What is an engineer's day like?

<p>First of all, the size of the engineering firm that you work for greatly determines the amount of politics you will see in your daily life as an engineer. </p>

<p>Second, I have worked for several public (public funded research institutions) and private engineering firms and have noticed that it does matter what your skill base is in. If your skill base is needed at that institution, it doesn't matter what you do or say, you will always be given the best opportunities for interesting projects and benefits. If your skill base is not required, then yes of course you may get laid off and will not see any good projects.</p>

<p>Third, networking with other engineers and managers is always important even if you feel that you have a steady stream of projects. There is always suprises in life that can turn things 180 degrees around.</p>

<p>Last, I find it so amazingly funny how much participants of College Confidential think they know about a particular subject, when it is so very apparent to an truely educated reader that they know absolutely nothing.</p>

<p>"Anyone know what a day in a chemical engineer's life is like?"
<a href="http://www.schoolsintheusa.com/careerprofiles_details.cfm?carid=143%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.schoolsintheusa.com/careerprofiles_details.cfm?carid=143&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Sparks, would you know why chemE's make so much money?</p>

<p>Is the job in demand?</p>

<p>Of course the job is in demand b/c chemEs are needed for every process. They can work with food, computers, chemicals, petroleum, even down to paper towels and diapers. It is ridiculous the job possibilities with ChemE. Wherever there are products to be made, there are chemEs. They make money b/c they have one of the hardest curriculums available and companies know this and take advantage of the massive amounts of technical know how and general knowledge about processes. B/c chemE is so macro based chemEs can be inserted into almost any sort of process, taught what works, and then it is up to them to fix, refine, and make it more efficient, along with cost effective and recycling waste products.</p>

<p>So why so much money, b/c chemEs are often the money savers for the company/factory. They are the engineers to often come up with solutions. Not that others don't, but efficient solutions is one of a ChemEs main priorities. THe degree is hard to get and many end up in other areas so good chemEs are hard to come by. It may be one of the most general engineering majors (like civE, mechE, and EE) that the fewest graduate from. For a non-specialized curriculum at U of I, there are actually more aero majors with ChemE having a number of graduates around that of a larger specialized program like MatSE. That is why I think ChemEs are largely wanted and paid highly.</p>

<p>May I suggest that you contact the various engineering societies, such as IEEE, ASCE, ASME, NSPE, etc. They all have lots of free information, both written and video, on what engineers do. The professional societies can also point you to chapters in your area where you can meet real engineers. Many engineers will be glad to let you shadow them around for a few days. If you are female, you may also want to contact SWE. </p>

<p>To contact the professional organizations, search for them in Google.</p>

<p>I'm personally in the electrical field. If you enjoy working with a combination of fields and enjoy learning new skills from a variety of engineering disciplines then electrical engineering is for you. This is because of the need for electrical engineers to be able to interface to mechanical assemblies that may possibly be manufacturing a chemical mixture. Therefore, the electrical engineer not only has to be knowledgeable of electrical systems and controls but also mechanical assemblies as well as chemical compounds.</p>

<p>"I'm personally in the electrical field. If you enjoy working with a combination of fields and enjoy learning new skills from a variety of engineering disciplines then electrical engineering is for you."</p>

<p>Heys sparkie, it sounds like your job sucks the big one!!! It totally sounds like learing EE is not enuf for you to do you job, and you get thrown curve balls monthly. </p>

<p>Any job in which you're learning OTHER people stuff (mechanical assemblies, chemical compounds etc) and if you're learning a "variety of stuff" sounds.....it sounds like the core of EE is bull****! </p>

<p>Most EE's I know work in the computer field/companies, writing code or doing ASIC design. What a waste of a degree (in my opinion)....</p>

<p>"Heys sparkie, it sounds like your job sucks the big one!!! It totally sounds like learing EE is not enuf for you to do you job, and you get thrown curve balls monthly. "</p>

<p>Why do you assume his job sucks? He was obviously regards the variety of his work as a positive aspect of his career. I certainly do... Most engineers have a desire to learn at all times, and would be miserable to only do one type of work for their entire time in the work-force.</p>

<p>"Any job in which you're learning OTHER people stuff (mechanical assemblies, chemical compounds etc) and if you're learning a "variety of stuff" sounds.....it sounds like the core of EE is bull****!"</p>

<p>Not so much "bull****", but related to many other fields. It is irrational in any practical sense to separate all electrical components from mechanical or chemical components in design, research or development. Why is it a bad thing to have a grasp on the knowledge of fields that EE's will most likely come across during their careers?</p>

<p>"Most EE's I know work in the computer field/companies, writing code or doing ASIC design. What a waste of a degree (in my opinion)...."</p>

<p>This one's spot on... I trust the fact that the handful of EEs that you know represents the rest fairly.</p>

<p>golubb there has been more than 2 or 3 people that have said your statements are incorrect. i have yet to see but perhaps a few scattered messages of support for your statements, and these seem to be from people who are unaware of your other statements.</p>

<p>congrats you know 3 engineers who are getting screwed on the job. big deal, and almost of my parents friends are engineers. not a single one of them has lost their job. in fact most of them make well over 100k/year. many of them are in management positions are english for basically all of them is a second language (they're all asian). in fact one of my friend's father is a computer engineer for Lucent. he still uses a hunt-n-peck method to type, and doesn't look like the type with particularly strong verbal communications.</p>

<p>golubb, what if someone LIKES "learning other people stuff"?</p>

<p>get out more, talk to some engineers who you've never talked to before (and not the ones in your family. quite possibly, they're turning you off from engineering just so they never have to see you in their office).</p>

<p>;)</p>

<p>Everybody ignore golubb. It's not worth it. We know that electrical engineering, and engineering in general, is a worthy and fulfilling endeavor, both intellectually and financially, and just so long as we all know that, then it's okay. We're not going to convince him otherwise.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Everybody ignore golubb. It's not worth it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Agreed....</p>

<p>good point, aibarr</p>

<p>"golubb there has been more than 2 or 3 people that have said your statements are incorrect"</p>

<p>Well, these people are still in HS or college...they don't have any idea what's going on in engineering. </p>

<p>"Everybody ignore golubb. It's not worth it. '</p>

<p>It's funny how people in H.S./College want to ignore me, but people outside of college and actually <em>WORKING in engineering</em> agree with me to some extent (such as Jeffl and Unggio)!!</p>

<p>I think the wanne-be engineers are in for a ruudeee awakening once they get into the field.</p>

<p>Aibar...I'll wait and see if your response changes after getting laid off one or twice...and never say never, especially in EE ;)</p>

<p>For those of you bashing on sparks and EE, consider this, there are plenty of jobs where you sit aroudn and design computers and what not, but there are also jobs where you apply knowledge of other areas such as ChemE and ME to your work. If you enjoy that, that job's for you, there's nothing wrong with that.</p>

<p>That's another reason ChemE's are pretty popular because they don't just know the chemistry of what they're doing they have to have a good knowledge of physics and mechanical engineering to implement the actual process.</p>

<p>Jeffl and Unggio are both undergraduates, by the by, for anyone who's wondering and is still concerned.</p>

<p>For all of you who are bashing me, just remember this, if either your project leader or if you are the project leader and you are not given the opportunity to learn aspects of other fields than you are not truly applying your skills as an "Engineer" (note: I didn't mention a particular type of engineer). Engineers should be able to quickly and effectively learn skills from other disciplines and apply them to their own discipline. If they cannot do this I would definitely not let them work with my team. Everyone on my team when I am project leader is expected to diversify their skills in not only their native field(s) but also newly explored ones. I was once in an Engineering Firm that had no meshing of Engineering Departments. The company appeared to handle projects very ineffectively because of this. My most recent firm I have worked for had a gread deal of meshing between engineering departments and this resulted in a great effective use of peoples skills and experiences. Also the second engineering firm I mentioned had contracts with many fortune 500 companies and the projects were of a highly confidential nature. The first engineering firm I mentioned quickly fell appart shortly after myself and a few of my colleagues left.</p>

<p>For anyone who thinks learning other engineering disciplines is a downfall, you better decide to switch majors soon or you will not enjoy the fast pace and knowledge expanding aspects of many modern engineering firms. Many of my friends who have PhD's have done their undergraduate, masters and PhD educations all in different disciplines so that their knowledge base will be greatly diversified. Also, if one area ever suffers such as the Tech Bubble Burst then they are able to quickly merge into one of the other disciplines that they are familiar with.</p>

<p>"""gulobb_u""" PLEASE CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE. It appears that you are not welcome by many readers of this forum.</p>

<p>gulobb_u that is way you have been laid of by engineering firms because are not able to effectively diversify your knowledge base. Strictly focussing on one field of engineering is long gone and no longer considered an effective use of engineers skills. If you are knowledgeable in numerous engineering fields you have a much greater chance of receiving the best contracts and will be most appreciated by your firm.</p>

<p>Sorry for my control of the forum tonight but I have one last comment. No matter what the topic or area of education you are commenting about it is always very important to have a open mind and receive comments on a wide range of workers in the field. Having tunnel vision will only narrow your views on the topic being discussed and will prevent you from making wise and """EDUCATED""" decisions. Trust me I know what I'm talking about. I have friends from General Workers and Technicians to Engineers to PhD Graduates, Researchers, and Professors.
golubb_u who are your friends that you have been generating these conclusions from, I would greatly appreciate a response. I would also greatly appreciate responses from other fellow forum readers that have views on this topic as well.</p>

<p>Also please note that I am myself a member of the field of EE and have received my levels of education. I first started out as an Electrician and worked my way up to PhD. So I have seen all levels from lowest to highest personally.</p>