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Pander posted:I don't mind commercial nuclear, I just wish I weren't always contracting for high profile high priority projects that are fast-tracked 8 ways from Sunday. I can at least say I've done some pretty ridiculous stuff despite only a couple years 'real' experience. Also, the secret is to find the good plants to live at. They include I graduate with my BSNE in about a week and a half, and two weeks after that I start my masters. I'm probably not a great candidate for getting information from about the job market. I can tell you that the Navy labs, Sandia, Los Alamos, Pantex, and Marshall flight center, Urenco and WIPP, the NRC, and Arizona Power have all be on campus recruiting, along with some others that I'm forgetting. I have friends that have done work with INL, Argonne, Oak Ridge, PNNL, white sands... And every single one of us is going into grad school save one guy, I have no idea what he's doing. Or you can go the route that I am and go to grad school for a field so narrow that you'll be one of only a few people in the world with the knowledge required to do anything in said field. The drawback is that the field is probably so small because there is no demand for it  Also Ginna NGS is in a fairly nice area of New York, I grew up around there.
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May 6, 2014 05:35
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" college grad. Might be time to look again, I think my current A/E firm is starting to look dicey long-term.
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Pander posted:I don't mind commercial nuclear, I just wish I weren't always contracting for high profile high priority projects that are fast-tracked 8 ways from Sunday. I can at least say I've done some pretty ridiculous stuff despite only a couple years 'real' experience. Also, the secret is to find the good plants to live at. They include My issue with the commercial nuclear industry is that the utility I've worked with acts like a giant baby (and from what I heard the other utilities are not that much better). Additionally there is stupid poo poo like a utility willing to spend 100k to expedite a part they've got to have right now, instead of listening to the person identify the issue several months ahead of time. You have to remember that there is a reason things like NRC's fatigue rule had to be invented. Also the fines that the NRC give to power plants are pretty drat low in contrast to how much money these things make per day. If you graduate as a nuclear engineer you can do work a mechanical engineer can, one of my co-workers was like that. I keep hearing "oh we need more people experienced in nuclear" but when you consider the number of facilities that have closed or are shutting down and the people from there looking for other jobs I think the nuclear market is oversaturated. Frankly I rather work in the petrochemical industry and that is what I'm trying to do.
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May 7, 2014 00:34
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Couple of quick question for all the process control engineers. Most if not all of my process class was done using transfer functions. My textbook also seems to exclusively do things using transfer functions. After doing some research it seems that transfer functions are being dropped in favor of the state space method. So is all the stuff I just learned near useless? Also why do people still use simulation programs when using the state space method? Using a block diagram over a set of equations just seems really clunky to me ( its totally possible I've completely misunderstood state space, I've only read a PDF or two). Also how many jobs do you find even use simulation software? Two of my friends who had completed internships told me they did everything in excel.
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May 11, 2014 19:06
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I need a project signed off on by a PE. It's a cart that transports about 1,500 lbs of parts from one end of a factory to another and dunks them into a bath then lifts them up and holds them as they drain. Apparently the process is to send them your drawings, then if the design works they sign off on it, but also they explicitly state that we have to build it and test it, and if it fails it's 100% our responsibility and no liability will fall upon the PE who gave their signature but we give them two and a half thousand dollars. What is a PE for again?
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May 13, 2014 02:39
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Alastor_the_Stylish posted:
To make more money.
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May 13, 2014 03:23
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They will take responsibility if they did all the design work. You are paying them to review and approve the design. You could always get your PE... (although if you have no PEs then they probably will not count your engineering experience so you are boned) Also yes PE is about making money. Made me about $10K more a year when I got it.
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May 13, 2014 04:15
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Xeom posted:Couple of quick question for all the process control engineers. Most if not all of my process class was done using transfer functions. My textbook also seems to exclusively do things using transfer functions. After doing some research it seems that transfer functions are being dropped in favor of the state space method. What kind of work are you planning on doing? Do you mean like building manufacturing systems? I do manufacturing process controls and have built controls systems for manufacturing cars, engines, cake batter mixing, injection mold machines, paper manufacturing machines, etc. For the most part, everything you learned in that class will be completely useless to you if you're planning on doing manufacturing. For my job, you mainly need to know how to program a PLC (ladder logic), setup a robot, and learn some vision systems. I would think PIDs would be the most useful thing to take away from that class. The stuff in that controls class will probably only be useful to someone doing research, looking at the stability of an airplane or something like that. This may differ for a chemical engineer though.
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May 14, 2014 15:42
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It seems to me that the definition of what constitutes an engineer is becoming exponentially more abstract; just noticed my local schools are offering degrees in "Media Engineering" and that seems like the weirdest poo poo. 
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May 14, 2014 17:11
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Skeleton Jelly posted:It seems to me that the definition of what constitutes an engineer is becoming exponentially more abstract; just noticed my local schools are offering degrees in "Media Engineering" and that seems like the weirdest poo poo. It's being used more in the traditional sense or similiar to an "audio engineer". An engineer used to be more akin to what we now a days call a technician or skilled trade person.
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May 14, 2014 18:21
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I wouldn't be surprised to see engineering societies try to lock that down at some point. I know I have heard talk about it before.
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May 14, 2014 19:56
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 14, 2014 20:21
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Thoguh posted:How would an engineering society be able to prevent anybody from calling themselves an engineer? Other than the specific case of PEs anybody can call themselves an engineer if they want to. The Quebec Order of Engineers legally prevents non-members from calling themselves an engineer in any way, to the point where they successfully prevented Microsoft from calling their certifications "Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers" in that province.
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May 14, 2014 20:29
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The Chairman posted:The Quebec Order of Engineers legally prevents non-members from calling themselves an engineer in any way, to the point where they successfully prevented Microsoft from calling their certifications "Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers" in that province. I've been to multiple ieee conferences in Quebec and sure enough tons of people have engineer on their conference badge, guess they suck at policing?
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May 14, 2014 21:46
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Alastor_the_Stylish posted:I need a project signed off on by a PE. It's a cart that transports about 1,500 lbs of parts from one end of a factory to another and dunks them into a bath then lifts them up and holds them as they drain. Apparently the process is to send them your drawings, then if the design works they sign off on it, but also they explicitly state that we have to build it and test it, and if it fails it's 100% our responsibility and no liability will fall upon the PE who gave their signature but we give them two and a half thousand dollars. Sounds to me like the PE is saying the design and theory are correct, but if someone hires the lowest bidder for construction/manufacture and poo poo falls apart, that's not on them. I think everyone has been on a team at least once where they think "I'll do my part the best I can, but I'm not going down because of Short Bus Billy's screw ups that I can't control". spwrozek posted:I wouldn't be surprised to see engineering societies try to lock that down at some point. I know I have heard talk about it before. Apparently something happened with my state registration board that caused my company to change the official titles of anyone without a PE to not include "engineer". So now we have a bunch of "analysts" and "designers". I think it's funny, but a few co-workers were upset about it and no one I've talked to even has any idea how much authority or jurisdiction the state board has or what caused the change.
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May 15, 2014 01:28
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Thoguh posted:How would an engineering society be able to prevent anybody from calling themselves an engineer? Other than the specific case of PEs anybody can call themselves an engineer if they want to. Most state Professional Engineering boards are codified in law so they have enforcement over members and noon members. They fine people/firms all the time in Texas for referring to people as engineers, who don't hold a license. The one major caveat is that they give exemption to people working for companies that are approved by the state, so you can be an unlicensed engineer and still use the title.
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May 15, 2014 13:34
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So, after being in the workforce a couple of years, I'm looking to get back into academia by going for that Masters. I'm hoping I can hack the night-class route. I was originally planning on going into a hard science program, probably EE like my undergrad, but I've been thinking more and more about going for a masters in engineering management, specifically in systems engineering. Would something like that be worthwhile? I'm a little fearful that it might just be another tick mark next to my qualifications, as the local school that offers this program appears to accept pretty much anyone with an engineering/math degree with an undergrad GPA above 3.0.
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May 15, 2014 14:30
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 15, 2014 16:33
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I wanted to ask the opinion of people that are out in industry. A number of people I know are getting out of the military and going to online engineering schools. I'm extremely skeptical of this and have said as much. They're ABET accredited. All of the labs are done via simulator programs. Should I be discouraging people from doing this? It just seems really sketchy.
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May 18, 2014 16:51
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KetTarma posted:I wanted to ask the opinion of people that are out in industry. A number of people I know are getting out of the military and going to online engineering schools. I'm extremely skeptical of this and have said as much. They're ABET accredited. All of the labs are done via simulator programs. Should I be discouraging people from doing this? It just seems really sketchy. Which schools, in particular?
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May 18, 2014 19:58
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University of North Dakota and Arizona State University. Both have an online BSEE program. ASU uses all computerized labs (browser games) and UofND has you do all of your labs over one summer on campus.
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May 18, 2014 21:40
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If they are from ABET accredited, real brick and mortar schools and they are for EE/CS/IT, I see no problem with it. It might be a better learning experience to attend something in person, but it's not a scam. University of Illinois - Urbana is a VERY good Eng school and they offer an online BS in either EE or Comp Sci. To be clear, if it was mechanical engineering and they did the labs in web apps, I'd be concerned.
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May 19, 2014 00:02
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They're doing physics, chemistry, and circuit building labs in web apps. They're going to graduate as EEs with never having placed hands on a breadboard or oscilloscope. Seems crazy to me. FWIW, my program has 8 lab classes in it.
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May 19, 2014 01:35
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If ABET's signing off on it, it's gotta be at least passable.
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May 19, 2014 13:14
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For theoretical work, either will do but for practical work, I'd go with the traditionally educated engineer.
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May 20, 2014 23:17
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KetTarma posted:I wanted to ask the opinion of people that are out in industry. A number of people I know are getting out of the military and going to online engineering schools. I'm extremely skeptical of this and have said as much. They're ABET accredited. All of the labs are done via simulator programs. Should I be discouraging people from doing this? It just seems really sketchy. Edit** ABET actually covers this on their website. ASU's online EE program is ABET accredited, so no worries there. North Dakota's is not. http://www.abet.org/online-programs/ If they're going to want their PE license within the first 4-6 years of working, I would say go to a ABET accredited program. If the main campus has ABET accredidation but the online program does not, in terms of quality of the programs I would not be too concerned about it. If the college/unversity does not have ABET accredidation and is offering 4 year engineering degrees, then that is a red flag to me. Computer Science is different, they are not engineers and are not required to pursue licensing. Honestly out of all the Mechanical Engineering labs I did, most of them I think were a waste of time physically performing the lab. I think if you could create an online simulator that shows effectively what you do and churns out the necessary data you need to analyze, that is the key thing. While some labs you go get to do some hands on stuff (I enjoyed doing metallurgical analysis.) Stuff like fatigue life or modulus of elasticity labs are kind of boring. (TA does most of the set up and you just get your test results and go spit out some data.) Senor P. fucked around with this message at 00:56 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 00:43
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May 22, 2014 19:51
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Hell yeah man! Surely feels good.
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May 22, 2014 20:12
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Congrats!
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May 22, 2014 21:48
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Senor P. posted:Stuff like fatigue life or modulus of elasticity labs are kind of boring. (TA does most of the set up and you just get your test results and go spit out some data.) Now hold on there, you also get to come in early and help polish the samples for extra credit!
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May 23, 2014 00:33
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 Just got notice for this. As a 27 year old who went back to school after loving up the first time I feel pretty happy. Had to deal with a year of non-engineering courses at this school first.
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May 24, 2014 18:45
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HClChicken posted:
Congrats! I did the same at 28 and everything worked out pretty well.
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May 24, 2014 18:52
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HClChicken posted:
Did something similar...nuke engineering in 2000-2002, history degree 2002-2004, then went back to finish off that loving nuke degree from 2009-2011. I found it a LOT easier the second time around, a lot more focused, and a lot more fun. Enjoy it, work hard, network.
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May 24, 2014 19:28
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I was wondering, how much does the company you engineers work for contribute to your 401k? I got laid off recently so I know I need to get used to whatever is the normal going rate. (I was getting 6% match + 3% bonus on company performance which was pretty nice.)
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May 26, 2014 18:10
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8% for 4% match, I get a pension as well. My old company was 6% for 6% match.
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May 26, 2014 18:49
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I get up to 5% contribution + up to 6% match.
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May 26, 2014 19:23
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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May 26, 2014 20:15
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If I put in 6% the company puts in 10%
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May 26, 2014 21:41
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I'm starting a job in about 2 months and their benefits states that "the Company will match 50% of your contributions, up to 8%." To me this doesn't really specify if the max is 8% contrib, 4% match or 16% contrib with 8% match. It is immediately vested though. I'm guessing it is actually 8/4 but I haven't contacted the office yet. How far should one go for "free" matched money? 16% seems like a lot.
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May 26, 2014 21:54
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Hollis Brown posted:I'm starting a job in about 2 months and their benefits states that "the Company will match 50% of your contributions, up to 8%." To me this doesn't really specify if the max is 8% contrib, 4% match or 16% contrib with 8% match. It is immediately vested though. I'm guessing it is actually 8/4 but I haven't contacted the office yet. quote:How far should one go for "free" matched money? 16% seems like a lot.
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May 26, 2014 22:04
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Hollis Brown posted:I'm starting a job in about 2 months and their benefits states that "the Company will match 50% of your contributions, up to 8%." To me this doesn't really specify if the max is 8% contrib, 4% match or 16% contrib with 8% match. It is immediately vested though. I'm guessing it is actually 8/4 but I haven't contacted the office yet. How far should one go for "free" matched money? 16% seems like a lot. My company has the same wording and it is 8/4.
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May 26, 2014 22:14
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