Changing Engineering Fields 7

[nate2003]

I just got done reading the "Five Year Update" thread and that got me thinking of my own situation and I am wondering about switching engineering fields.

I graduated with a mechanical engineering degree six years ago. I didn't do any relevant internship during college because of where I am from, there were none available, but I did a civil engineering internship with the state and I did road construction and drove trucks, implements, etc. the other years.

After graduating from college I had a difficult time getting a job offer, at least partly due to my lack of experience. Maybe the economy or something else played a part I don't know. After 7 months of looking, I got an offer as a "raw material utilization specialist" at a company that went through tons of steel a day. I primarily worked on revising BOM standards and made nesting improvements on their burn tables, lasers and saws. I was laid off after 6 months. After 4 weeks of looking, I had two offers, one as a machine designer and the other as a manufacturing engineer. I chose the manufacturing engineer job and I'm glad I did because an acquaintance of mine took the other position and was laid off within a year.

Now, five years later, I am quite often disappointed in my job. I spend time training people how to assemble things. I show operators who have been running a machine for 25 years how to rename a CNC program file. I help them layout drawers and organize fixtures for better efficiency. I have been very immersed in lean manufacturing and I am good at it and have done well. My engineering degree helped me get this job, but I look around and see "redeployed" shop personnel doing the same thing I do, although I am paid more. I make capital justifications, but that takes only rudimentary math skills. I deal with suppliers over quality issues. I order tooling. I do ISO audits. I make cleaning lists for the cell operators and audit them for organization and cleanliness, efficiency, etc.

My dilemma is this: I feel that I am losing my technical skills and my education. I LOVED dynamics and physics in college. I wasn't a star in math, but I enjoyed it. Now I rarely use my $200 calculator, and then it is only for simple math. I subscribe to trade magazines for the sole reason of solving the monthly brainteaser.

I have an opportunity for an inter-corporate transfer to a position that is listed as an Industrial Engineer, but it has the same job functions that I am doing now. No offense to the IEs out there, but in school we MEs called the IEs "imaginary engineers" because we felt that vibrations was a harder class than calculating labor standards from time observations. I am concerned that I am slowly losing my knowledge and skills and that I will be stuck forever in a career that I don't like.

What are my options? Someone mentioned Oil and Gas in the other thread. What do O/G engineers do?

I'm not a big dreamer with all sorts of original ideas and solutions, but I like solving problems with existing methods. I like being outside, but that is just a preference. I don't like spending all day at a desk, but half a day is fine. I like projects. I actually like working around manufacturing, I just think I’m regressing intellectually. I don't like big cities, traffic, don’t want to work in a skyscraper, so I'm not interested in working in LA, Chicago, NYC, Milwaukee, etc.

Also, I think that of all the branches of engineering, manufacturing/industrial engineering is high on the list of endangered fields as manufacturing is going overseas at a rapid rate, so that is a concern as well for me and I think that limits my opportunities now and will limit them even more in the future. I would like my career to be flexible so that I can move to a different state if I want and still be able to find a job in my field.

What would my opportunities be in civil engineering?

Any ideas about an engineering career path I might like or how to get into one? I have the corporate experience, the team experience, the office politics, I have confidence in my skills and abilities and I do well at whatever I do. I have been successful in my job. However, does that experience count at all or am I possible looking at starting over in an entry-level position with low pay? I am making around 60K now.

One more thing. I chose engineering as a career in highschool after reading about the marvelous engineering feats of the world at the beginning of every chapter of my trigonometry book. If the stories had been about standard work documents and 5S audits, I probably would have been a farmer or a construction worker.

Thanks for all of your wonderful advice.


"I have had my results for a long time, but I do not yet know how I am to arrive at them." Karl Friedrich Gauss

 

[Twoballcane]

Nate2003
Just some random advice…

It sounds like you are in a manufacturing house. Do you have a department that does Environmental Stress Screening for vibration, thermal, and shock? If you do, maybe you should see if you can get a job in their department. At least you will be working with subjects we did back in our college days.

If you like doing more analysis stuff, maybe you should start trying to delve into that field. If you can get your company to pay for some ProE/ProMechanica/ANSYS (static/dynamic analysis) and TAS/Flotherm (heat transfer analysis) class so you can start doing some analysis work. And also start reading analysis books that deal with your industry, for example for my self I do electronic packaging so the books that I use are by Steinberg “Vibration Analysis for Electronic Equipment” and “Cooling Techniques for Electronic Equipment” and other books that help me do my analysis.

If you want design, maybe start looking for work at the company that manufacture one of the pieces of equipment that you use in your line. You being the customer may have an edge because you know what “added value” you can improve the machine with.

Good luck
Tobalcane

 

[HgTX]

If you don't need a very high salary, there's always work in civil engineering. The structural/building side of it depends on the economy, but if you go to the bridge side of things (probably more relevant to an ME than geotech or other CE disciplines), there's plenty to do. At any given time, large portions of the national infrastructure are in need of upgrade or repair.

But I don't think a CE firm or agency will hire you straight off at 60k.

Hg

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[pittsig]

Nate,
If you are dissatisfied now, most likely you will be next year, 5 years from now, etc.

The demand for civil engineers should remain steady and/or increase in the future as baby boomers age and retire. I agree with HgTX regarding the disrepair of infrastructure. There will be opportunities in small towns and big cities across the US plus global opportunities if you were so inclined.

There is usually some overlap between civil and mechanical curriculums; at least there used to be - fluids, statics, dynamics, materials, etc. You'd be lacking in soils, transportation, water and sewage treatment. Surveying would help too, but unbelievably many engineering schools no longer require it.

Your background may most easily be transferred to structural/bridge work, but most design firms would probably want to see a Masters degree with a structural emphasis. Another option may be an industrial or mechanical contractor which could also utilize your project management skills. You may also look at architecture firms or multi-discipline design firms that may utilize your ME background more.

60K would be tough to find without direct experience and away from large towns. Licensure is much more of a necessity in civil than in other disciplines as well.

I started in EE in college because that's where the jobs and money were, hated every minute of it, and switched to CE after one semester for the opportunity of working outside as well as inside, plus the opportunity for many diverse projects. I've been in Civil for 17 years - mostly various aspects of water, sanitary sewer, and land development. The only time I have used calculus is in a graduate level math course I took for my Masters (structural engineers use it though).

Civil salaries are generally lower than other disciplines, but that is skewed somewhat in that large numbers of civils work for the government which tends to pay less but generally have better benefits . When comparing engineers with many years of experience, the salary gap narrows considerably. My guess is many more civils end up starting their own firms than other disciplines, or end up as principals of larger firms.

I work for a municipal government and probably would make 25% more in the private sector. However, most nights I go home at 5:00 PM and don't work on weekends which gives me more family time. Many in the private sector put in many more hours for that extra pay.

Sometimes what I do seems more like glorified baby-sitting than engineering. However, every day is different, each project unique, and I don't regret my career path one bit.

My $0.02

Good luck.

 

[Ashereng]

A mechanical engineer in O&G can be expected to pretty much do anything that needs doing, including, but not limited to:
- rotational equipment expert (big bucks in this one)
- pipe stress
- support
- ASME pressure vessel designer
- non-ASME vessel designer
- valves
- piping design
- non-rebar concrete
- small buildings

The list goes on.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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[graybeach]

Hello nate2003,

You might be able to break into bridges if you find a firm that does movable bridges. I worked as a bridge engineer at a large company for several years. We always had 2 or 3 mechanicals among the 50 engineers in the department. They often did non-mechanical analysis and design if that is what was needed and they were good at it. They did mechanical stuff too.

I have found that staying technical pays off, especially after doing it for 20 years or so. Its fun and challenging, and there is a lot of job security because so many engineers leave the profession or go into management. You always need at least a couple of people to put a constructible design on paper.

Hang in there!

 

[HgTX]

But if yer gonna be an ME doing bridges, do us a favor and be familiar with the applicable bridge codes. I just had a nightmare design to deal with last year because the MEs had never bothered to read the Bridge Welding Code. (And then, when they found out their design violated the code, wouldn't grant a waiver to the code. Hilarity ensued.)

Hg

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[paulfrancis]

I basically bailed out of traditional Chemical Engineering a long time ago and switched over to the IT consulting end. I guess one description of what I do is process control, automation, and optimization for the (mostly) service sector.

I occasionally work a deal in the manufacturing sector, which tends to remind me why I would never want to work for a manufacturing company full time. The work environment is generally pretty lousy and I really don’t have the personality and company culture fit with pretty much any manufacturing company that I know of, especially ones that hire traditional Chemical engineers.

The money isn’t too shabby. I recently turned down a job with a client who offered me $80k/year. They latter raised it to $100k/year, which I again turned down because I have decided that I have spent too much time in my current location (about 7 yrs) and want to move to a new and different city that I have not lived in yet.

It’s also pretty easy, at least now, for me to find another job. As of late, updating my resume on Monster and Dice tends to result in at least several dozen recruiters calling me.

As an aside, recruiters tend to be mostly morons and idiots, but that is beyond the scope of this thread.

The job is also interesting. I bounce around from company to company, in very different industries. I have worked deals with mortgage companies, manufacturing companies, defense companies, universities, nonprofits, data brokers, the government, .com startups, financial companies, distributors, etc. Generally, by the time I am sick and tired of the company and industry that I am working for (which always seems to happen eventually), the project I am working on wraps up and I move on to another.

 

[kamal11]

I have the corporate experience, the team experience, the office politics, I have confidence in my skills and abilities and I do well at whatever I do. I have been successful in my job.



As we are growing in our carrier, i see most of my bosses time goes in managing teams and taking effective non engineering decissions.

You already said you are good in doing the above. So why dont you establish your own organisation in what ever you are good in. you will definetly suceed.

If you are dissatisfied now, most likely you will be next year, 5 years from now, etc...

After 5 years you will be again at the same state of managing people. Again might be same dilema...