Post: #1

So, after living overseas for a number of years right out of college, I decided to come back to the states. That was. . .not a good idea. I was thinking about returning to live overseas immediately and even started making plans for that but recently, I thought about. . .going back to school. I could go back to school and get a Major that wasn't a waste of time. (Sorry Music B.A. You haven't been the greatest in landing me decent work in the States).

Eventually I thoguht, "Well Engineering sounds like money." Hell, most people hear the phrase "He's an engineer" all that people hear is "$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ *Ka-Ching*$ $ $ $ $ $ $" Anyway, I was thinking about it, and figured, why not? I could build a nice freelancing writting gig while I'm studying in school, I have enormus amount of game to the point as to where women come easy (the perks of being "older"), I'm only 29 years old so I still look young enough to where if I don't mention my age I'll be fine. . .what's not to lose?

I was thinking I'd study engineering, while polishing my foreign language skills in the country I want to return to, get a job out there, and make lots of money, while being in the place I love and hopefully a decent writing side business. Sounds like a plan right? Right. . .

I'd like to know from my fellow engineers out there a few questions:

-Which type of enginering should I specialize in that would best help me fufill these ideas in mind?

-What math should I brush up on before I even step foot onto campus?

-What type of Engineers/Engineering majors make the most money?

-Which type is Engineering is the most fun? (I did some reasearch and a lot of Engineering labs look really cool. . .I've should have done this 8 years ago!)



I actually have a lot of "Soft" Skills which I know are sorely missed in fields like these, I figure that if I can hack it, I can see a very Lucrative, fun life ahead of me.

Any thoughts?

(edit, sorry if my writing is a bit strange. . .been getting over the flu and having some issues with making decently flowing paragraphs)

Post: #2

If you can answer these questions, you know what type of job you want to have.
How do you imagine a work day or work week of an engineer? How do you imagine your perfect work day or work week?
Choose:
Software or hardware?
Organize or innovate?
Daily randowm tasks or project work?

Post: #3

I think your best bet would be to study Computer Engineering or Software Engineering - basically something a subset of engineering that wouldn't require you to have your PE stamp (like Civil Engineering would). Licensing is going to be different country to country so it wouldn't make sense, in my opinion, to get an engineering major where holding a professional license would be necessary.

I would brush up on Calculus AB, Diff EQ, and Linear Algebra.

Petroleum Engineers make the most money.

What is the most fun is entirely up to your own personal tastes and preferences.

------

My two cents: I would think long and hard about this. You will be graduating with your engineering degree when you are like 33, and you will have no experience. Not many foreign countries are going to want to hire a 33 year old American engineer with no experience who will probably expect more money than most of their native hires.

Post: #4

There are two large threads dedicated to engineering. I'm too lazy to out them in this post but you can be sure to find them.

That being said there are quite a few engineering programs that allow you to get your Masters for just one extra year of classes after your bachelors. Be sure to look up the schools but they will most likely be top 30+ programs (programs you should be apply to anyways)

Maybe you should tell us which type you're interested in.

Ps...I can only give advice in biomedical/material engineering.

Post: #5

Do you actually like building stuff (writing code, mixing chemicals etc)?

If not, then you I would advise against it.

Salaries aren't that great for the work you put in, in my opinion.

Post: #6

Engineers don't make that much money. Overall you have a much better median salary than other majors, but the upper end salaries arent anything crazy. Solid money, yes. Ka-ching, no.

If you want to make more money in engineering, either go into a niche market like patent law (primary patent examiners often earn 160k a year), or go into a sector that bases pay on commission (e.g. sales engineer).

Post: #7

Have you considered trades? Welding, electric, plumbing.. things that are the same in every country (except for certifications). Oil sands are still there, for now.

How much $ will a second college degree cost you? Include living costs and lost current income. Is there any way you can use the military to offset this cost? Guess no since 29.

What kind of school can you get accepted into?

Getting an engineering degree with a 3.3+ GPA is going to be hard work and take self discipline. You might be in for a shock. But teaching yourself languages will mitigate this.

Disciplines: Hardware, computer science, mechanical, chemical (petro)..

A lot of schools allow you take placement tests in 1st year foundation classes. You can shave graduation time down to 3 years that way. You can do this for basic inorganic/organic chemistry, mechanics (physics), electromagnetism, linear algebra, calc I,II,III, diff eq basics, intro computer science classes.

For the gen ed req you can probably also take a test for your language skills and reduce the hours.

Post: #8

Thanks, I'll be checking out the Engineering threads, I didn't realize the forum had them.

I did think about the lost income, which is why I'm still reasearching a lot. I was a music Major. . .which took a lot of self discipline/hard work etc. and when I was overseas I worked a LOT(had my own business there for a bit). . .so I"m no stranger to that.

Thanks for the info about the placement tests, I hadn't seen that when I was looking. I'll definately work on that if I decide to go through with this.

(12-01-2013 08:58 PM)Norset Wrote:  Have you considered trades? Welding, electric, plumbing.. things that are the same in every country (except for certifications). Oil sands are still there, for now.

How much $ will a second college degree cost you? Include living costs and lost current income. Is there any way you can use the military to offset this cost? Guess no since 29.

What kind of school can you get accepted into?

Getting an engineering degree with a 3.3+ GPA is going to be hard work and take self discipline. You might be in for a shock. But teaching yourself languages will mitigate this.

Disciplines: Hardware, computer science, mechanical, chemical (petro)..

A lot of schools allow you take placement tests in 1st year foundation classes. You can shave graduation time down to 3 years that way. You can do this for basic inorganic/organic chemistry, mechanics (physics), electromagnetism, linear algebra, calc I,II,III, diff eq basics, intro computer science classes.

For the gen ed req you can probably also take a test for your language skills and reduce the hours.

Post: #9

(12-01-2013 07:55 PM)CJ_W Wrote:  I actually have a lot of "Soft" Skills which I know are sorely missed in fields like these, I figure that if I can hack it, I can see a very Lucrative, fun life ahead of me

It's a stereotype that engineers lack "soft skills". Plenty of engineers go on to be successful managers at all levels.

It's not just a matter of brushing up on some math.

Differential and integral calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations are not algebra and trig. Not to mention calculus-based physics, vector statics, vector dynamics and other core classes that a lot of students flunk out of.

An engineering major takes a lot of dedication and I doubt there'd be time for a side business.

I don't doubt your abilities. I'm sure you're a dedicated guy and can pull it off...it's just a question of...would it be worth it to you?

It sounds like you're quite business saavy and ambitious.

Because I was good in math and science classes, I studied engineering because that's what the education racket said I should do even though it was not my passion.

I missed a lot of great business and life opportunities and got into debt to study engineering.

I would not recommend studying engineering unless it was an absolute burning passion.

I'd recommend going back to your target country and finding opportunities there.

I wish I would have done that.

Depending on the country, your status a foreigner could open up a lot of fun and lucrative opportunities.

Post: #10

With a BS in any Engineering you'll be a technician of some sort. Most likely doing field service.
It's not necessarily a bad thing. I got to travel all over the world doing field service.

If you want to do any kind of design work in Engineering you'll need to be on the Masters or PHD
level.

I've done Quality Engineering for a long time at a few different companies. It's also called Quality Control.
You're the last line of defense before a product goes to market or is released to the world. Quality
Engineering is fun. I really enjoyed it. Your skills have to be super high level. You're basically beating
the hell of electronic products looking for issues and making sure they meet certain criteria or specs.

Any issues you find you enter as bug reports into a database. Usually Hardware or Software Engineers
take your report and try to resolve the issue with a hardware fix or new software.

I've grown past all that and now I'm doing full blown programming. It's a lot more demanding. You're basically
on call all the time and have tight deadlines to finish projects. I get calls at 11pm from my boss sometimes asking
me to look at some code and fix something before work the next day. I do an interesting mix of software
development, user interface design and field service. I bounce all over NYC with my laptop. It's craziness.

Take some time and get your Cisco Certification. Networking is boring and it's lame in my opinion but there's
always work and it's fairly easy to make like $70k-80k a year with only a few years of experience. The downside
is you're on call 24/7. Networks need to be maintained and have to be up all the time. It's pretty much recession proof.

Post: #11

I've mentioned it before on the forum a couple of times. Engineering jobs likely provide you with the best balance of high salary, manageable debt and expected working hours. You have to love the problem solving nature of the job however and don't expect a work place with a 50/50 gender distribution (if that's important to you).

Post: #12

look at my sig.

Post: #13

From what one of my professors told me in school the way to make real money was to develop niches in engineering then be a consultant. Im wondering because, even being good with pro-e and solid works is soooo general it probably wont be viewed as niche.

Also, what are the most desired/hard to find platforms. Besides pro-e and solidworks. Im looking for something that can offer independence as a contractor. I got a call for a job, to start ASAP. They required 5 yrs pro-e experience. Like a fuckin dumb ass i told them i only had maybe 1-2 years equivalent experience. I dont know WHY I Said that... But FML, that ended the conversation.

But Im interested in contract/consultant work, because the flexiblity. Im just trying to get a idea of where to start, beside the general get "experience advice". Like what the best niche programs to learn are. MY degree was in Mech & Aero. But mech-e can be swung to many other discipline if you know the program needed.

Post: #14

(12-01-2013 07:55 PM)CJ_W Wrote:  -Which type of enginering should I specialize in that would best help me fufill these ideas in mind?

-What type of Engineers/Engineering majors make the most money?

-Which type is Engineering is the most fun?

I am about to enter the engineering world, and over the past couple years I have put a basic map together in my mind of how it all works.

Of the top of my head, there is mechanical engineering, civil engineering, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, industial engineering, and materials engineering.

Outside of one of these, I can only give a basic breakdown of what you will do with these degrees:
Mechanical engineering - anything to related to moving parts, fluid motion, thermodynamics, and heat transfer.
Civil engineering = mostly related to the design of buildings, and bridges.
Biomedical engineering - mostly related to electronic and mechanical devices used in the medical field.
Electrical engineering - related to circuitry, electricity, and electronics.
Computer science - almost entirely coding.
Materials engineering - revolves around the material selection for a large variety of objects created.
Industrial engineering - spreadsheets.

I would suggest doing an in depth search on these degrees to get a better understanding of them.

Based on my understanding, there are three trajectories for someone who enters the engineering field. Each trajectory has its own risk associated with it and as always, the higher the risk, the higher the payoff.

Before entering any of the trajectories, obviously you have to start off as either a design or field engineer. The job of a design engineer revolves around designing modifications to preexisting devices or designing an entirely new device. Field engineers go out into the world and work with people to maintain and ensure the effective use of devices that are already in operation.

Trajectory 1: Enter the engineering world under a specific field. Build a base of knowledge within that field and eventually move on from being a grunt to a senior engineer that can be called on for advice or directly manage engineers who are less experienced. From what I have heard, a high performing and highly competent engineer who continues in this trajectory, their pay grade maxes out about 200,000$ per year with a decent level of variance.

Trajectory 2: Enter the engineering world under a specific field. Build a base of knowledge within that field and eventually move on to start your own small business offering a service to other people within that field. If you are an effective businessman, the pay grade maxes out around 400,000$+.

Trajectory 3: This is the last and riskiest trajectory, but it is also the one with major payoffs. Enter the engineering world under a specific field. Build a base of knowledge within that field and find a device within that field that can be improved in a profitable way. Start a small business off of this alteration and attract investors. Create the improvement, patent it, and sell the company to a larger company within the field. My friend who works for a small biomedical company, his boss did this. She created company that would make a small improvement to a device that could be sold repeatedly. The company did research & development over the course of 4=5 years and was sold for a large sum. She made 25 million dollars in the process. Since she owns the patent, she is going to continue remaking and selling companies that modify the device until she becomes a billionaire.

This post may not be entirely correct, but it is what I have put together in my mind as I have gone to college.

Post: #15

Engineers that can swing into consulting make the most money.

Industrial engineers have a shot at the big 4 with regard to management consulting. Mechanical engineers with experience in Lean also have this option.

Note however that going this route you're giving away all the cushy parts of the engineering profession.

Post: #16

(12-01-2013 07:55 PM)CJ_W Wrote:  Hell, most people hear the phrase "He's an engineer" all that people hear is "$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ *Ka-Ching*$ $ $ $ $ $ $"

I think you are overestimating that a little.

Or a lot.