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Engineering career

#81
Raven2k360 said:
No kidding! Were you I-level or O-level? Where were you stationed? I was West Coast the whole time myself, Lemoore and Pt. Mugu, with cruises on the Stennis and Connie.
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Started out O-level at Pax River, transferred to Oceana (the black hole of the east coast) in 2002, and been here, I-level, ever since. AIMD (which is now FRC, in case you hadn't heard) all the way. Got out as a first and came back to work in the same building as a civil service instrument mechanic... Working with AE's. :hmm:

TrooperFarva said:
Then you don't want to do DoD work. It's seriously 3 years in an office, designing and documenting, and 1 week on site, demonstrating. The work can be very interesting, but extremely tedious.
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True, DoD work (in general) ends up being more paperwork than hands-on, but it's a great career-starter if you don't have/can't get military experience - DoD experience looks great on resumes, plus some serious job security once you've proven yourself.

OP - if you haven't talked to a recruiter yet, go ahead and drop by - they may have other ideas or options for you. Also, (and I realize it'll be years yet before this happens), remember to talk to headhunter firms - the ones like Bradley Morris or Orion International, who only get paid once they get you a job. Many of those people have contacts within the military system that you haven't had a chance to develop yet.
 
#83
My poinit is that everyone says you need to be good at math to be an engineer. I think that is wrong. You need to be good at math to graduate with an engineering degree. But to be a good engineer you have to have a beeter understanding of applied science than math.
 
#85
etoncrow said:
IMHO your point keeps shifting and becoming more elusive as you lose your arguments with engineers who keep reiterating that their knoweldge and usage of higher math is integral to their "understanding of applied science".
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+1

I am not an engineer but have a diploma in Municiple Engineering Technology. When I was in school (I went back 8 years ago when I was 37) we were taught calculus but it did not form a huge part of our studies. We were taught it so that we would have an understanding of how formulas work. The basis of a lot of, if not most, engineering formulas is calculus. I might not have to "derive" a formula everyday but I use formulas on a daily basis. I am on the construction side of the equation. The design side of my industry is where formulas are used heavily.

Anyone who thinks you don't have to be good at math to be an engineer is fooling themselves.

I also think that anyone who thinks using computer models means you don't have to be good at math is also fooling themselves. As a couple of other posters have noted, you have to know if the answer you are getting from the variables that you plugged in has any basis in reality. If you don't know how the math and the formulas work you can't really tell if you have made a mistake even when using computer models.
 
#87
tycobb73 said:
My poinit is that everyone says you need to be good at math to be an engineer. I think that is wrong. You need to be good at math to graduate with an engineering degree. But to be a good engineer you have to have a beeter understanding of applied science than math.
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Not everyone is saying that you need to be good at math to be an engineer. You, for one, are not saying that. Engineers, on the other hand, are saying that. You are not an engineer. You have no first hand experience as an engineer.
 
#89
TrooperFarva said:
Not everyone is saying that you need to be good at math to be an engineer. You, for one, are not saying that. Engineers, on the other hand, are saying that. You are not an engineer. You have no first hand experience as an engineer.
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After spending 5 years and a summer as an engineering student / worker I decided it wasn't me and got some other degrees (psychology, acounting, business). So yes I do have experience in it and my point has never wavered that engineers don't use much math. It is the sciences that are more important.
 
#91
To the OP: Engineering can be a very broad field. Be sure to identify early what career path you want and tailor your college education to build your resume and knowledge in that area. Otherwise you may slip into a very mundane, unchallenging, unstimulating, unfulfilling engineering career... :bawl:

Also the whole argument about whether you use math or not is moot. We all had to use it in college to get the degree and, in turn, our career so it is a necessity.
 
#94
metallicafan18 said:
Could someone give me a list of some engineering field that relate to what I describe.
Also, I've been looking into Chemical engineering as well. Anymore info on that?
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I believe a couple of people addressed your electrical/electronic questions; if you have a more specific question you might direct to some of them.

I have done a lot of work for the chemical plants here in WV and in Texas such as Carbide, Dow, Rhone-Poulenc, Dupont, etc and at the moment they are suffering. Chemical engineers are getting laid off. This has been going on for a while and is not necessarily a response to the recession.
 
#97
Wow, that site is a lot of help!!

So after briefly going the site I have found that Aerospace engineering sounds like something I could definetly get into. There is an Airforce base about 30 minutes from me, so that coudl definetly be a place for me. I have a buddy who is training to be an Avaition Mechanic there. We've always talked about maybe living together after High School and just hanging out during college, so this may turn out great.
 
#98
tycobb73 said:
After spending 5 years and a summer as an engineering student / worker I decided it wasn't me and got some other degrees (psychology, acounting, business). So yes I do have experience in it and my point has never wavered that engineers don't use much math. It is the sciences that are more important.
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Well, engineering requires a 4 year degree. So you have ~15 months of experience, assuming you graduated in 4 years. Is that a safe assumption?

Maybe you decided it wasn't for you because it involved too much math?
 
#99
neurotictim said:
Started out O-level at Pax River, transferred to Oceana (the black hole of the east coast) in 2002, and been here, I-level, ever since. AIMD (which is now FRC, in case you hadn't heard) all the way. Got out as a first and came back to work in the same building as a civil service instrument mechanic... Working with AE's. :hmm:
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Yeah, they rolled over to that FRC garbage while I was at Mugu...******** if you ask me. I feel your pain having to work with AEs though....lol. W/C 620? What shop were you in when you were A/D?
 
#100
Just as a reminder, the OP has stated that he doesn't have a problem with math.

Also, the engineering field keeps getting more and more competitive, crowded, and quantitative. We face serious competition from engineers being trained in countries where math education is taken much more seriously than it is here. The old ways don't necessarily tell us what we will need for our careers in the future.
 

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