I am a freshman, and I major in computer engineering and mechanical engineering. If you have more engineering experience than me, can you tell me what you like about being an engineer? I have a fear, perhaps it's unreasonable, that after college adulthood will suck. I want to make a living doing something enjoyable.

im pretty much finished my first year

when you get into the engineering profession, you would either be in design or maintenance. engineers are pretty much problem solvers, so you would put your heads together to find the best way of creating the most efficient object for your given constraints.

if youre in maintenance, you are pretty much in quality control and stuff like that i reckon

professional engineers send alot of emails, spend alot of time on the phone. while its important to know alot of practical stuff they teach you, it's not what you will be spending your life you.

personally not my thing, but its a nice reliable job.

What facet of engineering are you passionate about?

I'm currently studying Civil Engineering and I have to say a lot of the study is boring, and some of it is quite interesting. As far as after graduating goes, it really depends on exactly what you do. I'd imagine there are awful jobs as well as awesome ones, so it's finding what you enjoy, but remember Engineering opens up a LOT of doors for you.

As others have said, it depends on what you want to do. A lot of engineers focus more on the business side, and even go and get an MBA. I'm personally more interested in the research side of it, so I'm taking more advanced math and physics classes in preparation for the advanced engineering courses I'll need in graduate school. If you're more interested in relating with people or with business in general you can go for the former option, but if you're more interested in the strictly engineering and science aspect you can go for the latter. Also, there's a lot of options in between which you can pursue with a degree in engineering, but what you do with the degree is largely up to you.

My dad did civil engineering and got a job doing surveying for a long time, then he went on to become a water engineer for the state of colorado. He was always on the phone at that job and at home sometimes. He then retired from the state and now consults for them for 3X he was getting paid hourly before.

i hear it can be stressful, and you can't afford to do many drugs cuz it will affect your cognition or some shit?

you should drop out and sell crack

I have a fear, perhaps it's unreasonable, that after college adulthood will suck. I want to make a living doing something enjoyable.

you're doing a double major in computer and mechanical engineering. That won't suck. Mech Engineers can work on weapons and shit. Comp Engineers work with the HArdware with comps.

that won't suck. IIRC there's extra mech engineers anyway currently.

i hear it can be stressful, and you can't afford to do many drugs cuz it will affect your cognition or some shit?

Apparently there's engineering "Crunch Weeks" or some shit some people do (deadlines and whatnot). And some people can get really involved and spend days on a project at a time because they're that focused....I'm not an engineer so I don't know.

My first year I majored in Mechanical Engineering, didnt like it much. I am now an Electrical Engineering Tech major and i absolutely love it. The difference for me was that engineering tech focuses on working with real world situations, while engineering is too much theory and not really doing any hands on stuff.

I'm doing Mechatronic Engineering, and so far it's awesome (even I'm only in first year). As far as theory vs practical goes, it's pretty balanced. As an engineer you need to know the theory behind things but you also need to have the practical skills to construct things.

Civil engineering there is almost no practical, as you will only be designing things, not actually making them. But as a mechanical or electrical engineer, you could very well be doing practical work, just depends on what you choose to do.

Electronic engineer here. Totse inspired me, specifically BI... I wanted to break alarm systems :D

It's a great job. You get respect, decent pay, and you challenge yourself. You also feel like you're apart of a fraternity of people who matter... Engineers get consulted on alot of shit about politics, society, etc. Every day I get emails from various engineering organisations I'm apart of requesting papers on the development of my nations infrastructure or defence or even environmental policy.

It's a degree that can take you anywhere, highly recommended.

As a working engineer.. sometimes it can be pretty boring, other times it's the most potent drug you'll ever take. The best projects go to the guys with the best marks/experience, so it's important to study hard. If you just become a general generic engineer though it's still a good, easy, high paying job, and there's that underlying respect.

It's like being part academic, part real world. Like I said, highly recommended.

I wish I had the right qualifications to be some kind of engineer. Electrical preferably.

I know what I'm doing with electrics, I learn quickly, troubleshoot things without really thinking and I really enjoy it...But finding the right course here to get qualified is a cunt. You can go for the home courses but that only gives you a bit of paper to say that you can actually do the real course even though you've paid about £500 for it so far. Going to college doesn't guarantee shit...Fucking state school system.

Until something comes my way, it looks like I'm stuck in customer service doing night shifts. But from my perspective, I'd say fucking do it. If you like using your brain and going Maguyver when the shit hits the fan, be an engineer!

Network Engineer here.

In a sentence, I design networks. I have to work out trivial things like where to run cable, where conduit will be appropriately used, working out how much cable is needed and being able to take home what ever is not used/needed. (HEAPS!)

I work out server placements, how the servers communicate. One of the most challenging areas of my area of work is security design. This is extremely time consuming and there is no room for error. This also includes demilitarized zones and such.

2 of the biggest factors I always am cross-checking is redundancy and availability. I'm usually up at the early hours of the morning writing documentation, structuring businesses backup, contingency and security plans... The biggest tool I cannot speak highly enough of to have redundancy in a network is distributed file system (DFS).

I set up and maintain VPNs for businesses. I get stacks of support calls on my iPhone daily, mostly VPN related. 99 times out of 100 their all-knowing administrator has tampered with the VPN encryption or site-linking.

This is actually a business I have created and I sub-contract to companies to set up and maintain their networks. In my office (large room in my house) I have a stack of servers, screens taking up a whole wall monitoring the network performance of the myriad of businesses networks I administer.

This is not a backyard affair, I have 5 employees and we are soughting to move to a commercial premises.

^^

Pics or it didn't happen.

But fuck, props to engineers. Not a job that's held in nearly as much esteem as it should be by the public. Making your way to work, firing a gun, making love to a beautiful woman. All of them embody the joys of engineering.

Well not so much the last one.

Engineers keep the world running.

I'm a second year Electrical Engineering major, and I have to say I really enjoy it.

We do mostly basic level engineering physics, math, and electrical circuit analysis right now, but soon I will have labs galore in my schedule.

We did a basic electronics course last semester where we had to design all sorts of logic chips, infared sensors, and even a coin sorter. It was pretty cool to use all of the knowledge we learned in lecture and apply it to actually building this stuff in lab.

But to be honest with you, I really enjoy the theory behind it all too.

I want to be a Neural Engineer, so I'm taking another major in Cognitive Science. I want to design practical BCI's for commercial distribution. I'm not so much into getting my MBA, I just want to sit around, design, test, and create stuff. There is a 5 year EE/MBA Program but like I said, thats not for me.

Anyone you will want to work with will respect your engineering background. The coursework is the most demanding of any discipline (borrowing from all natural sciences, and learning their application), and when you get out of school you can really make a difference in the world, whether in industry or in research.

Wherever your life ends up, you will be making $$ with that degree of yours, provided you have any competence in using it.

I just finished my first semester in Chemical Engineering, like, half an hour ago. It's going alright so far, being a freshman I'm pretty much just taking basic chemistry and math classes.

From what I hear though, chem engineers make bank their first year out of school. As for what they do, its design and maintenance of large scale commercial chemical processes or synthesis. So pretty much instead of making a machine or circuit board or something for a certain use, its coming up with a chemical reaction for a certain goal.

I've decided that Science is a waste of time, so I'll be doing engineering as of 2009 (just finished high school). Biomedical perhaps? I'm unsure which to do.

In answer to your question though, I have friends who do engineering and a cousin or two who are engineers and they are all very well off financially, even if they at times spend days on end working their butt's off.

I've decided that Science is a waste of time, so I'll be doing engineering as of 2009 (just finished high school). Biomedical perhaps? I'm unsure which to do.

In answer to your question though, I have friends who do engineering and a cousin or two who are engineers and they are all very well off financially, even if they at times spend days on end working their butt's off.

remember, if youre going to unsw to do biomed, you have to do something else on top of that, and it will be a 5 year degree, though youll get your masters of biomed

remember, if youre going to unsw to do biomed, you have to do something else on top of that, and it will be a 5 year degree, though youll get your masters of biomed

Well I know somebody in third year who does materials science and engineering mastering in biomed and she suggested it so... yeah.

I suppose I can always change courses at some point if I change my mind yes? (I'm not too fussed about it)

I just finished my first semester in Chemical Engineering, like, half an hour ago. It's going alright so far, being a freshman I'm pretty much just taking basic chemistry and math classes.

From what I hear though, chem engineers make bank their first year out of school. As for what they do, its design and maintenance of large scale commercial chemical processes or synthesis. So pretty much instead of making a machine or circuit board or something for a certain use, its coming up with a chemical reaction for a certain goal.

Chem. E. here as well. SP basically said it all; there are a ton of options just out of college. You can always go work for an oil company and make 5-10k more than other chem E.'s starting out, but the field may dry up in a decade or so. Also, you can either work on a plant just solving the problems or you could move into research and design. Really, the opportunities are limitless. Great pay, challenging job, highly respected, no pay plateau - the job fucking rocks.

My first year engineering class had an amazing professor who invited us to the opening ceremony of a biofuel pilot plant he personally designed, and even got Exxon/Mobil to personally send a team of 10 engineers to our class to spend an entire day with us teaching use what they do at their work. (I go to school in Texas so petrol companies are everywhere)

Being an engineer is great regardless, but if you really want to do the thinking be a chemical or petroleum engineer (or nuclear). Civil, mech, and electric work off of building codes, etc that have already been established. To answer you're question directly though, it's challenging, stressful, and rewarding.

im just starting my 6th and last semester of mechanical engineering design. its a diploma program at a "community college" (george brown college in toronto). i really enjoy the things we learn about and the work we do right now, and i wouldn't mind doing it for the rest of my life...

the thing im worried about though is finding a job with only the diploma, i don't have any other qualifications. anyone in a similar situation that can give some advice?