Tell me about being an Engineer!

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

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grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

I'm an electromechanical engineer and have been gainfully employed for about 12 years. I really enjoy it, but then, I'm a geek for this stuff! I specialized in semiconductors and MEMS in college, but ended up getting a job in a completely different engineering field. It's funny how life works out.

Academia and real-world engineering are night and day. Academia may reflect what a small subset of research engineers do, but the vast majority of engineers won't use 5% of what you learned in school. It's really quite discouraging, and why I never went back for my masters. For instance, nobody uses calculus; it's far too risky and unnecessary. Any differential equations you need to use were long ago derived down to simple plug 'n chug algebra, and anything more complicated is modeled on a computer. You quite simply will never use any of the math you're learning. (So don't worry if you're sick of that math, that's not engineering.) I hear this time and time again, too. What's important is that you truly and deeply understand the concepts and understand why something happens, even if you're not going to run the equations yourself.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2009 03:04

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:38

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

There are more engineers getting trained than ever before. In days of old, being an engineer was something special; there just weren't very many. Today, though, with so many people getting college degrees, and engineering considered a money major, there are a lot of engineers graduating, (some of whom probably should be engineers, but that's another issue). Employment opportunities are still terrific, but what we're seeing is a lot of creep of engineers into areas traditionally filled by technicians. So, engineers today often get more changes to get their hands dirty. I'd say it's almost a necessity- you can't design well if you don't get in there yourself.

Vaporware posted:

but, I also had a real engineering job doing 3D stress analysis and yes, you need to pay attention to calc & statics/dynamics to excel at being a proper engineer. I passed the EIT/FE but you need to work around PE's to get the rec letters so I don't know if I'll bother getting my PE, especially since an EIT allows you to work in any state and PEs are state-specific.

I'm a PE. The laws vary from state to state, but if you passed the PE exam and have a PE license in one state, it's usually pretty easy to get licenses in other states. In many cases, states have reciprocity and will accept licenses from other states with similar licensing laws. There are a handful of exception; civil PEs in California have a lot more hoops to jump through and have to pass special seismic exams, but for the most part, it's just a matter of filling out paperwork and paying the licensing fee and BAM, you're a PE in a new state.

PEs can work in any state they want, btw. They just can't stamp anything unless they're licensed in that state. EIT means absolutely nothing in legal terms, so there's no restrictions. An unlicensed PE, EIT and someone who failed the FE exam have the same authority.

grover fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Oct 2, 2009

# ¿ Oct 2, 2009 16:56

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

BeefofAges posted:

I'm not sure about this. When I was in school, a lot of the professors complained that enrollment in engineering was way down from where it was years ago. Likewise, when I was interviewing for jobs after graduation, a lot of employers said that it's getting harder to find engineers to hire.

Sales engineers, engineering managers, software engineers, all sorts of places engineers shouldn't really be working but are sapping from the workforce because they're hiring people with 4-year engineering degrees to do things only tangentially related to engineering? Yeah, it's hard to find engineers for these jobs, so they up the pay until they can seduce people away from more traditional engineering jobs. Employers really like people to have such a great technical background, even if they don't really need it. It's essentially a broadening of the field, and it's increasing demand for engineers.

At least it's not as bad as the "any degree required" jobs that liberal arts majors are vying for. Most engineers can at least pay off their student loan debt.

grover fucked around with this message at 17:46 on Oct 2, 2009

# ¿ Oct 2, 2009 17:42

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Necc0 posted:

I'm a computer engineer ... (for the record: I'm only a senior and still don't even have a real job)

So, you're a computer ~~programmer~~ engineering student and haven't even graduated yet... why are you posting in this thread? If you want, you could ask questions, I'd be happy to answer.

BTW, don't expect to be handed a $50k job the day after graduation, it doesn't quite work like that. You might get lucky if your internship pans out, but despite complaints by employers of how hard it is to hire engineers, you'll fine the same is true of engineers trying to find good jobs.

grover fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Oct 2, 2009

# ¿ Oct 2, 2009 18:48

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Necc0 posted:

Because I've done real work as an engineer and am set to graduate in the spring. That's why. Is striking out programmer supposed to be an insult or something? I'm not really sure.

No, not at all. Was more of an inside joke; most computer engineers I knew in college end up doing nothing but programming, while EEs did what's normally thought of as computer engineering. All good fields, though.

Also, you might want to work on your people skills a little.

grover fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Oct 2, 2009

# ¿ Oct 2, 2009 19:23

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Slumpy posted:

Has anyone here been horrible at math and decided to become an engineer? How did that work out?

If you're horrible at calculus and other math, you can most likely find an engineering job where that doesn't matter. You'll have an extremely difficult time making it through engineering school to get that degree, though. About 50% of your coursework will either be math, or extremely math intensive, and if you struggle with it, you'll spend an inordinately large amount of time on math homework and hate life.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2009 22:32

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

El Kabong posted:

How are things for engineering technicians? I'm debating going back to school for an Associates in EE, and figure that if I like it I'll get a BS since all credits will transfer for this particular program.

The market's tough as there are so many engineers with 4-year degrees graduating now, but it will give you a huge step up for a lot of technician positions. Check out jobs openings in your area for an idea of what sort of jobs are being offered to engineering techs. You're far more likely to be hands-on than with a traditional engineering degree.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2009 10:40

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Godders posted:

As an Engineering/Commerce student (I'm an Aus goon, so this would be a double major in Engineering/Business), what majors can I choose out of the Business stream that would compliment my engineering degree? I currently have it narrowed down to finance, accounting, management and international business.
Or should I have just gone down the B Eng and then MBA route?

EDIT: Sorry about that. I'm majoring in Mechatronics Engineering and yeah finance was something I just tacked on because I am curious if it would be useful at all. I mean in terms of career advancement.
vvvvvvv

Every engineering field requires managers. A degree in business coupled with an engineering degree is very marketable for project managers, program managers and the like, where you need to understand the economics as well as the engineering. Expect to do more business than engineering if you breach into management, though.

grover fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Oct 6, 2009

# ¿ Oct 6, 2009 21:55

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

DerDestroyer posted:

My father has been in aerospace engineering for over 30 years now.

I think what he meant to say was "don't be an aerospace engineer in Canada." Aerospace is one of those fields that sounds really cool and thus more people graduate than exist jobs. That's OK because aerospace engineers are still engineers and cross-marketable, but it's still a thin field and jobs are harder to come by than, say, mining or petroleum engineers where there are more jobs than engineers willing to fill them.

It sucks whenever it's your job that was outsourced, but engineering is still one of the best career fields in North America.

grover fucked around with this message at 00:49 on Oct 8, 2009

# ¿ Oct 7, 2009 21:54

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Thoguh posted:

GPA isn't everything, but for that first job it needs to pass an arbitrary threshold so that companies even bother to look at your resume. After that first job nobody gives a crap.

It matters less, but it still matters. It will always be there on your resume; if you don't put it, people will assume it's even worse than what it actually is, so you HAVE to put it. Some companies will even require it, and require you to submit a transcript. So no matter how hot your poo poo is through your 30 year career, if you've got this 2.3GPA or whatever on your resume, you will be judged by it like it's a quantitative measurement of your intelligence or work capacity or whatnot.

Mongolian Squid posted:

Have you looked into the US Navy's nuclear officer pipeline?

Would be a long and difficult process for him, since he's Canadian.

grover fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Oct 13, 2009

# ¿ Oct 13, 2009 22:54

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Thoguh posted:

Exactly, it's only on the first one because the companies don't have anything else to judge you on. Once you get past entry level there's no reason you would need to continue to include it. At that point your worth is defined by your skills and accomplishments in your prior jobs.

I suppose it wouldn't hurt you to list it if you wanted, but it isn't expected in any way, at least not in the US.

It must depend on the hiring company, then, as my experience has been that everyone wants to see GPA and some even want to see a college transcript. If the hiring company knows you, then it probably doesn't mean much, since they already know your worth. Or if there were few qualified applicants, then everyone gets an interview. For big companies, government, etc, there's plenty on your resume to judge quantity and type of experience, but not a whole lot else to tell your quality.

grover fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Oct 14, 2009

# ¿ Oct 14, 2009 01:55

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

lightpole posted:

Right now Im working for Solar Turbines Inc. and trying to figure out what I want to do when this job is up in 2 weeks.

Not to interject work into this thread, but I'm trying to get some of the engineering data for a pair of 25 year old solar turbines (X"d of the attached generators, specifically)- is that something you have access to if I can give you the model/frame# of the units?

# ¿ Oct 14, 2009 03:35

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Huskalator posted:

Besides the $$$ why would someone want to be an engineer? For example what are some cool things engineers get to do?

What is the most interesting field in engineering and why?

I quite honestly enjoy engineering. I do it for a living, and I do it for fun in my spare time! Just like any other job, there are aspects I don't like, but I enjoy the satisfaction of developing and completing a design and seeing it come to life.

Also, I get to travel the world on someone else's money. And get paid to do it.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2009 01:29

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Dukkha posted:

I never took the EIT and worry that I may never be able to having been out of school for as long as I have.

It's only going to get harder the longer you want. If I were you, I'd take it as soon as possible.

I waited 8 years to take the FE/EIT exam and had to start over from scratch, which took a lot of effort, just for the sheer breadth of the test. If you prepare for it, though, you'll pass- it's those people going in cold with no prep just because everyone else is taking it that make for most of the dismal failure rates.

grover fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Oct 15, 2009

# ¿ Oct 15, 2009 21:56

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

frr posted:

I don't mean to sound too negative, but I am totally and completely unexcited about something I used to love, staring at a computer all day eats my soul. If I did not have so much student loan debt Id go back to school to do something else.

That's not a "real" engineer's desk; a real engineer's desk is stacked 2' tall with paperwork, and every inch of the walls covered with drawings graphs and schematics!

This is what engineers do, though; a lot of time is spent at a desk doing "engineering." And writing. Emails, reports, requesting information, etc. Lots and lots and lots of writing.

grover fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Oct 19, 2009

# ¿ Oct 19, 2009 12:01

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Dangbe posted:

I guess my questions for you guys are:

-Is taking an accelerated Bachelors (3 years) to get an engineering degree insane?
Possible if you take classes over summer and intersession, but you might have issues with scheduling, as some courses must be taken in a particular order but aren't offered every semester. Since a lot of your philosophy credits should count towards your engineering degree, it might not even be as bad as this.

-What are some of the defining characteristics of your work compared to other types of engineering. Contrast Mechanical, Environment, Electrical, etc.
I went for a multidisciplinary degree that combined them all. It was tough, but I'm a very well rounded engineer because of it, and can speak authoritatively in a large number of areas. Each have their specialties and specialized mathematics. Subdisciplines get even more specialized. Hard to really compare. Rest assure, there will be a lot of math in school.

-What should I expect when going back to school... Can I hold a 30hr/week job and finish this program in 3 years?
If you sacrifice all else, yes. But you'll probably hate life. Most people do internships in between semesters instead. If you can swing a lab job where you can pretty much sit and study while waiting for experiments to finish, might work out pretty well.

-Is the school that I attend all that important for the degree?
Somewhat. MIT looks a lot better on a resume than Regent University, but most schools fall in the middle where it really doesn't matter much.

grover fucked around with this message at 19:45 on Oct 19, 2009

# ¿ Oct 19, 2009 19:39

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Dangbe posted:

More Info:
I am specifically interested in alternate energy creation. So after doing a lot of reading today I was thinking Power/Mechanical Engineering, but I don't know if that's a viable major. Some sources point to mechatronics as being the major that deals both with Electrical and Mechanical but I am not sure if I will be able to focus enough on Power Engineering in this major. Maybe do Power Engineering for Bachelors and go for more schooling in Mechatronics afterward?

Power engineering is a very good field, and always in demand. Due to the nature of it, it's very difficult to outsource, and so is rather well protected. It's also a very broad field, where industrial power is different from residential is different from utility.

You're going to be in a team for anything like this; if you want to do alternate power, you can work in the field as a mechanical or a civil even if you have no EE background at all.

One thing you can always do, regardless of what major you select, is take electives from other engineering disciplines. I majored in Engineering Science, which included all the fundamentals of electrical, mechanical, civil, aerospace, industrial and nuclear engineering and then focused in on a particular multidisciplinary field our senior year. I did MEMS (integrating mechanical components into microchips), but a wind turbine certainly falls into the category of "multidisciplinary" where you need EEs for the generator, AEs for the turbine, MEs for the tower, CEs for the foundation, etc.

# ¿ Oct 21, 2009 01:10

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

CheerGrrl92 posted:

I have 2 questions, first a small background.

I took calculus and chemistry in one semester last year and it was harsh. I got a B in chem and and A in calculus though.

I was going to be an EE, but I changed my mind, for different reasons.. the first being that I wanted to have a life in college (something I neither care that much about now nor believe anymore) and I had other career choices in mind, along with the fact that declaring EE after 2 years in college puts me back 2 years, practically.. I am really indecisive.

Now I am 2.5 years in and Im still considering doing EE. Im wondering.. should I ?

That means it will have taken me SIX years to get a degree.

If I stick with mathematics I can finish a degree in a year and a half. I know a lot of you say that where you get your degree from and gpa only matter to the extent of getting your first job.. could I land myself a crappy engineering job with a mathematics degree and then use that experience to land me a decent engineering job if I were to show my worth? Or is that highly unlikely?

I really doubt you're 2 years behind. The first 2 years of any science-related major are going to be very similar; in some cases, identical. You may end up having to stay in an extra semester to take the handful of EE-specific sophomore classes, but you can probably make up for it by taking a class or two over the summer.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2009 19:07

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

hobbesmaster posted:

Hard prereqs can really screw people over. His school may do something stupid like having circuits require a prereq of a freshman seminar or something like that. As a result, you can end up two years behind, but you those two years consist of one class a semester.

Everything can be overridden by talking to the right people though, you should see if you can sit down with the EE department's director of undergrad studies.

I skipped all sorts of prereqs when I was in college. Honestly, I pretty much ignored them entirely when picking electives; nobody even checked on it. The main problem is that unless you're hot-poo poo, you're probably going to have problems in a course if you don't have the necessary background.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2009 23:59

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

SA's new military forum

Namarrgon posted:

I'm interested in pursuing an engineering job in the military.

What is it that you do? Standard day to day routine?

What type of engineering? I know of a few openings, but they're pretty specific.

Also, all US government civilian jobs are through http://www.usajobs.gov/

# ¿ Oct 23, 2009 20:37

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Dangbe posted:

Would my education be compromised by doing this? I feel like at a good engineering school I should go there for all 4 years to get the best education possible. Is this not true? Besides missing out on "the best education" I feel like I might not be prepared for the higher level courses if I take lovely community college classes. Thoughts?

It wouldn't be compromised at all. I did an early admissions to college thing where I spent my senior year of high school at the local community college, and found (at least in my experience) that the education was excellent, and the overall attitude and work environment better than that of a traditional 4-year school. I think the difference was that although a majority of the people in the 4-year school were there just because it was expected of them, but it was really just an extension of high school and a time to party. Whereas most of the people in the CC were either there because they couldn't afford a better school, couldn't get into a better school, or were established in their careers and going back for their degree- one thing they all had in common was they WANTED TO BE THERE. They aren't just there to get by, but actually learn. And it makes a big difference.

The coursework is the same. One thing you MUST be sure of is that all the credits transferred. For instance, I received 3 credits for drafting, but the school I transferred to made me retake it anyhow because the CC was almost all table drafting (was 15 years ago btw) and didn't include as much CAD drafting as the the degree requirements reflected. The "intro to engineering" course was a complete waste as well. Except for the factory tour we went on, that was pretty cool.

The best part is the cost- 2 years of CC will cost you about the same as 1 semester of a typical state school.

Groda posted:

Calculus 2 is the worst calculus.

No, that's Calc 5. Sucks rear end, and worse- is worthless poo poo nobody will EVER use. At least Calc 2 is useful.

grover fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Oct 28, 2009

# ¿ Oct 28, 2009 22:04

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Corrupted posted:

What does Calc 5 cover?

Most I've seen is 3 semesters.

At Penn State, we had:
1- Derivative
2- Integral
3- Vector calculus
4- Differential Equations
5- Advanced Differential Equations

We also had to take linear algebra, and analytical methods (finite element analysis, etc). Multivariable was covered in Integral and vector calculus.

# ¿ Oct 29, 2009 22:35

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Thoguh posted:

What kinds of topics are in "Advanced Differential Equations"?

Worthless ones. Every week was a new partial differential equation that had to be solved by some bizarre specific method that nobody will ever encounter in their professional lives. The entire course was made redundant by mathematica, matlab, etc, and they knew full well nobody would ever use any of this and the prof so right up front in the course. The dean of the engineering dept was teaching it, too. I have no idea why they even offered it, letalone required it for my major.

I was in Engineering Science, a multidisciplinary honors-only major. We took the core fundamentals courses from all the different engineering disciplines, and so needed all the math. Except this one, which nobody "needed" but we had to take anyhow. None of the other engineering majors had to take the 5th semester of calc, as far as I know.

grover fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Oct 30, 2009

# ¿ Oct 30, 2009 02:13

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Phlegmbot posted:

No complex math? Or was that naturally covered in your other courses? ie, Cauchy-Riemann, Cauchy�s integral theorem, etc.

It was mixed in with the rest. Also, I hadn't mentioned it, but we had quite a lot of complex math taught in some of the EE specific courses, too.

Namarrgon posted:

You are all horribly spoiled. An entire semester for differential calculus? drat.

Depth vs breadth. There's a lot more to some of this than you can cover thoroughly in half a semester.

# ¿ Oct 30, 2009 13:05

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

My experience has been a lot like Cyril Sneer's: lots and lots and neverending paperwork. Even as a junior engineer, I spent as much time writing emails and reports than doing actual design. Every promotion just makes it worse and worse.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2009 04:09

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

slorb posted:

If you're going into a decent engineering program you're probably smart enough to have gotten good grades in highschool / other degrees with zero/minimal work. This approach to studying engineering won't work unless you're one of a handful of people at your university that you will probably end up despising.

If you are able to do this in college, and slack by with 0 work, you're not going to be able to get straight As, that requires going to class, but you'll likely end up with a good enough GPA and will be able enjoy your 4 years of school as much as the liberal arts kids do.

You're ultimately going to eventually apply to NASA's astronaut program or some other poo poo hot awesome job... and get flatly rejected because Bs aren't good enough; they don't just want brilliant people, they want brilliant people who work their asses off.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2009 13:37

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Thoguh posted:

Or did you mean that your university doesn't allow students to declare an engineering major until after freshman year? Because then those pre-reqs would make a lot more sense.

Americans tend to use the terms "college" and "university" interchangeably, but these are distinct and separate categories of schools in other countries.

Cypress, most accredited engineering degrees in the US are around 120 credit-hours and take 4 years for the typical student to complete.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2009 23:37

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Nihilanthic posted:

So why is HVAC boring? Blowing air around and studying how heat moves and unevenly heated air mixes looks like it would be kind of complicated - and if its always in demand and pays well, why not do it? For that matter, what's the pay like? I checked and I only find M.E. salaries, not HVAC-specific ones.

It's boring to a student because it's practical design and not on the cusp of physics, but as far as practical engineering goes, it's just as exciting/non-exciting as every other branch. There's a lot more to HVAC than people see on the surface, a lot of thermo, but also a lot of fluid dynamics, control electronics, etc. It's not like you can just say "oh, I have 20 tons of heat, I need a 20 ton CRAC unit" because there is a lot more to it than that, and it all needs to be designed and calculated.

AA is not nearly has marketable as a BS. With an AA, you'll never be considered an "engineer", just an engineering technocian. This may still open up a lot of job opportunities you don't have now, but I have a feeling you'd regret the decision later on when you hit your career peak within a few years of starting, and watch young and inexperienced engineers getting promoted above you.

grover fucked around with this message at 11:45 on Nov 4, 2009

# ¿ Nov 4, 2009 11:43

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Blight Runner posted:

I'm curious about the P.E. title/certification. How difficult is the test? I feel my exposure to physics and engineering can steer me to the right topics, but I'm sure I'm forgetting something. Any topics that you recommend beyond: dynamic analysis (fatigue, stress, failure, etc), thermo, and physics? Should I just go through my curriculum and try to re-learn everything from the past 5 years?

My current job has me doing a lot of planning and book keeping, so I'll need to sharpen my skills again. No real time limit on how fast I learn, just looking for suggestions on improvement when the job doesn't always provide it.

The first (and hardest) part of the PE exam is the application. Once you get that done, the rest is easy!

The FE exam is a hard test, but you don't need to ace it, just pass it, and it's easy to pass with prep. The PE exam is extremely difficult; You really have to know your poo poo! If you know your poo poo, and know it under pressure, it's easy. If you don't, you'll never pass. That's why it exists. Typical pass rates are between 40-65%, depending on the discipline and year. The NCEES website has all the info you need. You'll need to check with your local state engineering board on their requirements to sit for the exam.

IMHO, the PE exam is not so much a test of how much you know, but rather how well you can use your references to get the right answer.

SneakySnake posted:

Yes and no. College in the military is one of the things that sounds great but isn't as great as it works out to be.

I had a boss a few years back, a LCdr, did nothing all day but take online courses. He earned 3 masters degrees before retiring.

grover fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Nov 4, 2009

# ¿ Nov 4, 2009 23:00

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

spwrozek posted:

DifEQ...better?

I hope you are not serious... The FE is freaking easy. Buy the review books, go through it, pass. It is seriously easy. The worst part was waiting 2 hours to start the second half. The only people who think it is hard is bad engineers(who don't pass anyway) and lazy people who don't give a drat.

The thing about the FE is that every question on it is trivially easy... if you know how to do it. If you can't answer the 2 minute problems in 30 seconds, you're doing it wrong. The breadth of the test is so expansive that it's difficult to know how to do it all, though. Everyone gets their area of expertise as a bunch of gimmes, but knowing all the OTHER areas is tough- that's why there's a 40ish% failure rate. I took it 8 years after I graduated college, way overprepared, and left about 2 hours early, scoring well into the 99th percentile when I took it. But I recognize that it's a bitch of a test- I mean, it's 8 hours of marathon test-taking.

I think those who fail are those who heard it was easy and don't prepare at all and walk in expecting a cakewalk... and are rudely surprised.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2009 02:52

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

hobbesmaster posted:

You got your actual score back? I just got a letter that said "Congrats, you passed". I would say that the FE isn't hard, it is however exhausting. Tip: see if you can get an explanation of how to do "easy" problems in the various areas from an upper class man in whatever engineering discipline is. Basically everything on the exam is easier than you want to make the question; that in and of itself makes things harder (if that makes sense),

Yes, I was not expecting it. I got my score back from the PE, as well. Only a few states did this, and only for a few years. I'm glad I was one of the lucky few! NCEES says they don't like disclosing scores because they designed the exam to be a measure of minimum competency, and don't want to see people try to use it as a sort of metric to compare two engineers' skills.

grover fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Nov 5, 2009

# ¿ Nov 5, 2009 11:44

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

hobbesmaster posted:

But water into acid makes such cool explosions!

Guy on history channel the other day was showing off this gigantic vat of hydrochloric acid (seriously, this thing's about 12' long, 4' wide and 4' deep, all full of high-molar hydrochloric acid) and to demonstrate how reactive it is, he pours in half jar of base (forget what) which of course immediately erupts, spraying acid all over the place. They then show this guy shimmying precariously on this 6" ledge between two of these tanks to service one of the pieces of equipment on it, saying how he'd die almost instantly if he fell in.

Great job, history channel.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2009 02:48

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

plester1 posted:

I use that stuff at work and it's not that bad if you know what you're doing and observe the proper safety protocol

Scariest chemical I've had the pleasure of encountering is phosgene. Only substance I've used that has an NFPA health rating of 4. If you smell it, you're already at 4x the exposure limit and your lungs might liquify! You have to wear a detection badge if you're using it.

If you couldn't already tell, I got my degree in chemical engineering. Now I do research work with catalysts in the energy industry. If you have any questions, ask away!

The scariest I've worked with is Hydroflouric Acid, which also has a 4 rating. It's colorless and odorless. It can't be stored in glass containers because it will dissolve right through glass It can't even be used in quartz containers- solid teflon is used because it's about the only thing that lasts long enough to be of use. Just passing a silicon wafer over the top of an open container is enough to dissolve glass off the surface. It's as powerful an acid as they come, but if any of it slashes on you, you won't feel a thing because the very first thing it attacks is the calcium in your nerve endings. The first indication of a chemical burn is hours later when it's eaten through your flesh and the excruciating pain starts as it begins dissolving your bones.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2009 11:58

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Nihilanthic posted:

Call me short sighted but my biggest thing right now is to get a job in a nice city in a nice place, so I'm leaning to HVAC because the money's good and its not hard to find that in big cities it seems. But what else can you do and expect to be in an office downtown or in a suburb somewhere and not, say, in the middle of nowhere?

Most new-construction engineering jobs will be like this; depends on the company and your specific job how much you'll be on-site as opposed to in the office, but there's not a whole lot of site visiting required in new construction. You design it, check it when it's done, help the installers when there's a problem, maybe a interim inspection or two, and that's about it. Structural, electrical, piping, etc, will all be like this. If you go this route, you'll definitely want a PE license.

SecretFire posted:

Also, teflon is certainly not the only thing that isn't dissolved by HF. Many plastics are rated for it, including some glove materials.

Probably has to do with contamination, then; I'm sure there's a lot of material that can be splashed briefly and not penetrate. Teflon is almost uniquely non-reactive, though, which is important when trying to reduce contamination for semiconductor use. Solid teflon beakers and tools wouldn't be used if there was a cheaper alternative.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2009 11:38

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

plester1 posted:

I also think the titles are nebulous at best. I once saw an advertisement on a job board for "sandwich engineer". I'm not sure whats worse, sandwich artist or sandwich engineer.

Does that make my summer job at the sub shop an intern position?? I tell you what, I designed some awesome new cheesesteaks!

# ¿ Nov 12, 2009 01:28

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Thoguh posted:

I don't disagree that a background in actually applying technology is a good thing for any engineer to have. What I meant is that the discussion in the thread was about the profession of Engineering rather than any job that attaches the word "engineer" to the title.

As far as I'm concerned, there's only one REAL kind of engineer. All else is a bastardization of the term.

BTW, slather the roll with mayo and thousand island dressing. Cook up steak and sautee onions, mushrooms and peppers with it. Add double the normal provolone cheese, and mix in pizza sauce. Fill the bun, and top with lettuce, tomatoes and dust with italian spices. Mmmmmmm

grover fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Nov 12, 2009

# ¿ Nov 12, 2009 03:52

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

hobbesmaster posted:

How many monte carlo runs did it take to come up with that?

1! I was a sandwich engineer, not a sandwich physicist. :colbert:

Edit: well, OK, the thousand island was a later design revision. So, 2.

grover fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Nov 12, 2009

# ¿ Nov 12, 2009 14:10

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Nihilanthic posted:

To be a little more serious for a moment, that makes me wonder - if, say, you're an EE, and you want to or your job wants you to be able to function as an electrician of some form, what is the process by which you would be certified to work on the stuff you're responsible for or designing? Just mass a test or do you still have to put in so many hours?

Obviously electronics labs are nothing like high voltage poo poo with the gloves up to your shoulders and something not unlike a welding mask on your face in case you gently caress up, though, but how would that go?

And who says you can't make a better bun toaster and sell it to subway or something as an internship?

Each state has licensing requirements for electricians, just like they do for engineers. In order to practice as an electrician, you must either work under another licensed electrician, or get your own journeyman electricians license. This generally requires several years of work experience. Depending on what you did as an engineer, your engineering work experience may count, but it may not. At least you'll have an easy time on the theory portions of the licensing exam

# ¿ Nov 12, 2009 15:00

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

bawfuls posted:

But does the technician have the same long-term income prospects the engineer does?

Depends what you want to do. If you want to actually do hands-on design work, you're pretty much maxed out day one, as the only way up is through supervision and management, which get increasingly separated from actual engineering. In a lot of companies and government jobs, technicians tend to hit a glass ceiling above which companies only want to hire "engineers" for these management positions and for whatever arbitrary reasons, discriminate against "technicians" that only have 2 year degrees, regardless of their experience. Since these technician positions actually are engineers graduated from a 4-year accredited engineering program, this does not apply.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2009 15:55

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 11:38

grover: Jan 23, 2002; PEW PEW PEW

Nihilanthic posted:

So, when I'm looking at which major I have to declare when I'm done with my first two years, I'm going by which engineering jobs ask for which majors in nice places I'd like to live. This is making me drift to the EE/CE field.. heh.

Where do you want to live? If you're just looking at broad EE/ME/CE/etc, where you have one, you're going to have the others, too.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2009 23:57

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

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