anyone have exp on in Systems Engineering?

[sbullet86]

I was hoping someone who has some personal experience with this can chime in and possibly lead me towards the right direction.

I have a background in Mech and I've been looking into a MS in Systems Engineering recently. From what I've read, it sounds like its something I want, as it seems like dealing with the bigger picture in terms of a whole engineering project. Additionally, it is becoming a very sought after degree in the defense industry in the up coming decade. Another reason is that I'd like to live in the DC area.

I did some job listing searchings for system engineering jobs in my company, and it appears that nearly 95% of them seem to be an extension of CS degrees and in the IT field, and very few that that accepted just a Systems Engineering degree.

With that said, i'm kind of wondering if I'm just not doing a good job finding the right Systems Engineering jobs, or if it is what it is and I'm just looking in the wrong area.

 

[KENAT]

I took aerospace systems engineering as my degree back in the 90's, thinking like you that it would be the big in demand thing with all the extra systems going on A/C etc.

I have yet to do a significant amount of systems work.

The term 'systems' gets applied to all kinds of things, a lot of them related to IT, rather than the kind of systems engineering I studied.

That said, we do have at least one fairly prolific poster on here that does systems engineering in defense, so hopefully he can chime in.

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(probably not aimed specifically at you)
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[shawnpeter]

I downloaded this podcast on iTunes U of Norm Augustine talking about his book on systems engineering. Was a pretty good lecture. You should look for it on iTunes and watch it on your computer (for free) if you don't have an iphone.

Pretty amazing guy with a very accomplished resume'

 

[PVDean]

Systems engineering (non-IT related) is a broad field, as I'm sure you are aware of. I've worked as one in the past doing Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA) work for the External Tank program.

Systems can be Requirements Integration, which basically takes the requirements documents and break down each one into actual requirements. You then create your own "derived requirements" and show how they meet the program level ones. Once your derived requirements are set, you use test data to show you meet those.

The other side of Systems is the inspection based side. You have a systems level hazard analysis, which is broken down to the part where the FMEA is performed. Your FMEA controls the inspections on the part to cover the Failure Modes of the critical parts. These can be passed onto the suppliers, or it can be government buyoffs.

Outside of all of this, there is Process FMEAs which break down any specific process into processes...FMECAs which assign a probability to failure modes...

Systems E can be used to track deliverables within a specific project, like Test Readiness Reviews.

Every defense contractor will have jobs like this. I was hired to Lockmart as a Systems Engineer, but until I got transfered I never really did it. They mirror the government and NASA as far job titles/structure.

I think you need to look at Systems Safety instead of Systems Engineering since that implies IT.

 

[sbullet86]

I appreciate the informative contribution.

Doing a search on LM's job site for safety systems, i did get 1 result for a systems engineering job that fits the type of Systems Engineering we're discussing.

Doing a search through my company (defense contractor similar to LM), that term does not appear anywhere, however I believe i did find the positions that I'm looking for. Would terms such as "Operations Research", "Industrial Engineering", and "Process Analyst" be key terms? Their job descriptions seem to fall into the type of Systems Engineering that we are talking about here. Some of them also state "Systems Engineering degree".


One concern I have now is how readily available these system engineering jobs are for a fresh MS Systems Engineering grad, with a few years of exp in sub-system engineering.

 

[KENAT]

"Industrial Engineering" Not the kind of systems I studied at uni. This would be essentially manufacturing/production engineering as I understand it. Operations research might fall into a similar field, as might Process analyst. Though again, these terms can be used more than one way.

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[sbullet86]

from wiki:

Industrial Engineering (often now supplemented as "Industrial & Systems Engineering" or "Industrial & Operations Engineering") is a branch of engineering dealing with optimizing complex processes or systems.

looking on USAjobs, industrial engineers fit the job description of the systems engineers we're talking about here.