Design Engineer Seeking Information About Advanced Technical Careers

[curiousmechanical]

Hello,

I am a mechanical engineer with 7 years of experience designing industrial machinery. I am in the NJ/NY (USA) area. My current job functions are design and project management. The work is not bad, but it's not that technically challenging. The product lines were developed years ago and new projects are mostly just variations or slight improvements of old ones. This is good business, but it can be a bit mundane. Therefore, I am now planning my next career move.

I am currently reading up on more advanced positions; such as research engineer, development engineer, analyst, etc. Would anyone be able to provide me with some general insider information regarding these career paths?

I'll list some of my main questions in order to be more specific about what kind of information I am looking for.

1. Are these advanced postions hard to come by? I've read about them online and in books, but the information is always so general (i.e. nothing very useful). Are there any other related postions that I didn't list?

2. Which types of companies have these postions? Does anyone know of any useful directories that would allow me to find such companies?

3. Are these positions concentrated in any particular industries or geographic regions? Do you think I would find anything in the NJ/NYC area?

4. Would I need an advanced degree to get into this type of work? If so; a masters, PhD, or all of the above?

5. I expect that I would need to specialize if I went for an advanced degree. What are the hot specialties in demand right now? Are there any for mechanical engineers?

6. Do any insiders have any advice or warnings for going this career route?


Thank you for your time and support. I look forward to reading your responses!


-curiousmechanical

 

[KENAT]

To some extent, specialized analysts etc. are more common in larger companies/departments. In small companies you'll often be expected to do your own. Additionally they can be more common in technically complex industries and/or industries with significant paperwork/regulation.

For instance, aerospace/defense and related fields certainly have some of these analyst type positions. As does automotive as I understand it.

For real hardcore analysis MS or even Phd may be preferred but I think it varies. (For instance most of our new mechanical design engineers are PHDs.)

Precision machine design is our bag, we've been doing a lot of hiring but are now on hold.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[GregLocock]

In automotive engineering these jobs do exist, either with the OEMs themselves or with some of the big suppliers. However, I'd guess that fewer than 3% of engineers employed (and I think that is high) would class themselves as doing advanced research, in automotive the vast majority of engineers do relatively little advanced engineering and an awful lot of problem solving, paperwork and project management.

An advanced degree might help, but so does experience.

In my case I got involved with a tricky field that few people enjoy, but is of great and increasing relevance (NVH), almost straight out of uni and so tended to stick around in that sort of job. 9 years back I decided I needed a change and made a jump sideways into a less hands-on and more analytical role, with the consequence that I am still sitting in the same office I was 20 years ago, and it is not noticeably different from the desk I had 30 years ago.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[IRstuff]

Rather than worrying about what's in and what's out, you should pick something that you're willing to get out of bed in the morning for.

TTFN
faq731-376

 

[curiousmechanical]

KENAT/GregLocock,

Thank you for your input. I have done a lot of research since last week. Unfortunately, I have not yet found any large aerospace, defense, or automotive company in the NJ/NYC area. However, I'm still hunting! I did find a lot of big chemical, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies. Although I didn't see any openings for advanced mechanical engineering postions, I have to think that there are some interesting mechanical engineering challenges in these fields. I'm going to keep researching.

While doing a country-wide search for open positions, I am definetely seeing that these jobs are rare; but they are out there. The most common postions seem to be for those who specialize in stress/structural analysis, thermal/heat transfer analysis, and fluid flow (CFD) - any of which would be perfect.

IRstuff,

I hear what you are saying. I'll tell you where I'm coming from...

I know this is dumb of me (career-wise), but I'd really like to stay in the NJ/NYC area. Therefore, I'm researching which advanced skills are in demand in this area. I would love to get an advanced degree in say "structural dynamics," but that wouldn't make sense if there were no companies looking for that skill set in my area. I understand that my unwillingness to relocate limits my options, but location is an important factor to me.

In the end, I may determine that it would be best to just stay put. If so, at least I looked into it... However, I'm not giving up yet!


Thanks for your help guys!

 

[KENAT]

Doesn't GE have some stuff up that way?

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[curiousmechanical]

KENAT,

Thanks for the lead! You are correct. They have a global research center in upstate NY. Lots of cool openings!

For anyone else looking for similar information, I have found "Hoover's Handbook of American Business" to be a very useful company research tool. They have a print version at my local library. I was also able to buy a used version of this Handbook on Amazon. Random Google searching was very inefficient by comparison.

 

[spongebob007]

1. My personal observation is that most engineering jobs are pretty much along the line of how you describe your current position. You spend 4 years in college learning all this great advanced math and physics only to get out in the real world and become a glorifed spreadsheet jockey and drawing checker. I also find that at compaines that are well established, most new products are variations of existing products and they rely more on tribal knowledge than actual engineering. Somebody worked that stuff out 50 years ago. Also at small to medium sized compaines there is a tendancy for engineers to wear many hats. Doing FEA may be 20% to 30% of your daily work and the rest of the time is spent making sure your projects stay on budget and schedule. In some companies CAD has eliminated the need for draftsmen and the design engineer is also repsonsible for creating the drawings. More advanced positions are harder to come by. Typically you are going to have to go to work for a large company. Large companies are more likely to have R&D departments. They are also more likely to have full time analysts. As others have mentioned, Defense, Aerospace, and Automotive companies typically have these types of jobs. Another route to this type of work would be to look at consulting firms. For smaller companies, the need for FEA doesn't justify the cost, especially when you are talking about a highly specialized type of analysis. My company recently won a contract where acoustics is an extremely important part of the design. Unfortunately we have no software that is capable of acoustic analysis and no hardware that is capable of acoustic measurement. This work sounds really cool and I would be excited to be part of it. My management tasked me to research what it would take to grow the acoustics capability internally. To my dismay, the price tag for software and hardware would come to over $100,000 for what we needed to do. Since this is a one-off project, the decision was made to hire a consultant to do the acoustics design work and have the testing done at an outside lab. So instead of getting to do the cool work, I just get to manage the project.

2. As I mentioned earlier, large compaines or consulting firms would be the places you want to look. Also, look into companies that are doing work in cutting edge fields.

3. Your easiest route to finding these types of jobs is looking at prime contractors. Think General Dynamics, Northrup Grumann, United Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc. There are also government labs that do R&D work for the defense industry.


4. A research engineer and an analyst are not necessarrily the same thing. I worked as a research engineer and I would say that analysis (FEA, hand calculations, MATLAB simulation) was maybe 40 to 50% of my work. I also spent a good amount of time working in a laboratory, the machine shop, and traveling to customer sites. It was a good mix of hands on an theoretical work. I worked for a large global company and the R&D group supported worldwide engineering so I got to see a wide variety of tasks from developing the next big thing to solving engineering problems One day I could be doing a non-Newtonian CFD problem, and the next I could be working with the Quality department of one of our divisions to come up with a way to accurately measure precision parts that need to be held to the 4th decimal place. If you are looking into R&D then an advanced degree is a must with few exceptions. Even if an advanced degree is not required, you will be the dumb guy, sometimes even with an MS if all of your coworkers have PHDs. Another thing that is beneficial to R&D jobs is being multidisciplinary. There really are no purely mechanical devices anymore, so some knowledge in things like Electrical Engineering and control systems is always a bonus. If you are designing the next big thing, you might need to know how to wire it up as well. Being handy around a machine shop couldn't hurt either because you might need to make or modify your own prototypes. Also having insturmentation skills are important if you want to work in a lab environment. Knowledge of thermocouples, speed sensors, flow meters, accelerometers, strain gages and their associated elctronics can be important in R&D. Where I worked as an R&D engineer the company had a machine shop and engineering technicians but they supported production work. If I needed to measure the natural frequencies of a prototype machine I needed to insturment it myself and do the data collection.

5. Specialize in something you are interested in, not necessarrily what is hot now. By the time you finsih your advanced degree there might be a new next big thing.


6. if you want to go this route most engineering job descripitons will sound boring to you. For every ad looking for someone with an advanced degree and skills in structural dynamics, you will see 10 that are looking for someone who can use Microsoft Office and is proficient with solid works. Take it from me, if you are a specialist you will have a hard time getting a regular engineering job and even if you do, you proably will grow to hate it soon. Also, as I mentioned before, you are probably going to need an advanced degree and if you end up working with a bunch of PHDs and you don't have one, you will be the dumb guy in the group.

 

[KENAT]

Postcuriousmechanical - you finding that directory reminds me of how I got my first position. After applying to the obvious big aerospace companies in the UK I then got a copy of the directory of Society of British Aerospace Companies and worked my way through it.

First I sent off resumes to anyone I'd already heard of who looked interesting.

Then I went through again looking at all the smaller companies that were remotely of interest to me.

It was one of these smaller players that offered me a position so I took it.

Not too much hard core analysis though sadly, tried to maneuver my way into doing more but never quite pulled it off. Plus, frankly by comparison to most regular members here I'm a dullard, at best a glorified designer/draftsman - c'est la vie though I get paid nicely enough so can't complain too much.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[curiousmechanical]

spongebob007,

Thank you for the detailed post and your helpful insights! I've been so focused on manufacturing companies, that I completely overlooked consulting firms and government labs. Although, I must admit, ever since I read "Great Jobs for Engineering Majors," by Geraldine Garner, 3rd Edition; I have been terrified of a consulting career. "Long hours and constant travel are the hallmarks of this career path." "If you are trying to determine if you are a strong candidate for a consulting firm, it is advisable to assess whether or not you...are able and willing to work eighty-plus hours a week." They say the money is good, but come on! I'd like to think I'm no stranger to a little hard work, but that's insane. Are you able to comment on this claim?

Your research engineer job sounds ideal. I like the idea of getting involved in multiple aspects of development and testing, rather than just playing with FEA software all day (every day). Once I feel comfortable enough to make my move (i.e. satisfy myself that I can reasonably find a job I like), I will surely go back to school. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. I'm glad you mentioned the need for certain non-mechanical skills. I was envisioning myself simply deepening my mechanical skills. Now, I'm picturing something more hybrid; involving electrical engineering and computer science skills. That actually sounds more appealing than a strictly mechanical path.

Do you have an advanced degree? I only ask because I'm wondering if you ever considered a career in academia. This path originally seemed very attractive to me, but after speaking with many professors, I'm not so sure now. They described a grueling five year struggle for tenure and most of all, the never ending hunt for research funding. Some recommended a research career in industry over one in academia. Do you have any comments on this topic from an industry prospective?

KENAT,

Thank you for sharing your story. I could use some hope right now. It's been slow plowing through this directory! However, I'm learning a lot about the mix and distribution of US business and manufacturing in general. The good news is that I see tons of jobs out there for engineers. The bad news (for me) is that most of them (about 80%) are out west or in the midwest (AAP Corp, AGCO, Boeing, Caterpillar, CNH Global, etc.). However, I am slowly finding companies back east as well (GE, United Technologies, etc.). This is going to be a long process, but I still think it's worth it.

 

[GregLocock]

Incidentally I may have given the impression that my current job is an Advanced Technical one. it isn't. I do very little original work, mostly I just use complex software to build accurate models, and test them, and investigate how to improve the system that is modelled.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?