Coursework and Career Advice 1

[TonyD71502]

Greetings Eng-Tips community,

At the end of August, I will be beginning graduate school. I will be attending two classes a semester, two nights a week, while still maintaining my current engineering job. I have been out of school for almost four years now. I got my undergrad in Civil and Environmental with a concentration in structural. I have grown tired of being in front of a computer screen for 40 hours a week with no possibility of out of office work. I was considering switching gears from structural to environmental, water resources, or even construction management in hopes of getting a job upon graduation, or before graduation, that will allow me to be out in the field a lot more. What are your experiences with this? Ideally, I think, I would like to get into the oil & gas industry, the railroad, or something like the army corps of engineers. However, I don't have much perspective on these fields, I was just thinking they would be the ones that allow for the most travel/time outdoors. I am not tied down in life and am not opposed to moving for a job. I know this is a vague question and it sounds like I don't know what I want to do. I just know I don't want to be stuck behind a computer screen for the rest of my life.

Also, I have read these forums quite a lot when time permits, and I have heard many people saying that graduate school classes may not be worth while or applicable in the real world. I would like your opinion on which of the classes I have to choose from would potentially benefit me. Perhaps some of you have even taken similar ones. After weeding out the classes I know are just theory, which I've had plenty of, and the classes that I took as an undergrad, the list is as follows: Slope Stability, Engineering Geology, Pavement Design, Transportation Systems Analysis, Enviro Eng Microbiology, Enviro Eng Chemistry, Phys/Chem Principles in Enviro Eng, Sediment Transport, Construction Methods and Equipment, Construction Finance & Cost Control, Construction & Cost of Electrical Systems, Mine Ventilation, and Intro to Mining Eng. I don't know what will be available in the future semesters, so I want to get the two most worth while.

Sorry for rambling on.

Regards

 

[JAE]

...saying that graduate school classes may not be worth while or applicable in the real world.

Wow - for me the graduate classes were all very much MORE applicable to what I do today - 30 some years later.

There may be some issue with Pd.D. classes/studies as they tend to be much more narrowly focused and thus more difficult to apply to a larger variety of jobs.



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[MrHershey]

Regarding your second paragraph, I see that a bunch here. I think it's totally bunk, at least in my field. For structural engineering, you will find your master's level classes the most applicable, in my opinion. Certainly was for me.

Topics not learned until grad school at one of the top schools in the US:
-Earthquake engineering
-Any sort of lateral system design
-Steel connections
-Composite steel/concrete design
-Two-way concrete slab design
-Deep beam/strut and tie
-Foundation design
-Post-tension design

Plus masonry and wood design, which I didn't take and had to learn on the job. Some schools even have coursework for light gauge design (mine didn't). Coming out of undergrad I could design individual steel/concrete beams and columns and that was it.

Even the theoretical stuff was helpful. Any idiot can use a computer program and pump out designs. But you should want to know how it works. What's happening behind the images on your screen. The theoretical stuff provides the basis for that. Through taking coursework in matrix structural analysis, finite element methods, structural dynamics, and virtual work you can get a background for what the program is doing and an intuition for when things don't make sense (that will supplement the intuition you gain from experience, it's a different kind). Even with all the technology we have as designers now, you as an engineer are still on the ropes for that. You don't get to pass the analysis buck to the software developer. If something fails because you didn't understand what your application was doing, it's going to be you on the ropes not the software company.

Sorry for the rant.

 

[kaconnol]

In reference to your first paragraph about not wanting to be in front of a computer screen, I feel ya on that.

In my experience the larger contracting firms love engineers that are willing to travel and go to the job site. I think the oil and gas or power field would be a great place to go because those projects tend to be fairly quick for being so large. You can design and build a combined cycle power plant in 3 years. If you want site experience stay away from the Nuclear field. There are a few active projects right now, but most of the next generation plants are nothing more than paper and will likely not be realized.

If you go the construction management route then it's very likely that you'll end up on a construction site.

Kevin Connolly, PE

http://www.TheEngineeringSurvivalGuide.com