hello. i'm a 4th year mechanical student looking to graduate within a year.. just wondering if there any mechanical engineers or any engineers here. i will truly appreciate some great insightfuly informations. thanks

and if you would, how much money do you make?

 

me. i took a lower salary than usual, at $50k. look on salary.com for "Mechanical Engineer I" in your area and you'll find the right wage. it should be neighborhood of $55k/yr (plus benefits) and typically you'll get paid overtime, but not at time and a half, just at the normal rate.

i work 35-40 hrs a week on salary doing stress analysis for a small aerospace company. we're designing a heliplane for DARPA that will go 400mph, breaking the speed record for helicraft. i find it a lot of fun.

if i were you, i'd look for a job that you find fun. you spend too much time at work to not enjoy it.

 

I graduated ME in 1999. I do control system hardware and software architecture. Not a typical ME job, but I suspect you will find that many people don't do things that their degrees say they should.

Nowadays, ME ends up being lot of things like mechatronics, system engineering, safety engineering, etc. When I graduated, I thought all MEs were design engineers in a cube. It turns out if you are genuinely good at what you do, people don't care much what your degree says. A few things helped me out:
-I like to understand everything. That means I get run of the mill EE stuff and software engineering, etc. I had a good head start on this when I graduated, but I learned a LOT from really smart people at work.
-Understand what motivates people. Everyone is different and if you take the time to understand someone's perspective, they will like you more and you will be more valuable to the company.
-Learn to speak your mind in a professional way. There is usually no shortage of opinions, but there is a shortage of well thought out, well spoken opinions. If you are trying to explain something to someone, it should be because they don't get it. Take the time to think it out and explain it well. That person will appreciate that you respected their time by thinking it out ahead of time and everyone will think you are smarter than you are.
-You are not as smart as you think you are. You smartness = your intelligence * your ability to communicate the things that make you intelligent. Don't ever forget that intelligence without a form of communication is worthless in business.
-Nobody is perfect. Don't expect them to be.
-Understand patents and how to get them. You can agree with our patent system or not, but you should understand how it works.

 

Thanks for your inputs so far. i'll keep those tips in mind

i'm hearing that HVAC and air conditioning industries are really looking for ME's these days?

 

I'm a recent graduate ME. I got a position as an Engineering Consultant (whatever that means). I do modeling all day right now because my branch of the company is doing contract work for *insert major aerospace firm* converting old-ass military drawings to 3d models. Next week I could be designing parts for Caterpillar. My job isn't very stable but it is VERY secure; I get paid even if there is no work to be done. I make about $50k a year plus overtime at time and a half, which sounds like it turns out to be another benefit of the company!

One other thing to remember, is that you really don't need the 4.0 if you know your sh*t. Just don't put low GPA's on your resume! Mine was nowhere to be found when I submitted my resume and I get paid better than some people around here with FAR FAR more impressive resumes than I could even bullsh*t together.

-edit, I figured it would be better if I didn't name the company.

 

I'm an ME, USC Class of '94. I am the lead mechanical engineer for the Sea Launch Program which is 40% owned by the Boeing Company. I am a Boeing employee working at the Sea Launch facility in the Long Beach harbor.

I started as an systems engineer on the B-1B Defensive systems upgrade program in 1996 but that sucked. It was all Powerpoint charts all the time and no real touching of metal things. Then I transferred to the Space Shuttle vibration test labs but that sucked as the Downey facility was being mothballed so they were rerouting the work to other facilities. Bailed on that and came to Sea Launch in 1999 and it has been great.

To put it simply, I am in charge of a team of about 10 mechanics/electrical techs/manufacturing engineers who do the final assembly of the payload unit and handle the range operations on the launch pad.

http://www.sea-launch.com/

I assemble the satellite onto the separation system and then place if in the fairing. See below


Roll it out to the ship




Stack it on the rocket



Take it to the Equator and launch it




Newb engineers start around 50ish K. Lead/senior engineers top out around $130Kish in Boeing. To make more cheddar you gotta go management.

 

wow sounds very cool and interesting.. nice to be hearing from the ME guys themselves.. and thnx for the pictures.
anymore ME or just any engineers out there?

so TrojanHorse, do you design the satellite? or just assembly and manufacture?

 

Got my degree in Engineering Management. Graduated this past December!!! I'm working in the automotive industry as a Kaizen Engineer. We mostly supply carpet to Japanese car manufacturers, but we also make other things. I work on getting rid of muda throughout the entire process.

Its a pretty good job, pays right around what Ace123 is making. And the other engineers I work with are pretty cool guys. Hopefully in a year I'll get to take a trip over to Japan to visit our parent company. Good luck in your search. And salaries will be different depending on what part of the country you live in. I'm in the midwest.

 

I am currently on my 4th year as well at the University of Delaware. I was offered and accepted a job working at the R&D department at Ametek (company makes instruments/equipments to measure gases and moisture). They needed help so they wanted me to start part with them while in school. So that's what I been doing for the last couple of months.

Right now I am getting $20/hr
The full time job offer is $59k a year with benefits.

Practice your interviewing skills and you will be fine.

 

I'm a mech eng, currently the division project manager for a major oilfield equipment manufacturer.

Over the course of a standard work week I will oversee the junior engineers projects while maintaining/progressing on my own projects. In addition, I provide technical support to our customers including providing specs, well analyses, modification approval, and tailored calculations for "non-standard" situations.

Additionally, I am generally working on some new system (the past few months, it's a new hydraulic drive system - first in the industry) that will include initial research, feasibility study, design calculations, FEA analysis, 3D models and drawings, prototype manufacturing and testing, and system commissioning. I also travel to customer sites to troubleshoot systems and even occasionally travel to other countries to help train engineering and manufacturing staff.

Suggestions for improving your skills would include listening more than talking for the first two years of your career, being sure to think prior to making an opinion public, learning to communicate ideas effectively (written and spoken), and always pushing yourself to learn more.

Also, take your FE exam to become an EIT as quickly as you can, since it will still be fresh in your mind. I took the FE exam ten years after I started college and it wasn't fun. I passed (well) but it was painful studying for six weeks prior... Plan on becoming a PE as soon as possible as it gives you a considerable leg up on the competition.