A Career in Mech Engineering

[treelovinghippy]

Hey Guys,

Just gonna set the scene and hopefully you can get back to me with your opinions.

I'm a 29 year old Industrial designer living in the UK, looking at returning to study Mech Engineering. I have done quite a bit traveling in my time but the the majority of my career has been spent working as a design office manager for a bespoke furniture manufacturing company. I left this job to travel and when i returned, the economy had bottomed out. I am now working in a placement position for a small agricultural engineering company in a bid to start working towards becoming an engineer. I am looking into studies and have been offered a place in year 3 of a 4 year course. Problem is, I know that despite spending a number of hours everyday after work on revision work that i will not be at the required level by the time to course begins. So, I'm looking at trying to get into year two and working my revision towards this level. I have not decided what area i wish to specialize in once i finish my studies.

The thing I'm worried about is whether this degree will be as beneficial to me as I'm hoping it will be and also if i will be discriminated against by potential employers because of my age when i hope to qualify!

 

[cksh]

I can't comment on much except for the part about your age and the benefits of such a degree.

I graduated when I was 32. Like you I had experience already which helped me to land a new job upon completion. My degree was what boosted my career to the next level.

You still have 30+ years left working in engineering. Go for it and don't look back.

 

[TheTick]

You would rather not be the guy that "almost" has a degree.

 

[IRstuff]

Ditto. I interviewed an "engineer" who had no degree, and so he trotted out a bunch of certificates and whatnot as evidence of his competency, but they could have all been inkjet printed as far as I could have seen.

I thought it was a bit pathetic, especially since he needed a calculator to figure out what a 15% pay increase would look like.

My wife started a new career at 45, but she became a physician, after been a labrat...

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[sprinkler1000]

Not my intention to argue with you IRstuff but I had a mentor in engineering for four years, who himself had led the operation and construction of many factories in his area of expertise. In all his humble manners, he made some people call him "profesor" as he was that in a technical institute. He was not an engineer and did not even got through the college door.He taught me all he could before he died last year.
Of course I would suggest to try to get the degree if life gives the chance, but I understand we cannot discriminate.
I like your always interesting comments.

 

[IRstuff]

Sure, there are always exceptions, and that's why those people are often called "exceptional." I likwise was familiar with a couple of guys that were intuitive engineers, and one rose up through the ranks from a technician level. And while his company had promoted him to an engineer and treated him appropriately, he was unable to even get an interview at my company, because he had no degree.

Rightly or wrongly, it's a filter. Reminds me, since my son is applying for college, of a story told by an ex-admissions officer, that they got so many applications that even after throwing out the obviously low GPA or test score students, they were still left with about 20,000 apps for 4000 slots. The next filter was to eliminate all those that started their personal statements with, "I live in..."

I'm sure that a lot of exceptional students wound up going somewhere else because their personal statements started with the equivalent of, "It was dark and stormy night..." And Bulwer-Lytton competition not withstanding, only one author has successfully published a book that starts with that infamous phrase, Madeleine l'Engle.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[sprinkler1000]

Good point.
I just feel better leaving some kind of "door open", besides the difficulties, for selflearners, wich in this world today have plenty of resources as alternatives for going to college, and I am thinking of people that for several reasons could not attend college and now are in their middle life, with maybe 20 years of work ahead.

 

[IRstuff]

Sure, that sucks, but my father, who had a bachelors in PoliSci as well as certificats in IBM360 programming and architecture would up working at newspaper, first as a newswire translator and ended up as the ad manager at some newpaper. While have open doors is desireable, I'm not necessarily convinced that all comers would actually take that step through the door. There are others, who clearly have had "insurmountable" obstacles, that are able to clw their way up our of their circumstances, one bloody fingernail at a time.

I hear people talk about what they want, but seldom do they act upon their desires, either through sheer inertia, fear, or just insufficient motivation; the end result is that they're standing at the threshold and never cross over, but there are others that were too far from the door to even see it that manage to find that door and get through it.

I think that there's a limit to what we can realistically do in terms of providing the opportunities, and the rest will still require that the subject do the heavy lifting themselves.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[racookpe1978]

I'm the opposite: I started in engineering, determined to get through engineering in 4 years and go run reactors.

Didn't happen. Spent almost all of my time repairing and rebuilding the dumb things - and almost none running them. Turns out I'm good at fixing them, good at scheduling and field work. Now? I'm poor - very poor and unpracticed at desktop calculations and pure design theory of even some of the simplest calc's - but get good bonuses running each shift at each different plant. .

You've spent time in building and manufacturing, but seem to fear the numbers and the equations back in the classroom. Grab them, fight them, beat them. The numbers are stupid and can't fight back. You will win - given effort. Then, when you have your "numbers degree" in hand, sit back and finish your beer - you've earned it! - and decide if you want to apply your experience running things and machinery and people again, or running numbers in a desktop that somebody else will build.

My opinion? You will make many tens of thousands of dollars/Euro's/pounds more running the people and schedules and money than the pure numbers. But you need that blasted degree to prove to others (bosses, HR, other companies)that you can run what you have already run.

 

[FeX32]

lol...raco. The way you talk reminds me of an extremely funny guy I know.


Fe

 

[gadkinsj]

I graduated with a BS. in M.E. at 34. Was totally worth it. Calculus kicked my ass completely but I put my head down and got it done. Worked full time for the first half of my degree and part time for the rest so it took me 7 years. Suffered, poor, , the Crazy old guy among a bunch of 19 year olds. still worth it.
Gotta have the paper, its all thats really respected.

 

[FeX32]

"Gotta have the paper, its all thats really respected. "

I hope not, for the sake of the humans to come after us...


Fe