Career Choice

What part of the world do you live in?

How many languages do you speak?

How well do you interact with people not of your culture?

I speak three languages, I live in the states, and I interact fairly well with most people despite cultural differences.

Not so much on the law end, but maybe a field service engineer for something outdoors...

Wind Turbines, etc. That will get you outside.

There are also a lot of companies that don't run your typically office as seen in 'Office Space' Most of the time they are smaller companies or design firms.

How far along are you in your studies? Close to the end? If so, go to as many interviews as you can and see what the work environment is like.

I happened to have gone to work for a university while I was still an undergraduate student working in research support. It turned out to be quite interesting as I got to "invent" a lot of stuff. Also, when I graduated, I managed the electronics end of the operation and designed and built many things in the mechanical end of it also. I have and had one of the best "engineering" jobs I could hope to have, given what I like to do.

Interestingly enough, I once worked in the construction industry, and I decided to "get serious" about finishing my degree (mainly due to a severe recession in the US in the early 70's), so that I would have something to "fall back on" should the construction industry go down the tubes again. As it turned out, I never got back into the construction business again directly. I have, however, generated a good number of electrical distribution designs for commercial and industrial buildings in addition to 100's of electronics designs.

Additional post-graduate degree that was once favored by potential employers is an MBA.

P. S. I couldn't imagine being a patent lawyer -- lots of boring searches for similar things, same ol' paperwork, same ol' writing claims, (I've done several), etc.

I spent a number of years as a field service rep, you get to see a lot of interesting problems all over the world. General Electric does a great job of taking people fresh from school and giving them tons of training, and then giving them interesting work to do...

Not too late for Orthodontics school and location in an affluent city. The wealthiest mechanical engineer I know in Houston has a huge house. His kid's orthodontist's swimming pool equipment house is bigger than his house.

I was always into the conceptual design side things, but also had a background in agriculture and construction, and never really gelled to the office side of things; engineering departments were alright but it was all the other muppets, with their office politics and clicks.

If you want to travel and work out outdoors, focus on construction and heavy industry. I graduated in Mechanical Engineering with a bias towards stress analysis. Got a job in the heavylift industry, moving anything from shiploaders, mining equipment, ships, oil platforms, fraction columns, gas turbines, reactors and bridges. Then I got into construction of foundations and facilities to house some of the items I used to install. After that I took a job building a port in North Africa, and from that I don't know yet.

Been a graduate I was thrown into two worlds on site, the one where you plan the operations and deal with what ever technical issues were thrown at you (often out of your field of education) and the other world where you have to drive and push people and get stuck in on site, if needed. There's a lot of BS removed as everybody just wants to get the job done, get the pay check and bonus and on to the next one.

It can be isolated and you can do long stints without going home, but then with the places I see and the things I get to do, it makes it all the better when you go home and find out everyone is still doing the same and you've got something else to talk about.

At the end of it when I decide its enough I have gained enough experience, confidence, to go out and persue something new.

It is hard to know where to start when study a such a broad subject like Mechanical Engineering. In England the companies mechancal graduades wanted to work for were the likes of BAE and Rolls Royce, with typical graduate schemes. If you want something different, and want to show some initiative start researching what large projects interest you, and find out who is the PM or Project Eng and write to them directly, you've have nothing to lose but gain the chance to pick where you want to work. I didn't do this myself, but as a Project Engineer, I would be more likely to pick the Grad who wrote to me direct than the one who came through HR.

What ever you do good luck.

I did Mech Eng then went to Structural Engineering. I have worked for the top end of the structural engineering world for 15 years and still enjoy it. The mech eng part means i understand more about detailing than most people and gives me the cahnce to interface effectively with other disciplines. so some advantages to what you have already done.

plus i get to travel the world.

Josh,

RE: "(i.e. Law Degree + Mechanical Engineering Degree => Patent Lawyer)"

In the United States, you do not have to get a law degree to practice patent law in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. You have to pass the patent bar exam given by the USPTO. It requires a technical degree in science or engineering (or a minimum number of university course hours) to be allowed to take the exam. If you pass the exam, you become a licensed Patent Agent, and you may prepare, file, and prosecute patent applications for clients before the USPTO. However, you cannot do transactional matter such as licensing deals for clients, and you cannot do patent infringement litigation. Those require an attorney (law degree and admittance to a state or federal bar.)

I became a patent agent after a 22 year engineering career. I disagree with Bill by the way. I do not find patent practice boring. I am constantly exposed to new technologies created by very bright people, and my turnover rate is high. I work on something for a week or two and then I am on to something else. I also market myself on the basis that my engineering experience makes me better qualified to serve clients than most attorneys. My clients do not get billed for hours of "learning curve" time to understand the basics of their inventions. I can also work directly with any engineering documentation that they have created, such as 3D models (SolidWorks, etc.) of their products/inventions. I use those to understand an invention, write the application, and make the drawings. I don't see many lawyers doing that.

That being said, it is a very difficult field to enter. Hands-on engineering experience is a definite plus. You also need to like to write and be able to write very well, be good at verbal commmunication, be creative in seeing how to draft broad claims, pay scrupulous attention to detail, and be willing to self-educate constantly. (Patent laws and rules are always changing.) I am constantly trying to improve these skills.

After passing the patent bar exam, you would need to join a law firm as an agent, and frankly, most law firms full of attorneys do not treat agents as prized employees. But to start a solo practice on your own would be very tough unless you could live with little or no income for 1 - 2 years.

That's how I see it. I like what I do, and I wish I had made the change and had become self-employed 10 - 15 years sooner. Beats the Fortune 500 gig I had by a lot. Good luck.

jhammond

_________________________

Well, big construction projects or hydrocarbon extraction would get you out of the office.

You could marry a rich spouse, that's always an option. My father always said, "you can marry more money in five minutes than you can make in a lifetime."

Where did I go wrong?

Think about this carefully before you reject it as un-cool. Go talk to a US Navy Class A recruiter. The Naval Civil Engineer Corps may just be the ticket for you. They do a ton of costal construction. The CBs hardly ever work indoors. Then there is the Army Corps of engineers but they spend a lot of time in offices. Of course the USMC has combat engineers if you like to blow things up...

Marketing - Really, I recently defected to the Marketing side of my business, I struggled with the decision but now I wouldn't look back. I travel all over the world talking to design engineers, many of them working on the leading edge of technology. I have seen the most amazing projects, get to every airshow and get to decide what areas of technology our company is going to move in to. What will be tomorrows products. We are an aerospace company and everyone who moves into Marketing must have an engineering background. We take engineering graduates in as Application Engineers, however there is a fast track process through to product specialist and then product marketing manager. Lots of travel, lots of interesting projects, you get to input to the hard work done by the engineers and entertain the customers. Best job I have ever had. take a second subject in marketing.

Rhona

Hi Guest

you don`t have to worry about the working environment , office work , travelling , control engineering , designing ,R & D , are all different modes within same premises , you can opt & have hands on experiance in each department .

patent lawyer , i never heard of such designation , well you can go for MBA / ME than act as a consultant in the same

Thank you very much for all of your responses, they were all of great use and interest to me!