CheckThePlug
Mechanical
- Feb 1, 2011
- 32
OK, to start, I'm living in New York City for a number of reasons and I have no intention of moving.
My past experience is in heavy industry engineering (oilfield equipment) and I really want to get involved at a product design consultancy as a design engineer. The only problem is that it seems most design engineers have years of experience and/or a masters in industrial design. I've applied to an industrial design masters program, but I'm not certain spending 2 years and thousands of dollars will necessarily get me a job at one of these firms.
Alternatively, I would gladly take a job in something similar to my past experience like manufacturing or other mechanical design, but those types of jobs seem fairly uncommon until you get out to remote parts of Jersey, Long Island, upstate New York, or Connecticut, and I'd rather move to another city than live in the suburbs.
So, seeing as there are literally boatloads of HVAC, plumbing design, and other building-related mechanical engineering jobs in the city, I would like to hear from someone what day-to-day life is like for an HVAC or plumbing design engineer. I would prefer a desk job rather than a field engineer going to job sites, etc. My only concern is that my thermo/fluids skills are much weaker than my machine design skills and without really knowing what an HVAC job entails I'm not sure if I would be very good at it.
The other question is whether or not I can transition from an HVAC job back into manufacturing/product design once I get more experience and build my list of contacts in the industry. I mean, HVAC seems really boring, but maybe it's not so different from other machine design jobs and there's more to it than I think.
So, what career path should I take:
#1 follow my dreams, get a masters in industrial design and hope the economy improves enough to get in at a firm via internship
#2 find a pedestrian job to have some sort of income in the meantime and wait for something more similar to my past experience to show up
#3 start applying to HVAC because it's not actually as difficult or monotonous as it seems.
I know some of you might not understand my desire to stay in New York, and I'm not asking you to, but suggestions of moving somewhere else are not useful to me as if I were to become desperate I have connections that could get me employed in Houston. In case anyone is wondering, no, it's not over a girl or something ridiculous like that.
My past experience is in heavy industry engineering (oilfield equipment) and I really want to get involved at a product design consultancy as a design engineer. The only problem is that it seems most design engineers have years of experience and/or a masters in industrial design. I've applied to an industrial design masters program, but I'm not certain spending 2 years and thousands of dollars will necessarily get me a job at one of these firms.
Alternatively, I would gladly take a job in something similar to my past experience like manufacturing or other mechanical design, but those types of jobs seem fairly uncommon until you get out to remote parts of Jersey, Long Island, upstate New York, or Connecticut, and I'd rather move to another city than live in the suburbs.
So, seeing as there are literally boatloads of HVAC, plumbing design, and other building-related mechanical engineering jobs in the city, I would like to hear from someone what day-to-day life is like for an HVAC or plumbing design engineer. I would prefer a desk job rather than a field engineer going to job sites, etc. My only concern is that my thermo/fluids skills are much weaker than my machine design skills and without really knowing what an HVAC job entails I'm not sure if I would be very good at it.
The other question is whether or not I can transition from an HVAC job back into manufacturing/product design once I get more experience and build my list of contacts in the industry. I mean, HVAC seems really boring, but maybe it's not so different from other machine design jobs and there's more to it than I think.
So, what career path should I take:
#1 follow my dreams, get a masters in industrial design and hope the economy improves enough to get in at a firm via internship
#2 find a pedestrian job to have some sort of income in the meantime and wait for something more similar to my past experience to show up
#3 start applying to HVAC because it's not actually as difficult or monotonous as it seems.
I know some of you might not understand my desire to stay in New York, and I'm not asking you to, but suggestions of moving somewhere else are not useful to me as if I were to become desperate I have connections that could get me employed in Houston. In case anyone is wondering, no, it's not over a girl or something ridiculous like that.