Engineers, What do you actually do at work?

[willcoop]

is there some secret magical resource for finding internships?  only thingi know of is craigslist and my school, neither of which have anything to offer..

Try Boeing Portland they are always hiring interns, or PCC.

[Copper280z]

I found mine through school. I also did a lot of cold calling. My school requires a year of co-op/internship.

[TheTransporter88]

I'm an Electrical Engineer, I design power distribution for buildings that i can't tallk about  But i usually wear three hats when I'm in the office.

#1 - I.T. back-up support/Revit and AutoCad back-up support
#2 - Design Engineer I
#3 - I was enrolled in a Engineering Development Training program (EDT) where i basically take classes

This is not the field of EE I was looking to get into (I'm into robotics and microcontrollers) but it's a job and I'm working! Looking to get into another field of EE, after my state exams. With that said, I got this job through people I knew. So my advice is to go to all the eng. conventions, like IEEE and what not and NETWORK!!! In this economy if you’re not super smart and have a resume with all the top schools listed, you need to know someone. Point and case in my company they needed to hire someone for a position. It was open but not advertized because they already had someone in mind for that position. In this day and age Ethics runs short and far in-between. I got a lot of job offers because I was willing to do things others wouldn't, i.e. live abroad somewhere like in Pakistan (LOL I turned that one down).

Work the system!

www.linkedin.com
www.usajobs.com
www.aerotek.com

[BlackSeven]

I am a Software Engineer.
I write/design software security releases for military communications systems.

Oh, and I'm a highschool drop out. (Seriously, got my GED too.)

[Jordan Innovations]

Very interesting thread!  I've been an engineer at heart since I was a kid playing with Legos/etc.

I'm an Information and Computer Science major (which doesn't even exist at UC Irvine anymore, go figure), which had a fair amount of electrical engineering in there but my main focus was data structures and optimization. 

Then I joined the Navy hoping to be a nuclear engineer (shout out to Westinghouse) and launched planes off the roof of a carrier for a minute before becoming an Aircraft Electronics Technician (lots of equivalent civilian jobs to that), where you had to have a pretty solid EE background to keep your test bench working and just know a little to do the actual job/testing lol.

Then I worked for a marketing company engineering ways to make some other people rich.  That sucked.

Then I opened up shop doing Mil-spec/aerospace-grade wiring and electronics for race cars and consulting with product liability law firms. If you're an entrepreneur at heart, an engineering degree/background is VERY versatile and respected, moreso than a business degree in my opinion.  When people ask about my credentials no one questions my findings/opinions, and all you have to do to keep that respect is NEVER BE WRONG, ever.  It's cake

[largeorangefont]

I went to school for mechanical engineering and at the time worked for a hobby importer (R/C cars, planes, helicopters, etc.) doing warranty assessment. I then got into the computer systems engineering field at a mortgage company and ended up not finishing the ME degree.

Now I work for a datastorage/software company as a solutions architect and service consultant. It is a partial sales, partial engineering role. It is an awesome job with an excellent work/life balance, and the pay and benefits are great.

[WAT TURBO?]

I do some software design/testing for military stuff  But im going to school for my ME right now, go figure.  Engineering degrees are very versatile. I know guys with civil degrees that actually sit at a desk and design bridges all day (typical/cliche engineering job). My dad on the other hand owns 2 engineering firms and does very little "engineering". Technically he is still an engineer though. If you are considering changing majors STICK WITH IT!!!!. It will pay off!

I have always wondered how many engineers were on this forum.

[GregD]

My degree is in Mechanical but it seems my job(s) have been anything but mechanical in nature.  I did 3-d modeling, software, tech writing... but most of my jobs have had something to do with system integration.  In fact, when I interviewed for my current job I told them "if I can put a Corvette engine in a Mazda I can integrate anything you throw at me and make it work"

[theantirotor]

What do enginerds actually do at work?  Nothing good.






 

[Copper280z]

I was going to bump this thread, so good timing. After a month, I haven't had to, or been offered to, do anything that someone with a highschool diploma couldn't do. Mostly just doing simple, repetitive, boring tests on a group of parts. Occasionally put the data into excel and plot a trend line. I'm pretty disappointed, I don't feel like I'm learning anything at all, and that is supposed to be the point of this internship. The pay isn't really good enough to make me want to overlook these issues either, between 3 and 7 $/h lower than others with similar gpa/experience are normally paid.

I'm otta here asap.