls class whatsoever. Is controls something one could get into as a mechanical engineer? I'm at that place in freshman year where you're thinking about what direction to go in and everything is interesting.
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Oct 9, 2011 23:35
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 10, 2011 04:37
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Placebo Orgasm posted:Is controls something one could get into as a mechanical engineer? I'm at that place in freshman year where you're thinking about what direction to go in and everything is interesting. You could totally get into controls as an ME. I had this awesome plan of what electives I would pick and take when I came in a freshmen; the realities of college scheduling kicked me in the face, and I ended up taking whatever electives happened to fit my schedule instead. I can't say I was interested in controls, but at my co-op it seemed like an important thing to know, so I did want to take it. Someone in here could probably describe their job more if it has to do with controls. All I know from observing is that the controls guys at my job spend every day staring at MATLAB/Simulink and friends, and I don't think I would enjoy that.
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Oct 10, 2011 06:21
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Thoguh posted:Well, what do you think you want to do when you grow up? The crossovers between mechanical and electrical engineering seem the most interesting. Can someone recommend a book about engineering? I've read Studying Engineering by Landis but that only touched briefly on what the different branches do, something that goes in depth on that would be really helpful at this point.
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Oct 10, 2011 07:08
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I would say, control is more like a tool you apply to whatever field you are in. The cool thing is that it applies to almost every field. It's a gateway into applied math and some really really cool stuff. If you get into it, you kind of end up somewhere between an EE/CE and an ME. Which is super valuable in industry. You should be cool with seeing the big picture of a particular system and not obsessed with details, because you're probably going to be in a role where you're answering big, important questions early on in a project before you actually know anything. And you're going to do that by building mathematical models and running simulations.
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Oct 10, 2011 07:29
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Placebo Orgasm posted:Is controls something one could get into as a mechanical engineer? I'm at that place in freshman year where you're thinking about what direction to go in and everything is interesting.
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Oct 10, 2011 10:43
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Placebo Orgasm posted:The crossovers between mechanical and electrical engineering seem the most interesting. grover fucked around with this message at 12:57 on Oct 10, 2011 |
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Oct 10, 2011 12:53
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Part of my EE controls class dealt with mechanical systems, mainly to demonstrate how easily controls theory can applied to any type of system. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't some sort of controls class as part of the ME curriculum.
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Oct 10, 2011 16:26
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Placebo Orgasm posted:Is controls something one could get into as a mechanical engineer? I'm at that place in freshman year where you're thinking about what direction to go in and everything is interesting. For MechEs, control systems was a required class at my school, and mechatronics classes were also offered. Mechanical engineering is very broad. If you are thinking, "can I do _____" as a mechie, there's probably a niche for it.
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Oct 10, 2011 20:20
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For anyone who took the PE for Electrical Circuits, what references did you take with you? There's not too much on NEC on this version of the Exam but will I need anything more than my PPI book's information for that session? I could probably borrow a copy of the NEC from someone or I know my dad has a version (either the '99 or '05 NEC). Other than that I'm planning on taking separate copies of the AWG table, resistivity of common materials, periodic table, and my FE supplied Book  .It's strange--I just finished the book of study topics but feel like I need to totally rehash & review the circuits portion since it seems like it was so long ago. I certainly hope some of the problems in this PPI book are harder than they will be on the exam, there's a LOT of algebraic turning the crank in this review book than I suspect they can reasonably expect us to do on the real thing. I'd appreciate any general tips at this point if you've got 'em! I know it's late in the game--two weeks out--but I'm just about ready to get this over with.
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Oct 11, 2011 21:10
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| # ? May 16, 2024 10:10 |
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The PPI practice exams (all practice exams, really) are way harder then the real exam. There is a trivial answer for every single question on the actual PE test, even the afternoon session. If your approach requires 5 minutes of algebra on the real thing, you're probably doing it wrong. But don't sweat it that it takes 15 minutes for some third party practice questions, so long as you know how to do it.
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Oct 12, 2011 01:01
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