Fresh Mechanical Engineer Entering The Pipeline Installation Industry

You have answered your own question.

"I didn't score high grades in my university, so i couldn't enter other high paying jobs that requires a high GPA such as consulting, investment, design etc."

A masters may help, but a few years of actual work is what you really need.

You have high expectations backed by average accomplishments in school. Not good for starting out at the top. You also don't have the luxury of choosing from a number of jobs, since you only mention one offer.

You also exhibit a trait common to many who come here asking strangers for advice, when they know absolutely nothing about you. You want it all, now.

Take the job, get a few years experience, then a masters in whatever field you choose after maturing some more, which is what you really need to do.

Study hard, or work hard.....you've already made the choice.....I don't think you are being realistic, you don't get to where you are having headed in another direction...what you want and what you think you want, do not seem to be one in the same....I agree, get some work experience and reevaluate your goals in say, 2 more years...If at that time you choose to head in another direction, nothing can stop you....at the very least you will gain experience and motivation...both valuable commodities....

One of my best friends is the Galvanic Protection Manager for a major natural gas pipe line company. His advice to anyone thinking about working for a pipeline company is the only way to do it is if you are strong of body, weak of mind, tolerant of ignorance, tolerate distant locations, like to wear patched and stinky clothes, willing to work for/with idiots, willing to work in very hot locations (also windy, extreme cold, extreme heat, extreme dryness, excessive humidity and have an IQ of less than 90 go ahead and try it. That's for the operating company.

For the construction crews include willing to work long hours, do not suffer from claustrophobia, willing to use X-ray units, work around heavy construction equipment, willing to climb steep grades, willing to climb down steep grades, willing to work in infectious water, willing to work under heavy pipe loads, willing to tolerate flash burns, willing to work with little water to drink, willing to be far from home for months on end and several others, go ahead and try to get the job. Your friends and family will start to call you crazy and have lost your mind.

Look at some of the videos on youtube. Especially the ones titled "a pipe liner". It is a very good example of what some pipe liners are like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPnNpKVe8GQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PDJ0xHidiI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kw7pYqLjpE

Remember this is indirectly from a guy who has worked 25 years in the industry. Get a real job and work hard and study hard for a few years. That investment will be well worth it when you are ready to go for the good jobs.

Remember that big money, high status, executive lunches and a company Mercedes-Benz only go to the smart ones, the hard workers and the owners children. Be smart and get more education and experience and you will achieve these. Outsmart the owners children, they will mess up sometime and they will be working for you.

Good Luck, Old Salt

You may have come to the wrong place.

Although CR4 appears to be an "engineer's" forum, there are many individuals here who have a passing interest in simple engineering type practices and have never actually been employed or licensed in the engineering field.

Look towards professional organizations or local unions where you can validate the person whose opinion you seek. I would advise not reaching out to anonymous characters who may be children or wannabe garage mechanics.

Crasher,

The Long Road from Study to Wisdom

1 Study gets the Grades

2 Grades get the Diploma/Degree

3 Diploma/Degree gets the Interview

4 Interview allows for a Presentation

5 Presentation gets the Job

6 A Job is an Opportunity to Perform

7 Your Performance keeps the job

8 The Job brings Experience

9 The Experience multiplies Knowledge

10 Knowledge properly used is Wisdom

PennPiper, 2014

You are only at step 3, choose wisely.

"...the interviewer warned me that if i got the job and entered this domain it will be really hard for me to enter another mechanical engineering domains in the future such as HVAC, manufacturing,aviation , automation etc."

Hmmm. And you're just going to accept this? Are you, as an individual well versed in critical thinking, willing to alter your life path on a seemingly baseless comment? Do you really believe that, after a year, you would be stuck there?

If you don't want to bleed and you don't want to sweat, that's okay; just admit it and go forward. However... the adventure, the work experience, exposure and perhaps lasting associations with some (probably) pretty smart people, big money for hard work... these things are not without appeal.

If I were single and twenty-something again, I would give this some serious thought. This isn't necessarily a career path for you, it's perhaps a few of the stepping stones along your path.

OK. Now you have earned your learners licence, time to get your hands dirty and learn all the nitty gritty that goes to make a competent engineer. Engineering or any profession relies on getting the basics but the real learning comes from mentoring from the wise and usually much older mentors in the field.

Be aware some older mentors sometimes jealously keep their knowledge and you will need to ask the questions and never say "I want to ask a Dumb question" as there is NO DUMB Questions. Sometimes it is necessary to ask the mentor to demonstrate how or why a particular thing is done in a certain manner and this can lead to the mentor showing off their prowess in being in charge.

This is just my manner of saying 'Good on You' but now your learning has just begun.

Hi WC!

In the years I have spent (still spending) on installation of heavy equipment, I have crossed paths with many young engineers, finding themselves in a work environment that it is often a very difficult one, when not openly hostile (specially in the beginning, with some "hard dudes").

I have seen some of them fail to recognise the chances to learn, neither from the personnel around them and they deep knowledge of the details that only hands-on experience can provide, nor from the psycologic and emotional challenges they faced.

The latter ones are the harder ones.

Fortunately, I have seen most of them succeed in those tasks and others, with the help of the people around them, mostly less qualified, like myself.

As first steps, my recommendations would be a delicate balance of humility to recognaisse what you do not know, and selfassurance when you are certain on some matter (avoiding the close cliff of arrogance) and again humility to accept your own errors with grace, and the sure dosage of humour (sometimes corrosive) about it that will follow.

I am lucky enough to see some of them progress in the hierachy of this or that companies, often out of the field they choose initially, and can tell you that, ten years later, they carry the nicknames we gave them as a very honorable title that no university can grant.

After two years in the field, you wil not be the same, and probably your interview will go differently as well. You will laugh at the statement of your interviewer about closing doors, as I think most of engineers in the forum will agree.

Do not count me among them, since I am not an engineer but only a "garage mechanic wanabee", so my opinion may not qualify.

You are an engineer now, even if not experienced, and you must be able to discriminate.

Best of lucks, whatever your choice is.

Abel

Crisis for engineers in shop floor or in the field is that they are surrounded by tough hard skinned labourers who enjoy making fun of new chubby college boy. They will laugh at you and gang up against you. But if you are diplomatic with them and can laugh at your self, then you can manage them. You have to be thick skinned to take all this. If you have lived in boys hostel then you can manage them because you have been already ragged and have become thick skinned.