Speaking of engineering

[cabanafrau]

If I would give one tip for potential engineers is its starts in high school. Everyone in your college classes was in honors math and took calculus, chemistry and physics already. They wizz by real quick in those classes, much faster than high school, so if you do not have the background you will get run over.

Absolutely, although it goes far beyond simply being able to calculate and spit out an answer quickly. A wide variety of students who possess those skills in spades aren't suitable for the field, either because they have little to no desire to engage in the activity on a regular basis or because they lack the aptitude to incorporate the capabilities into the creative/explorer process which leads to product or theory of some type, which is the purpose for the calculations in the first place. My oldest attended a STEM program for her HS years and continued the path in college. Most of her peers who graduated with her ironically chose not to pursue STEM studies or fields in college. Plenty of them had tremendous potential due to their skills, technical and creatively, however they decided they didn't have the desire.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

As far as math, many of the engineering courses have calculus in them. I had 4 semesters of calculus, one of those being differential equations, plus prob and stat. Is he taking AP calculus? AP BC calculus would be equivalent to one semester of calculus at an engineering school.
My dh, who majored in computer engineering was not strong in math, but he managed to get through it. His major did have a lot less calculus based courses than mine did.

Differential Equations (aka "Diffy Screw") seems to be the tipping point where a lot of ME & EE majors become Engineering Management majors

 

[bcla]

Differential Equations (aka "Diffy Screw") seems to be the tipping point where a lot of ME & EE majors become Engineering Management majors

Didn't like it and didn't do well. I passed the class and went on to get my degree. I also went to grad school, where one of the popular classes was a linear algebra class that was basically an undergraduate level class. My fellow students and the instructor acknowledged that it was an "easy A". I didn't do that well the first time around, but it was far easier when I already understood the material.

I've pretty much never had to use those before in my work. A basic understanding of arithmetic was actual the most helpful. I've heard of a few electronics that actually calculate a linear algebra equation to compute an algorithm, but in those cases there's typically a math guy to walk you through it.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

I graduated with a degree in chemical engineering in 2015. I had two offers made to me by November of my senior year. I have several friends who had even more than that! Of my graduating class I only know of a handful that had to wait a few months to get a job. The most I think was about 6 months.

The amazing thing about a degree in engineering (and obviously my knowledge is of chemical engineering specifically) is that it can lead you in so many places while still being a very useful and fulfilling stand alone degree. For instance, I have chemE friends in med school, pharm school, grad school, law school, design firms, industrial facilities, consulting firms, you name it. In our company we have degreed engineers in finance, HR, operations, corporate management and obviously the process, plus others that I'm not even aware of. So getting a degree in engineering doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be an engineer forever. That's part of it's appeal.

Now, obtaining the degree is hard. Getting into engineering school itself can be difficult and once you're there, it's not a cake walk. But it's so, so rewarding! Especially for people who love to solve problems and have a good work ethic and work well in teams.

As for an 'engineering personality' there's still a stereotype about the geeky quiet guy with a pocket protector and while those people still exist, I'll say that my class of engineers were some of the biggest partiers I knew. These people know how to have fun. Work hard, play hard, right? I think you'll find that there really is no longer a straight 'engineering personality' especially as the field becomes more diverse and more and more women and minorities are finding meaningful positions as engineers.

And I know money isn't everything, but by golly engineering pays well. My very first job out of college (with a BS) and I'm making more than my father who has a masters and has been working for 22 years in his field.

Your son is only 15 and he's got a couple of years to make some decisions. If he genuinely seems interested in engineering, see what programs the local universities offer. I know I went to several events put on for high school students to tell them what engineering is all about. Have him talk to some engineering students and engineering professionals to get an idea of what's out there.

 

[katie01]

I graduated with a degree in chemical engineering in 2015. I had two offers made to me by November of my senior year. I have several friends who had even more than that! Of my graduating class I only know of a handful that had to wait a few months to get a job. The most I think was about 6 months.

The amazing thing about a degree in engineering (and obviously my knowledge is of chemical engineering specifically) is that it can lead you in so many places while still being a very useful and fulfilling stand alone degree. For instance, I have chemE friends in med school, pharm school, grad school, law school, design firms, industrial facilities, consulting firms, you name it. In our company we have degreed engineers in finance, HR, operations, corporate management and obviously the process, plus others that I'm not even aware of. So getting a degree in engineering doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be an engineer forever. That's part of it's appeal.

Now, obtaining the degree is hard. Getting into engineering school itself can be difficult and once you're there, it's not a cake walk. But it's so, so rewarding! Especially for people who love to solve problems and have a good work ethic and work well in teams.

As for an 'engineering personality' there's still a stereotype about the geeky quiet guy with a pocket protector and while those people still exist, I'll say that my class of engineers were some of the biggest partiers I knew. These people know how to have fun. Work hard, play hard, right? I think you'll find that there really is no longer a straight 'engineering personality' especially as the field becomes more diverse and more and more women and minorities are finding meaningful positions as engineers.

And I know money isn't everything, but by golly engineering pays well. My very first job out of college (with a BS) and I'm making more than my father who has a masters and has been working for 22 years in his field.

Your son is only 15 and he's got a couple of years to make some decisions. If he genuinely seems interested in engineering, see what programs the local universities offer. I know I went to several events put on for high school students to tell them what engineering is all about. Have him talk to some engineering students and engineering professionals to get an idea of what's out there.

The bolded does sound like DS. He's joined a tech club at school and is also on his second semester of CAD, he was telling me yesterday that they had someone from NASA come and talk to the class, I'm glad he's hearing from professionals on the different options. We do have at least one engineering university nearby so that's a good idea to see if they have any events. Congrats on your degree and that's fantastic that the work is going so well for you!

 

[bcla]

I will say that in my particular job searches in recent years, one of the problems when trying to find a job these days may be that it's too easy to apply for a job. Back when I started out you had to look through listings in newspapers or perhaps go specifically to job fairs. I remember going through the job listings at my career office at school for jobs. Heck - I even contacted HR at several large companies and sent my resume. I mentioned my uncle was an engineer, and I remember one of his engineering magazines had a long list of employer mailing addresses. It was a lot of work and of course fewer applicants would reach each employer.

These days they get swamped with easy to file web applications, so there may be hundreds of applicants and only 5 seconds for the recruiter to see something that may catch the eye.

 

[longboard55]

Didn't like it and didn't do well. I passed the class and went on to get my degree. I also went to grad school, where one of the popular classes was a linear algebra class that was basically an undergraduate level class. My fellow students and the instructor acknowledged that it was an "easy A". I didn't do that well the first time around, but it was far easier when I already understood the material.

I've pretty much never had to use those before in my work. A basic understanding of arithmetic was actual the most helpful. I've heard of a few electronics that actually calculate a linear algebra equation to compute an algorithm, but in those cases there's typically a math guy to walk you through it.

We would get these part time teachers from the Jet Propulsion Lab to teach some of these upper math classes. Its amazing how smart those guys were. That is the way we use to fix things in this country, put all the super smart guys in a room and let them figure it out.

 

[bcla]

We would get these part time teachers from the Jet Propulsion Lab to teach some of these upper math classes. Its amazing how smart those guys were. That is the way we use to fix things in this country, put all the super smart guys in a room and let them figure it out.

The basic thing in my line of work is just an RC delay. The first-order delay is just resistance x capacitance. I could have figured that out in high school. My jobs haven't necessarily been that easy, but honestly I've never really had to worry about calculus, differential equations, or linear algebra. The only math that's really all that important is boolean algebra, and I never really took a "math class" to learn it.

It wasn't the case as an undergraduate, but my graduate school was very different. Many of the students and instructors were working engineers and the classes were mostly in the early morning (and some in the evening) to accommodate their work schedules. Quite a few of them were teaching outside their exact field of expertise. The linear algebra class was taught by an electrical engineer. I also met my math requirement by taking a probability class also taught by an electrical engineering professor from another school. It was really weird since I recall a couple of professors from other schools who were visiting instructors at this school. One had gotten his Ph.d from my school so he was paying them back. The other didn't quite explain why but I heard something about being asked to do it by a friend. We also had some top research engineers. One worked for HP at their research fab in Palo Alto, and one weekend he gave us a tour when it was normally shut down. We weren't allowed in the clean room though. He also had some part-time gig at Stanford's research fab facility and once I turned in some homework there because he gave a later deadline but that was where he would be. It was basically an office building, but with a clean room inside. Another instructor worked at HP Labs, which was their advanced research center similar to Bell Labs or Xerox PARC.

 

[Skippy918]

On the job math I have used has been algebra and statistics. But for stats, it's solving the problem with software but having an understanding of what the results mean.

 

[dolewhipdreams]

On the job math I have used has been algebra and statistics. But for stats, it's solving the problem with software but having an understanding of what the results mean.

I haven't used a lick of Diff EQ and only a sprinkling of calculus. That stuff used to keep me up at night and now a computer program does it all for me.

 

[NHdisneylover]

First, as a mom of two kids just a fw years ahead of your son, I would say to slow down. I know more kids who were pretty well "sure" of what they wanted to do (often for a few years) at 15, who changed to somethign else in the last couple of years of highschool than ones who stuck with that "sure" (and at least half the ones I know who stuck with it eventually changed in college and a couple later said they felt they had invested so much in moving towards whatever they thought they wanted at 12 or 13 that they couldn't change course in highschool when they started to lose interest--so pushing too much could easily backfire).

Second, my husband is an engineer (his degree is Industrial engineering) so we tend to know a lot of them---the ones I have met who are unhappy iwth work either just work in an enviornemnt with a bad boss which spreads ill will company wide OR majored in engineering beucase it was the major that was pusehd as a safe bet to get good jobs and not beucase they were really drawn to it.
Travel amounts vary widely from one type of egineer to another and fmor company to company. My husband travels. A lot. 80% most years. And we chased his career through 5 US states and onto Germany----which has resulted in much bigger pay hikes than most non travelling and non moving peopel with similar degrees---but we made the choice to do that as he enjoys the type of work that requires travel. I know just as many who hardly ever go anywhere.

As to how I handled it with my own kids? Well, we talked a lot about what they were thinking they wanted to do, and how. I wanted them to go into whatever they chose with eyes wide open as far as career and salary expectations and what all the studies and work involve---not beucase I wanted to sway them in any particular direction, but beucase I wanted them to find somehting that truly worked for them. I didn't want a child who likes playing video games to go into programming thinking that tedious work would be fun, like playing the games, or an artistic child to major in art without some ideas of careers that they could move into with that degree (teaching art, set design, etc). There honestly isn'T a direction I would be against, I just want them to have some realistic ideas of how to parlay the degrees into making a living

Oldest, just finished sophomore year at a US university, studying to be a special education teacher. They know this will never pay super well, but does have decent job security and they've worked at summer camps for girls with special needs many times and they know a decent amount about what they are getting into. So far, they love their choice, but they are also constantly looking at other ways to branch off with that degree if needed/wanted later (and there are many options).

Youngest will start an apprenticeship program here in Germany, with a local, large manufacturere. It's a 3.5 year program to train as atooling engineer. He tried a few short term internships and really enjoyed this type of work and must have done well; they only take on 3 a year and he was requested. He's very excited and it is a pretty in demand profession so he is not worried about work later on.

 

[Skippy918]

If your son knows how to study and he works hard, he shouldn't have a problem transitioning to college. During my freshman year, several friends of mine ended up dropping out because they didn't know how to manage their time, they didn't know how to study so they ended up flunking out. These were the kids who also got straight A's is high school and high SAT scores without studying. The ones that worked hard and studied did great.

 

[MillauFr]

My wife and I both graduated with degrees in Civil Engineering. We both work for local governments. I like my job and it pays well, $57 an hour. I never have to travel or work more than 40 hours per week. I am always home for dinner. These jobs are at very low risk of outsourcing. The city residents would not tolerate it.