Are there any Engineers on the board?

[Spectre]

Natasha once bubbled...
His comments were that #1 A big company would take him, but he'd learn more in a small company.

Yes.... I Strongly agree! The company I work for had about 45 people when I did my internship there. And now that I've continued on there, I've become a big fish in a small pond, which has afforded me many more opportunities to make contacts in the industry then it would have been if I was a small [well, maybe mid sized] fish in a big pond....

 

[PK]

Hi Natasha-

I have a Bachelors and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. As an undergrad, I co-oped every other semester, which helped pay for school. I was lucky enough to get a full scholarship and stipend for grad school.

Anyway, I saw a lot of Marquette engineering studends (mostly electrical and mechanical) when I co-oped at Sundstrand Corp. in Rockford, IL. They had a really active co-op program at Sundstrand. Prior to that I co-oped at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, IL. I think it's harder to get a co-op job as a civil engineering major but not impossible. Your son can talk to some professors in the Civil Dept to get more information. The best professor is probably the head of the Civil department.

I don't think you can honesty say that big companies give a co-op less experience. It totally depends on the company and the manager you end up working for. When I was a design engineer at General Electric Aircraft Engines, I believe I gave my co-ops a lot of really good work. I had other co-ops working for me when I designed hip and knee implants and surgical instruments at Johnson&Johnson that did a lot of good work that they put on their resumes.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to working for a small or large company, depending on if they are high or low on the value chain of a market as well as management.

I recommend your son ask for advice from the Civil Dept Chairman. They usually give good feedback and know which companies they deal with are good learning experiences and why. He might also want to talk to professors in other depts just to get more information on the types of jobs you can expect if you have other degrees.

 

[ScubaScott]

Can I help at all Natasha?

SS

 

[mddolson]

Mike D

:blfish:

 

[DennisW]

Natasha,

Tell your son this one:

What's the difference between Mechanical Engineer and a Civil Engineer?

Mechanical Engineers design weapons, Civil Engineers design targets.

Yes guys, it's an old, old, old joke. I'm an old man, I graduated in 1978 with my BSEE.

My daughter is a sophomore at Brevard Community College. She will be attending Florida Tech for her course work next year and intends to be a Civil Engineer. She wants to build structures. Big Buildings, Bridges, etc. She likes math and that is a pre-requisite for any engineering discipline.

 

[Poseidon]

I'm a senior M.E. student and going into the masters program at UT. :grad: When I started 3 1-2 years ago, it was easy for a sophmore to get an internship somewhere... but lately it's difficult for even a senior to get a position, let alone a freshman.

Tell your son good luck I hope he does well.

 

[Natasha]

Thank you all, so much! Your stories have helped Jordan, and I to understand what is still ahead for us. Remember I'm just a travel agent, so I knew none of this before you filled me in.
Jordan's Dad works for Fed Ex, so we're just your common blue collar workers, with a brillant son. ( They say kids are the opposite of their parents right?)

Anyway, Dennis, Jordan likes the idea of building buildings too. I think this came to him back when he played with Legos!

ScubaScott : Yes, I do think you could help. Maybe someone like you, more his age, would be good for him to email back and forth with. By the way he is aslo a scuba diver, and a member of the this board. But I can't get him to post anything! He just reads it. Like I said opposite of his parents.

 

[FredT]

If Jordan likes building big things they don't come much bigger or complicated than a multiwell production platform in over 1000 feet of water. There are platform out there now in ovr 1800', with exploraton goin on in 3000 to 6000 foot depths. As far as I know there are only 3 or 4 schools offering the courses at the undergraduate level, and none are on the great lakes.

FT

 

[Natasha]

Fred:
That sounds fasinating. I see from your profile you're an ocean engineer. Would you be willing to tell us your story?
PS. I love your picture.

 

[ScubaScott]

Fred - that is something I'd definately be interested in..... I'm one of these people that can go to a wall, a bridge, pretty much any man-made structure and just stare and think of what went into it to build it. I think the platforms and actual construction would be quite interesting.

Natasha - if Jordan has any direct questions he can email or post to this thread. I work for one of the worlds largest supply and construction companies (although we are in a very tiny office up in God's Country), doing design-builds of highways, bridges and sewer systems.

Many different disciplines he could get into from civil. Wish I had known about that math thing before I got into it though.........

SS