OT... I'm at a crossroads, need advice

So here I sit at the computer, its 12:13, 13 minutes after I failed my online physics homework.

I'm majoring in mechanical engineering, never even really gave it a second thought, because I love to build stuff. But I'm wondering now if its right for me. I just completely drift through my statics, cal II, physics II cl***es. It doesn't hold my interest for a second. My drafting cl*** though, thats another story, I actually somewhat enjoy it.

I'm on the Formula SAE team, and absolutely love it. Working in the shop every single day, sometimes until 3am when I have to get up early for school the next day doesn't bother me much, cause I love the welding, and machining parts. I have essentially given up my social life for this racecar, and I'm happy with my decision.

Now, this might be a case of being generally burned out by school and FSAE, but I'm thinking that maybe engineering isn't right for me. I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty smart, I can usually study for an hour or so the night before a test and do decent, but I can't bring myself to do homework or even go to cl*** sometimes.

I really like to draw though, I just never seem to have time for it lately. I'm starting to consider maybe going for art. I haven't talked to my parents about this yet, they might freak, and my Dad could very well read this post.

I'm just looking for some advice here... am I a burnt out college kid or am I heading down the wrong path? I think what makes the desicion hard is that I'm invisioning life as a starving artist right after school when I could have been pulling down 45k my first year as an engineer. But on the other hand I don't want to be stuck with a job I hate.

Oh, and sorry for the OT

-Eric

 

Eric bro, stick it out. Once you are through the cl***es you can do what you like. I see you as an engineer fro a race team? The extra money will make it easier. Hell, what am I saying, dont read my 32,3,4, post! I have always done what I felt like. Enjoy the hell out of life, worked jobs that many envy. THat said, I want to go back to building houses for a decade and be debt free by the time I am 45. Not hard to do, just gotta plan.

Thats the trick for happiness, keep the debt low. Whatever you pick for a career.

 

They're so cute when they're naive.


Unless you're gonna become a **** star, and let's face it, you are not going to be a **** star, you will most likely grow to hate what you are doing sooner or later.

It reall boils down to two choices.

Stay in school, get a degree you will probably never use and get a halfway decent job that you may learn to tolerate once the medication takes effect.

Or.

Drop out of school get a halfway decent job that doesn't quite pay enough to afford the needed medication, bust your *** doing that job just so some complete ****ing ***** who knows nothing about it can move into the spot that is rightfully yours, simply because he stayed in school and got that piece of paper. Don't forget that part of your job now will be saving his *** from the chopping block so they don't decide to "clean house".

Actually, you should shut up, stay in school and enjoy it while you can.

Did that help?

I'm here to help.

RASHY

 

I would suggest you consider something between the 2 extremes.

The Starving Artist phase can last a LONG time.
And I imagine most Engineering jobs are like watching paint dry,or worse.

If you any good with hands on,maybe that the direction to look.
R&D,prototypes,CNC programming,etc.

ALL engineers should have a signifigant amount of practical experience
and be able to demonstrate a certain amount of hands on skill,before getting their papers.As it is,most of them have no idea how things are made.

How far along are you in this deal ?

 

Hell, go the **** route, you already have the name FLEXI-****ER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I don't hate what I do,it's just that I hate working for bullies,and idiots who seem to think money and position somehow make them special.

 

Don't go for Art...whatever you do.

A fine art degree is about as worthless as ***s on a boar hog.

An industrial design degree....or a graphic design degree might net some bucks for you.

But Fine Art is **** for the birds. The problem with the university system when it comes to FINE ART is that your professors are holding the very JOBS you are being trained to aquire. They don't help you figure out how to make an actual living after school. Its all ******* and moaning over abstract do dads and this that and the other..... But when it comes down to it, your professors will do anything they can to NOT help you. Its all a big *** kissing festival and it drove me to drinking. I spent the last year of grad school DRUNK. I'd drink before school in the morning. Oddly enough, the more of an ***hole I became, the better I did. When I wanted help and acted the least bit insecure, I got ****ed. They jumped on me like a pack of ****ing wolves.... When I was a loud ***hole and telling them HOW IT WAS....they kissed my ***....
What a bunch of FAKE **** heads.

All my professors were full of ****. (except for Pat Renick and Terry Corbin you two rocked the house)

It didn't help that NONE of them knew who the **** Ed Roth or even Robert Williams was.

Dumb***es...

(I'm not bitter am I?)

 

Well, I'm in the middle of my second semester now, done with english, almost done with history, and done with the "intro" engineering stuff, moving into the harder stuff now. I'm fairly decent at math, like sleeping through highschool calculus and getting a 4 out of 5 on the AP (advanced placement) exam which got me out of Cal I. that doesn't mean I like it though, in fact, I hate it.

I'm talking with Mel right now and she suggested Industrial Design, which sounds wonderful, I'm looking into it now.

 

I know exactly how you feel. I am a senior mechanical engineering student. I question myself quite often, usually about 4 in the morning when I am not even close to being done for the night. My advice, stick it out. You have gotten this far and can pretty much write your own ticket when you graduate. I also get burnt out quickly with the thermos, dynamics, and other cl***es. I have thought long and hard (its too late for me now) about switching to Industrial engineering or even manufacturing engineering because like you I love to be in the machine shop or welding things rather than sitting in front of a computer doing pro-e work. What SAE car are you on. I have had the opportunity to do both the formula and mini-baja cars. We will be competing in the midwest compe***ion again this year. Hang in there and whatever you do, DONT GO ART!! Think of all those people your professors and other students make fun of, and dont be one of them.

 

Don't get me ****ing wrong PapaSmurf. I'm proud as hell to call myself an artist. I wouldn't be some golf playing homo of an ENGINEER if my life depended on it. Most engineers that I know don't know **** about actually building anything.

Don't make fun of artists around me.

I'll stomp your engineer ***.

Its the University system that is ****ed.
ARTISTS RULE. Being an artist is the best thing on earth. NOTHING and I mean NOTHING beats the feeling of creating a really cool work of art. NO DRUG on earth can beat it.

 

Hang in there, Dude! I know how it feels. I always wanted to design cars but my drawings were usually pretty ****py. So my only option was engineering. I prefer hands-on learning. I hated sitting in cl***es, unless the professor was really interesting and talking about cars. I've been told that I may be a "kinesthetic" (sp?) learner. The only way I survived some cl***es was to figure out how to make it relate to cars.

Also, I was in the Co-op program and every other quarter I was working as an engineering intern. It was a fantastic break from cl***es (and a great way to pay for them). After finals I really enjoyed working. Near the end of the work time, I was anxious to get back to cl***.

Up front let me share something my dad told me. **Learn a marketable skill first, then have fun with your hobbies.** My advice would be to get your MechEng degree and have drawing as your hobby. Take plenty of drawing cl***es along the way (I wish I'd done more of that.).

On to making your cl***es more interesting...
Physics is probably the easiest. With a good understanding of the Bernouli (sp?) and a few other fluid mechanics principles, you can design a carburetor, or jet one more intelligently. F=ma for your acceleration. Friction relates to tire traction. Circuits helps you understand wiring. All of this is solidly connected to cars.

Calc is one of those PITA things that makes you think better by stretching your brain. There were many times when I absolutely hated it, but it comes in handy if you want to calculate the inertia of a complicated flywheel shape or something like that. Take the derivative of position and it's velocity. Take the derivative of velocity and it's acceleration. It's all good. I fully understand the drifting thing.

Physics and calc form the foundations to everything in engineering. If you buckle down and really learn those, the rest is a piece of cake. And the further you go, the more fun it gets. I'm not saying that you should become a perpetual student like I did. I hung around long enough for them to give me a PhD. As part of my dissertation I designed a digital fuel injection system and then used it to optimize a natural gas engine.

I put off building a hot rod because of engineering school. Now is the time to build it. That's why I'm here on the HAMB.

Good luck with your studies and with your decision.
And please PM me if you have other questions.

 

Half way through the second semester.....how many more until your done ?

And remember,this **** gets tougher as you go.

 

Eric, hang in there man. You've got alot of potential and a good head on your shoulders. You've got all those tools and toys at your disposal...so learn everything you can. Take it all in. Stick with the FSAE stuff, those little cars are so damned cool, I'm glad you let me check them out. With the knowledge you gain, hands on experience, and your hobbies, you should be able to combine them and find yourself doing something you really love for a living. Just be glad you're one of the lucky ones to go to college. Here I am, 26 yrs old and lost. I never went to college, mainly due to my stubborness. Even though I've worked so many jobs in so many different industries, and have alot of hands on experience, and certifications...those aren't worth a **** without a degree. Now that I look back, I wish I would have went right after high school. I can always go get a 2yr. degree in Computerized Robotics & Instrumentation, then work at the refineries, raking in $60k+/yr., but that's not what I'm looking for.

Anyhow...tough it out, it'll pay off in the end.

 

sent you a pm

 

Quite possibly the worst thing I've ever done was think I should be an electrical engineer. I was good at it, and someone told me there was money to be made. I don't have a degree yet, but that didn't stop me from working in the industry. So I got a job as a control engineer.....

And now I work in a 54 story building, working on retrofitting the HVAC control system. I play with some neat stuff, 200 HP 3 phase motors we use to push air around, fire control systems, air ducts big enough to drive a truck through. I don't use this word very often, but my job is retarded. It is ****ing the life out of me. The things i get to play with are cool and all, but it's just retarded. I don't get to build or design things, I ***emble things to someone else's specs, or provide equipment to meet specs.

I think a lot of engineering jobs are like this, you end up finding ways to test hard drives or find ways to save 2 cents on a 51 cent IC.

BUT, that doesn't mean i don't think you are on the right track with all that education in engineering. After taking all these physics, chem, math and so on, I'd say that everyone should take them. These are the studies of the world around us. Math is the language with which the world speaks to us. Its about understanding the world around us.

The education behind engineering is a wonderful thing, but it is completely wasted in industry. The pursuit of money is a waste of an education. if you want money, go rob a bank or play the stock market. Get the education, but don't waste your time making money with it. David

 

I'm a civil engineer. I worked through school so didn't feel I had a lot of time to mess with the BS courses. Consequently, I spent every other quarter on probation, and went into my senior year with a 1.7. PI pulled A's once I got to the core studies as it was something I liked. I'm 51 and still haven't used Calculus. I wonder why I took Calculus I three times. Truth be told, it's only been in the last ten years I've been forced to do engineering as I always managed projects. And while I can't fall back on the college learning, since there was a lot of theory and not much practical, I did learn how to seek answers. Hang in there. It's a career that will never stop testing your limits.

 

Rashy, you missed your calling....can you say Guidance Counsoller.-MIKE

 

I've had to ask myself similar questions, Flexi. In high school I spent all four years focused on my math, science and drafting cl***es, my plan being to become either an engineer or an architect. Out of high school I didn't have the bread to go to a decent college, and after spending some time focused on getting the cash for school, I realized I was making myself miserable so that I could get an education in something that would continue to make me miserable. The suit and tie, numbers and diagrams world of engineering just wasn't for me. I loved my drafting cl***es, but I usually had trouble staying awake through math and science. I think Unkl Ian hit the nail on the head by saying that you should find something that's a good combination of the two, like graphic or industrial design. I love art, but most of the time an art degree is about as useful as toilet paper. Find something where you can have some creative freedon and still afford to eat. Right now I'm looking into finally going back to school and studying graphic design, and possibly some CNC stuff. Hopefully that will be a better fit for me.

Go for something you think you'll enjoy, but don't forget the practical side of things.

I laughed out loud when I read that. Too funny.

 

I started out in Manufacturing Engineering, and it ****ed. thought since I was into cars and mechanical ****, it would be cool. Didn't like the direction it was going....

Will I have to be in school longer now? Yes...for what? I still don't know...

I'm in undeclared Business right now. I can't stand school, I hate going to cl***es (except the interaction with all the fine *****es), and I hate homework. I screwed up quite a bit my first few semesters, and now all I'm doing is retaking failed and low grade courses to get my GPA back up. I wasn't eligible for financial aid anymore because of my grades, so I just worked last semester. It was enjoyable, being able to work and make money, not having to worry about cl***, or studying....but I sure as **** don't want to change oil for a living for the rest of my life. I went back this semester to try it again....and decide if I want to stay or move on to a different form of education.

If I could make money by being out in a garage working on cool ****, I would...but thats not always possible. So quit screwing around, and either stick it out or find the next best alternative.

Hmm....maybe I should listen to myself?

 

Flexi, I guess I'm about to remove all doubt about the question of my sanity right here. I say no matter which path you choose become familiar with the concept that you will become someone else's leverage unless you make a concious decision otherwise. Take it from a guy who has been through corporate trivals, you will always be left wanting and wishing UNLESS you avoid the traps that lie before you. By no means am I suggesting that you quit engineering school, stick it out and get the degree, that is wonderful. But for God's sake don't get out of school and celebrate by getting yourself into "bad" debt. Get yourself into "good" debt as soon as you can. Establish a steady income and get into good debt as soon as possible. What is good debt versus bad debt you may ask??? Bad debt is a car a boat or something which takes money FROM you. Good debt on the other hand is something that works hard to give money BACK TO you like an income producing property. It's funny that when you go to a bank for a loan and they ask you what are your "***ets" to be used for collateral most of the time these things are cars or boats or bikes, the very things that cost you money. I say an ***et is something that PAYS you back.

Here's the part that kills me. The first two years of college are general education right? (I attended a JC for two years right out of highschool) Well is there any mention whatsoever about personal economics? Do they teach you how the tax codes work? Is any time spent on how to invest all that money you're supposedly going to make once someone gets that Master's or PHD??? I'm gonna stop preaching but I warn you, no matter what career path you choose learn to make money work for you and not just you working for it.

 

Flexi: I work as an advisor in Civil & Environmental Engineering here at USF, so I've spoken to guys like you a ton. The first 2 years are built to break you. We have to have some way of finding out who has got the goods and Calc & Physics are the first major hurdle. Intro cl***es are the second phase (Statics, Dynamics, Thermo, etc.). If you can get past those, you'll be into things you really like including design and manufacturing (since you're ME).

My brother finished up his BSME a couple of years ago and almost lost the faith, but he's working in design now building million dollar food packaging machines. He gets to play with the best metalworking tools in the world all in the name of trying to solve the latest problem. He's picked up a TON of manufacturing experience as well including how to use lathes, mills, hydraulics, servos, PLCs....

The advice I give to all young guys who are feeling crushed is this:

1. Anything worth having is worth working for. If it was easy, everybody would do it. Sometimes you just have to **** it up for a semester or two.

2. Jobs can range from project manager to hands-on ***embly to design and create. You can find the job you want. Bottom line is, you can't even think about deciding for yourself without your diploma.

3. SAVE SOME OF YOUR NON-TECH ELECTIVES FOR JUNIOR/SENIOR YEAR. Don't blow through the liberal arts portion of the curriculum too early. Save some of those cl***es for later to sprinkle in when things get tough. Added bonus is the aforementioned contact with females which you'll be missing badly.

Now, if you decide to go another route, that's cool too. You're going to work the rest of your life, so don't be in a rush to get out and start that process. Spend some time figuring out what it is you want out of life. Then go get the papers that give you the best opportunity to make that happen.

 

I'm a high school graguate...I engineer things every single day... better than most.
If I had an engineering degree, I'd own the ****ing world.

Leave the shop early and put your time into learning.
The big money doesn't come looking for guys like me.

Make a success of yourself, THEN... find the enjoyment.
I did it backwards.

The test you failed seems to have you thinking... which might mean you learned something.
Do twice as good next time...


JOE

 

I can't say that I would kill for a shot at going to College, but I'd consider it. I've been at the same place for 16 years. Started right out of high school. When I started i thought I was gonna be rich! 16 years later, I'm living pay check to paycheck, just like everyone else I guess.

Stay in school. Finish your engineering degree then play around with art.

 

Flexi. I went through the same thing about 20 years ago. My dad taught me how to stick weld when i was about 12 years old. He was the first maint. man ever hired At Monsanto here locally when they opened as a pipefitter with all the certification you could get. I was taugh by the best there was. By the time i hit high school i was a natural straight A's in welding, machine shop, and shop math. All the free periods i was in the welding shop burning metal. Hell the teacher even let me help out with the younger cl***es teaching them. The best part we had to make a project for final grade. Dad hade salvaged a bunch of Stainless Steel bar stock from work and i wanted some kick *** ladder bars for my 56 chevy. I showed him the plans and was told NO! The teacher had never welded S.S. before so i couldn't do my project. I had done lots at home in the past. I ended up doing it and teaching my teacher how to weld S.S. Aint that all ****ed up!

Any way plan was to get my Cert. in JC in welding and ind. Maint. and go to work with dad. The firdt day of welding i needed to show my skill to the teacher since i had lots of experience. I out welded the jc teacher all the way around and skipped the first semester and half.After all the cl*** time with one quarter to go to haveing everthing i needed i quit. Dad me the plant manager all went to the personel dept. to talk about me getting a job when i was done in a few weeks. NO go it went by seniority not skill. I would have retired before getting the chance do what i trained for. I could have welded circles around half the guys they had. As i said earlier i quit, i never went back to school after that day. Went and got a job with a well driller and that ****ed! But twenty years latter i own my own business doing lawn sprinkler systems going on 13 years this spring. Never in my dreams did i imagine this. Simply because i took a job for some income and worked in the field everyday hands on and got some experiece and ran with it.

If you can get hands on somewhere you will go farther quicker and you can move in the direction you want to as you go.

 

Hang in there man.
Maybe you would be happier with an APPLIED based Engineering degree rather than a theoretical degree... like Mechanical Engineering Technology rather than just Mechanical Engineering (still a bachelor degree, pays the same). The MET, EET (electrical)...ect. degrees offer much more hands-on experience than the straight up ME... you sound like you want to learn how to design and build ****... MET, EET is for you.

Dude, 3-4 years ago I was saying exactly the same thing. Now that I got my MET degree, it’s freakin sweet, I don’t regret a thing, neither will you.

Bottom line: don't let those **** professors break you. enjoy your time in college. hump every hot chick within 20 miles.

 

Keep your day job!

Most of us work a job we love, tolerate or hate just so we can go home and enjoy the things we love.

Get the degree, get a job using it, do what you love on the side. When the door of opportunity opens for what you love, walk in. You'll always have the degree to fall back on......

It may seem like it now, but a couple of years of sacrifice, now, will seem like two minutes worth of effort once you're older.

However, the bottom line is do what YOU think is right for you.

just my two cents....

 

Flexicoker - **** it up man. I've been right where you're at. I graduated an M.E. and there was a point where I thought - holy ****, I am never going to make it. It ****s. You don't need the homework percentage anyway if you can study and do well on the tests. I never much of any homework, and the homework I did was all wrong.

When I was a freshman, I looked at the starting salaries and picked the major that paid the highest salary that I thought I could get through and that I would be interested in. Mechanical was a natural because I love cars and working on stuff.

That was my Freshman decsision. Mechanical Engineering curriculum is only partially mechanical in the sense of turning bolts. You're machine design and Junior design project will be cool like that. I agree with everbody in here - most engineer's don't know **** and there are some that think their **** don't stink when they can't even identify a phillips head screw driver or a crank shaft. Ask one of them to build something and they are lost beyond concept. I know guys liie that. Nothing replaces hands on experience when it comes to existing mechanics.

I took a cl*** called farm shop in the Agricultural depart ment as an elective to break the monontany. This cl*** was cool - we actually learned to stick, and mig weld, run a oxy act. torch. Use grinders. Just basic metal fab shop stuff. It was awesome. I kept welding everybodies eyebolt and screw driver projects into little statues for shelf art.

I think third year was the worst. The Thermo and fluids courses are tuff, the dynamics course will twist your brain, the third physics about nulcear **** is unecessary for anybody except physics teachers. The materials cl*** is cool, but who needs to know the molecular ********. Once you get to your senior year - it eases up considerably. You have some rough lab reports to write but all in all - it is a cake walk.

College is about completion. Universities have set up programs that make you jump through a bunch of hoops. You are not going to remember a third of the detailed things you learned. You will be able to ring up lots of concepts if you need them - but not the details. So don't get bogged down with the idea - "I'll never use this" ********. You won't. I took a whole cl*** on thermo stuff and couldn't really explain correctly off the top of my head how an air conditioner works - but I know I can get the book and figure it out quick, so I don't bother to remember it.

I work in construction management and don't use engineering at all. I do rely on my mechanical backround all the time because I like it. I know the theory why cooling steel quickly makes it brittle. I know what stress is. I can apply that to everything we build or the parts on the equipment. Whatever. I like that, that why I went through engineering.

Some majors have tougher hoops to get through and the pay scale goes accordingly. People that jump through the harder hoops and stick with is usually suceed or jump through what ever other hoops life throws at them.

It isn't all about the money, but money helps. I'll shovel **** for my job for the right money so I can afford to do what I enjoy and have what I want on my off time.

I don't think anybody can do exactly what they love all the time. Then what you love becomes a job and not fun.

I have buddies that got 4 year degrees in history or a social science major. They started hourly or in real low paying postions. One guy I graduated with had to wait tables at night to pay his bills on top of his day job at Wachovia. It has taken these guys 10 years to get on their feet with a decent salary.

You're lucky enough to be in school, You've got 4 or 5 years to to get a degree, you might as well get the degree that will pay you the most, even if it ****s. Believe me, drafting courses are boring.

You can always take a drafting job or any other type of job with an engineering degree. You can't go the other way.

 

The think about work is that it's hard and that's why people pay you to do it.

Stick with it, get as much co-op/intern experience as you can as early as you can. The farther you get in school, the more applicable the cl***es get. The stuff you're doing now is foundation for what you'll do later.

I'm 13 years out of school designing custom industrial equipment. Nice place to be for a guy that likes to invent things. I started in manufacturing, partly because there's more jobs in that area, didn't like it, and worked my way into design. That background gives me a much deeper understanding of what my customers need than a lot of design guys have.

Do I use calculus every day? No, but I wouldn't have the same grasp of the stuff that comes later without it. That's why derivations are so important. You're never going to remember x formula, but you will remember how to re-create it. It's not so much knowing things as knowing how to learn things.
Yoru career is a project in itself. It is not and should not be static. The job you get out of school may not be the job of your dreams, but it might be one step away. Your dream job will likely change as your career grows and you want to make sure that you don't set yourself up in a dead end.

Someone else suggested an applied engineering degree. Based on my experience in the field, it is not treated the same as a BSME and will not get you as far - may not even get you a job as an engineer. My company will hire a guy as an engineering technician, but not as an engineer if you don't have at least a BSME. If you really want to be a tech, you can also do that with a BSME and many new grads do when the market is tight.

My $.05, YMMV. I hope I've been helpful, PM me if you like.

Chris

 

Yep.

 

i suggest to anyone in the world, going to college or being in highschool right before college.

think of the things you'd like to do ...


go to monster.com/careerbuilders.com etc, and see what they want.

This is what you'll see


4+ years industry experiance
6-10 years experiance
2-4 years experiance

B.S degree in __________ or equivalent experiance.


honestly, the degree is a piece of ****. The experiance is where it's at. Get a good co-op program. With out hands on real world ********, they won't even look at you.

Every job ****s, just get a good hobby, and make sure there's an internet connection in your office , and you should be set