Do You Use What You Learned in School for Your Job? 40

[Christine74]

How frequently do you find yourself using something that you learned in college and applying to your job as an engineer?

Personally, the only time I use something from school at my job is when I use AutoCAD, which is practically never. Everything else I had to learn on my own. I've certainly never used any calculus, differential equations, FORTRAN, descriptive geometry, or just about any of the other classes I was required to take.

If experience is common, I wonder if all of these classes serve any purpose other than to weed out lazy and/or stupid students from the pool of potential engineers.

How about you? Do you actually use what you learned in school? How important do you feel your education was in training you how to perform your job?

-Christine

 

[epoisses]

1% of the time I use what I learned in school
19% of the time I use what I learned between 1 and 10 years ago
30% of the time I use what I learned between 1 day and 12 months ago
50% of the time I improvise

Funnily enough I do think my education was very important.

I have not yet found out where exactly is the inconsistency in all this.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Actaully - I have used a lot from my college days --- but I will grant you that most of the every day stuff I have learned on my own. I actaully scolded a couple of professors for their lack of every day experience - they had NONE and I had worked some before college. Didn't make any friends there....

College taught me:
Ask Questions
How to read a book
How to find that book (most problems have already been solved by someone else - so let's not re-invent the wheel)
To think

Thinking outside of the box I taught myself - there are way more solutions to a problem than you think.

Good Luck and hang in there

 

[TenPenny]

Since I work with pumps every day, I use stuff from 1st year fluids every single day.

 

[KENAT]

How frequently do you find yourself using something that you learned in college and applying to your job as an engineer?

Well, there's been limited requirement in any of my positions for being able to down a pint in under 6 seconds (5.3 if I recall correctly was my personal best, with Guinness), drink a yard of ale without bouncing, run semi naked around a quad in under a minute or turn up to lectures next morning after 10 pints the night before.

(Actually that last one has come in useful a couple of times.;-))

As to the academic stuff.

I have done a lot of drafting, and now design checking which I only had 6 labs on in school so most of that I learnt in industry.

I've done a little stress analysis so that came in useful but it was mostly to standard formulas not deriving from first principles etc.

I've done some very basic fluid dynamics/aerodynamic analysis so the first 2 years of that has been useful.

The things that have been most useful were probably the team design projects, they taught me a lot that has been useful and the design classes too. Most obvious thing being "make sure of your requirement" which our design prof drilled into us.

I can't say I've used Propulsion, Thermodynamics, Advanced math (Grad, Div, Curl, X transforms, Laplace, Fourier etc.) once.

Some of the more targeted classes like aircraft systems, guidance & navigation etc have been useful as background in aerospace but I haven't directly applied them.

Do I think my education was important, yes although I admit day to day I mostly use stuff I either learnt on the job or at high school. Also I don’t think my career path has been typical for people on my course.

With hindsight could it have been better/more focused, sure but I didn’t know that then.

I have to agree with Mike, most of the profs had never worked in the real world but been hole up doing research/learning since their teens. More profs with real world experience would be good. Also most of our profs were appointed because of the great research they did, not because they were good teachers. Plus a spattering didn’t have very strong English which made their lectures interesting. However, this should probably be saved for ‘how can engineering schooling be improved’.


KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[Twoballcane]

Christine74

In my experience, there are two (in Mechanical Engineering) ways to design, one is the straight forward design (with out using what you learned in school) like racks with electrical equipment that will sit in a lab, mostly commercial stuff. The other is designing by analysis where you use what you learned in school and apply it to advance the product to pass violent environment qualifications such as military equipment.

If you want to practice what you learned in school, the field you want to be in is analysis. If you want to do hardcore heat transfer/vibration/shock/structure/materials designing military equipment is the way to go.

You can also practice what you learned in school in any field, you just have to apply it even though it is not needed. Everything has weight, generates heat, and vibrates in some form or fashion. On what ever project you are working on, you can turn it into an analysis problem and then try to figure out the answer. Who knows, you might come across a problem or a better way of doing things.

I feel that many ME college grads rush into a design so they can learn about the product, but don’t take the “initiative” to apply what they learned in school to make the product better. Instead of looking at the product from a nuts and bolt view, you should look at it from a thermal, static, and dynamic view. This is what you have been trained to do.

Good luck


Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[bridgebuster]

"I've certainly never used any calculus, differential equations, FORTRAN, descriptive geometry"

- ditto, and I'll throw in chemistry, physics, and thermodynamics.


"If experience is common, I wonder if all of these classes serve any purpose other than to weed out lazy and/or stupid students from the pool of potential engineers".

I agree for the most part, but I also recall something that an English teacher said during senior year of high school said: "The purpose of the university is to provide a well-rounded, liberal education." Of course in 1974 her definition of liberal had nothing to do with politics.

So we got a well-rounded, liberal education, which brings to mind something my driving teacher said about himself (a history major: "It great for cocktail parties".

 

[macmet]

- 50% of the time I use what I have learnt in the two years I've been at my job.
- 24% of the time I spend learning about new things that I wasn't even sure existed before someone decided to dump the problem on me.
- 24% of the time I use information from engineering courses that I took as electives and weren't even required to graduate.
- 2% of the time I use what I learnt in the classes I took that were actually required to graduate as a matls eng.

But all of the time I use the skills I needed to allow me to graduate.

 

[Lion06]

I can't say I use calculus or differential equations or physics very much, but you can't have a strong grasp of engineering fundamentals without those classes..... You just can't!
As far as the actual engineering classes - I may use exactly what I learned in class in my job, but what I learned in class laid the foundation for what I learn on the job. Without the classes to give you an understanding of behavior and fundamentals, you would be lost getting tossed in the world of engineering with no specialized training.
I definitely feel like the education I received is critical to being able to perform my job competently. I design with steel, concrete, and wood every day. I could never just get thrown into that kind of work without learning what I did in college.

 

[UcfSE]

If we always used what we learned in school, then everything we do as engineers would have to be dumbed down or simple enough for a student to handle.

 

[whyun]

College taught me how to solve engineering problems. Work taught me how to define them. College taught me discipline and how to think.

As a practicing structural engineer, I probably use high school math/science stuff much more than college general req's in every day work.

 

[Comcokid]

College taught me how to solve engineering problems using computers and simulation. Companies taught me that tools and equipment are capital goods which compete with the CEOs pay and bonuses. Experience taught me how to engineer without the tools, equipment, and simulation anyway.

Seriously, what is taught in an undergraduate degree in school is to prepare you for a graduate degree, and what you learn there is what is needed for a doctorate.

I don't remember the details calculus, Fourier, or Fortran, but I encounter and use the principals almost every day. i.e. High rates of change in a signal with time increase higher frequency harmonics. Micros and computers don't care about being close to correct - garbage in/garbage out.

 

[l3city]

The only thing I use from college is the financial aid office in order to pay back my loan :-D

 

[monkeydog]

What I learned in college, that is applied in work?

Not everyone in your team will pull their weight.

Everyone in your team will be recognized if you do good.

If you get a better grade (pay) then a peer, the peer will be mad at you. Don't discuss grades (pay).

You have to participate in non-productive tasks (humanities/quality circles) to complete your task (graduate/merit increase).

 

[stephenw22]

The only classes I ever go back to are from my final (bonus) year of school. I took an extra semester and a half of courses I didn't need to graduate, but that I had always wanted to take. There were 2 industrial power courses in particular that were taught by a semi-retired consultant who also owned and ran his own engineering firm. The year after I graduated, I found out that they cancelled the courses in favor of more theoretical ones.

It's my theory (at least for Electrical Engineering) that professors can be broken down into these categories:

1. People who love the research and/or teaching and feel it's their 'calling'. (10%)

2. People who have the technical skills, but no social ability or 'soft skills' and are unemployable outside of the university. These people just kept going to school until they became professors. (90%)

 

[prohammy]

What did I learn at college that I still use today.......

1. I learned how to analyse a problem.

2. I learned to ALWAYS write down your units as you solve a problem.

3. I learned that if you are doing a exam (design) and you have time left over, use it to check that you have actually done the right thing.

4. I learned that even though you think what you are doing at the moment is boring and trivial, there are gems to be found in everything, but you will always need time to show you the way...

Oh yeah.... try not to trample on people, coz people are generally very good at getting revenge

Kevin

“It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class." ~Author Unknown

"If two wrongs don't make a right, try three." ~Author Unknown

 

[wes616]

15% Mc/I, P/A, F=ma (other such basic statics & mechanics & materials,

35% 4 years of high school drafting

35% learning new stuff

15% elementary school recess.


Wes C.
------------------------------
No trees were killed in the sending of this message, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

 

[KENAT]

I happened across this very vaguely related article.

http://spotlight.encarta.msn.com/Fe...fault_article_AllNighterUseful.html?GT1=10288

Interestingly it doesn't mention being skilled at beer consumption, guess I should have spent that time & money on study, live and learn.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[JsTyLz]

I think a lot of the more advanced stuff you learn, FFT, etc. is so if you ever do come across it in your job, it will not be the first time you see it. Engineering courses give you broad knowledge of all disciplines of engineering, with the obvious focus on your major. But when you get your job, they make you a master at one small piece of that broad knowledge. I think someone elese mentioned it before, if your job is not "pushing the envelope" and your company is willing to build and test thoroughly the concepts you design, then no heavy analysis is required before hand.

Me personally, I like it when I can predict what will happen with the math, then simulate it, and verify the both the math and simulation with testing. Though I rarely ever get enough time to do all to the extent I would like

 

[HgTX]

StructuralEIT said it--you may not use calculus and physics directly, but you used calculus to do physics, and you used physics to do statics, and you used both to do strength of materials and dynamics, and if you don't use concepts of strength of materials, statics, or dynamics as a mechanical or structural engineer, then what on earth are you doing?

I had other "breadth" things that I don't use now like dynamics (not required for civil engineering outside seismic areas and not much required even in seismic), hydraulics/fluid mechanics, environmental engineering, soil mechanics, but someone headed for "civil engineering" needs to have at least seen that stuff. How else would they know what branch of civil engineering they want? Very few people entering school know the full breadth of what civil engineering can be.

Likewise for even broader engineering requirements--I don't use thermodynamics, circuit theory, or geology, but having one class in each was not a waste of time. And now, looking at magnetic particle inspection and welding processes, I wish I'd made more of an effort to comprehend my E&M class.

It sounds like some people think engineering school should be like learning a trade. Teach 'em a couple of analysis software packages, give 'em a tour of the relevant design manuals, and there ya go.

Hg

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