I Don't Know What Type Of Engineer I Need To Be

First talk to engineers in various fields and types of work and select which attracts you,then study it.

The easiest is production engineer who always blame suppliers or maintenance dept.

Difficult jobs are maintenance dept and preparing competitive price quotations for tenders.

In each field of engineering there are many types of work like design,estimating, installation,commissioning,maintenance etc as well as branches like low voltage,high voltage,we lines,protection,generation etc

What about Physics and Chemistry?

The basis for those is still math. Try to take them without it.

It might be better to spell things out so he'll be able to take the best math courses for an Engineering career.

You will need:

• College Algebra
• Trigonometry
• Analytical Geometry
• Differential Calculus
• Integral Calculus

Some coursework may me combined, Trig usually includes Anyl⁽¹⁾ Geom. and Diff and Int Calculus are combined into Calc I (Diff and starting Int) and Calc II (more Int than you'll ever want to see in your lifetime)

Will you use all of this when you get out into the Real World^TM? Of course not, but you might find yourself doing a little of almost anything, the stuff you need and use, you'll remember; the rest, well, you'll remember enough of the rest to be able to look up the formulas or procedures online or in your old college textbook⁽²⁾ and use them from there.

And for Musk and Jobs, what they have accomplished is due to the Formula of Success: Success is the result of Hard Work, Dedication, and Dumb Luck. Successful people won't tell you about the third part, but all the hard work and sacrifice means nothing unless you run into the Right Person at the Right Time. And Luck alone won't to it, because if you haven't put in the Hard Work and Dedication, when you meet the Right Person at the Right Time, you won't be HIS Right Person. Also, Musk is an Entrepreneur, not an Engineer. He's got the Big Ideas, but it's his team of minions⁽³⁾ that do all the work to make the dreams into reality. Most Engineers don't become famous, most Engineers are the Roadies of the scientific world:

"A good roadie knows his whole job is to make someone else look good, keep someone else safe, help someone else do what they were put here to do. A good roadie stays out of the spotlight. If he's doing his job right, you don't even know he's there. Once in a while he might step on stage just to fix a problem, to set something right. But then before you even realize he was there or what he did, he's gone." - Eddie Riggs

If you're looking for Fame, you're not likely to find it in Engineering, but if you're looking to change the world for the better, this just might be the place you belong.

Notes:

1. Pronounced ANN-ill, not the other way.
2. You did/will remember to hold on to your college textbooks, right? Not only will they have the formulas you forgot, but they'll have whole chapters that your instructor didn't have time to go over. There's a true wealth of knowledge in those (admittedly overpriced) tomes.
3. Yellow pill-shaped body, blue overalls and goggles optional.
   

....and reading and writing too.

You have a lot of good answers to your question, all worth taking the advice. One thing I would add,,,, it is unlikely you will become an entrepreneur right out of school. You will find out more about all facets of engineering as you complete the earlier general courses and, hopefully, one of them (or more) will peak your interest. If you cannot decide when the time comes to specialize, look for the most general discipline available to you. This will give you a broader background that will, likely, become invaluable to you when you do want to start your own thing.

And,, you would probably be best off working for someone else after you complete your formal education(at least that is my opinion). Don't underestimate what you can learn after you have finished school by working for someone who can actually mentor you in all other aspects of business life or give you opportunities to learn what else there is to having and operating a business.

Good luck(and hard work) for your future endeavors.

Stop worrying about what you're going to be and start acquiring tools you're going to need to do what you want to do....There's a big difference between building robots and running a company, but the first thing you have to be is successful at something...What's right for one person might not be right for another person...Higher education is not only valuable for the knowledge but also for the contacts you make with like minded individuals...To be successful in life it helps to have good people skills...any successful person will tell you it's the people that they surround themselves with that are perhaps the largest part of what makes them successful, and key is knowing who those people are and how to recognize talent...So you have to know people...Don't be afraid to ask people who are doing what you want to do for advice and take whatever they offer as solid gold...try to work with them in some capacity. assist them in what ever way you can....I've shmoosed more knowledge than you can believe...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk

Smart Jewish parents should quit insisting that their children become doctors, lawyers, and the like. I mean, get real, push your kids to become rap musicians or basketball players. After all, it's only money.

I agree with you 100%

This sounds like a dumb suggestion but actually it is pretty good. Pull a quarter out of your pocket and flip it in the traditional heads/tails manner. If it is heads sign up for electrical engineering and if it is tails sign up for mechanical engineering. Here are my reasons:

1) For the first two years of college electrical and mechanical are quite similar (but not exactly the same). If you change your mind mid stream you are probably only at risk of taking one or two classes that are in one major but not the other.

2) Both mechanical and electrical will have some computer classes. Most cool stuff requires something mechanical, computers to run it and electrical stuff so the computers can do something with the mechanical stuff. Thus, either way you cover two of the three major skill sets.

3) If you can't make a choice now then don't. After a year or two of school which includes talking to engineers, professors and sons/daughters of engineers you might have a better idea of what you want to do.

4) Since you want to do everything then you might consider a double major.

5) With a little college under your belt you might decide that you want to do something totally different. Then all this worry was for nothing. (Well, not exactly "for nothing" but it does help put it into perspective. Moving forward is what is important. When you graduate the world will be a different place. Your goal is to make you able to participate in the world 5 years from now).

MIT has online courses for free too. Khan academy has lots of practice and review stuff for math and science. Learn what you want to learn.

I started out with a specific personal project. I wanted to build my own computer system. Then I learned all the things I needed to learn to do it and discovered physics and electrical engineering, computer science and coding, radio and broadcasting......

Now I'm building flying robots for fun and worked for years as a network engineer and systems integrator.

did you have to mention the MIT thing? now I'll be glued to this damn screen for days!

I think your snap summations on Jobs and Musk border on shameful. both these guys are far beyond incredible. anyone can dream, they turned their dreams into world class businesses that will be studied and admired for generations. Jobs basically began building small computers in his garage before anyone had one or there was a public internet to use one on. Musk wrote code every night for months and use to sleep in a small shabby office and showered at the Y. Both of these guys learned about writing computer code in order to make a machine do what they wanted from that machine. maybe you should consider how well that served them.

I have a general suggestion. Stanford has many direct programs or satellite programs associated with it( like incubators for talent) that you might look into.I suggest you take more than a week to compile information available information from this source. you strike many here as impetuous the road you desire is neither easy or quick. use the composite advice here and pay your dues in school. starting even a small business now can yield lessons and habits that can serve you for a lifetime.

heres a headstart on your assignment.http://www.businessinsider.com/startx-startup-accelerator-stanford-2015-2 preparing yourself to qualify here can leapfrog your prospects if there's anything tangible behind your dreams.

you wont listen on this one but.....your parents are actually smarter than you realize right now.

I went to one year premed then one year in prelaw then decided i really did not like people. Machines i like and understand so ME it was.

If I had to do it all over again this is what I would do.

Here is my RULEBOOK:

• Study... study... STUDY!!
• Relationship...... absolutely not!!! Keep it in your pants and get an education. Remember.... if you achieve even a small part of your initial posting you will go far and will have more relationship offers than you can shake a stick at!

Here are the studies I would concentrate on:

1. Electrical engineering
2. Mechanical engineering
3. Machine technology (Learn machines like mills and lathes and 3-D printers)
4. CAD/CAM - learn the most popular package that represents your field of interest! Don't ask us which one because there are many that work! It's the one you feel comfortable working with.
5. Business management
6. Financial management

You are young and have the world by the tail.... You have what I call SBS - SPINNY-BRAIN SYNDROME. Take your ideas and put them on paper and hang them on the walls of your room and let them create an aura of thoughts that inspire you. (plus if they are on paper, you won't forget them) I do believe that I hampered my self in my education by refusing to listen to my parents. I was young and impetuous and had the world by the tail too..... Except I failed to follow the RULEBOOK on relationships so instead of going to college and learning, I was working 2 jobs to clothe and feed my wife (now EX-wife) and 2 kids (now 3).
GET YOUR EDUCATION ....... FIRST!!!!!

Side story--

#3 My father went 2 years to the "family" liberal arts school. Transferred to MIT for EE. Got his degree with top honors. When he was a freshman all frosh except for naval architects had to take "machine shop," a hands on course. He never regretted taking it and said that it was the course he enjoyed the most and used it until he died. He was his happiest when building things, especially his boat. Most of the fittings were made by him in the shop whether they were available commercially or not.

Also the brains skipped a generation for the siblings and me but the love of the sea and boats didn't.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Yes. When I worked at Motorola (Government spy stuff and satellites) I was allowed to take their "Mechanical Arts" course. We learned how to properly use a mill and a lathe, grind tools, knurl, thread, and generally "make stuff". The instructor was a "model maker" the highest classification a machinist could have there.

It was free for me, but priceless for its value to me.

I strongly suggest you entertain choosing an Engineering discipline that currently interests you, let your parents know so that they can help you, then intensely search for a local company that offer internship tenures at their facility during the summer months in the discipline you have chosen.

Do not give up easily for there will be many challenges to overcome and it may be necessary for you to take an internship at a location other than in your immediate location.

Doing this will give you valuable on-hands experience in the particular field you have chosen and the exposure will definitely help you decide whether or not you want to continue in the direction you have chosen.

It will also expose you to other engineering field disciplines in "real-time" which may influence you to change your direction or add to it.

It is best to start your internship your first year and no later than your second year so that if you do decide to change your major then you will not have to suffer losing valuable credits and time.

FYI: Most companies hire their interns as soon as they graduate.

Many change their discipline at least once during their education period and some do so more than once so do not let it worry you.

Good luck!

all good engineers can relate to that.

reality can be a rude awakening...... its best you start waking up.

Jack, I don't know how old you are,.... I'll share with you my experience. The students in the program I was in, dropped out or changed majors....

Interests change after you find out what its all about.

Like your movies,..... I enjoyed reading Science Fiction, but I quite after I started college, just due to the fact, Sci-fi was written by engineers and physicists, that takes basic truths and twists it for entertainment.... and it was hard for my to keep straight, if I got it from a text book or sci-fi literature.

Now with that being said, Not to say, life can imitate art.

good luck,

You have received much good advice so far!

But considering your disdain towards computer science I have one word for you: Mechatronics. Google it, but it is very much what it sounds like, the marrying of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering. Also, general engineering is great field.

I have a slightly different perspective because I went Call Poly. One of the best engineering schools in the country, and has been ranked "best in the west" for 20 odd years straight, with the caveat of the ranking being that it is for public schools that don't offer doctorates. Employers love Cal Poly grads because the motto of the school is "learn by doing." Nearly every class had a lab associated with it, and this produces grads that are ready to work immediately.

But there is another caveat, as admission is insanely selective you have to declare your major WHEN YOU APPLY. This is definitely not for everyone because it's rather tough switch majors.

I personally don't know of schools that have an admissions system like this, but there are plenty that offer hands on training.

I suggest you choose a school such as this. There's nothing wrong with super theory heavy schools, but it takes a transition period to apply that theory in real world applications after you graduate, and employers are plenty happy to hire grads from these schools as well.

But if you don't know exactly what you want to do these schools aren't for you, at least not in the beginning. Someone mentioned 2 years of liberal arts then going on to MIT.

Another example from experience at Cal Poly. I declared ME and a first quarter requirement was introduction to mechanical engineering. It covered the basics, and also included a lab which involved taking apart a lawn mower engine and reassembling correctly to get good compression. We were given a spring center punch and were told to figure out how it works. Another lab included a water cannon, which we had to design to shoot water a specific distance using very basic equations. Another was a thermocouple lab combined with a bomb calorimeter to find the energy contained within diesel fuel. Another was reading a high precision barometer.

If you're not exactly sure what you want to do courses/labs such as this are invaluable. Whether you take them at satellite locations or the college you choose intend to attend doesn't matter, as long as they are available.

The picture of the switch has a really nice FROG in it. Now that's one an engineer can really appreciate. Main track is submerged arc but the siding is pieced together. Great use of 4' 8.5" for the engineer to work with.

Good Luck, Old Salt

To be and do all that you described as an engineer all you have to be is 3 things

1 Study

2 be old

3 Don't stop studying

Having a paying job helps too.

Listen to your heart .It directs and guides . Later you need not repent for any decision you take as it is taken by your heart.

Firstly let your parents in, and simply say to them courteously "I am sure experience will show me the right way" go down try offering your services to a local general engineering company as a volunteer - and look, listen, ask & learn! experience is the highest prize you can ever gain, all the 'graduates' with high level paper degrees are fine, but they wouldn't know how to change a light bulb as school / college leavers, until they have 'experience' - you may have noticed the word experience has been used in this tract a few times already, so already you are learning from experience - BUILD ON THIS - I am sure you will find your niche in engineering, you have the best basic qualification already "I want to be an engineer" - always remember "IF IN DOUBT ASK" - Good luck!

Nice to hear from a young man with ambitious future. You are living in Democratic country U.S, you have all liberties to choose your career. As retired engineer following is my advises to you:-

1.Be Honest & Sincere.

2.Work hard to achieve your objective.

3.Never be afraid of others who block your path.

4.Work for good future of nation and poor people.

5.Never be greedy for money it will come on its own.

Many more advises but few are just basic. My suggestion will be for a person like take up Computer Engineering which includes software and hardware.

Since you have another year of high school, I would check with a local community college if one is available near you and look into dual enrollment. That way you can take some engineering related classes in college while you are still in high school.

See if the college has a class titled "Introduction to Engineering". A class like this will cover most Engineering fields and expose you to a lot of insights you don't currently have.

A class like this will often have guest speakers who are actively working as Professional Engineers in their respective fields.

Take some more or advanced CAD classes. Most Engineers make or use prints of one kind or another.

Jackk102, you have some great thinking for a young man. Most other males your age don't have a clue. They still think like little boys. You have a dream, you have somewhat "defined" what you want, you have some skilled and successful business people to emulate. Good job.

As we talk about in the LIFE Leadership business; Define (what you want; what kind of impact you want to make in the world, your lifestyle, your time and money freedom options, be an employee or start/run a business, how much you want to make, etc.), Learn (from someone who has those kind of results, on the job, personal coaching or mentoring, through media, i.e. books, audios), Do (what they do; if they have the results you're looking for they can help others).

Get some experience in a variety of fields, work for free if you have to. You'll find out what you like as well as becoming more well rounded in your thinking. Read like crazy about people who were successful. Read to develop your success thinking. Listen to business audios as you're in a vehicle (making non-productive time productive). As the saying goes, "what you do 9:00 - 5:00 will make you a living, what you do after that will make you wealthy".

Learn what you need to learn to do what you want and not necessarily what you some college says you need to get a credential. That's what most of the innovative guys have done.

Learn to think like a business owner and not an employee. This is mostly done through a self-directed education, outside of a classroom. That is where the "Learn" from someone else who has done what you want to do comes in.

Understand that this is a process and will take time. As someone else said on a previous Post, "they became overnight successes, after many years of developing their skills."

Don't sweat the type yet and remember that 90% of this job is being organized, not how much you learned in school. You will come out of school in whatever field you join and still not really know anything, school is really there to teach you how to think. Then you'll have to find out how to recognize when you don't know what you don't know which takes a few more years. Those guys (the real ones) are famous for their ideas and their drive but there are hundreds of engineers who have solved major problems for those guys that will never be known outside of a handful of colleagues/friends because they are detail-oriented problem solvers rather than the big idea people. Just as valuable as the big idea people though since none of their achievements would be possible without a legion of detail people.

My advice is take chemistry, physics, and circuits in high school. Whichever one interests you the most would be what I would consider (chemical, mechanical, electrical). You can always switch within the first couple years without adding a bunch of time in college. You will probably find that hanging out with a certain person will out-weigh any technical accomplishment in the long run and that most of these highly accomplished people haven't always had the best personal lives.

I agree with the observation that "90% of this job is being organized". As an engineer myself, I frequently find a distinct advantage in spending extra time to be a little extra organized. Non-engineering stakeholders who's concept of "that is an easy change" seldom see the domino effect of making design changes. Having all the dominos organized up front helps illustrate the impact of a change.

This is so ridiculously true.

I think one course that doesn't exist but should be a part of engineering curriculums is "the art of the engineering change order" which should range from the simple small company one off parts, to the massive company that uses 1 part in several different assemblies.

Also revs vs versions, or in generic terms, backwards compatible parts vs non backwards compatible parts.

Engineers must be detail oriented, both in their discipline and in general. I've seen an entire assembly line shut down due to an engineer changing a part but neglecting to run a check on everywhere that part was used.

Detail is key, and you couldn't correct regarding the fact that you can't just gain this way of thought overnight. This way of thinking is built into engineering courses, which is why an engineering degree in one discipline can get you a job in another. Though there are a couple that kind of lock you in like EE & computer science. Thought process is there, but you don't have the knowledge to transfer over into general engineering.

Absotively correct, no matter what you name it.

I do, on occasion, get repeat orders even though we are a custom shop, and I often get my marked up drawings to quote from and a lot of times the original drawings I quote from. Someone could not just take the time to correct the original prints even though I gave them all the changes.

One thing I learned early on - documentation, documentation, documentation - you cannot have too much of it. For the time it takes to document when changes occur, well worth the time. And,,, it can save or earn you some $$ in the process.

Best wishes for your great success in all your endeavours.

Why don't you give us an update this time next year? You've gotten some great advice and insights from these folks. It's always rewarding to find out down the road whether the advice you've given was helpful. Enjoy your journey!

Jackk102
Remember this experience and how much you have told us how much you appreciate the guidance.
There will come a day when you have had a long and full career and a young intern or a new employee comes to you and says:
"I Don't Know What Type Of Engineer I Need To Be"
Tell me, what would your response be?

I have always given the people I work with the respect they deserve by doing the following:

• When experience speaks, listen to them.
• Do what is asked and exceed it, go the extra mile!
• If you don't completely understand something, ask for clarification.
• If you make a mistake, immediately take responsibility. It shows integrity!
• Provide help to those who are new in the field and pass on your knowledge that was so freely given to you.
• Try not to get involved in office politics.

I wish you a long and prosperous career in whatever field you finally choose.
Good luck

:

• When experience speaks, listen to them.
• Do what is asked and exceed it, go the extra mile!
• If you don't completely understand something, ask for clarification.
• If you make a mistake, immediately take responsibility. It shows integrity!
• Provide help to those who are new in the field and pass on your knowledge that was so freely given to you.
• Try not to get involved in office politics.

These are huge, not just in your professional life, but just life in general.
But definitely apply them to your professional life. A note on providing help to those who are new in the field. This doesn't have apply only to who are new. Make yourself available to answer questions to anyone who has them, even if you don't have an immediate answer. I've gained so much knowledge with this mantra in my career it should be a crime. Basically I let my talents and interests show in my work in such a way that my collegues got the idea that I was an expert, most notably in complex 3D modelling/finite element analysis.

Everyone, whether my equals, 20 years my senior, or a new hire would come to me with questions. If I didn't know straight away I'd just tell them I was busy, but I'd help in a few hours/end of day/etc.
Then I hit the help button and forums. So basically I let others weaknesses be a source for my "curricullum." But I never held back the advice that they should use the help button or give certain resources to them. Yet they still waited for my help. So they got some pointers for the specific question/process they needed, but I gained all the background knowledge to apply to almost every case.

The help button, and contracted service for software, etc, are vastly underused, even when people know they exist. (I would always make it clear again that I gained the knowledge to help them by employing these resources.) But, never fall into the trap of doing other peoples work, unless your boss knows about it and tasks you with it. That way the work is added onto your workload, so everyone knows that some time will be taken away from projects you're already working on.

Lastly, the owning up to a mistake immediately is also very huge. 6 months on the job I crashed 300k horizontal milling machine in the prototype area I was using to modify some parts. Went straight to the big boss and owned it. All he said was no problem, because you came to me and owned it instead of trying to hide it. That one sentence was all I ever heard of the matter.

Good luck man, and heed the awesome wealth of advice you've been given here!
Steve

I didn't take the time to read all the responses listed. I would use your summers to shadow willing engineers to get a taste for what they do. There must be many in the engineering field willing to help you that way. Good luck, and don't let anyone chide you into something not helping to learn.

Me thinks you are trying to be like someone else rather than yourself. I don't think Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison or Elon Musk were trying to emulate someone else.

I disagree on Carnegie. as a matter of fact I would highly recommend reading his biography. he was an immigrant from Scotland that was dirt poor. he realized at a young age that being around powerful people and having access to knowledge were critical to success in life. of all the great fortunes made in America his story is easily my favorite. currently there's foolish talk about changing images on our currency to appease some special interest group of whiners. I'd nominate this great man long before any of the current Bozos being considered.

"Give the man his 18 cents."

--Andrew Carnegie

I leave it as an exercise for the reader to find the context.

As the statement goes, "men and women of integrity expect to be believed, and when they're not, they let time prove them right."

That applies to integrity and character as well as innovation in business and industry.

We don't know the end of the story for some of these innovators like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs (deceased, but his kind of thinking and culture goes on), Jeff Bezos and others like them whose names aren't known yet. Time will tell what their value and contributions will be.

Because of time past we have the ability to look at guys like Benjamin Franklin, Edison, Booker T. Washington, George Washington Carver and others like them and see the results of their vision and work.

<...I Don't Know What Type Of Engineer I Need To Be...>

If it's any consolation, no-one else here knows either. Good luck.

I'm quite sure you'll make up your mind in terms of the kind of engineering you want to specialise in, during the first year of your study (because of several reasons I don't want to )!! In my decent opinion, it doesn't matter what type of engineering you're majoring in,,, Instead, what really matters is how much you'll have liked that type !!

Hope this helps!!

Ali