<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>I am currently a ME in my second year of school. I have took almost all the classes I can take before I have to pick my major (engineering core, math, science, and all but 1 gen ed). I need to schedule my classes very soon for my junior year so I need to figure out what I want to do. I currently have a ME internship right now and I like it but I'm not sure if I could see myself doing that my whole life since it seems like a lot of office/desk work. However, I'm not sure what the day to day is normally like for an EE so if anyone is one and wants to give some insight on that would be great. While in class, I learn ME topics much quicker/easier/naturally than EE topics. I like the ME topics too (maybe because I'm good at it??). When it comes to the EE topics I have a harder time learning them and don't find them as interesting (maybe because it is harder for me to learn??) as ME. I don't like programming that much (I am good at it) but I think the end result is cool when I program a micro controller to do something. I know I can do well academically in either major. When outside of class I like electrical things such as computers, phones, processors, technology more than mechanical things such as cars. Also, all my friends that are ME seems to know a lot about cars and working on them but I don't like working on cars like my friends do. I wouldn't mind getting into aerospace but I know it can hard especially with an ME instead of AE degree. Also, if I do EE I will more than likely double major with CE since its about 5 more classes at my school. It seems like many things are moving in the electrical direction than the mechanical direction but in my area there are more ME jobs than EE jobs. However, I am sure I can find an internship and get job in EE as well. At this point I'm not sure what I want to do and I was wondering what you guys think I should do. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>There are desk jobs in every branch of the engineering world just as there are hands on jobs in every branch of engineering. When you graduate and look for a job, you decide to pursue whatever type of job you fancy.</p>
<p>When I hired interns, I always tried to have them do meaningful, interesting work. It isn’t an easy thing to do. Many of the interns that had had other internships complained about the dull work they were given to do at their other internships. The problem is that most tasks were longer in scope than the term of the internship. Also, you would never want to commit a critical task to an intern. They typically didn’t have the knowledge, experience and track record (after all they are interns) and would have been a big risk on a critical task. So, don’t judge a company on the level and type of work that you did as an intern. I would tell my interns to go around and talk to the other people (ie. non-interns) in the group and get a feel of what they were doing.</p>
<p>You are incorrect in stating that it is hard for ME person to work in the aerospace world. I worked my entire career in the aerospace world at a large aerospace contractor working on flight hardware for NASA. Only a few actually had degrees in aerospace. You need all the fields of engineering to design the flight hardware; electrical, mechanical, etc. My degree was in Civil Engineering, specializing in structural engineering. About half of the aerospace structural engineering group had degrees in CE as you got a very good grounding in structural engineering within CE. Don’t confuse “field” with “industry”.</p>
<p>From what you have said, I wouldn’t change your major. If you do well in ME, stick with what you do well in.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply. You are 100% right with the intern thing since they cannot be trusted with critical work. I do like that I am trusted with a little more critical projects than other interns I know. Being able to work in aerospace with an ME degree does intrigue me. I am 60/40 right now leaning toward ME. I think a part of me will always want to do EE but also ME too. I am good at EE as well just better at ME. </p>
<p>“When it comes to the EE topics I have a harder time learning them and don’t find them as interesting (maybe because it is harder for me to learn??) as ME” - My vote is to stick with ME. Good luck either way! </p>
<p>Thanks for the help! Right now I’m leaning a little bit more toward EE. I’m going to take another EE class over the summer and see how I like it. If I like it I’ll probably do EE if I don’t I’ll probably stay ME. So far I’ve only had thermodynamics, a statics/dynamics class, and a cad class for ME and I’ve done well those classes. For EE I’ve had circuits 1 and a class that involved microcontrollers and I did well in both of those as well. I think the mechanics part of physics is easier then the E&M part. </p>