How long does it take for work experience to brand you? (ME doing SE) 1

[jmcoope3]

I'm a mechanical engineer working my first job out of college. I love the job, but I fear that I might be locking myself into a career path with the amount of jobs asking for years of experience in a specific field.

A little bit of background:
I had trouble finding a job directly out of college and a friend pulled a favor to bring me in as an estimator/drafter at a structural design firm... within a few months I demonstrated my competency as an engineer and started taking on design tasks (menial, but still past the scope of an estimator), I find myself a year and a few months later taking on a engineering project management role, estimating custom projects, designing scopes of work, doing contractor contact and on site inspections as well as calculations and details (I do everything but get the invitation to bid, stamp the drawings, and send them the bill). I love the level of responsibility and i'm grateful that they trust me enough to let me be independent, and I do my best to reward them for this with quality submittals and good customer relations. However, this is a far cry from the thermal fluid design career I envisioned myself having.

I try to keep as up-to-date with thermal design as I can without continued education (gets expensive, and honestly i rarely have time to do anything but work and travel), reading periodicals and assisting my friends with their design projects in school when possible/allowable, but I can't help but feel like i'm falling behind. I fear that continuing down this path could hurt me in the long run (The experience counts towards my PE, however, my focus will be in structural not mechanical).

I fear that my thermal clout in future interviews will be overshadowed by the extensive amount of non-mechanical experience I've had (probably also doesn't help that my only other professional work experience was a 6 year internship as a software developer - high school through college).

 

[Twoballcane]

I think the round number would be 5 years to be seen as an experienced professional in the field you want to be in. I do feel your pain of studying in one field and then when reality hits you end up somewhere else than expected. I’ve actually started my master in Fluids especially in turbine design, but when I got into my first job, it was more about heat transfer, structural, and dynamics and before I knew it, I was pulled into world of electronic packaging. Not to discourage you, but when I graduated in the mid 90’s, design houses like GE and Rolls Royce where closing factories down and decided to cut my loses and start into another field where at least I will be in demand. For today, where can a thermal fluids engineer work? I think you have enough experience to be taken seriously as a young professional but not long enough to be mentally entrenched in your current job. I say that now is the perfect time to look globally for the job you want.

Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."
“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity”

 

[GregLocock]

One issue you might run into is that at the moment you haave a great deal of control over the projects you work on. You might find stepping back to the status of a lab rat rather galling.

Having said that I think that you have behaved very sensibly up til now, and I really don't think you are in any danger of being pigeonholed after 18 months on the job, but yes, after 3 years working in one area I was pretty much typecast (voluntarily, the field is lucrative and interesting) for 15 years.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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

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[SteelPE]

I assume when you say structural design.... you mean structural design of buildings and bridges?

Well, one thing you need to take a serious look at is where you want to end up in life. If you happen to continue down the path of structural design you are going to end up at a dead end if you don't get your PE license. This will mean you will need to take both the FE and PE exams. I don't know to many mech's who have taken the FE.... and your current time studying under another engineer probably will not count until you pass the FE.

Just a thought.

 

[jmcoope3]

Greg:
I was feeling that as well, I've basically been flying solo here for a few months (the other engineers that do what I do in this office have been out on larger more lucrative projects that demand a stamp on site). In the mean time, I, minus a few exceptions, have been running every custom design that has been going out of our office. The hours have been a bit rough, but it's a pretty awesome feeling being in charge of the department, even though it's just myself (it's tough explaining to a sales person that a relatively fresh out of college mechanical engineer and an SE licensed structural engineer with 20 years of experience are just a bit different, and I have to do a lot of research to keep up with them).

Twoballcane:
For my experience level and degree level, there's pretty much nothing for thermal fluid designers that doesn't require a experience as a thermal fluid designer (its a vicious cycle, i need experience to get the job that gets me experience to get the job)... I can try to go nuke/coal, but at my education level i'll be picking things out of catalog or end up managing a bunch of other engineers looking through catalogs. Anything that doesn't require a catalog job requires a masters or higher, or a bigger price tag diploma than mine (fantastic school, but not the first that pops to mind when you think engineering).

Steel PE:
I do mainly connections between non structural components and structures (frames, anchors, welds, springs)to ensure imparted loading/vibration is addressed (seismic, wind, bomb blast, snow...). Pretty much everything is a custom or a one off, which is a lot of fun (like Lego's, but with a ton of MathCAD to back up the choices).

I'm FE certified, and so far i have 2 engineers more than willing to sign for me on the PE (I have close to 200 stamped calculations packages so far between the two of them). I have had full intentions of getting my PE stamp for a while, just, from what I understand, you're limited in practice to the areas you have experience in. So far the people that are willing to sign for me are California SE's. Other than rudimentary dynamic analysis for springs and some material analysis for frames, nothing I do screams mechanical engineer (no heat, no air, no fluids, no friction... i think i'm probably the only person on the planet that'd be sad about that).

 

[ports394]

You don't have to work in the field you go to school for.

I'm a MechE, and taking the FE was a graduation requirement in my department. I work in chemical processing. I'm pretty happy here. But I don't work around PE's, and so I'm screwed on the PE test.

The important part is to actually be happy where you are. My first work mentor taught me a lot. Most of what you learn in school is old, BUT you learned how to learn and you get the principles.