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Skeezix nailed it - especially about how he recruits engineers. Every top notch firm I've recruited for made their hiring decisions pretty much the same way.

Last edited by BlackHunter; 07/24/14.

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My oldest has several AS degrees and is one or two classes short of a BS in Electrical. His AutoCAD and Industrial Automation is whats putting food on his table. He's been in school long enough to have earned a PhD by now but switched from Petrolium to Electrical after spending some quality time in West Texas. He said,"oily rocks & Rock Heads isn't my bag."
He's been full time employed for the last four years with different businesses from Eng. to Tech Services but is making $34hr. last he mentioned it. His income could close to double with the full degree though.


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More than anything it depends upon the capacity of your son. A full BS in engineering requires much more that that of a tech school, associate degrees and the like. Much, much more. I am thinking he understands this.

Frankly, I have no use for MS's and PhD's in my line of work and much prefer one that has a couple of years of solid stretched experience over the two years an MS chases. If fact, I find the majority disfunctional given what we do losing a lot of practicallity. Again, this in large oil and gas projects. Of course our research arm is loaded with them and they will top out below a solid project engineering career.


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My son knows what is required and he has been to engineering camp. He listens to me about manufacturing since I do engineering type work. His interest in robotics has come from being on the local team from First Robotics, the nationwide competition. He is an honors student who is a member of the National Honor Society. I think that he just doesn't apply himself as much as he could in high school and will really find himself in college.

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Well,...I'll be the odd man out here and say that, although a career in Mechanical Engineering is a worthy challenge to embark upon, I wouldn't steer a young American towards a field of study which is greatly dependent on manufacturing.

I can't say what America's future is,...but I can say with relative confidence that it won't be manufacturing.

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Pedigree matters.

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The difficulty is that everyone in a good engineering school has those credentials or they would not have been let in. The competition is fierce. The average acceptance GPA where I went to school was 3.97 for 2014 with the SAT average running at 1318, this for all majors though the school is substantially engineering and architecture with a chunk of Ag. As such, the playing field changes immensely from high school. Not knocking your son at all, just offering the truths of the adventure.

http://mustangnews.net/cal-poly-admits-most-selective-class/


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My oldest son graduated with an electrical engineering degree this past May. He interned last summer for a firm that offered him a job in November. Before he graduated, he had 3 other offers. He started out making just under 6 figures with nothing more than an FE and works in system protection with public utilities. Two of his room mates were also engineering majors (civil and mechanical) and nether have full time employment. Both also had hard times finding internships which is a requirement for graduation.

My youngest son is a marine systems engineering major (sort of hands on mechanical engineering)at a maritime academy. 100% job placement in that field in the last 5 years (according to MMA) and he was offered 6 internships this summer. Spent most of May, June, and July on the Bearing Sea and raked in a ton of cash.

Jobs are there if your are smart about it and pay attention.

Last edited by JDK; 07/25/14.
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Mike - My son got a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Enineering. He is currently working for Pratt & Whitney (the jet engine company)
and making more money than I do. Some travel to nice places, he has been to Germany and Spain so far.
Want the facts ... just google Pratt & Whitney JOBS

Last edited by Hotload; 07/25/14.

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With a 2 year degree, one will be doing the clean up and grunt work. Hands on but not really challenging. If one wants to independently lead team and affect direction then a minimum of 4 years and a MS would be even better. PhD if serious bucks are part of the dream.


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Originally Posted by 1minute
With a 2 year degree, one will be doing the clean up and grunt work. Hands on but not really challenging. If one wants to independently lead team and affect direction then a minimum of 4 years and a MS would be even better. PhD if serious bucks are part of the dream.


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Skeezix described my thoughts well. I have a BS in Environmental Engineering with my PE. my thoughts on the MS nd PhD are thus:

You are better off going into industry with a Bachelors and then getting the MS or PhD later in what you want than getting them right away and coming out of school with huge salary demands and no worthwhile experience. We do not pay new MS engineers any more than new BS engineers. They are both entry level.

What really matters in my industry is the PE certification. That carries much more weight than either a MS or a PhD. In fact, in my field, we pretty much shy away from PhDs. Having said that, each engineering discipline is a little different in their hiring practices.

To the original question: Encourage him to look very strongly at the BS. An associate engineering degree wouldnt even allow you to put "engineer" on your business card in many states (they require PE certification).


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