New Mech Engineering Student Seeking Advice

Q: I would be greatly indebted to any and all Mechanical Engineers who would take the time to e-mail me, telling me about their jobs, experiences, etc. in the field of mech engineering. I will use this info to decide if mechanical engineering is right for me

A: What do you like to do? What sort of things do you find interesting and would be able to make you want to go to work every day? What are you good at? Do you have good visualization skills? Are you more interested in making money or having fun from your profession? These are just a few of the questions that you need to ask yourself before you persue any career, especially as challenging as engineering. Mechaniclal engineering is a wide open field. It is very difficult to put it all in one nut shell. I do mechanical design and product development. I have been getting paid to do this type of work for over 20 years. I can still say that I am more intersted in the challenges, instead of being concerned about what I get paid for resolving those challenges. Job 1 - Engineering Trainee - NASA - Designed and tested equipment for the Space Lab - If you go engineering go to a school with a strong Co-op or internship program. You will never be sorry for this additional time

to get your degree. Job 2 - Production Engineer responsible for an entire assembly line producing typewriter printer head for one year, then floopy disk drives the second year. Job 3 - Design Engineer - Design all sorts of intersting flexible composite structures including spacesuits for NASA, Shelters, and decoys for the military. Job 4 - Manufacturing Engineer - Flexographic printing equipment. Responsible for field support of equipment all over the world. Job 5 - Designed equipment for the Military in the area of Chemical Protection. Job 6 - On my own and self employeed. Every project is new with a different client and presenting special challenges.