Quick question about engineers and what they do...

[xbox360live]

Iam trying to figure out what to major in college and the mechanical engineering field looks like something i might be interested in. Well my questions are
- What exactly do they do on a daily basis?
-Is this a safe field to go into?

 

[xbox360live]

Iam trying to figure out what to major in college and the mechanical engineering field looks like something i might be interested in. Well my questions are
- What exactly do they do on a daily basis?
-Is this a safe field to go into?

 

[ag 47]

I'm a civil engineering student graduating this summer and from what I've learned in courses and from friends, ME is probably the broadest area of engineering.

You can be anything from a designer of an F-16 fighter jet engine to designing cases for iphones (product brand design).

I consider it the toughest major on my campus here at Cal Poly, but it's more than worth it. You will live a comfortable life and enjoy all the career opportunities available to you.

 

[ag 47]

I'm a civil engineering student graduating this summer and from what I've learned in courses and from friends, ME is probably the broadest area of engineering.

You can be anything from a designer of an F-16 fighter jet engine to designing cases for iphones (product brand design).

I consider it the toughest major on my campus here at Cal Poly, but it's more than worth it. You will live a comfortable life and enjoy all the career opportunities available to you.

 

[scshift]

Anything related to the structural integrity/buildup of things. It's kind of hard to describe, but everything around you has been engineered to some degree.

It's an extremely safe field. It is in constant demand, and while your particular major might not be in high demand, engineering is very broad and there are always jobs. However, it is very technical and you better like math, cause you're going to need it.

 

[scshift]

Anything related to the structural integrity/buildup of things. It's kind of hard to describe, but everything around you has been engineered to some degree.

It's an extremely safe field. It is in constant demand, and while your particular major might not be in high demand, engineering is very broad and there are always jobs. However, it is very technical and you better like math, cause you're going to need it.

 

[dt43]

i'm in undergrad for ME right now. the education is rigorous but if you're intrigued by the field it's very rewarding.

like someone said, you could end up doing anything. basically anything that requires moving parts will involve some type of mechanical engineering. some MEs spend all day at their desks doing Excel spreadsheets, others do CAD modeling, others build and test prototypes. it all depends.

the good thing is that engineering is about as safe as a field can get. USAToday analyzed 171 majors and engineering came out on top:

http://www.usatoday.com/n...g-higher-education_n.htm

 

[dt43]

i'm in undergrad for ME right now. the education is rigorous but if you're intrigued by the field it's very rewarding.

like someone said, you could end up doing anything. basically anything that requires moving parts will involve some type of mechanical engineering. some MEs spend all day at their desks doing Excel spreadsheets, others do CAD modeling, others build and test prototypes. it all depends.

the good thing is that engineering is about as safe as a field can get. USAToday analyzed 171 majors and engineering came out on top:

http://www.usatoday.com/n...g-higher-education_n.htm

 

[acidicality]

I'm an ME graduate and I graduated last year. There's a lot of things you could end up doing. You might be doing CAD work, doing manufacturing stuff (setting up bills of materials, choosing parts, etc.), doing finite element analysis, testing, the list goes on and on. The benefit of ME is that it's a very versatile engineering degree and allows you to get work in many different industries (product design firms, defense, semiconductor equipment, the list goes on and on and on...)

I'm currently working in a contractor position where I'm involved completely in product design, the entire job is CAD work and figuring out proper dimensions, and also coming up with proper gear/pulley mechanisms for the product I'm designing.

Definitely a safe field to go into, and the salary will definitely put you in a great position to be very well-off, but most important is that you think you'll enjoy it. If you like building physical stuff, and have a good sense of math, it's a great major to get into. Just know that you'll be have to work harder in college than everyone else in other majors.

 

[acidicality]

I'm an ME graduate and I graduated last year. There's a lot of things you could end up doing. You might be doing CAD work, doing manufacturing stuff (setting up bills of materials, choosing parts, etc.), doing finite element analysis, testing, the list goes on and on. The benefit of ME is that it's a very versatile engineering degree and allows you to get work in many different industries (product design firms, defense, semiconductor equipment, the list goes on and on and on...)

I'm currently working in a contractor position where I'm involved completely in product design, the entire job is CAD work and figuring out proper dimensions, and also coming up with proper gear/pulley mechanisms for the product I'm designing.

Definitely a safe field to go into, and the salary will definitely put you in a great position to be very well-off, but most important is that you think you'll enjoy it. If you like building physical stuff, and have a good sense of math, it's a great major to get into. Just know that you'll be have to work harder in college than everyone else in other majors.

 

[2seatport]

If you ask 10 different engineers what they do in a typical day you will likely get 10 pretty different answers. I graduated in electrical engineering last year and I've been working for an optics/nanotechnology company. One thing that I think is a constant for most engineers is that you will be spending a lot of time doing quantitative thinking.

One analogy for people deciding on being an engineering major is if, say, a door knob inside a house or apartment you were renting were to break, would you take the time to fix it properly? or would you jerry rig/not even bother? if you would do the latter, you probably won't enjoy engineering very much.

 

[2seatport]

If you ask 10 different engineers what they do in a typical day you will likely get 10 pretty different answers. I graduated in electrical engineering last year and I've been working for an optics/nanotechnology company. One thing that I think is a constant for most engineers is that you will be spending a lot of time doing quantitative thinking.

One analogy for people deciding on being an engineering major is if, say, a door knob inside a house or apartment you were renting were to break, would you take the time to fix it properly? or would you jerry rig/not even bother? if you would do the latter, you probably won't enjoy engineering very much.