Engineering?

skier

skier

Line Up and Wait
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Display name:
Skier
I was recently looking for a new job and blown away by how many different things there are for engineers to work on. Everyone knows about cars, bridges, airplanes, buildings, etc. But there are so many industries/products out there that I never would have thought of. Here are some of the more interesting ones that I found during my job search and had never really thought of:
- belting systems for vacuums and other consumer products
- designing/manufacturing custom box making machines
- Thule (racks for cars among other products)
- Optics for lasers
- door hardware (it's pretty complicated stuff when you start getting into commercial doors)
- bearings (there are tons of different styles, types, etc.)
- seals (like bearings, if you've never thought about it you'd be surprised by how many different things need to be sealed and how many different ways people have thought to do it)
- pumps
- valves
- hot tubs
- elevators
- tupperware (I was at a training class where I met someone doing FEA work for them)

What are some of the more unique ones you guys have seen?
 
My father was a chemist (Phd). He encouraged his 6 sons to get engineering degrees because they'll allows be employable. (4 listened, I didn't)

I once asked him the difference between a chemist and a chemical engineer. He said, "I invent things, they find ways to duplicate them in great numbers."
 
Since my graduation with an Aero-Eng degree and after a stint in the Marines, I have always been building rockets of one kind or another for NASA or Missile Defense. My best friend however: designed the hinge for the swing wing on the B-1, helped design rockets with me, designed enclosures for electronic switches, designed racing sailboats and is now finishing up a design of a tug boat for Lake Erie.
 
My first two years were working on machinery to make saran wrap and dry cleaning bags.

My weirdest two years included doing organ transplants on pigs.

My best-paid two years have been doing damn near nothing.
 
scottfromboston said:
My best-paid two years have been doing damn near nothing.
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Pointy-haired_Boss.png
 
The entire power generating industry. The weirdest project I worked on was when the environmentists declared some fish species endangered. Their little babies were being sucked into the intake pipe to the cooling water system. We had to design a screening system to keep them from being sucked into the pipe, the screens had to rotate up and be washed with a gentle spray to move them off and then we built a long slide that would wash them hundreds of feet away and into a calm pool far from the pull of the intake. Months of design, tons of money, and then we were on site during installation. On startup day we watched as the system worked perfectly. The little fishes were saved from being sucked into the pipe, safely washed off the screens and sent to their pool where - flocks of birds began circling and picking them off.
 
I was an engineer who worked to develop a process to drill very small holes (125 microns) into stainless steel very accurately ( 1 micron on diameter and concentricity), great times seems like ages ago. My son is an engineer now and I'm blown away by how much he is making 5 years out of college.
 
I’ve been a designer on lots of cool programs, but one of the most offbeat projects was a powered human exoskeleton.

 
Ravioli said:
My father was a chemist (Phd). He encouraged his 6 sons to get engineering degrees because they'll allows be employable. (4 listened, I didn't)

I once asked him the difference between a chemist and a chemical engineer. He said, "I invent things, they find ways to duplicate them in great numbers."
Click to expand...
My daughter switched from Engineering to Chemistry for her undergrad. With just a 4 year degree - the starting salary for a chemistry degree vs a chemical engineering degree is dramatically lower - about $25 k per year lower in this area. She ended up going into the medical field. The chemistry degree ended up being a good foundation- but as a stand alone 4 year degree - I would advise against it.
I am on the tail end of an Engineering career and despite plant closings, leveraged buyouts and other events out of my control, I have always been able to earn a good living. It is a good field. Learn everything you can wherever you are at. @skier - good luck with your career.
 
Worked on the design of an automated crankshaft manufacturing line. Raw forging in one end, finished crank out the other.

Had an opportunity to work on designing a Pampers production line but passed up that opportunity to develop Aircraft for the USAF.

Cheers
 
Ravioli said:
I once asked him the difference between a chemist and a chemical engineer. He said, "I invent things, they find ways to duplicate them in great numbers."
Click to expand...

I prefer another description. “Scientists invent things, Engineers make them useful.”

Cheers
 
Uncle is a structural engineer, father-in-law civil engineer, brother-in-law mechanical engineer, myself also a mechanical engineer. Compared to other members of the family, we seem to have the easiest time finding jobs that are worth doing and pay a reasonable amount for the time. I am hoping that my daughter and son also see the light and become engineers. I can already tell my daughter has a much easier time picking up math and struggles with spelling and reading. Son not sure yet, he loves excavatorso_O.
 
I'm a late 1970s Mech Eng grad. 41 years in the energy business in North America, Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. I've had responsibilities ranging from drilling and completions, pipelining, constructing & operating processing facilities through to negotiating commercial contracts with some of the largest National oil companies in the world.

Having an engineering degree opened up a lot of opportunities. For a kid from a pretty poor working class district it's been a good run. Of the six boys in my family (alas, no sisters) three of us have engineering degrees.
 
Working with underground mining equipment for the last 30 years or so. Mainly with drills, bolters and remote controlled loaders. Fun, dirty, hard work.
 
I have a Computer Science degree but my titles have always included Engineer until I hit the Architect level and now as Chief Technology Officer. It’s been an excellent run!
 
X3 Skier said:
I prefer another description. “Scientists invent things, Engineers make them useful.”

Cheers
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Better yet - “Scientists discover. Engineers invent.”

Purely speaking, science is the discipline that investigates natural phenomena and establishes the laws by which nature works. Engineering is the discipline that makes use of the science to create new devices, products, and processes.

There is considerable overlap, of course, and many times scientists and engineers do similar things, but overall there is a difference in focus.
 
jsstevens said:
I have a Computer Science degree but my titles have always included Engineer until I hit the Architect level and now as Chief Technology Officer. It’s been an excellent run!
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When I was doing stuff for the DoD, I had them change "primary software engineer" on my title to simply "programmer". I liked the old school title better (even though I ran the project.) I got burned out doing that stuff, always to very hard deadlines (such as Y2K!) So now I run a company that does stuff for the aerospace industry, to hard deadlines. Doh!
Oh, the degree ... never finished college (where I was studying commercial art, for Pete's sake), as I was too busy drinking and working in a motorcycle shop.
 
Half Fast said:
Better yet - “Scientists discover. Engineers invent.”

Purely speaking, science is the discipline that investigates natural phenomena and establishes the laws by which nature works. Engineering is the discipline that makes use of the science to create new devices, products, and processes.

There is considerable overlap, of course, and many times scientists and engineers do similar things, but overall there is a difference in focus.
Click to expand...

+1

Engineering (and parts of some other professions including nursing and medicine) are Applied Science. That was the faculty name under which the various engineering schools were organized at my alma mater, and exactly how the description on my Mech Eng degree starts out.
 
I worked for about twelve years for a company that designs and builds automated semiconductor wafer inspection equipment (which are VERY expensive products).
 
If I worked in my undergrad field, I would be designing weapons. But, I am licensed to design targets.
 
Lachlan said:
Trains.
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I was sitting on a Philadelphia light rail train for about 10 min the other night-- just sitting, and no movement. It had just pulled into the downtown station. I finally got up (because the sheeple were just waiting) and asked a "conductor" what the story was.

"We're waiting for an engineer."

"Uh, lady, we're waiting for a train driver. I'm an engineer, and I have the diploma to prove it."
 
Palmpilot said:
I worked for about twelve years for a company that designs and builds automated semiconductor wafer inspection equipment (which are VERY expensive products).
Click to expand...
58a48590e555c.jpg
 
Rushie said:
The entire power generating industry. The weirdest project I worked on was when the environmentists declared some fish species endangered. Their little babies were being sucked into the intake pipe to the cooling water system. We had to design a screening system to keep them from being sucked into the pipe, the screens had to rotate up and be washed with a gentle spray to move them off and then we built a long slide that would wash them hundreds of feet away and into a calm pool far from the pull of the intake. Months of design, tons of money, and then we were on site during installation. On startup day we watched as the system worked perfectly. The little fishes were saved from being sucked into the pipe, safely washed off the screens and sent to their pool where - flocks of birds began circling and picking them off.
Click to expand...

Brunswick Plant in NC?
 
I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main roads
Searching in the sun for another overload
I hear you singing in the wires
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the line

I know I need a small vacation
But it don't look like rain
And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain
And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the line
 
nauga said:
hero.jpg


Nauga,
running into the wind
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A couple of good friends worked on those same kites. One is still there.

Whacky project.

Scott
who knows that software companies should stay away from hardware
 
Rushie said:
The entire power generating industry. The weirdest project I worked on was when the environmentists declared some fish species endangered. Their little babies were being sucked into the intake pipe to the cooling water system. We had to design a screening system to keep them from being sucked into the pipe, the screens had to rotate up and be washed with a gentle spray to move them off and then we built a long slide that would wash them hundreds of feet away and into a calm pool far from the pull of the intake. Months of design, tons of money, and then we were on site during installation. On startup day we watched as the system worked perfectly. The little fishes were saved from being sucked into the pipe, safely washed off the screens and sent to their pool where - flocks of birds began circling and picking them off.
Click to expand...
Weird but not unusual. I designed the fish-handling band screens for Cooper Nuclear Station. Fish handling wasnt hooked up at the time but was for expected future Regulatory mandate. I wonder if they ever hooked it up.
 
jaymark6655 said:
Uncle is a structural engineer, father-in-law civil engineer, brother-in-law mechanical engineer, myself also a mechanical engineer. Compared to other members of the family, we seem to have the easiest time finding jobs that are worth doing and pay a reasonable amount for the time. I am hoping that my daughter and son also see the light and become engineers. I can already tell my daughter has a much easier time picking up math and struggles with spelling and reading. Son not sure yet, he loves excavatorso_O.
Click to expand...

It runs in our family too. My grandfather was a civil engineer, it skipped a generation with my Dad. My brother is a chemical engineer, I'm a mechanical, I married a mechanical and our daughters both married engineers although neither of them went into engineering themselves. They both tried though. The eldest, the only member of our family who is an extrovert, decided she couldn't handle life in a cube so she went into nursing. The younger got frustrated with the math and ended up with a liberal arts degree but now she does data analysis in a cube which suits her perfectly.

Our grandson loves excavators, and backhoes, and tractors and trains and buses and airplanes and rockets. He's only two but we're thinking he's sure to be an engineer. The first time he was shown a jack in the box, he watched as someone cranked it and it popped open. Then it was his turn. But instead of turning the crank, he went straight for the little catch in the trapdoor and manipulated it open. That kid is gonna be an engineer!
 
paflyer said:
"Uh, lady, we're waiting for a train driver. I'm an engineer, and I have the diploma to prove it."
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I was at a dinner party once, and found out the guy sitting next to me was the director of a marching band. I announced the train could now leave, since we had an engineer and a conductor.

40 years as an engineer in the space industry, developing, testing, and operating satellites. Got a 17-0-2 record...Seventeen successes, no failures, two still waiting for launch.

Ron Wanttaja
 
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