Reply With QuoteHow good is your Calculus and Physics?
Question for the Engineers
I'm going back to school full time in the Spring. I'm looking into UTD and an Electrical Engineering degree. Any info you can give me on the various types of engineering and job market would be great. I hear engineers make good bank straight out of college.
Do you find your job interesting? difficult? challenging? rewarding?
How good is your Calculus and Physics?
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You could always get some certs and hands-on to work in computer networking. The pay depends on skills and the certs you have. $35k helpdesk up to around 80-100k for IP voice specialists.
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Get a Reservoir Engineering degree and go into the oil and gas industry for a $50,000+ signing bonus and $100K/yr
Every single gas exploration company is in demand for them.
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I don't know of any local schools that offer specific degrees in reservoir engineering, but a petroleum engineering degree would be a good start.
Electrical engineering is - imho - hit or miss. Almost every electrical engineer I know has been through multiple companies in the last decade. DFW has a lot of telecom companies, but as a whole they seem to be a very volatile market sector to work for.
Of course, working in the energy sector is no less volatile. Right now is a great time to get in, but the older members on this board will probably remember how the energy crash in the late '80s affected the Texas economy, especially Houston.
I went back and got a degree in Mechanical Engineering. I now work as a systems design engineer specializing in powertrain and hydraulics for a company that designs mobile drilling equipment. I find my job challenging, interesting, and rewarding. I love what I do.
In this geographical area, an ME or EE fresh out of school can expect a starting salary between $50-60k.
If you want to be an engineer your math and science had better be up to the task. Cal I, II, III, Differential Equations, and Linear Algebra were all pre-reqs at UTA for either Electrical or Mechanical Engineering. One sobering statistic that I heard while at UTA was that only 20% of students who enrolled in an Engineering program (and you had to qualify to enroll, so those who enrolled had already shown some drive and aptitude) actually graduated with an Engineering degree. It's a tough program, which is one of the reasons that Engineering is one of the few true professions that you can enter into with only an undergraduate degree (unlike law or medicine, for example).
If you feel you're up to the task, I say go for it. It is a difficult education, but the rewards are well worth it.
Last edited by altiain; 08-17-2007 at 06:26 AM.
Iain
"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
+1 on the math. I am one of the 80% that did not finish engineering school, and I took all of the math listed above. Business school was an absolute breeze compared to engineering school. Also, plan on studying 5-6 hours every night M-F.
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lol and Iain only listed the easy courses
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Yeah... I still have nightmares about Thermodynamics....Originally Posted by Adam Payrot
lol and Iain only listed the easy courses
(which might explain why I'm a computer science guy)
--
Dave"Opinions are like
..."
I found Thermodynamics I & II and Heat Transfer to be pretty easy. On the other hand, Dynamic Systems Modeling and Fundamentals of Composites Engineering kicked my ass...Yeah... I still have nightmares about Thermodynamics....
(which might explain why I'm a computer science guy)
I also took two tries to get through Circuit Analysis, which is why I'm not an Electrical Engineer.
Iain
"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
Yeah, the math kicked my butt. I have a very good understanding of engineering priciples but could not do the math.
Oh well, guest that is what makes me a good network administrator.
LOL... While I HATE math, for some reason I have always done very well in it. When in high school, I was recruited by a small but respected engineering school. At first I had no idea that engineering meant math... I just thought it was cool to have a school come after me. Once I met with the guy, I learned about the math. He explained that he was there to meet me and encourage me to apply to his school because they were impressed with my Math SAT score. I actually got up and left the interview. I often wonder what I would be doing today if I hadn't been so stupid and arrogant that day.
My $.02 is to try (as much as it's possible) to figure out whether you really want to be an engineer before you fight your way through the coursework mentioned above and spend a bunch of money (or take on a ton of debt).
I was always good at math and science in junior high and high school - so it seemed like a natural thing to do. Having cars in the blood meant I was convinced I wanted to be an engineer for one of the car companies. So I went ME, played with the Formula SAE cars, and busted my butt for 4 years... At the end of it, I realized I didn't actually LIKE what engineers get paid to do.
I worked for awhile (even picked up my Prof. Eng. license) then finally went back to business school, which as someone else said, seemed like cake. I'm still not exactly where I want to be career-wise, but I'm definitely happier than I was as an engineer. I'd be in a better spot had I started out with b-school, and not had an engineering degree and several years of being one on my resume. Making the change can be tough.
Of course, you never really know until you try, so YMMV.
If the goal is just to make money - there are easier ways than eng. school.
Good Luck!
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+1 from one more EE washout about all of the above. I was at the second year class at OCC in OKC, OK. Several of the other EE's and ME's from the year before decided to go for a business degree. I decided to go for an A&P Mechanics license(don't recommend that as a career). Now I wished I had stuck with something in computers.
Good luck.
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I am the only one to post here so far to say I am happy with my electrical engineering degree and career :)
For EE right now, the big employers in the US seem to be L3, Rockwell Collins, Raytheon, Boeing, and TI. I feel like I am forgetting some of the big ones. Oh yeah, there is also Freescale Semiconductor. I haven't looked into IBM or Intel lately, but when I graduated with my BSEE IBM had a quite a few engineering opportunities listed. They didn't take me, but the openings were there.
I wound up at a small research firm in Plano writing software, which bores me to tears. However, things are turning around for me as they are starting to have me design simple PCBs and wire up prototype boxes. I know from family experience (what happened to my brother) if you bust your ass royally and leave with a 3.5+ GPA then Raytheon will give you a good hard look.
If you love the work, can bust your ass, and have the emotional fortitude to handle changing companies, then go for it.
Oh, and even harder: these days job security in the EE field all but requires you to get an MSEE beyond your BSEE.
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