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At the two very large companies I have worked at an MSc is highly valued. I cant speak on the pay because I dont have one but certainly people put in positions of expertise have at LEAST an engineering management masters, technical people mostly all have technical masters degrees.
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Jun 25, 2015 02:23
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When I got my MSME my dept. director came up to me after I came back from my graduation weekend and said, "Congratulations, how's it feel to be the smartest person here?" and that was it. I had to figure out who to talk to in Personnel to get the degree listed in my file and then it was a ~$5k bump after burning 3 months with the back and forth. The company did pay for about half of the degree but my dept. doesn't value education like the company handbook suggests.
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Jun 30, 2015 04:46
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bred posted:The company did pay for about half of the degree but my dept. doesn't value education like the company handbook suggests. Could always take your education someplace where it's more valued. Free market and all that. quote:"Congratulations, how's it feel to be the smartest person here?" "  Is this the part where you and I trade salaries?"
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Jun 30, 2015 06:43
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Okay, so I have an interview with a company in a couple weeks. Nothing solid. How bad is it that I'm using a sick/personal day to go to that interview? Anything I should watch out for? Would it be bad if I couldn't give them a two week notice if the new company wanted me to work right away?
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Jul 1, 2015 06:35
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Jul 1, 2015 16:23
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Using a sick day to interview elsewhere is the best, they're paying you to get a better job!
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Jul 1, 2015 19:30
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Don't give notice until you have the written offer. Verbal's not enough.
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Jul 2, 2015 00:12
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GordonComstock posted:Don't give notice until you have the written offer. Verbal's not enough. This advice can be very important as it is not unheard of to be terminated immediately upon submission of a notice. Exiting experiences can vary wildly.
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Jul 2, 2015 00:39
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bengk posted:I'm a recent graduating electrical engineer that just got hired on as an automation engineer. However, I find myself behind a desk just monitoring machines for 8 hours a day where 90% of the time I'm doing nothing at all. The other 10% of the time I'm just dealing with network issues communicating with the automatic machines. My question is, am I wasting my time here? The pay isn't so bad I think for an entry level job at $65k in Long Beach, CA area. But I feel like I'm learning very little of what I feel like is a niche skill. Is there other work out there that will find my skills useful? Should I start looking for a better job now? I've found this one a little late but 90% nothing to do is an opportunity. Either to run a business in the downtime or that the job will lead to higher positions. My brother in law did a lot of similar work in the oil industry when he was first in an engineering position. That was the starting point which to his current position where he is in charge of the oil rigs he works on. I'd be pretty happy with 90% downtime compared with my work which can extend to long hours 7 days a week.
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Jul 2, 2015 05:46
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tbh 90% of new grads are going to be doing 90% thumb twiddling for at least a year or two. take that as given and learn as much as you can
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Jul 2, 2015 05:52
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Noctone posted:tbh 90% of new grads are going to be doing 90% thumb twiddling for at least a year or two. We've been interviewing new grads left and right for the last few months, it's just that time of year. New grads! I got news for you, you don't actually know anything yet. I don't care if you have a 3.96 from MIT, your CV pretty much says exactly what everyone else's does. Take your entry level offer and pay attention. As you perform the easy work you are being given to start with you will be given more opportunity once you have shown yourself capable of doing even that minimal task. e: If your new-hire task is to monitor the network the automation uses to communicate on then it's a pretty good bet that your employer thinks that the minimum skill set you need is a thorough understanding of the network. Murgos fucked around with this message at 14:14 on Jul 2, 2015 |
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Jul 2, 2015 14:06
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Noctone posted:tbh 90% of new grads are going to be doing 90% thumb twiddling for at least a year or two. As opposed to my first engineer job I was overloaded from the start. I was applying my research work to designs within two months of starting. Recently I got an engineer from the company I started with to pull up some old archive files for a building from 1999. I was sent copies of the design work I was after which included design work from my first month. Was amusing to see that as I'd forgotten the details of the project.
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Jul 2, 2015 20:17
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Devian666 posted:As opposed to my first engineer job I was overloaded from the start. I was applying my research work to designs within two months of starting. I have worked at two places in the 1.5 years since graduating, both big companies, and both of them involved 40 hours worth of work worth doing from the start. The first one more than that, the second started slower but I used the time to do research relevant to my positiona nd now I have a big presentation with a bunch of SMEs and a few managers in 2 weeks presenting a tool based on that research. Lessons: Use your downtime wisely to contribute. It's not true that new hires are definitely going to do meaningless work. EDIT: It may be worth mentioning I was a level 3 at the first one and a level 2 at the current one.
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Jul 2, 2015 21:13
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CarForumPoster posted:Lessons: Talking to some of the older engineers can be enlightening and listening to what work is going on is important. You'll find you might need to look at standards, regulations or so on and it's worth knowing them. If you have any other degrees that are not engineering they might be applicable. As I also have a chemistry degree I dealt with a number of hazardous substances jobs and helped get the company out of a major corrosion problem that could have led to a large claim. Don't underestimate how useful you can be.
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Jul 2, 2015 23:39
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Devian666 posted:Talking to some of the older engineers can be enlightening and listening to what work is going on is important. You'll find you might need to look at standards, regulations or so on and it's worth knowing them. Yea my company applauds new hires who find even commercial tools that are simply the latest and greatest that the company didnt use or know about. Whatever saves time and money and/or improves quality.
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Jul 3, 2015 02:16
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I have a simple Mech E question that I can't find in any text book or spec to back it up. Short version: I need a reference for how far bolts should be spaced apart. I have heard the rule of thumb is every 5 x diameter but a 1/4-20" bolt every 1.25" isnt happening. How far apart should bolts be on a flat plate? Longer version: A friend has a 10" x 20" x .1875" plate he is bolting electronics to in his home built race car. I ran some matlab scripts to vaguely estimate the first natural frequency which was about 90Hz. I am not a car dynamics expert but I suggested he try to get it up over 550Hz thinking 6000RPM/(60min/sec)*4 cyl firing per rotation = 10-400Hz sweeps, 400Hz*sqrt(2)=~560Hz. The suggestions I made were: Add crossmembers. Add bolts with flat+lock washers. (Currently 6 bolts hold it, thus my question how many is the right amount?) Move vibration sensitive electronics toward the fixed edges of the plate. Epoxy some of the plastic fuse enclosures to the plate. Consider epoxying the plate then bolting it down.
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Jul 6, 2015 23:45
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Honestly, unless the plate is going to be directly exposed to engine vibration, I would not focus that much on the natural frequency. The unless you're having to build something that is all out balls to the walls 24 hour endurance racing actual race car, which I really would not expect given that you are asking in this thread, I would not fret too much over it. As long as the electronics are of good quality, are lightweight, and are not mounted to the flimsy piece of sheet metal, I would be more worried about the actual wiring causing issues as opposed to the electronics for the plate itself. Along those lines, this link discusses wiring harnesses and such for race applications.
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Jul 7, 2015 00:37
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My job is dealing with environmental effects on avionics, e.g. shock, vibe, thermal, corrosion, etc, though for a jet propelled plane so I am not that sure of the vibe levels he will see. As the design sits currently, my friend, also a mech engineer, has a bunch of relays mounted to this piece of G10 and the first mode is probably less than 100Hz, i.e. likely to get excited often. The coil is also mounted in a way that it'll have overturning moments. I am confident that he will see short relay life as a result of this design and could use some upgrades in terms of rigidity. That is a great link and I did talk to him about service loops for his wires and commercial connectors and what not. My internship was for a mil spec crimp tool company. I realize my question is hella basic, but I still don't know where that "rule of thumb" comes from.
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Jul 7, 2015 03:22
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I would assume the rule comes from trying to ensure there is an even load on the materials being bolted together. In he case of a flange or other types of plates whose designs must allow for sealing, if the bolts are to far apart the gasket may not get the required contact pressure to avoid leaks (think of how many bolts a valve cover for a car has vs. the loads applied to it.)
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Jul 7, 2015 05:06
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I think the rules of thumb that you might encounter for bolt spacing & vibration probably have some big assumptions about materials, thicknesses, and excitation frequencies built into them (e.g. a G10 circuit card of .060" thickness running a random 10-2000 Hz profile) so I'd be careful that they are applicable. If you can't find one that closely matches your situation, you have to do the modal analysis yourself and adjust the bolt spacing accordingly. I'm not an expert on car or aerospace dynamics but you can probably Google search some articles on a racing car vibration environment and figure out what the sources of excitation are and which ones are worth worrying about. I would expect random vibration between 10-200 Hz and some big spikes at the engine RPM and its harmonics. Another suggestion might be to consider the use of vibration isolators if you can't get it rigid enough.
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Jul 7, 2015 05:09
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The AISC general rule for bolt spacing in connections is between 2.33 times the bolt diameter and either 24 times the plate thickness or 12" (whichever is smaller), so in this case you have a range of 9/16" to 4-1/2" spacing. The more rigid you can make the plate, the better -- adding stiffeners, turning up the edges, etc. The closer you can make it look like an easy 1DOF vibration problem, the easier it will be to calculate the maximum force on the bolts and figure out how many you need in total, rather than worrying about bolt behavior at different modes.
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Jul 7, 2015 14:07
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Thanks for the replies, that envelopes the problem quite nicely.
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Jul 8, 2015 02:02
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Can confirm, thumb twiddling expert after only seven months! At least I've performed two root cause analysis's. They will mean nothing, mostly because engineering has no say in this company. We are a support group and the plants are the customer. They mostly ignore anything we say that they don't like, and I am saying things they won't like. At least they seem to be buying into SPC, and we might have a chance to implement it on some lines. Haha no, it will take more than two months and they will just drop it. Only 1 1/2 years left till I can leave! Any advice in transitioning to a totally new industry? I am a ChemE, but working in thermoforming which is probably more of a ME deal. Don't think I want to do process engineering ever again. Quality engineering seems cushy enough and maybe I won't have to live in the middle of no where any more (I want to live in a city so bad).
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Jul 11, 2015 00:15
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Xeom posted:Can confirm, thumb twiddling expert after only seven months! At least I've performed two root cause analysis's. They will mean nothing, mostly because engineering has no say in this company. We are a support group and the plants are the customer. They mostly ignore anything we say that they don't like, and I am saying things they won't like. At least they seem to be buying into SPC, and we might have a chance to implement it on some lines. Haha no, it will take more than two months and they will just drop it. I did this. I went from a pre Mech E degree backgorund in CNC machining, graduated got a job in manufacturing engineering, now work in avionics qualification focusing on dynamics. I did it by dissecting the job descriptions for what I wanted to do into actionable things I could study the fundamentals and latest tech in. It worked very well, I was hired with just a phone interview to the 2nd or 3rd largest company in my industry. I enjoy my job much more now.
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Jul 13, 2015 03:28
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I'm an EE currently doing substation design. I like my job, but I'm beginning to think I'd be happier doing circuit design. Ideally I'd be working with other teams to determine the necessary function, parameters, and requirements of a circuit, designing schematics, selecting components, designing pcb layouts, and building and testing prototypes. Does this type of job exist or are these all separate roles in hardware design? I have relevant experience from my capstone project, would building a portfolio of hobby electronics projects be a good way to gain more relevant experience? What terms should I be searching for to find listings for this type of job? Any advice on switching from power to hardware and finding a job with an oscilloscope on my desk would be appreciated.
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Jul 17, 2015 04:28
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47I07kovkgkVABK5PNGa LsvP04VPdDDMj0OkqbEh VaXUnEwKgP24KAF5oPzu TaqaHcWAteqWiUmRbFnK h4movPbqZV0ZJoPSqmV6 hYa5aUilJ94hWHp6U50i U0x8EmbHWXaTRFQBBkk6 uuPSjsqqQc9JnNmv47YG l3GkuEWjVG6ORlVLxI9K uAX0iwDGAfK0isIcE9dL Plasmafountain fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Feb 27, 2023 |
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Jul 17, 2015 10:03
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HummedExplosions posted:determine the necessary function, parameters, and requirements of a circuit, designing schematics, selecting components, designing pcb layouts, and building and testing prototypes. Does this type of job exist or are these all separate roles in hardware design? Yes, this type of job exists, and they can also be separate roles, depending on many factors (industry, project, etc)
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Jul 17, 2015 18:26
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Heliosicle fucked around with this message at 21:03 on Apr 8, 2023 |
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Jul 18, 2015 00:50
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I'm looking for mechanical engineering jobs that would allow me to work with Arduino type stuff. What fields or companies (in Boston) would be worth checking out?
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Jul 18, 2015 21:37
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huhu posted:I'm looking for mechanical engineering jobs that would allow me to work with Arduino type stuff. What fields or companies (in Boston) would be worth checking out? There's a ton of microcontroller suites similar to Arduino but more powerful that companies generally use. Once in a while someone probably affixes an Arduino to a test stand or something to get something done, but just limiting yourself to that is pretty narrow. Those ATmega chips are gigantic for what they do, its more like a jack of all trades master of none thing going on.
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Jul 18, 2015 23:07
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Uncle Jam posted:There's a ton of microcontroller suites similar to Arduino but more powerful that companies generally use. Once in a while someone probably affixes an Arduino to a test stand or something to get something done, but just limiting yourself to that is pretty narrow. huhu fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Jul 18, 2015 |
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Jul 18, 2015 23:20
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Sorry it was kind of rambly, but Arduino is a hobbyist thing for people who don't want to deal with layout, BOM, assembly, and writing drivers for the supporting devices. Arduino might be used for a one off test stand or prototype here and there in industry, but its too expensive to implement in anything else (and inefficient), so that's what I was talking about. A lot of times the design and programming of similarly powerful (i.e. not powerful) devices is outsourced to China as a package deal of design, PCB fab, and assembly. Industrial Robotics (i.e., the robots that make money) use PLCs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_logic_controller These are like ultra bulked, constrained microcontrollers that prevent errors from disaster occurring, because a robot screwing up can kill people, cause explosions etc For autonomous things that rely heavily on vision or other sensors for job completion, that has been moving quickly to GPUs since nVidia has been targeting that market hard. For 3D printers there is only Stratasys basically, and they're using stuff way more powerful than Arduino. All the other 3D printers seem to be kickstarters or similar sized, so good luck with that. I'm not just name dropping fields here because what kind of background other than ME do you have that would get you considered to work with controllers like this? I'm just talking as an EE who hires CS contractors to do all the programming for that kind of stuff. The one place where I can see its possible is R&D, advanced research, or something similar where you just do it to support some other research you want to demo. (This is my industry and I still hire CS people to do this stuff, but there are some guys who do it themselves)
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Jul 19, 2015 00:04
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Math question for MechE types from a lost EE: I have a service air line. I want to do a hydrostatic test up to a certain pressure on something that's basically a building. Can anyone get me started on an equation that would give me the pressurization rate of the object as a function of time for different air hose sizes? I'm looking for a general equation. I'd also like to account for air flow rate as the pressures equalize if that's not too difficult. I've been looking at Bernoulli's Equation and the Navier-Stokes equation but haven't managed to figure out how to get started.
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Jul 19, 2015 00:38
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I didn't find a thread on here about the Professional Engineering exam so: I'm a Materials Science Engineer, but since graduating with my masters I've been building makerspaces and writing informal curricula for those spaces in science museums and community colleges. What I've been doing has hugely broadened my skillset, sure, but I haven't been doing a lot of real engineering. I'd like to put PE on my resume and prove that yes, I can still do math and read phase diagrams and poo poo - and I'd like to use that to get a job in rapid prototyping in aerospace. Does anyone have any advice about how to get prepped for the PE exam? Some searching around gives me a lot of options that are hard to evaluate.
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Jul 19, 2015 22:11
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Literally Esoteric posted:I didn't find a thread on here about the Professional Engineering exam so: Do you just need help studying for the exam or do you have questions about qualifying and sitting? If the former just get one of the PPI/other books and do a little each week in prep.
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Jul 20, 2015 00:01
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If you're actually after the PE license, remember that there's more to the license than passing the exam. You also need to have your supervised design experienced vetted, have your transcript evaluated, and get reference letters from other engineers. I'm not even sure if there are states that'd let you take the exam without already having all those other requirements addressed.
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Jul 20, 2015 00:25
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Uncle Jam posted:Industrial Robotics (i.e., the robots that make money) use PLCs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_logic_controller Not to discourage you since PLC programming is a great area to be working in right now, but everywhere I've worked has people with an EE background doing PLC programming since they usually also do the electrical design.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:25
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The Chairman posted:If you're actually after the PE license, remember that there's more to the license than passing the exam. You also need to have your supervised design experienced vetted, have your transcript evaluated, and get reference letters from other engineers. I'm not even sure if there are states that'd let you take the exam without already having all those other requirements addressed. In Illinois you can take the test regardless of experience. You just can't get your license without all the extra stuff you mention. But I know a couple engineers who took the test well early just to get it out of the way.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:44
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I’ve never had another ‘real’ job before so am I just taking things personal or are my coworkers rude as gently caress? Coworker Alice will come to my cube and ask me something project/work related and I start showing him or talking to him about it. Coworker Bob will come over to my cube to just make a short quip to Alice that he needs her help after she’s done with me. If this was the end of story then that’s fine, but Alice then asks for a general idea of what Bob needs help with and well the conversation goes on and on. OR, Coworker Charlie will come and blurt out to Alice “hey did you watch Game of Thrones???” and they start talking about it. Or Alice will overhear Coworkers Dan and Eric sitting in the cube next to me talking about something (either work or fun related) and she’ll join in their conversation. Meanwhile I’m sitting here like what the loving gently caress why are you both wasting my time and then Alice turns back to me and “sorry got distracted, ok can you start over from the beginning again?” I've also noticed that when I need to ask someone something very quick (like say "what operating pressure are you using again" where the answer can just be "20 bars" end of discussion) and they are in a conversation with someone else, I'll walk over to their desk and stand there waiting for them to acknowledge me before I ask my 1 answer question which can take forever of standing around. While other people like rear end in a top hat Bob up there will just come in and butt right in mid conversation.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:51
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Boris Galerkin posted:I’ve never had another ‘real’ job before so am I just taking things personal or are my coworkers rude as gently caress? There's a reason why a large number of sitcoms based around annoying office personalities exist.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:59
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