same for me, I am no longer detailing cars!
Good for you!
My $0.02:
Engineering is about cooperation and teamwork. But, more importantly about how you approach a problem and your contribution to solving the problem. I am a firm advocate of the brute force method. I always have been. Donât think you know the answer. Just solve the problem. Where you work you will need to do a better job than everyone else, and faster. That will make you shine.
I have 10 years in the Aerospace industry (Intern, Designer, Mech. Eng., Project Eng., Mfg. Eng.), Bachelors in Mechanical, and a Masters in IndustrialâŚYeah, Iâm 27. I worked my fucking ass off and I am still going.
Iâm setting up entry level engineering interviews in Houston over the next few weeks. 
ubengineering we need a life story!
lol a life story, well i did quit valvoline but i moved to delta sonic PART time to aid the process in paying off loans (for changing oil at delta sonic, it pays about 16$ an hour, yeah i know insane i cant believe i wasted all that time at valvoline but its where i started managing people as an asst. for about a year and a half), i have 3 weeks of sk00l left till i get my degree and i think my resume has done pretty well, ive put it in at 6 places and was called back/contacted immediately by 5 within 24 hours, ive had 6 interviews, Goodyear 3 times for a production supervisor role so for 3 interview i tihnk i may have it, us energy development corporation 2 times, cameron compression still waiting on, and GM im hoping comes through soon, which is my ultimate choice if i were to be offered something
i spent 6 months as a project manager/adminstrator/bitch at danforth over the summer (april-august) working on all the HVAC in about 30 Buffalo public schools (for the shit that goes down in them schools some of them are beautiful inside) and the buffalo federal courthouse, after that ended when school started i definitly know that danforth isnt what i want to spend my time doing, but it wasnt so bad
i think what helped was the managment experience and hands on experience (building cars/bikes/repairs), ive only managed teams of about 5 which isnt much but i think i could step it up a bit, im learning more machining/shop stuff now which i think will help as well
something i wish i would have done was make a portfolio like lafengas, theres so much shit i could of put into a binder but i never took pictures of any of my work =( im starting to do that now, im making a catapult in my one manufacturing class
we will see what happens i guess, if anyone would like a copy of my resume id be more than happy to share
anddddd im clean cut now, danforth pretty much was the deciding factor in that, until im a millionaire and/or never have to work again, i wont be changing my hair color or piercings anymore =â(
edit: im taking my GMAT soon and hope to enroll in the MBA program here at UB, i could keep going to school but im REALLY trying to get a job that can pick up the tab
Yah I wouldnât jump into a masters right away, get some experience and try to get a company to sponsor you later down the road.
Yeah any big company will be more than happy to pay for your MBA, especially if youâre starting right into management positions like it looks like you are. Hell Praxair paid for mine and Iâm getting deeper and deeper into technical engineering, not management. But even as an engineer if you can demonstrate that you can communicate and work with all types of people youâre worth your weight in gold.
In general, most of the classes wonât mean anything to you until youâve been working for a couple of years anyway. Then take UBâs PMBA program. Itâs actually a decent program, but all an MBA is is an exercise in working with people and time management so it turns into a twice a week drinking club. Plus, compared to engineering school, the eye candy is fantaaaaaastic.
General Mills or General Motors? I had an interview with General Mills, it felt like a god damn interrogation.
lol all my interviews were like interrogations but i did well, im hoping for general motors =)
I will have to prove that it is âDirectly relatedâ to my job to get reimbursment
More so if you are an engineer that can communicate with anyone.
If you end up in a production supervisor type role for a large company, you will probably get weekly and or daily beatings from those above and below you.
People skills FTW.
You just got to get lucky sometimes. I applied to a place this past spring, didnât get taken, then a month later they called me back and said welcome aboard. Theyâre doing so well right now they kept all 4 of us on as part time and Iâm still working there now 6 months into it with no previous experience. More recently Iâve been able to prove some worth with things that I started back in summer and theyâre just handing me projects from all the departments now, not just were I started. I must say though I didnât really use much UB taught me so far, just good problem solving and business planning techniques. Really what got me the job was just going to UB. Most of the engineers there graduated from there or are in grad school, and all of us interns now part time go to UB. They really opened my eyes up to what I should continue studying. Not to mention gave me like 5 options to use for my senior design project \:D/
care to elaborate more? who is they? are you in ME? what position/department/ job you intern for? what kind of projects are you doing? etc etc etc
Yea, Iâm a senior ME. I work at PCB in Depew. Really chill place, feels like my old retail job in terms of just hanging around chattin and make fun of each other, not to the point I expected. Iâm a part timer working 30hrs a week after classes M-F. The section Iâm in is their MEMS group making shock accelerometers. I started doing tons of procedures and paper work stuff, writing ECOs and fixing MDNs and such since they were so far behind (just 1 engineer and 6 techs). But since thatâs done, me and my lead have been resurrecting prototypes that were on hold when they got backed up and hit by a down turn in sales over the last few years. Mainly doing testing and trying new ways to reduce failures they have along with a possible new model they have a patent for that could replace a large chuck of their other model types (non-MEMS things). Theyâve more recently bought the building next door and plan to double the size so Iâm sitting nice at this point.
Kinda gives that nice feeling that the last 3 years werenât a bust, lol
i just submitted a profile to cameron and praxair and spoke to dav sheff from pcb
solo i cannot believe you like mems, i hate that class im in it now, i was in the group that had the asian graduate student destroy our presentation then i had to get my group to go up again, in which we were told what we did was too complex, chopra put her in my fucking group ahhhhhh, god i hate mems but someone has to like it
You guys are luckyâŚMechanical engineering and Electrical engineering at least has some standardâŚ
Network/Systems/Security engineering does not
cameron is an amazing company to work for, my brother (bladez) works there.
Lol, more details on how she destroyed your presentation, sounds like a funny story. Chopra was trying to get me to take mems as one of my electives, still havenât really decided even though I really liked the way he taught the other courses I had him for.
[FONT=Verdana]Micro electro w/Chopra & Composite materials w/Wetherhold wasnât bad. I didnât like Cardio Biomechanics w/Woodward! Then again I didnât like Mech Solids either.[/FONT]
OMG as a group we worked on our presentation for about 6 hours, equations everything, we go up to present, i was going to start, then Chopra was like how about you? to the asian chick that cannot speak, shes nice but def needs to work on her engrish, anyways so we all start sweating, she goes up to our presentation, pulls out the flash drive, puts up HER OWN which we have no knowledge of its existence, its like 3 slides, each slide has once sentence, the one slide has a picture she made in microsoft word out of LINES, they dont even MATCH UP, 40 seconds later we are fucked and the presentation is over
chopra looks at me and is like " mike, have you ever seen the movie gladiator?" (proceeds to give thumbs down)
at the end of class heâs like ok everyone has presented lets go and i stand up and im like my group DID NOT PRESENT I WOULD LIEK TO PRESENT!!! and he lets us, our idea is shot down because it is too complex, but he says we put a tremendous amount of effort into it so we are safe
UGH
Group work is the suck.
Better get use to it and learn how to communicate. I work second shift and have to deal with 10-15 people per one test cell inorder to cover the 24 hour time frame. 1st and 2nd are easy, 3rd is covered by India (who I have to update everynight) and then weekend shift also.