Work Experience/College Degree 1

[strengr02]

Hope everyone is doing well. I will keep it to the point. After how many years of related work experience does work experience become more important, for future jobs than engineering college degree?

How much more important, say when one apply for a Structural Egr position for a Aerospace/Defense does a Master in MECHANICAL Egr with a Structural focus, as compared to Master in CIVIL Engineering with a Structural focus. For most Structural position, required qualification simply states BS or MS in Civil (Structural), Mechanical, or Aerospace. With several years of related work experience, does it matter?

Thanks!

 

[GregLocock]

My gut feeling is 4 years. After all, your first degree didn't teach you all about civil engineering and more than mine taught me all about mechanical engineering, it just pointed you at the basics and showed you some depth in some areas.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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

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

 

[bigTomHanks]

I would tend to agree with Greg at 3 years. As long as the person "gets" it then I see no difference between a degreed engineer and one who learned from experience. If the job requires detailed analysis then the person would have to be pretty special or their would be pigeon holed in their entry level engineering job.

 

[zdas04]

In Oil & Gas, most of the major companies have implemented some sort of apprenticeship program where you spend 3-4 years working with/for experienced engineers, rotate assignments every year, and attend a defined set of classes. At the end of that period you are assumed to be qualified to make engineering decisions without technical oversight. Using that as my guide I subtract 3 years from after-graduation experience to determine experience level. If the difference is greater than zero then I'm more interested in work experience than academic experience.

David

 

[SomptingGuy]

From experience, 5 years.

Some of those through the college time, some after. It took about 3 years after graduation for me to be able to fly without assistance.

- Steve

 

[SNORGY]

I disagree, but I am more conservative (pessimistic). To me, experience starts outweighing the degree when you start seeing "re-runs" (i.e., "been there, done thats") in the assignments or projects you are doing. To me, that didn't start happening until 10 years or so. then again, I did a whole bunch of a lot of different stuff in my first decade after graduation.

Regards,

SNORGY.

 

[brandonbw]

I feel like depending on your job about 3-5 years of full time work is where you are at the possible sweet spot of your career, you are either good at what you do or you aren't.

For what my business does, I wouldn't count schooling as experience. Only real life working full time in an office is experience.

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

http://bwengr.com

 

[FeX32]

I dissagree with some of the above posters and agree with some.

Depends on the industry. If you are thinking "CAD jokey" type techie stuff then, experience. If you are going into something that is specialized or 'real engineering' then there must be minimum great academic excellence as well as experience. 5-6 years seems to me a good basis point.
This can get ugly...
Cheers,


Fe (IronX32)

 

[ShaggyPE]

I don't think the OP ever mentioned no education, just simply when education became less important than experience.

I agree with Greg... 4/5 years sounds about right. But that is 4/5 years of the right type of experience.

-Dustin
Professional Engineer
Pretty good with SolidWorks