I'm going to start college this fall and I think I want to be a mechanical engineer. Could some of you guys tell what your regular days are like? Likes/dislikes all that jazz.

Thanks!

 

Read Dilbert. Scott Adams has it pretty much right.

You'll spend your early career wishing you were in management so you had influence over amazingly dumb decisions. Later, if you ascend to management, you'll spend your later career helping to make still-dumb decisions, dreaming about your just-an-engineer days, and slowly losing the will to live.

Me? Engineering manager in a multinational manufacturing company for about a decade now. Somebody has to do it.

 

I'm a Junior in ME at Clemson. However, I do have an ongoing internship with Bosch. I work with manufacturing electronic throttle bodies. My position mainly consists on working on projects that will make the assembly line run smoother and more efficent. Typically the first part of the day I will make parts in SolidWorks and then go back to the machine shop and make them if I have the time. Otherwise, the machine shop guys make them.

I also do some running around for my bosses as well as creating powerpoint slides to show how the assembly line is running, our costs, scrap, efficency etc.

 

does ME pay well? seems like a fun job thats not doing the same repetitive stuff for the rest of your life.

 

Going rate is about 55k starting with a regular BS.

 

Sounds about right. It only goes up from there if you have a Masters or get into Management

 

It really depends where you focus your studies and then your career.

If you're in manufacturing, you may do the same thing over and over again every day (efficiency studies, programming of machines and assembly lines, tool/fixture design, and specifying processes and equipment). I couldn't do that but we have a full group that does all of that in our company. Too boring to me, personally.

If you're in design, you'll probably get a little more variety, depending on the size of the company. I'm the senior project engineer for a publicly traded oilfield equipment manufacturer and I do design (concept through production, including all the calculations, FEA analysis, prototype development, testing, and then initial production), troubleshooting equipment in the field, cost analysis, design optimization, and also training of our satellite engineering groups. My days are never the same so it's a great way to keep myself entertained and challenged.

When you're starting out, things may be a bit boring until you get some experience and responsbility. After that, it tends to get a lot better.

I plan on getting my MBA in the next few years to give me a boost for a management role. I'll probably end up managing a plant at some point, then hopefully jump to a regional or country general manager. I'm shooting for division VP eventually. If I try the management route and don't particularly like it, I'll probably go back to the design side and just shoot for the chief engineer position (I'm next in line as it is)...

 

I went in as a mechanical engineer, then switched to manufacturing, then switched to engineering management with a manufacturing specialty. Basically I took a couple more business classes then the other two majors. Good luck. Most engineering majors drop out early. My last class had 7 people in it. Just graduated in December '07.

 

Sounds like my dad.

He is near retiring and though he loved engineering, his love for the process has diminished it. He worked for one company for most of my life and went up the chain to upper corporate managment. Finally he got tired of managment and went back to engineering.

 

Thanks guys!

I'll be sure to go for design.