Aerospace Engineering Experience

Do you like airplanes, calculations, meetings, making PowerPoint presentations, reading lengthy specifications, and sometimes dealing with customers and suppliers who, for some reason, think that actually giving you information necessary to get a solution to their problem is like getting them to divulge a secret?

Engineering is fundamentally about problem solving, using “tools” you learn in engineering school and on the job.

Note: college courses are largely NOT real engineering; they teach you skills and techniques for problem solving, physics and chemistry, mathematics, analytical methods, etc.

Did you enjoy math, chemistry and physics in high school?

Also, many people with engineering degrees end up in very different fields.

IMHO it makes no sense to talk of what we do in a day. There are so many fields ... you could spend your time of the factory floor solving practical problems, you could spend your time in aerodynamics wondering about imponderables, you could spend your time in design playing with computerised drafting/modelling, or you might be lucky as spend your time creating wonderful analysis of structures (one guy at my place wrote a 200 page stress analysis on a mission power system !), or you could get stuck in projects making schedules.

but IMHO you don't seem to be committed enough, if it just "caught your eye". If you are this unsure (that aero is the career for you) then I'd suggest mechanical engineering which has much opportunities. If you are good with your hands then maybe an AME trade school (and no, I'm not down on trade schools, they provide a valuable opportunity for people who can't, or don't want to, invest in the full university degree; and they provide an entry into the field). Practical experience with worth it's weight in gold.

I have mentored, supervised, trained, and reviewed the work from many junior engineers, now.
One trait that sets apart the ones who succeed from those who don't is the extra-curricular activities they do. Things that round them out and teach them how to solve problems for themselves.

So, Ash, do you work on your own car, motorcycle, bicycle? Have you designed or built robots, model rockets, a go-kart, or a garage? Do you build your computers from parts? Do you save money on stuff by building and fixing things yourself? Are you so interested in science that you take photographs of planets with a telescope? Or re-use old solar panels for stuff?

The ability to do these kinds of things, regardless of how young you are, makes a big difference if you choose a career in engineering. Young people who are good at math and science can be taught problem-solving, and slowly learn it as they join the workforce. But they are MILES behind the kids who learned problem-solving at age 10 because they helped their father fix a tractor that broke down during harvest.

Engineering is an art, not just a science. Your school's guidance councilor probably doesn't know that. Reaching out to Eng-Tips was a good idea. I hope it helps.

Sparweb said:

I have mentored, supervised, trained, and reviewed the work from many junior engineers, now.
One trait that sets apart the ones who succeed from those who don't is the extra-curricular activities they do. Things that round them out and teach them how to solve problems for themselves.

So, Ash, do you work on your own car, motorcycle, bicycle? Have you designed or built robots, model rockets, a go-kart, or a garage? Do you build your computers from parts? Do you save money on stuff by building and fixing things yourself? Are you so interested in science that you take photographs of planets with a telescope? Or re-use old solar panels for stuff?

The ability to do these kinds of things, regardless of how young you are, makes a big difference if you choose a career in engineering. Young people who are good at math and science can be taught problem-solving, and slowly learn it as they join the workforce. But they are MILES behind the kids who learned problem-solving at age 10 because they helped their father fix a tractor that broke down during harvest.

Engineering is an art, not just a science. Your school's guidance councilor probably doesn't know that. Reaching out to Eng-Tips was a good idea. I hope it helps.

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Rats, based on that, I don't think I was qualified to be an engineer

Good thing I'm already retired; no more imposter syndrome

I hyper focused on 3D cad in school. I know details on how to manufacture stuff. My contacts list in my phone could probably get any part a human could possible design in the right place to get made...especially gun parts. I really like sheetmetal parts. I really like riveting. I spent 20 minutes today redlining a fighters flare dispenser mount a new guy designed. I went nuts on getting the drawings in order for the spline drive for starter generator last week. I spent a few years in a machine shop setting up machines, designing tooling, fixing machines. I got my A&P which really got me into qual testing and certification because I'm an engineer that knows FARs and I'm still learning that mess. I'm in middle of writing my third AS9100 manual for a company. I have a Mooney I fly and work on. I have my helicopter license from an old job for flight qualification stuff. My daily driver is 25 years old this year and I'm proud it has over 400k miles and I keep it going. Air conditioning is important where I live... I could service or design just about any vapor cycle system... planning a built in refrigerator to replace my POS samsung. But end of the day my main job has always been CAD and getting stuff made. I like making parts and I've been asked to make some pretty wild stuff over the years. It's neat to get on certain aircraft, or go to military air shows and be able to say "I designed that".

That and one more year... hopefully I'll be a full tenured professor. I still hate math... most people make it more complex than it should be. I've grown to like problem solving. I still want to design/make an engine... maybe this year If I'm lucky.

"I still hate math" As JE Gordon more or less said, the worst thing that ever happened to structural analysis was when the 18th century mathematicians got hold of it.

Here ya go

GregLocock said:

"I still hate math" As JE Gordon more or less said, the worst thing that ever happened to structural analysis was when the 18th century mathematicians got hold of it.

Here ya go

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Lol, this is pretty accurate. I designed some steel racks and I threw together some basic calculations for the load rating. Gave it to a coworker to look over and he said that we needed to consult our structural guy, as the C-channels I used were set such that the center web was vertical, so that the ever so slight off center support vs the central loading would induce a torsional effect. Loads were only a ew thousand lbs, risk of failure was pretty low, and overall it was very obvious to me that any deep analysis was overkill in this context.

The structural guy spent a full day researching and putting equations together for me, that I then spent a few hours running the numbers on. The final load rating only varied by a few percent and the overall safety factor was effectively unchanged. Good use of company time....

I am a retired aerospace gear engineer.
get a business degree, and start a small business. you will be better off.
I will get a lot flak for saying this.

mfgenggear said:

I am a retired aerospace gear engineer.
get a business degree, and start a small business. you will be better off.
I will get a lot flak for saying this.

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No one path fits everyone; starting a business means RUNNING a business, so it's just a different set of compromises to allow you to do what you want to do. And, if you were to try and be more successful, then you need to hire, fire, and keep a bunch of good employees.

OP
if you really want to be an Engineer.
it will take sacrifice, long hours, patience.
dedication, engineering curriculum is
a very tough and hard .
and you need great mentors to teach you
after college is completed.
your journey after college has just started.
and will take 5-10 years.

2nd that, university is just a "ticket to the ball game"; that's why you need to really want it, to get "inner" satisfaction from it. as a profession you'll do alright ... like the music business ... 0.0001% are rock stars, 80% struggle and leave, 19% do ok (and ok 0.9999% do better than ok, but less than "rock stars").

I did like Gordon's book in school "why things don't fall down". There is a place for numbers but there is also a place for experience (and hand waving).
I'm notorious at my place for saying "we're not paid to produce stress reports; we're paid to get planes out the front door (hard, as there are steps there)"
But large companies need reports to capture fully the thought process, smaller companies rarely ever look at the reports once the project is done.

Go into business ?? sure, but not this business ... "how do you make a small fortune in aerospace ? start with a large one."
But again, only if you have the aptitude for it.

"how do you make a small fortune in aerospace ? start with a large one."

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Not completely impossible, some luck and good choices in living and saving helps a lot. I know aerospace people that have retired with reasonably large nest eggs.

sorry, it's a pretty common joke about the aerospace business.

rb1957 said:

sorry, it's a pretty common joke about the aerospace business.

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No worries, I've seen that joke applied to lots of businesses, and I'm sorry to say that I was a worker bee in one with, "This is Fairchild University, where you learn what not to do."