Help with my apprenticeship 1

[coulton]

Hi , I'm currently an apprentice mechanical engineer. I have the opportunity to either work in the quality department or work with the cnc machines full time. Which would be better for career progression, I enjoy both and am currently studying for a HNC and am told by my company they are willing to fund to top up to a degree.

Thanks
Lewis

 

[TheTick]

Get your hands on machines as early in your career as possible, for as long as possible.

 

[MintJulep]

Career progression towards what goal?

Not that it matters I suppose. Diversity of experience is better than limited experience, so if possible see if you can arrange to spend time in both departments.

 

[monkeydog]

I would first spend time on the CNC machines, then move to the Quality Dept.
The machining experience will provide you with the depth of "how it is made" as well as working with the Quality Dept, if something is not machined correctly.

Moving over to the Quality Dept, later will give you the experience of "the shoe on the other foot"

 

[KENAT]

Depends on your end goal but I'd agree with machines first then onto quality if possible.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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

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

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Machines (as much as possible) then onto Quality. In my opinion "quality" is always a fight between buyer, vendor and user AND YOU are in the middle.

 

[GregLocock]

The advantage of working in quality is that you are seeing problems all the time, whereas on a production CNC job you should be seeing success almost all of the time. When I was an apprentice the most interesting job was investigating and rebuilding engines that had failed their dyno tests, not building them in the first place.



Cheers

Greg Locock


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

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