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Engineering? Engineering!

A

Anew Leaf

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So lately it's really come to my attention that I would perhaps like to go to school for engineering.

I guess I have this grande idea in my mind that engineering should be about innovative invention, finding out how things work, improving upon old technologies, creativity.

Those are all things I am very attracted to. I know that there is probably a disconnect between my fantasy and reality, but I want to know how big that gap is.

Does anyone who has had experience with engineering or engineers have any advice for someone interested in this field? What can I expect? What are some of the more forward-moving branches of engineering? Civic? Mechanical? Electrical? Chemical? Am I completely disillusioned? :laugh:

What can you expect? Only this:


There is another one where Sheldon (theoretical physicist) describes engineering as the "slow, younger brother to physics."

On a more serious note, I have several engineering friends and you would totally fit in with them. :)
 

funkadelik

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Haha ouch!

"Engineering: where the noble semi-skilled labourers execute the visions of those who think and dream"

Somehow I think Tesla would take offense to that.
 
A

Anew Leaf

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hahah! I love that show! sheldon is so out of whack INTJ it slays me. (especially since I have an INTJ friend who is sheldon's clone sans the asexual thing Sheldon has going on there.)

Tesla who? David Bowie Tesla? Nikolai Tesla? Tesla a poster here who's rage I have now asked for? Tesla Coil from C&C red alert?!
 

entropie

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I've seen this attitude especially in America, to say that becoming a physicist is like a higher level and engineering a lower. I really dont see the need for why people are making it so hard on themselves and it prolly only results in the fact that you have more physicists in the end and lack engineers. Making a challenge out of things definitly invokes a battle for the best quality but saying that some jobs are for more intelligent people than others is stupid in my eyes.

Same with the other guy who said mechanical engineering is for istp's. Lol, well thanks for that, dunno what prejudices you hold against istp's. Obviously this guy never done a stress-deformation FEM analysis in ansys of a construction you did yourself. Or a thermical analysis of the heat distribution in your computer casing. Those things are fun and have nothing to do with just selecting from existing specifications. In my country mechanical engineers are always aswell the leader in projects, because they have to bear the greatest responsibility. If a circuit fries short that doesnt matter so much as like the wrong steel was choosen and the whole thing collapses. That means if you study mechanical, you automatically study management, organisation and teambuilding.

If you want to do the most innovative work your future definitly is in mechanical engineering too, cause we are living in times of innovation at the moment and judging from the many different job positions freeing up on development project teams, I think there's a lot going on. Think the two hottest fields are in the energy sector or becoming a mechanical engineer that on the same time has qualifications for dealing with i.e. low tension voltages. Probably intresting in the automotive sector in the future.

Dunno but whatever you do, go by your heart. If everyone around you makes a challenge out of it and tells you you are stupid cause you didnt make it to noble-prize rocket scientist so be it. At least your own heart is in the right place. And let those nerds become lab rats. Those people all life far away from the real world and wont be as often as you be in the daily newspaper, cause you are an engineer :)
 

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hahah! I love that show! sheldon is so out of whack INTJ it slays me. (especially since I have an INTJ friend who is sheldon's clone sans the asexual thing Sheldon has going on there.
They talk way too much about sex. The show has technical errors. And I never understood how a PhD physicist like Sheldon can't afford to pay the rent on his own in an apartment building affordable to a waitress. Still, Sheldon is correct about engineering in some respects.
 

Not_Me

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I'm confused as to what being female has to do with any of that. Anecdotal correlation =/= causation yo. But I can see myself being attracted to something more people oriented simply cause I'm extroverted.
I should correct myself. I know several female mechanical and software engineers who has been at it for more than a decade. But I have never met a practicing female electrical design engineer over 30. I find it surprising, because there should be no gender correlation.

I'm not trying to discourage you. It would be refreshing to see more women in this field. But if I had any female friends who are considering entering the profession, I would encourage them to talk to others who have take the path.
 

funkadelik

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I've seen this attitude especially in America, to say that becoming a physicist is like a higher level and engineering a lower. I really dont see the need for why people are making it so hard on themselves and it prolly only results in the fact that you have more physicists in the end and lack engineers. Making a challenge out of things definitly invokes a battle for the best quality but saying that some jobs are for more intelligent people than others is stupid in my eyes.

Same with the other guy who said mechanical engineering is for istp's. Lol, well thanks for that, dunno what prejudices you hold against istp's. Obviously this guy never done a stress-deformation FEM analysis in ansys of a construction you did yourself. Or a thermical analysis of the heat distribution in your computer casing. Those things are fun and have nothing to do with just selecting from existing specifications. In my country mechanical engineers are always aswell the leader in projects, because they have to bear the greatest responsibility. If a circuit fries short that doesnt matter so much as like the wrong steel was choosen and the whole thing collapses. That means if you study mechanical, you automatically study management, organisation and teambuilding.

If you want to do the most innovative work your future definitly is in mechanical engineering too, cause we are living in times of innovation at the moment and judging from the many different job positions freeing up on development project teams, I think there's a lot going on. Think the two hottest fields are in the energy sector or becoming a mechanical engineer that on the same time has qualifications for dealing with i.e. low tension voltages. Probably intresting in the automotive sector in the future.

Dunno but whatever you do, go by your heart. If everyone around you makes a challenge out of it and tells you you are stupid cause you didnt make it to noble-prize rocket scientist so be it. At least your own heart is in the right place. And let those nerds become lab rats. Those people all life far away from the real world and wont be as often as you be in the daily newspaper, cause you are an engineer :)

Thanks man :) This was really awesome of you to say. Kind of embodies the spirit that I feel for engineering. I just want to make stuff. Cool stuff. Help innovate. Be challenged. But so far I've run into a lot of prejudices against engineering in the "academic world." People tell me "engineers are assholes" "engineers are stupid" "engineers are just failed physicists." Doesn't seem right. Theoretical physics is way interesting, but who are you kidding? You're not going to be the next Feynman.

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is, I do like a certain level of practicality. I like to be able to innovate in the physical realm. At least, I think I have more of a knack for it. Merging the theory with the practise. Now THAT'S where it's at. And I really think my heart's into engineering. I like to take things apart to see how they fit together, read books on electrical mechanics in my spare time, build little gadgets with the knowledge I have. It's really something I derive great joy from. But part of me thinks I should just keep it as a hobby.

But anyway, I'm emoting a lot. It's just a subject I'm pretty fond of.
 
A

Anew Leaf

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We should mark our calendars. You got more empathy from an ENTP than an INFP. D:
 

funkadelik

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I should correct myself. I know several female mechanical and software engineers who has been at it for more than a decade. But I have never met a practicing female electrical design engineer over 30. I find it surprising, because there should be no gender correlation.

I'm not trying to discourage you. It would be refreshing to see more women in this field. But if I had any female friends who are considering entering the profession, I would encourage them to talk to others who have take the path.

Ok, gotcha. So are you implying that electrical engineering is less people-oriented than, say, mechanical? This is a genuine question, by the way. I have no idea. Entropie seems to suggest that, at least in Germany, mechanical engineers do a lot more people stuff (management, team building, organisation, etc.) which I find pretty attractive (that's hot, baby). But it's not imperative. I'd like to go into something that's more interested in innovation, where I constantly need to be learning. Unless that's all fields, which is cool, too.

So far mechanical and electrical are at a draw.

And also! I know Canada offers a female engineering scholarship, which is pretty awesome. Very useful! If I got it. :laugh:
 

entropie

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Yea, people dont know what they are imposing on themselves and on their children if they start making such a challenge out of academia, but it's nothing new. I personally think an entp is clever enough to stay out of such childish fights and is able to see the wider variety of opinions there is apart from University. In a functioning society you need everybody from the hands-down craftsmen to the flighty philosopher and tho some jobs require more painstaking effort to achieve, it's no reason for why they are worth more. If you start thinking like that you aint different from the nazis.
 

Not_Me

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Ok, gotcha. So are you implying that electrical engineering is less people-oriented than, say, mechanical? This is a genuine question, by the way. I have no idea.
I think it does depend on the company you work for, but that has been true in my experience. I have worked in both fields. As a ME, I did a lot of project management and supervisory type tasks. I also did CAD modeling, structural design and finite element analysis. I found it to be quite mundane after a couple of years.

As an EE, I did software development, regulatory project management, and hardware design. I like the fact that it's a continuous learning process to avoid obsolescence. I think there's more opportunity for innovation in this field, but much of the designs are simple implementations with little need for creativity also.

You should join a local engineering association and ask several engineers to show you what they actually do. It might help you decide.
 

entropie

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My secret passion is EE aswell, been building circuits long before I started with the lego blocks :). Yet ME is a way better door-opener where I come from, so more than a hobby EE prolly will never be for me :/
 

Coriolis

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I just want to make stuff. Cool stuff. Help innovate. Be challenged. But so far I've run into a lot of prejudices against engineering in the "academic world." People tell me "engineers are assholes" "engineers are stupid" "engineers are just failed physicists." Doesn't seem right. Theoretical physics is way interesting, but who are you kidding? You're not going to be the next Feynman.
Such academic prejudice is rubbish, and I really haven't seen much of it in my career. The fact is, however, that there are many more engineers in (U.S.) society than physicists. Few of the physicists will win the Nobel Prize or any similar notoriety. And many if not most of the engineers will be implementing established practices in the design and creation of practical structures/devices. This is worthwhile and can be quite satisfying, but it is not innovation, not pushing the envelope of design and possibility.

My SO is an engineer, and this has been his experience. He lucked out in getting a job early on involving oversight of the development of a major system. This means he gets a hand in every portion, and every aspect of development. Nearly all of his classmates, however, ended up in jobs where they basically implemented the design for some tiny cog of the larger system.

I am not saying this to discourage you; quite the contrary. Engineering is every bit as worthwhile, challenging, and fulfilling as science (or many other fields). I am mainly pointing out that all engineering jobs, even within the same discipline, are not equal. If you are interested in doing real innovation and seeing the big design picture, there are probably ways you can steer yourself toward that, in your academic choices and beyond.
 

entropie

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Well it's not rubbish just because you havent seen it. There are different Universities all over the country and different viewings of society on things. Where I come from you are marked as highly intelligent when you are a studied doctor and earn no reputation when you are a studied engineer. That most medicine students dont finish their degree here because they fail at the physicist exam (which is the only thing you need to have skill for, the rest is rote learning), nobody knows.

What you are proposing is of course fact with everything in the free economics. If you are working for a University as a physicist, as a lab rat you prolly have the greatest innovations before you. Yet I doubt that 10 years of tedious work on a project in University is what an entp would like. Even if it was 15 projects in only 1 year I still doubt it, cause somehow the University hasnt got this open-ended world feeling real travel and living in the world has. You still somehow feel confined or nerdy when working at University. It somehow feels better when you are more connected to the real world allday problems
 

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By calling something "rubbish" I am not denying its existence, but rather indicating it is a hurtful and counterproductive perspective. I am sure it exists in some environments, perhaps academia, and I have seen biases concerning other fields (business, law, etc). I have worked professionally for over 10 years, though, and do not see much of it in this environment. In my organization, physicists, engineers, computer people, chemists, etc. etc. with varying levels of education and experience all work together. Your academic discipline and to some extent your educational level are viewed as less important than what your ideas are and what you can accomplish. Yes, this may simply be a distinction between academia and "the real world".
 

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Nailed it!

Creativity in engineering is a perk than a must-have.

I'm studying computer engineeeirng right now and man creativity is the last thing they want you to have in an undergraduate degree. Yes, you learn how stuff works and how to make it work but every field has established best practices. You're taught these best practices as a replacement for creativity. Creativity in engineering is not even approached till post grad.

But that aint me. I'm more creative than a gay dude in pink. That is why I'm taking a year off and going to do design/startup. Design often involves the question of WHY and HOW. Plus it involves making stuff that people use. Engineering is more focused towards the background machinery that lies under the hood and people don't see/interact with too often. I love making things work, but I absolutely need a creative outlet where people can interact with what I am building. SO I am thinking of design - Industrial Design or Human-Computer Interaction - yes, these are real fields...think of the cool machine at the science center whose inner workings are still somewhat of a mystery to you.

I basically just want to invent stuff
 

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I think what I want from a career is integrative thinking (google it - some unis are offering entire degrees in this now). Fields that have this:

-Systems engineer (engineer that does a bit of everything...most important in systems)
-Business guru - business world is so volatile, noone knows what will happen next
-Startups - doing everything at once
-Marketing - worry about how people perceive things
-Designers - invent stuff to guide human perception
-Architects (engineers that design complex systems)
 

Not_Me

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I love making things work, but I absolutely need a creative outlet where people can interact with what I am building.

From your description,I don't think you are actually looking for creativity. You are looking for jobs that involve social relevance.

While it is very important to choose a profession that you enjoy, it is also necessary to have realistic expectations about the type of work that is available. The fun stuff often don't get paid well. The well paid jobs involve a lot of activities that is not fun.
 

thisGuy

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From your description,I don't think you are actually looking for creativity. You are looking for jobs that involve social relevance.

While it is very important to choose a profession that you enjoy, it is also necessary to have realistic expectations about the type of work that is available. The fun stuff often don't get paid well. The well paid jobs involve a lot of activities that is not fun.

While being true, your observation is lacking in that I want to build things that people interact with. Human Interaction is not limited to me but, in theory, would extend to my creations.

In this day and age, my expectations are not completely unrealistic. Google Human-Computer Interaction and then, separately, MIT Media Lab. Then maybe Disney Research and industrial design.

thats the shit (and the final goal)!
 
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