My Stepson Needs to Interview an Engineer

Perhaps, if your stepson spoke for himself, someone might be willing to speak to him.

Is there some reason you need to interpret for him?

I was just looking for a website for him and found this one he posted the questions on here no need for me to interpret for him it is an eighth grade project he has.

If anyone can help that would be great if not thanks for taking the time to look thanks.

1) Where did you graduate from high school?

2) How old where you when you knew that this was the career for you?

3) What college did you earn your degree?

4) What kind of courses did you have to take in college?

Ex. # of years of Math? English? Spanish?

5) Which course in college helped you the most?

6) Which course in high school helped you the most?

7) Did you even change your mind?

8) Who influenced you into going into this career?

9) What careers did your parents have?

10) What advice would you give someone who wants to choose this career?

11) What is your favorite part(s) of your career?

12) What are your day to day activities that you do?

13) If you could change at least one thing in college, what would it be?

14) If you had to do it all over again, would you choose the same career? Or what career would you have chosen?

1) Where did you graduate from high school? A small school in rural America. Total enrollment, K-12 500 students.

2) How old where you when you knew that this was the career for you? I didn't know what it was called when I felt the urge to design things.

3) What college did you earn your degree? A small southern college.

4) What kind of courses did you have to take in college? The usual. English, Social Studies, math, physics, etc.

Ex. # of years of Math? 4 English?2 Spanish?0

5) Which course in college helped you the most? English

6) Which course in high school helped you the most? EEnglish

7) Did you even change your mind? Many times.

8) Who influenced you into going into this career? My older brother.

9) What careers did your parents have? Mother, Factory worker. Father teacher, carpenter.

10) What advice would you give someone who wants to choose this career? Learn to communicate and deal with people.

11) What is your favorite part(s) of your career? Getting to travel and meet people. Oh, and working with totally new stuff is cool, too.

12) What are your day to day activities that you do? I have two or three projects going and I check on their progress. Data taking, chemical process monitoring, report writing. Research into new "stuff" that relates to my field.

13) If you could change at least one thing in college, what would it be? Less non-technical time, at first, till I got it figured out.

14) If you had to do it all over again, would you choose the same career? Yes. Or what career would you have chosen? I've always regretted not going into the military. I could have done both, but I didn't.

Thank you so very much for your help. My name is Kirk we are doing this for my career tech class, and when I'm older I want to be an engineer. So, please I need your name, and what kind of engineer are you, and could you tell me what college you went to. How did you decide where you were gonna work after you graduated? Thank you so much again, I appreciate it a lot.

It is good for you seek out some engineers to interview. One thing you might do, if your town is large enough to support some engineers, is to contact someone locally. If you explain that you are interested in engineering, but as yet know little about it, you are likely to find people who will take you under their wings, guide you toward the knowledge (and classes) of value, and tell you stories of problems tackled and solved. In doing this, you may also make contacts who can help you enter your career.

There are several specialties in engineering: chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, mechanical, nuclear, process, and structural, to name some. If you haven't yet decided on one particular direction, mechanical engineering is perhaps the most all-around bet. Concentrate on math and science, and don't forget English. Best of luck!

1) Where did you graduate from high school? South Africa, Phoenix, Durban

2) How old where you when you knew that this was the career for you? 15 yrs

3) What college did you earn your degree? Cato Manor Technical College

4) What kind of courses did you have to take in college? Electrical heavy current, Maths, Engineering science, Mechacano Techniques, Technical Drawing... There were 25 Subjects in total

Ex. # of years of Math? English? Spanish?

5) Which course in college helped you the most? The electrical engineering courses

6) Which course in high school helped you the most? Maths ,Physical Science and Technika Electrical

7) Did you even change your mind? No

8) Who influenced you into going into this career? My family

9) What careers did your parents have? Mother housewife and Dad ,Clothing Factory Worker

10) What advice would you give someone who wants to choose this career? Do'nt ever waste your parents money by changing your career path , its wise to have at least three career choices and choose a degree that caters for all of them

11) What is your favorite part(s) of your career? The design and fault finding

12) What are your day to day activities that you do? Project work , maintenance, staffing

13) If you could change at least one thing in college, what would it be? None

14) If you had to do it all over again, would you choose the same career? Or what career would you have chosen? Electrical is my passion so NO. I am an electrical engineer

Your question is a good one and your goals are very good. However, most people at CR4 know it is a very bad idea to give personal information to strangers over the internet. So please do not let the low number of responses seem like engineers are not helpful or are trying to offend you. Most of us got to be old and wise by either being careful or learning (and remembering) our lessons when we were not careful.

Hi Kirk,

I'm a pyrotechnic engineer working on military applications. I've been in this position for two years. Most of my career has been in chemical and materials research, but I took this position after lay offs at my last company.

1) Where did you graduate from high school?

I graduated from Fruit Monument High School in Fruita, CO. There were about 450 people in my graduating class.

2) How old where you when you knew that this was the career for you?

I wish I could say that I chose engineering as the ideal, fulfilling career for me, but I actually chose it as one of the few remaining jobs in the place I wanted to live that would pay a sufficient salaray.

3) What college did you earn your degree?

I earned a Bachelor's Degree in Physics from Mesa State College.

4) What kind of courses did you have to take in college?

I had no foreign language requirements for my degree.

In Mathematics, I had four years of calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, complex variables, matrix groups, and differential geometry. Most of these I took as electives.

I also took several statistics electives including advanced statistical methods, regression analysis, and mathematical statistics – one of my hardest classes.

Other electives that met graduation requirements included three years of chemistry (through physical chemistry) one year of general English, a year of psychology, a year of world history, a year of biology, a semester of American government, a semester of logic, a semester on major British writers, and a year career exploration class (a combination of reading, journaling, research, and career counseling type of study), PE and music electives.

5) Which course in college helped you the most?

Advanced Statistical Methods has been my most helpful course. I have been able to apply its concepts to every single area of my career.

6) Which course in high school helped you the most?

High school chemistry was my most helpful course. Not only was the basic chemistry knowledge transferable to my work life, but the kinds of mathematical reasoning that I learned are still useful to me in day to day work.

7) Did you even change your mind?

Yes I did. My firs major was philosophy, but I changed to physics because of the employment opportunities. I would prefer to still be working in research, but in order to live in this town, I had to switch to engineering.

8) Who influenced you into going into this career?

My father. He taught me high school chemistry and physics and raised me in an atmosphere of scientific thinking.

9) What careers did your parents have?

My father taught high school physics, chemistry, astronomy, and geology. My mother taught middle school mathematics.

10) What advice would you give someone who wants to choose this career?

Master mathematics and statistical data analysis. Become highly proficient in English grammar. Sentence diagramming would be useful in terms of both communication and logic.

11) What is your favorite part(s) of your career?

I really enjoy presenting research papers at technical trade shows or customer sites.

12) What are your day to day activities that you do?

Currently, I spend about an hour a day meeting with the different project teams I'm on. Three to four hours are spend on explosives mixing and loading the explosives into various devices. Another two or three hours goes to testing the devices, and the balance of my day is spent either troubleshooting or streamlining production processes.

13) If you could change at least one thing in college, what would it be?

If I could redo my college career, I'd have focused on research statistics as an undergraduate, then I would have gone on to graduate school either for research psychology or material science.

14) If you had to do it all over again, would you choose the same career? Or what career would you have chosen?

If I could have a do-over, I'd work to set myself up to spend about half my time in research psychology and the other half in counseling psychology.

If you want to work with this and need any follow-up info, have your dad contact me through CR4's e-mail and I'll give you my name and contact information.