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TB Engineers / Engineering students UNITE!

#61
You FOOLS!!! RUN AWAY!!! Quick! Before it's too late! Engineering sucks the life outta ya!!! I hate all the crap that comes with this job. Sit down, let's review this, let's form a team to look over this, we need a committee to decide that, that'll be an action item for next month's meeting, if it wasn't in the meeting minutes then I didn't hear it, what if we make this out of plastic? you can't hold those tolerances with that process, patent court discovery sessions, ISO and TS audits, IT bafoons, exporting jobs, training your boss and coworkers, changing tech, teaching idiots to read a print, ASNI versus DIN/ISO, having specs at the top of your head for every material known to man, 5S (clean desk) audits, and much more...

28 years. I've had it. I want out. Too bad I'm in debt. I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go.

Flame on!
 
#63
mkandolf said:
You FOOLS!!! RUN AWAY!!! Quick! Before it's too late! Engineering sucks the life outta ya!!! I hate all the crap that comes with this job. Sit down, let's review this, let's form a team to look over this, we need a committee to decide that, that'll be an action item for next month's meeting, if it wasn't in the meeting minutes then I didn't hear it, what if we make this out of plastic? you can't hold those tolerances with that process, patent court discovery sessions, ISO and TS audits, IT bafoons, exporting jobs, training your boss and coworkers, changing tech, teaching idiots to read a print, ASNI versus DIN/ISO, having specs at the top of your head for every material known to man, 5S (clean desk) audits, and much more...

28 years. I've had it. I want out. Too bad I'm in debt. I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go.

Flame on!
Click to expand...

In geotechnical, you spend about half your time outside on projects solving problems. That's why I prefer it over the "scope dope" branches of engineering where you're sitting at a computer screen all day. The down side is the high liability.
 
#64
Graduated BSEE 2002. Got my first job doing electronics testing/consulting in 2002 which I am still working at. Right now. No engineering at all, just testing and paperwork. :crying:

Pros: My job is secure and it pays ok. Cons: My job.

I guess I'm pretty disillusioned.
 
#66
Munjibunga said:
In geotechnical, you spend about half your time outside on projects solving problems. That's why I prefer it over the "scope dope" branches of engineering where you're sitting at a computer screen all day. The down side is the high liability.
Click to expand...

My problem is I never wanted to get into this field, it kinda evolved on me. No degree, just got damned good at it, mechanically and electrically. Needed a job, was good drawing mechanically and got cursed by the "Dilbert Knack." :scowl: Worked my way around and up in various engineering jobs, now I'm here in Detroit working on internal combustion variable timed valvetrains for any and all comers (I work for a supplier).

Now that I'm the old fart (just shy of 51) among the college crowd (most of the guys my age with degrees were laid off), I look around and see a lot of lower paying jobs I'd rather be doing that look to be a lot more satisfying. Working on paying off all debt including the house so I can get outta here.

Word to all... avoid all debt!
 
#67
Graduated 03 BA in Electronics & Computer Tech.

Really debating on going back for night class's and finishing EE, though I wonder how many of my credits will transfer if I wanted to go ME.

For all the ME's whats a good book to study up on and get some basics?
 
#68
mkandolf said:
You FOOLS!!! RUN AWAY!!! Quick! Before it's too late! Engineering sucks the life outta ya!!! I hate all the crap that comes with this job. Sit down, let's review this, let's form a team to look over this, we need a committee to decide that, that'll be an action item for next month's meeting, if it wasn't in the meeting minutes then I didn't hear it, what if we make this out of plastic? you can't hold those tolerances with that process, patent court discovery sessions, ISO and TS audits, IT bafoons, exporting jobs, training your boss and coworkers, changing tech, teaching idiots to read a print, ASNI versus DIN/ISO, having specs at the top of your head for every material known to man, 5S (clean desk) audits, and much more...

28 years. I've had it. I want out. Too bad I'm in debt. I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go.

Flame on!
Click to expand...

Wait a sec - do you work in my building?
 
#70
I went about things backwards... When I left school I picked up a job offsiding an engineering group at a national comms provider. Due to a few different strokes of luck, I climbed the ranks within a few years. I work in what they call an 'advanced services' area, so dealing with the design and installation of fibre optics mainly, SDH / SONET, MPLS, IPMAN and the latest WCDMA technologies. I also handle the land access and tenure side of things for cable routes and mobile base station sites - both in paper work and physical site assessment.

After working as an 'engineer' for about 11 years, I got motivated to chase the bit of paper (Electrical / Electronic Engineering) to make it all official. I don't really need it to be honest, as I'm already well experienced in the comms industry with numerous certs picked up along the way, but I wanted to do it to satisfy my own desires and possibly broaden my horizon outside of purely telecommunications. The chances of me being able to again bluff my way through a different industry are pretty slim...

Anyway, I'm a couple of years into the EE degree now. It gets a bit hard at times, but generally I'm really enjoying it.
 
#72
mkandolf said:
You FOOLS!!! RUN AWAY!!! Quick! Before it's too late! Engineering sucks the life outta ya!!! I hate all the crap that comes with this job. Sit down, let's review this, let's form a team to look over this, we need a committee to decide that, that'll be an action item for next month's meeting, if it wasn't in the meeting minutes then I didn't hear it, what if we make this out of plastic? you can't hold those tolerances with that process, patent court discovery sessions, ISO and TS audits, IT bafoons, exporting jobs, training your boss and coworkers, changing tech, teaching idiots to read a print, ASNI versus DIN/ISO, having specs at the top of your head for every material known to man, 5S (clean desk) audits, and much more...

28 years. I've had it. I want out. Too bad I'm in debt. I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go.

Flame on!
Click to expand...

This isn't a flame, but not all engineering jobs are like this. The work environment for engineers depends a lot on your particular employer, industry, engineering specialty, etc.

Also...

I've got news for you. Every professional job worth doing has some boring grunt work that just has to get done, and done well. A lot of engineering involves plodding through the details to get things right.

What would you rather be doing?
 
#73
There's an awfully high number of ME's represented here. :spit: But I'm here to even things up.

BSEE - 2001, NM State University - Discrete/Analog Electronics design. I got into it for audio and ended up doing other things like NASA Rocket telemetry, NASA Balloon power and control systems, and biological threat detection.

Funny ME story... The new singer in one of my bands is a sophomore in Mechanical Engineering. When he first told me his degree field, my only comment was "Wuss!". He immediately said "what, you're a double E?" :D

Guilty as charged. Turns out both his older sister AND her husband are EEs and they don't let him off easy, either.

And FWIW - 2 of my brothers are degreed MEs, though one (now) flies Predators for the Air Force and the other is a practicing engineer in TX. Another bro is a CE. Kinda runs in the family - with inventors, machinists, and engineers going back at least a century.
 
#76
Slowly working on ME, mostly because of the field I'm in right now; Commercial HVAC service Tech.
The job I have now is so time consuming that I have barely enough time to do 2 classes at night. If I survive this semester, I think I'll go back to 1 per. But at that rate, I'll be done (64 credits, I got my AAS credits towards this degree) in about 8-10 years.

But sometimes I feel like I'm a dumbass and am just wasting my time...

So what makes ME a wuss compared to EE?
 
#77
eastcoasteddie said:
Slowly working on ME, mostly because of the field I'm in right now; Commercial HVAC service Tech.
The job I have now is so time consuming that I have barely enough time to do 2 classes at night. If I survive this semester, I think I'll go back to 1 per. But at that rate, I'll be done (64 credits, I got my AAS credits towards this degree) in about 8-10 years.

But sometimes I feel like I'm a dumbass and am just wasting my time...

So what makes ME a wuss compared to EE?
Click to expand...

Hang in there. Don't give up the degree. In fact, if there's any way possible to work less and accelerate the degree, I'd do it. It may get harder before it gets better, but you won't regret it.

As for ME vs. EE - EE typically requires a different mindset than ME. There are certainly exceptions, and one of my greatest EE mentors early on in my career started as an ME (the other one was a degreed mathematician). Anyway, I would grossly generalize that ME concepts are more concrete, while EE concepts are on the abstract side. So much of mechanical engineering is physical and involves stuff you can touch and feel, but much of what EEs do is quite imaginary. :D

I'll stop there, before I dig myself into a hole. :hiding:
 
#79
fdeck said:
This isn't a flame, but not all engineering jobs are like this. The work environment for engineers depends a lot on your particular employer, industry, engineering specialty, etc.

Also...

I've got news for you. Every professional job worth doing has some boring grunt work that just has to get done, and done well. A lot of engineering involves plodding through the details to get things right.

What would you rather be doing?
Click to expand...

But not every professional job has someone trying to thwart you every step of the way trying to develop something!!! So many functions (including other engineering functions) stand in the way of getting the job done. I've got a quote to do and a deadline to meet, get out of my way and let me do my job. Don't constrain me with your fantasies, let me deal with the realities of my timeframe. That's when we'll win the quote wars.

What would I rather be doing? Something with my hands. Probably an electrical or carpentry contractor or woodworker (custom cabinet or furniture) maker. Maybe even custom basses.
 
#80
lowfreqgeek said:
Hang in there. Don't give up the degree. In fact, if there's any way possible to work less and accelerate the degree, I'd do it. It may get harder before it gets better, but you won't regret it.

As for ME vs. EE - EE typically requires a different mindset than ME. There are certainly exceptions, and one of my greatest EE mentors early on in my career started as an ME (the other one was a degreed mathematician). Anyway, I would grossly generalize that ME concepts are more concrete, while EE concepts are on the abstract side. So much of mechanical engineering is physical and involves stuff you can touch and feel, but much of what EEs do is quite imaginary. :D

I'll stop there, before I dig myself into a hole. :hiding:
Click to expand...
Yeah, that it right, keep playing with all your imaginary friends, while we MEs and CEs build real things :cool:

lowsound
 

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