Tell me about being an Engineer!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Tell me about being an Engineer!

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

I studied Civil Engineering in school, with a focus in Project/Construction Management. I had issues finding employment at first, and took a job doing Data Analysis for an aerospace company, and am now transitioning into ME work.

From my experience there seems to be a large brain drain coming in the very near future. Most of the younger guys rely heavily on the older ones for just about everything, and when these guys retire in the next 5-10 years we're going to be seriously screwed.

So I would say go for it, maybe by the time you have a job we will have figured this out.

# ¿ Oct 10, 2009 22:43

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 07:33

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Dads posted:

Considering my resume/GPA and what I'm looking for in a job, anyone have similar experience or ideas about what my job market would be like? What are reasonable expectations about career freedom?

Belcan Corp and Butler America are always hiring engineers for 1-2 year contract positions. They will likely be at large companies (United Technologies for example) but it's much less of a commitment.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2009 00:45

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

The main perk to a short (or long depending on how you look at it), is that you're typically paid by the hour ($25-$33/hour to start, plus overtime).

However, benefits packages can be a little weak, no paid vacation or sick days either. But if you're looking for that kind of mobility, a contract position is more than worth it.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2009 02:01

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Does anyone besides me spend their entire day solving MRB issues, writing process plans, and generally correcting mistakes that the guys on the factory floor or suppliers make?

# ¿ Dec 25, 2009 00:03

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Shalinor posted:

I'm curious about this, and also how M.E. work differs between larger firms and smaller firms? Does the work get more applied and less cubical-based if you move away from corporate firms? Or is this purely a function of job title / "field work" in larger and smaller companies is identical?

I work for a large firm, 15,000+ employees when including our manufacturing departments. Here, yes I do ride my cube most of the day, fixing MRB issues and generally addressing failed inspections and reworks.

At least I'm in an IPT that's on the shop floor, so I'm a bit more hands on and close to the action; but the vast majority of our ME's and design guys sit in rooms the size of a football field on Catia V5 all day.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2010 03:33

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

movax posted:

If you just put Excel, sure, but putting down Excel + VBA/Macros could be better.

Excel is really flexible in what you can abuse it to do, and has a robust interface exposed via .NET/Interop so you can use scripting or any .NET language to do stuff as well.

99.9% of the time though, instead of becoming a proper application that is actually software engineered, it will remain a string-wrapped bundle of .xls and .dll files that entire departments will depend on. This is true for any industry.

*goes back to doing PCB trace length checking in Excel*

Most major manufacturing corporations have some type of lean principles/Kaizen these days; which are 100% data driven. Definitely don't underestimate what a strong background in Excel/Access or Hyperion can get you.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2011 00:14

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 07:33

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Cannister posted:

Anybody know about good places for a Computer Engineer to work in Massachusetts, Southern NH, or Northern CT? I've gotten nothing but radio silence from Intel for a week now and I want to keep looking. Looking to stay in Digital Design.

I hear the 128 corridor is the place to look in Mass - I don't know what's really there though, nor can you google "jobs along 128 corridor" so...

Pratt and Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand, and UTC Power are all located in Northern CT. Way closer than commuting to Groton.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2011 17:50

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Tell me about being an Engineer!