ITT: Tell me what to do for $$$/career...
YES!
01-13-2015, 09:49 PM
#89
That's because of what those jobs entail. Everyone starts at the bottom in power plant engineering, (unions) and the bottom at a power plant is the pits. It pays well, but not worth the money in my opinion. I did it for a few years and got sick of watching the good ol' boys club operate.
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01-14-2015, 08:13 AM
#91
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If you want to make smart money fabricating, CNC is where it's at. IMHO. You shouldn't be physically making parts, you should be developing, boxing & shipping them. Think FM, not BEGI.
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01-14-2015, 01:15 PM
#92
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Im a tech at a Toyota dealership, been wrenching for 5 years. Pay is ok. About 40k a year probably which is way more than any of my friends make (we're all about 23-25 years old). I've been going to school for ME on the side, just applied at a state school. I honestly don't know if I'm going to make it but I will live in regret if I don't attempt it. Study habits need serious improvement.
I don't hate my current job but I don't see a future in it. I want better pay. If I suck at ME I'm going to try to work in the performance/aftermarket part of the automotive field. I'm getting pretty bored of timing belts and water pumps on soccer mom vans.
I guess it would help if I knew what an ME actually does on a day to day basis
I don't hate my current job but I don't see a future in it. I want better pay. If I suck at ME I'm going to try to work in the performance/aftermarket part of the automotive field. I'm getting pretty bored of timing belts and water pumps on soccer mom vans.
I guess it would help if I knew what an ME actually does on a day to day basis
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01-14-2015, 01:25 PM
#93
Im a tech at a Toyota dealership, been wrenching for 5 years. Pay is ok. About 40k a year probably. I've been going to school for ME on the side, just applied at a state school. I honestly don't know if I'm going to make it but I will live in regret if I don't attempt it. Study habits need serious improvement.
I don't hate my current job but I don't see a future in it. I want better pay. If I suck at ME I'm going to try to work in the performance/aftermarket part of the automotive field. I'm getting pretty bored of timing belts and water pumps on soccer mom vans.
I don't hate my current job but I don't see a future in it. I want better pay. If I suck at ME I'm going to try to work in the performance/aftermarket part of the automotive field. I'm getting pretty bored of timing belts and water pumps on soccer mom vans.
I'm a kid from Mississippi (dumbest state in the country) from a poor family. I finished high school, but it was As, Bs, Cs, I was not a star student by any means, did better in vocational classes. I didn't like to study, or at least wasn't very good at it.
I applied at a state school (MS State University) and to my surprise I was accepted. It sucked, I failed classes, it kicked my ***, I had to study my *** off only to get C's sometimes while others got As and Bs like it was easy. I could have changed majors, given up, done something else. But I WANTED to make it. I failed Calculus 1, 2, 4, should have failed 3 but easy teacher, failed differential equations, religion, barely got D's in Physics 2 and 3, chemistry I think I got a C, somehow. It was rough, I failed weed out classes and watched people drop and go to easier majors. But I made up my mind that I could do it, just had to keep at it. During the beginning of my 3rd year I realized I was the reason I was struggling, and started taking school very serious, made rules I lived by that got me sleeping 8hrs/night, studying every day, working on HW assignments minimum 30 minutes the day it's assigned (to size it up if nothing else). It took 5 years, but I got my ME degree. And it has paid off big time.
If you ever have any questions about anything (ME questions, financial aid, student loans, how to turbo your miata while doing the above), feel free to PM me.
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01-14-2015, 01:37 PM
#94
Also I see you added the, "I guess it would help if I knew what an ME actually does on a day to day basis".
For me, I'm not your typical ME. Most are engineers that are involved in design or manufacturing in an office environment, something like that. But not all MEs do this. You can find work as an ME in any sector (energy, transportation, tech, etc) doing an array of different roles.
I work for an oil service company, I'm a MWD field engineer. I travel to remote locations from Louisiana to New Mexico, most in TX, where I rig up and build steering and logging tools that are used downhole to steer and log the well. It's hard work, long hours, but sometimes it's cake/easy money. I work about 280 days/yr. You start out making around 100K/year first year, goes up from there depending on how good you are at your job. My 3rd year with them I made 194K and probably worked 260 days that year, so average of 746/day. Plus per diem and mileage which is tax free, that's another 14-17K/year.
I choose this route (work hard/play hard so to speak) as it's allowing me to do things that would otherwise not be possible for me in my situation at my age.
The answer is, it depends, you can do damn near whatever you want/make as much as you want as an ME, if you're willing to work for it.
For me, I'm not your typical ME. Most are engineers that are involved in design or manufacturing in an office environment, something like that. But not all MEs do this. You can find work as an ME in any sector (energy, transportation, tech, etc) doing an array of different roles.
I work for an oil service company, I'm a MWD field engineer. I travel to remote locations from Louisiana to New Mexico, most in TX, where I rig up and build steering and logging tools that are used downhole to steer and log the well. It's hard work, long hours, but sometimes it's cake/easy money. I work about 280 days/yr. You start out making around 100K/year first year, goes up from there depending on how good you are at your job. My 3rd year with them I made 194K and probably worked 260 days that year, so average of 746/day. Plus per diem and mileage which is tax free, that's another 14-17K/year.
I choose this route (work hard/play hard so to speak) as it's allowing me to do things that would otherwise not be possible for me in my situation at my age.
The answer is, it depends, you can do damn near whatever you want/make as much as you want as an ME, if you're willing to work for it.
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01-14-2015, 06:52 PM
#95
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...
I applied at a state school (MS State University) and to my surprise I was accepted. It sucked, I failed classes, it kicked my ***, I had to study my *** off only to get C's sometimes while others got As and Bs like it was easy. I could have changed majors, given up, done something else. But I WANTED to make it. I failed Calculus 1, 2, 4, should have failed 3 but easy teacher, failed differential equations, religion, barely got D's in Physics 2 and 3, chemistry I think I got a C, somehow. It was rough, I failed weed out classes and watched people drop and go to easier majors. But I made up my mind that I could do it, just had to keep at it. During the beginning of my 3rd year I realized I was the reason I was struggling, and started taking school very serious, made rules I lived by that got me sleeping 8hrs/night, studying every day, working on HW assignments minimum 30 minutes the day it's assigned (to size it up if nothing else). It took 5 years, but I got my ME degree. And it has paid off big time...
I applied at a state school (MS State University) and to my surprise I was accepted. It sucked, I failed classes, it kicked my ***, I had to study my *** off only to get C's sometimes while others got As and Bs like it was easy. I could have changed majors, given up, done something else. But I WANTED to make it. I failed Calculus 1, 2, 4, should have failed 3 but easy teacher, failed differential equations, religion, barely got D's in Physics 2 and 3, chemistry I think I got a C, somehow. It was rough, I failed weed out classes and watched people drop and go to easier majors. But I made up my mind that I could do it, just had to keep at it. During the beginning of my 3rd year I realized I was the reason I was struggling, and started taking school very serious, made rules I lived by that got me sleeping 8hrs/night, studying every day, working on HW assignments minimum 30 minutes the day it's assigned (to size it up if nothing else). It took 5 years, but I got my ME degree. And it has paid off big time...
Makes me want to run an add campaign explaining to kids that an education in something you don't give a crap about is useless.
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01-14-2015, 06:57 PM
#96
Something something you get out of life what you put into it. I was pretty gifted in college cruising through most everything. School was always too easy for me. I had a better gpa in college than highschool because it was more interesting and I gave more of a damn. But even though I was cruising I pushed myself on personal projects and extracurriculars which were way more useful for getting a job when I graduated than the 3.6 gpa. Other engineers are way more interested in the fact that you designed and built a racecar from scratch in 1 school year or put a supercharger on a cavalier just for kicks or that you can actually weld and know how to run a mill than they are about your grade in applications of thermofluid design.
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01-14-2015, 07:47 PM
#97
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Also I see you added the, "I guess it would help if I knew what an ME actually does on a day to day basis".
For me, I'm not your typical ME. Most are engineers that are involved in design or manufacturing in an office environment, something like that. But not all MEs do this. You can find work as an ME in any sector (energy, transportation, tech, etc) doing an array of different roles.
I work for an oil service company, I'm a MWD field engineer. I travel to remote locations from Louisiana to New Mexico, most in TX, where I rig up and build steering and logging tools that are used downhole to steer and log the well. It's hard work, long hours, but sometimes it's cake/easy money. I work about 280 days/yr. You start out making around 100K/year first year, goes up from there depending on how good you are at your job. My 3rd year with them I made 194K and probably worked 260 days that year, so average of 746/day. Plus per diem and mileage which is tax free, that's another 14-17K/year.
I choose this route (work hard/play hard so to speak) as it's allowing me to do things that would otherwise not be possible for me in my situation at my age.
The answer is, it depends, you can do damn near whatever you want/make as much as you want as an ME, if you're willing to work for it.
For me, I'm not your typical ME. Most are engineers that are involved in design or manufacturing in an office environment, something like that. But not all MEs do this. You can find work as an ME in any sector (energy, transportation, tech, etc) doing an array of different roles.
I work for an oil service company, I'm a MWD field engineer. I travel to remote locations from Louisiana to New Mexico, most in TX, where I rig up and build steering and logging tools that are used downhole to steer and log the well. It's hard work, long hours, but sometimes it's cake/easy money. I work about 280 days/yr. You start out making around 100K/year first year, goes up from there depending on how good you are at your job. My 3rd year with them I made 194K and probably worked 260 days that year, so average of 746/day. Plus per diem and mileage which is tax free, that's another 14-17K/year.
I choose this route (work hard/play hard so to speak) as it's allowing me to do things that would otherwise not be possible for me in my situation at my age.
The answer is, it depends, you can do damn near whatever you want/make as much as you want as an ME, if you're willing to work for it.
I've got buddies with Masters in Software Engineering who are studs that don't make that much.
In OK, which has a seriously low cost of living (and surprisingly a lot of stuff to do for here), fresh out of school you're looking in $50-55k range for an ME/MET.
Even petroleum and chemical engineers out of TU don't make that much (I know plenty of them), this guy must have been lucky. It's not typical.
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01-14-2015, 08:33 PM
#98
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Location: Milwaukee, WI
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Something something you get out of life what you put into it. I was pretty gifted in college cruising through most everything. School was always too easy for me. I had a better gpa in college than highschool because it was more interesting and I gave more of a damn. But even though I was cruising I pushed myself on personal projects and extracurriculars which were way more useful for getting a job when I graduated than the 3.6 gpa. Other engineers are way more interested in the fact that you designed and built a racecar from scratch in 1 school year or put a supercharger on a cavalier just for kicks or that you can actually weld and know how to run a mill than they are about your grade in applications of thermofluid design.
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01-14-2015, 09:56 PM
#99
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Sir,
I'm a kid from Mississippi (dumbest state in the country) from a poor family. I finished high school, but it was As, Bs, Cs, I was not a star student by any means, did better in vocational classes. I didn't like to study, or at least wasn't very good at it.
I applied at a state school (MS State University) and to my surprise I was accepted. It sucked, I failed classes, it kicked my ***, I had to study my *** off only to get C's sometimes while others got As and Bs like it was easy. I could have changed majors, given up, done something else. But I WANTED to make it. I failed Calculus 1, 2, 4, should have failed 3 but easy teacher, failed differential equations, religion, barely got D's in Physics 2 and 3, chemistry I think I got a C, somehow. It was rough, I failed weed out classes and watched people drop and go to easier majors. But I made up my mind that I could do it, just had to keep at it. During the beginning of my 3rd year I realized I was the reason I was struggling, and started taking school very serious, made rules I lived by that got me sleeping 8hrs/night, studying every day, working on HW assignments minimum 30 minutes the day it's assigned (to size it up if nothing else). It took 5 years, but I got my ME degree. And it has paid off big time.
If you ever have any questions about anything (ME questions, financial aid, student loans, how to turbo your miata while doing the above), feel free to PM me.
I'm a kid from Mississippi (dumbest state in the country) from a poor family. I finished high school, but it was As, Bs, Cs, I was not a star student by any means, did better in vocational classes. I didn't like to study, or at least wasn't very good at it.
I applied at a state school (MS State University) and to my surprise I was accepted. It sucked, I failed classes, it kicked my ***, I had to study my *** off only to get C's sometimes while others got As and Bs like it was easy. I could have changed majors, given up, done something else. But I WANTED to make it. I failed Calculus 1, 2, 4, should have failed 3 but easy teacher, failed differential equations, religion, barely got D's in Physics 2 and 3, chemistry I think I got a C, somehow. It was rough, I failed weed out classes and watched people drop and go to easier majors. But I made up my mind that I could do it, just had to keep at it. During the beginning of my 3rd year I realized I was the reason I was struggling, and started taking school very serious, made rules I lived by that got me sleeping 8hrs/night, studying every day, working on HW assignments minimum 30 minutes the day it's assigned (to size it up if nothing else). It took 5 years, but I got my ME degree. And it has paid off big time.
If you ever have any questions about anything (ME questions, financial aid, student loans, how to turbo your miata while doing the above), feel free to PM me.
I am terrible at studying.
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01-14-2015, 10:19 PM
#100
I went to school for MET at Purdue for 1 and a half years and I quit because I was inmature and didn't want to study to pass calculus. Instead I went to nursing school and graduated in 3 years. I don't dislike nursing, it is rewarding and fun to work in the emergency room and critical care but I feel like I don't make enough $$$ for busting my rear end. I only make around $50000 per year but I only work 3 12 hour shifts per week. I'm contemplating going back to school and finishing up MET but I'm afraid I will make the same or even less money and have to work more hours. What to do? I would love to do lifeline but I think I would get sick in the helicopters and nursing is just not my passion...
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