And to do that, take some extra literature, history, or creative writing courses. I was a lit major before I realized I could get fries with that, but it has helped tremendously in communicating effectively as a software guy.
Mechanical Engineering Photographer?
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And to do that, take some extra literature, history, or creative writing courses. I was a lit major before I realized I could get fries with that, but it has helped tremendously in communicating effectively as a software guy.
The great engineers know more than just engineering.
Learn how to think like an engineer, and understand the needs and point of views of the other engineering disciplines.
First and foremost: don't be a desk engineer. Get out and tinker. Buy an old car with a carburetor and keep it running. As an ME you should know how to use a milling machine and a lathe (and not just through the shop class). As a good ME you would probably have your own shop at home.
Yes!!
MattKing
Moderator
I have a long-time friend who is a very accomplished engineer.
He is a co-owner of a successful engineering company, he consults internationally, he has his doctorate in engineering and is well published. He enjoys his work and has a happy family life.
Unfortunately, his area of specialty is sewage - when he starts to talk "shop" it is a real challenge!
He is a co-owner of a successful engineering company, he consults internationally, he has his doctorate in engineering and is well published. He enjoys his work and has a happy family life.
Unfortunately, his area of specialty is sewage - when he starts to talk "shop" it is a real challenge!
This reminds me of my favorite retired person definition: A person who asks another "Is today Saturday? I am 83 and still show up for work so I still can tell whether or not "today is Saturday". My degree is in Biology. No engineer here......Regards.
My parents had a clock with only one hand, and the face was divided into the seven days of the week. The hand made one trip around the face each week. That and using the position of the sun over the ocean to determine happy hour pretty much was enough for them!
Do you know Practical Machinist?
Exactly. And try not to think like other people.
One of the best compliments I had from a work colleague was that I don't come up with ordinary solutions because I'm not an ordinary person. At least, I think it was a compliment!
I have a friend who works for the local water company, When I first met him, he told me he shovelled sh*t for a living which I assumed was just a generic term for a poor/boring job... apparently not!
Steve.
Many engineering employers in the U.K prefer to employ people who are members of professional bodies like The Institute of Mechanical Engineers or H.N.D (Higher National Diploma ) holders rather than engineering graduates who's knowledge is mainly theoretical because they have had hands on experience and were apprentice trained for five years and at night schools , we used to have engineering degree students who were on sandwich courses who working as part of their course at the engineering company where I worked and they were generally regarded as a joke, because people didn't believe how much they didn't know about how practical engineering was done with the oily bits.
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I am a software engineer by profession, but I also have qualifications in general engineering and electronics. Years of tinkering with old motorcycles and a general interest in making broken things work have meant that "photography" for me has taken a weird turn recently. Instead of taking photographs I am tinkering with cameras and esoteric technical matters and none of this has done my photography the least bit of good. Of course, it is a hobby, so it doesn't matter, but it is a trap that is all too easy to fall into if you are a technical sort! One thing I will advise is that if you are at all "nerdy", as many engineers are, myself included, try to make sure that your significant other is also a nerdy type, or at least very very understanding!
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I started as an ME major back in '89 at CalPoly SLO, but switched to BioSci and I guess ended up in another form of engineering 
... I haul a plethora of quirky analog gear around with me and drive 50+yr old trucks & cars; to the amazement of some. It's fun to mix things old & new, simple and complex...clever combinations always entertain!
Advice for the career minded, young technocrat: Don't discount communication skills (written, presentation, inter-personal, etc.), DIVERSE hands-on experience, or luck. Immerse yourself in as much tech as you can... and be damn inquisitive. Hang out with the smartest folks you meet and manage judgmental attitudes you may have along the way... in general, geeks, scientists and nerds can be a quirky lot, but are just regular folk beneath the surface; engage people at a mutually comfortable level and build functional relationships. Jump on creative opportunities, like free beer.
... I haul a plethora of quirky analog gear around with me and drive 50+yr old trucks & cars; to the amazement of some. It's fun to mix things old & new, simple and complex...clever combinations always entertain!Advice for the career minded, young technocrat: Don't discount communication skills (written, presentation, inter-personal, etc.), DIVERSE hands-on experience, or luck. Immerse yourself in as much tech as you can... and be damn inquisitive. Hang out with the smartest folks you meet and manage judgmental attitudes you may have along the way... in general, geeks, scientists and nerds can be a quirky lot, but are just regular folk beneath the surface; engage people at a mutually comfortable level and build functional relationships. Jump on creative opportunities, like free beer.
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My engineering education was theoretical which has been an advantage of having me figure things out from first principles rather than doing it the way one is taught. As a result I was used as a fireman to go into areas that I had no experience in to fix the problems that the experts trained in the right way to do things could not. I became a turnaround specialist who saved companies and projects from disasters AND lead them to succeed avoiding disbarment and contract cancellations.
As it is written:
So shall it be done.
I have been very lucky as I have managed to get engineering work without a degree. Currently with the same company for 26 years, so I must be doing something right.
Most companies today though will ask for a degree in an attempt to reduce the number of applicants. Personally, I think this is a mistake as this practice filters out the likes of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Edwin Land.
I think employers should look further than just a piece of paper which says someone managed to get through a university course.
Steve.
Employers do look beyond qualifications. However, to stand a chance of getting hired, you must first get your CV onto the desk of the person that is doing the hiring. In the UK at least, this can be difficult given that most companies seem to front-end their recruitment with agents and HR departments. Agents are the worst of all for relying on software to filter candidates. If you have rely on this pathway into work and the job spec calls for a degree, you will be straight out of luck if you don't have one, no matter how good you are. However, networking and maintaining professional contacts can work wonders when it comes to getting work through word of mouth. In the end, employers have work that they want done and pieces of paper can be irrelevant in when it comes to actually doing a job. Saying that, I work for a company that sometimes must list staff qualifications on project proposals because the customer insists on this as part of their tendering process.
OP
OP
I agree 100% employers should look for something more.
As a student, I am in search of some engineering experience, but since I am a sophomore many internships are reserved for the juniors and seniors.
What kind of experience can do now, to make me more marketable for those internships later on?
Work a production or assembly line in a factory. You will never regret gaining some insight into how production workers put stuff designed by engineers together.
Question everything and everyone. Make them defend their answers and methods, except me of course.
I agree. Often at work, we have meetings to discuss how to assemble products and I am known for ignoring the suggestions of management and other engineers in favour of asking the people who actually do the assembling. They usually have a much better understanding.
We have a couple of managers too, who are always looking for some sort of jig or assembly aid to take out the human element, but often the human element can assemble something with a lot more precision than a piece of machinery.
Steve.
Sounds familiar, I try to do the same when I can.
Last year we had a big meeting to do with a major order from a customer, and we needed to find a solution to having a very thin cable running hundreds of meters on a minesite, the original had too much resistance and broke if you looked at it the wrong way, no way it would survive (ab)use around mining machinery.
We discussed for an hour maybe, a few engineers, management, salespeople, product managers, the pros and cons of various options, the legalities of certain option (ie we couldn't use a regular cable and repurpose an Earth-core as a signal core), the possibilities of combining these signals in a custom cable with the power signals (and the problems joining them, needing custom-heatshrink), getting custom cables made (and cost/leadtime problems) and all the rest.
After all that talking, we couldn't find anything really suitable and thought we'd all go off and do some searching to reconvene later.
On the way back to my desk, I went in via the back door through the Service workshop and randomly had a chat to one of the guys there.
He just went to the shelf, grabbed a whole reel of some much thicker, stronger cable, with the cores all properly labelled and rated correctly for the application.
Turns out that we already used that stuff, it was in the pricebook, we had a few kilometers of it in stock as it was, but noone above the service techs (not even the Product Managers) seemed to even know of its existence... (yeah, there's a reason I'm not there anymore and went back to Uni)
Engineering, computer science, and analog photography are completely compatible. I got my BS in Electrical Engineering (with a minor in Computer Science) in 1993. Us computer geeks at work all have our works. One of mine is that I enjoy analog photography. One guy is a gamer, another enjoys running and cycling, another guy enjoys fishing. It's what makes us who we are, not just or degree or occupation.
While I'm not an engineer, I started out to major in chemistry, going through Qual and Quant, advanced general physics, and calculus. Missed an A in Calc by one point. Found that I didn't like all the lab sessions, 4 three hour sessions per week in my soph year, and I was carrying 18 semester hours. Ooof!
My father was a PhD chem engineer, both industry and teaching experience. That didn't seem to hinder his photographic skills! And his chem knowledge was very helpful when he and I set up a darkroom when I was a teen. We compounded our own developers, etc.
Too many liberal arts types take a perverse pride in math illiteracy, bragging about being unable to balance their checkbooks. I've never heard a tech type brag about being unable to read the newspaper.
Welcome to the forum. Engineers, Librarians (that's me!) and all manner of folks are welcome!
My father was a PhD chem engineer, both industry and teaching experience. That didn't seem to hinder his photographic skills! And his chem knowledge was very helpful when he and I set up a darkroom when I was a teen. We compounded our own developers, etc.
Too many liberal arts types take a perverse pride in math illiteracy, bragging about being unable to balance their checkbooks. I've never heard a tech type brag about being unable to read the newspaper.
Welcome to the forum. Engineers, Librarians (that's me!) and all manner of folks are welcome!
+1. Well said. All types are welcome here. Engineers, Computer Geeks, Librarians, English majors, Math majors, technical, nontechnical, we don't care.
OP
OP
Touché
It seems as the lower you go, people seem to be more reasonable. I've heard stories of engineers being very ignorant towards an opposing view.
So you both ended up making your own photo chemistry?! No way, that is pretty awesome!While I'm not an engineer, I started out to major in chemistry, going through Qual and Quant, advanced general physics, and calculus. Missed an A in Calc by one point. Found that I didn't like all the lab sessions, 4 three hour sessions per week in my soph year, and I was carrying 18 semester hours. Ooof!
My father was a PhD chem engineer, both industry and teaching experience. That didn't seem to hinder his photographic skills! And his chem knowledge was very helpful when he and I set up a darkroom when I was a teen. We compounded our own developers, etc.
Too many liberal arts types take a perverse pride in math illiteracy, bragging about being unable to balance their checkbooks. I've never heard a tech type brag about being unable to read the newspaper.
Welcome to the forum. Engineers, Librarians (that's me!) and all manner of folks are welcome!
I've taken a chem class so I just have the basics... but what exactly is in that stuff? I'm curious
Thank you!+1. Well said. All types are welcome here. Engineers, Computer Geeks, Librarians, English majors, Math majors, technical, nontechnical, we don't care.
The two main areas of inertia to overcome are:
1. "It wasn't my idea so I'm not even going to consider it".
2. "But we have always done it like that".
Steve.
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