Planning my career at 40 3

[Kay2020]

I hope it's okay that I've joined this forum. I'm not yet an engineer. Until now I've been content to lurk, but I am having trouble planning my career path, and would love some input from those already working as engineers. If my post here is inappropriate, feel free to delete it, and I will go back to lurking.

I left college 15 years ago to home educate my children. Now that the eldest has graduated, and the youngest is in high school, I'm starting to think of my own dreams once again. I have all but decided I'll pursue civil engineering. I'm a roofers daughter and worked with my dad during the summers as a child. I worked alongside him as his assistant and even got paid some. I've always had a fascination with woodworking and building things, houses in particular. Building forts was a favorite game. About 10 years ago, my husband and I designed and built our own cabin. I taught myself how to do plumbing and wiring, and investigated the idea of harnessing solar energy. Ultimately, we chose to connect to the grid, but we did use an alternate grey water system, which I also designed. I learned a lot. Mostly, I learned that I crave opportunities to find practical solutions to problems and to see them become tangible.

Based on things I've been reading, I've got some concerns that I will either not be able to land an entry level position in Civil, or else I will have to settle for doing something which doesn't involve much design at all. Because of these concerns, I'm also considering Electronic/Computer Engineering, which I understand has a better job outlook. While I don't have the same passion and familiarity with that area, the coursework looks fun and I would choose it if it was the only way I could actually do engineering. In other words, I don't want to get an engineering degree just to "open doors" and wind up doing something totally unrelated. I'm not sure I have a specific question with regards to civil vs electronic. I mention it solely to explain where I'm at in my planning process. Even so, I welcome any input.

My actual question is this: what sorts of things should I be doing during the 2-3 years I have before I can begin engineering school? I'm not comfortable beginning until my son has graduated, because I know the rigors of engineering classes will leave little time for him. Currently I'm brushing up on my math and physics and I plan to learn either C or C++. Besides that, I've considered getting an AAS in drafting, which would only take about 3 semesters and shouldn't be too much of a sacrifice. Would it make me more competitive? If not is there some other class I could take which would help?

 

[Kay2020]

I mentioned wood and masonry because they were so prevalent in the small commercial development projects that were a big part of my early career. MTU taught Timber Design and I was often the only engineer within the companies I worked at that had that background. Others were learning on the go. ...

I grew up in an engineering family. Dad and Grandpa were project engineers with the MI Highway Dept. Two uncles taught at MTU. Sunday morning family discussions were always about engineering projects and Civil Engineering topics. We were driven across the UP to see the Mackinaw Bridge while it was under construction. Dad's connections got us (Dad, my brother, and I) out on the bridge on an off day (probably a Sunday). We were relatively young, but it made a lasting impression on me.

My fascination was always with buildings. Started with Lincoln Logs and progressed onto a skyscraper building set I had in my early teens. As I stated earlier, the 1st year and a half of college was the hardest for me. I got good grades, but it had nothing to do with what I was interested in. That all changed when I got into Statics and Strength of Materials at the end of my 2nd year. Junior year, I got into the basic Civil Eng. classes, which included the elementary structural analysis and design classes. Senior year, all of my CE electives were structural engineering classes.

I also look up to see how the buildings are supported. My wife still gets annoyed (I was looking up to see the roof of her church during our wedding ages ago) and still will stumble over something at my feet because I am not watching where we are going. I don't expect to ever change.

mtu1972, I was actually quite disappointed that this university didn't offer a course in wood, not even realizing that some do. I know it isn't really that important for the larger industrial buildings, but I do love wood, and I would have enjoyed that class. Since you brought it up, I searched other schools in my state. Both timber and masonry are offered at a university 3hrs from me. As I mentioned before, we can't relocate. But I wonder if those classes are valuable enough that I should look into trying to go there for one semester. It must have been fascinating around your house, especially on Sundays. I would have loved it. I can imagine that your appreciation for how things are supported has only grown over the years. You mentioned statics. I emailed the professors of some of the harder courses so that I could get their textbook recommendations. I found some old editions on ebay and have been looking through them. I haven't started working though it yet because I've got some prerequisite material to review and learn, but so far the statics book looks most interesting to me. One of my plans is to systematically work through Cal, Physics, Differential Equations, Statics, and Dynamics before I start school. I believe those are some of the more troublesome courses, right?

 

[mtu1972]

Chemistry was the most difficult for me. Followed by the 3rd term of Physics - why exactly I can't remember. Also struggled with Freshman English. Not a great writer.

My biggest problem after that was finding Humanities and Social Study electives that weren't too time consuming, so I could focus on the Engineering classes. The syllabus for The Short Story was so thick that I knew I could never read that many stories in 10 weeks. Bumped into a buddy's girlfriend and asked her for any suggestions. She and some friends were taking Music Appreciation - we listened to classical and instrumental music and answered multiple-choice questions about what we had listened to. Easy A.

Don't know about your Univ's., but many schools now offer some sort of distance education. Maybe you could work out some sort of deal where there would be some opportunity to take those courses that way and then transfer them to the local Univ. Or even explore other remote schools that do offer distance learning.

gjc

 

[JNieman]

@Kay2020

No, I referred to a 2 year degree in Computer-Aided-Drafting/Design. There /are/ 4 year degrees as well, but then you're back at a situation where you have no time-gain over an engineering program.

There are some 2-year engineering programs that I've seen, but most are intended to be the first 2 years of a 4 year degree that you finish elsewhere. For example, a community college near me has some wise and talented engineering professionals teaching a "Transfer Engineering" AAS degree. It's a 2 year degree that is intended to be followed up by transfering to another school and finishing your BSc in Civil/Mech/Elec/whatever at another school. The work closest with UMRolla, now Missouri S&T, but other schools in the state (maybe elsewhere?) accept it 100%. It's a great way to save money by taking the "basket weaving" and Gen Ed courses at a cheaper institution, as well as some of the base maths and sciences, before getting into the advanced engineering core classes.

Keep in mind my idea/suggestion is a drastic difference from BEING an ENGINEER. It's just an alternate path that requires a lot of personal drive, and independent learning (likely a significant portion on your own time), that can get you into a position to doing significant design work without being an engineer. It depends on what /type/ of things you want to design, too.


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NX8.0, Solidworks 2014, AutoCAD, Enovia V5

 

[moltenmetal]

The decision between drafting/design and engineering is a simple one: will you be satisfied with participating in a field that interests you, or do you want to be the person calling the shots- in a design sense at least? Lots of people have very satisfying careers as drafters/designers and are quite satisfied with the more limited scope and more limited responsibility and authority of the position- in fact some see that as a plus, being able to go home at night without tossing and turning about the consequences of errors or omissions on their part. Others who wanted to be engineers but settled for drafting or a technician/technologist certificate are filled with regret, feel disrespected, and carry around a chip on their shoulder the size of a CMU. So you have to decide: is this more about a way to make money for the family, or about your personal growth and self-actualization? Of course it's both, but thinking about that will steer you in the right direction. Just how much responsibility do you want, and how much money do you need?

 

[JNieman]

Having been on both sides of things, moltenmetal pretty well summarized the personal risks.

_________________________________________
NX8.0, Solidworks 2014, AutoCAD, Enovia V5

 

[IRstuff]

"those are some of the more troublesome courses, right?"

Thermo, maybe?

TTFN
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[brandonbw]

Bleh thermodynamics. I am one of those who had a hard time with that. One of my favorite courses was timber design. Statics is like the foundation of everything. Half my professors had real jobs, the other half were researchers. The job ones were really into giving real life examples and it was easy to tell how much they enjoyed what they were doing.

I had my biggest issue in the first class of Physics, but as it got harder I had an easier time with it. Calculus, the same thing. The first professor was so terrible he was fired halfway through the course. The first course that was most fun was a class where we had a paper airplane competition and had to draw the plans and later fly them to see who could throw the farthest. A good intro to the basic ideas. School was tough for me as I suck at taking tests, but the overall experience was a good beginning to knowing how to figure out problems in the office.

I wouldn't get too hung up on anything specific. You will eventually learn CAD on the job, as well as whatever else you end up doing. School is more like a way to get to where you are going, and is only the beginning.

I wasn't the best student, but look now I started my company at 29. Six years later and I am still in business. I wouldn't let anything stop you if this is what you want to do.

B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer

http://bwengr.com