What should my son do with his life? 2

[mykidsfuture]

Hi, I just want to start by saying that I am not an engineer and please feel free to delete this post and ban me if you feel it's necessary. If so I appologize.
My 15 year old son is interested in engineering and I want to know what I can do as a dad to help.
He is on the honor role at school.
Does very well in math and science.
Seems to have a good eye when figuring out how things work, how they broke etc.
So what can I do to help? I will be enrolling him in the University of Western Ontario's summer camp for engineering. I also have solidworks software for his computer coming. I gave him my project MG Midget and we'll be attempting to put a 2.3 turbo Ford in it shortly. The project car should give him a basic understanding of computer management, wiring, mechanicals etc etc. and give him some experience with welding, basic tools etc, and putting square pegs in round holes.
What's a good type of engineering to get into for the future.
What else can I do?
Thanks for your time, and ANY tips or advice about where engineering is going, how to get ready for the job market etc. would be really appreciated.... absolutely anything that you as engineers think would help.
Dad (Jeff)

 

[TheTick]

Sounds like your son will pick up engineering easy enough. Meanwhile, he should go out, have fun, make friends, play sports, meet girls, and acquire the skills that those things entail before he enters the dungeon.

 

[Twoballcane]

Your on the right path. Check this out for fun engineering stuff:

http://www.mathmovesu.com/#/home

And for the future (well in the USA) see:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

and for start pay for different engineers...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/29408064?slide=2

Good luck!



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

 

[msquared48]

Look to being involved in the Green Energy market, especially after the State of the Union address last night and the likelihood of permanently high gas prices in the forseeable future.

Sorry for the trite expression, but whe writing is on the wall.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[btrueblood]

Tell him to study Mandarin or Cantonese as his foreign language requirement for college.

 

[Hurricanes]

I wouldn't worry too much about pushing the engineering type subjects/hobbies, they will come with time if he goes down that path.

I would definitely push him to learn a foreign language though. Any one would do, but perhaps Spanish, Mandarin (as btrueblood says) or Japanese would be more useful than some others.

I think knowing another language helps you to think slightly differently about various problems than you otherwise might. Doesn't matter if you never use that language in your engineering life or not.

Is he into sports or anything? Got to have a life outside engineering too.

 

[OHIOMatt]

Make sure that he does not loose focus on communication skills. From my experience, engineers seem to be able to communicate well in their world, but typically they are interviewed by non-engineers as well. Also, their clients will not be engineers either (more than likely).

Basically, I agree with the tick.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Just keep on being a good Dad.

The kid will take care of the rest.


... as soon as I finish my time machine, I'll be at your door, hoping you'll adopt me.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[KENAT]

Sounds like you've already done a darn site more than my parents managed, although I was vacillating between Engineer and Pilot at that age. The summer camp sounds like it might be great.

Maybe a few trips to relevant 'technical museums' like aircraft museums, or the like. My favorite was probably Bovington Tank Museum but Hendon was darn cool too and several others. Maybe some airshows or the like - obviously depending what facets of Engineering fascinate him the most.

Practical skills are some of the things that don't always get covered great in more academic settings so any time in machine shops and the like he can get is great - maybe local technical college or similar has something.

Another thing is if they have any technical drawing or similar classes as again, that's something that often gets minimal time at university but can be very useful in the the job place.

When he's old enough encourage him to take relevant internships/summer placements or whatever he can get as this is often looked on favorably by first time employers.

Similarly taking part in various design classes to 'build the most fuel efficient car' or 'Battle Bots' or whatever the latest ones are.

Lego mindstorms looked fun too, our local community college had a class on it.

As to what area of engineering, well Biomed gets pushed a lot as well as 'green energy' as being the future if you believe the pundits. Both make use of a range of different types of engineers including mechanical. However, who knows what'll be hot by the time he's 50 or so!

On the Mandarin thing, maybe, though Japanese was being pushed a couple decades back but didn't become as big a deal as some expected. Spanish may be as useful, or more so, with the anticipated demographics of much of the US. Chances are some folks in the office or especially the shop floor will have Spanish as a primary language - certainly a bunch of folks on the shop floor here do. Or I'd guess French may be the most useful in Canada.

Plus, make sure he has some time to be a kid.

I envy you, I'd love for my son to be into some of this stuff.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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

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

 

[BJC]

There is a short explaination on this site. @ oinutes will explain it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw

 

[KENAT]

thread730-288029 may be of interest.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

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

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

 

[mykidsfuture]

WOW, Thanks everybody.
All I can say is THANK YOU.

 

[PeterStock]

Introduce him to this web site, but remind him that student questions are discouraged.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services

http://www.infotechpr.net

 

[TheTick]

Look for trends, not fads. Green energy is full of both. The important thing is that he get an education that is thorough enough that he can exercise discernment.

Pick a good school that also has liberal arts and nursing programs. That way he can meet more people in more fields. Also give him a chance to explore more interests like music or writing. Exposure to journalism majors is important, as it exposes just how weak the base intellect of our media really is.

 

[rb1957]

are you really putting a 2.3lt turbo into a MG midget ?

let me know when you plan on firing it up, so i can look up as you orbit by ...

if he enjoys messing with cars, great. but there's more to life than engineering ... make sure he has the chance to do the extra-curriculum stuff too [maybe you only mentioned things relevant to this forum]

 

[davefitz]

Well, you could tell him that the wildest "party schools" are the engineering schools, and that the cheerleaders inevitably pick the engineer students over the football players, but you may eventually find a credibility problem with him down the line.

On the other hand, you could point out that only a few of the unemployed 20-35 yr old kids living in their parent's basements are engineers. Less credibility issues there.

 

[moltenmetal]

I'd suggest FIRST figuring out a way for your kid to survive becoming an organ donor as a result of the combination of teenage boy hormones and feelings of invincibility, a 2.3L turbo and a Midget! (I've got a Triumph Spitfire myself, but the late 70s Toyota Celica engine I put in it is unfortunately a piece of garbage rivalling the original Leyland junk that I took out! Unlike your son, my Dad did help but provided no funding on that project, and we didn't tackle it until I'd graduated from uni)

I'd suggest giving to and steering your kid less and letting him do more for himself. The project car is a great way to encourage learning by doing, but man, your kid is a lucky little b@stard if you're funding all this fun and games! Either lucky and grateful, or lucky and hopelessly spoiled. I hope it's not the latter for both your sakes!

While the summer camp is a great idea to help him see whether or not engineering is really his bag, I'd suggest Waterloo or McMaster or maybe Toronto as eng schools instead- especially if you live in London. Western's missing the most important thing for educating an engineer: a co-op program. Toronto doesn't have one either, but they do at least offer and encourage an experience year- not nearly as good, but better than nothing. Co-op helps fund the program, helps you find that key first job, teaches you things that are valuable to your career WHILE you're gaining your education, and most importantly gives you exposure to engineers and engineering so you can figure out whether or not it's really what you want to do with your life.

 

[rb1957]

UoT does have a co-op program, of sorts. it may not be official, but we hired on a 3rd yr summer student, kept her on for a year, she went back to complete 4th year (did a project of interest to us), then we hired her on full-time ... sounds like a co-op program to me

 

[HornTootinEE]

Don't forget to encourage some of the technical trades as well, if he is disposed to being highly talented with his hands and troubleshooting skills. When I was going through high school (10 yrs ago graduated) they pushed College College College, Bachelor's Degree, etc. etc. and now I'm finding that the trades are definitely in need, there are needs for very technical and smart people in those areas, and they often times pay as well or better than engineering... Depends on what a person wants... you want to design or build/troubleshoot? If Management is ever in the cards as an interest, degree is the way to go though.

 

[btrueblood]

"Pick a good school that also has liberal arts and nursing programs. That way he can meet more people in more fields. "

Good advice Tick. Implied that "people" includes those of the female persuasion, which are still tough to meet in technical-only schools.