OT Engineers / Scientists, How many are out there Options

[shadygrady]

BS Civil Engineering. Telecommunications engineer by trade

[BMXerror]

What do you people think about the fact that science (arguably one of the most important aspects of modern life) is being shunned and, in many ways, is beginning to fall apart?

Check out George Carlin's take on why. (Not for the easily offended)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GFe6dcIPWQ...ted&search=
I totally agree. The big wheels of this country don't want to have slaves that think for themselves in a logical fashion, which is all engineers and scientists do. Personally, I'm rather young, but I'm working on machining 7 certifications so that I can build the race cars and motors that I design in my spare time. In the meantime, I'm building production based race cars as well as slowly race prepping the 914 (money permitting). Needless to say, I don't get along with 99.99% of the people my age, which is to say I have NO friends. The only people who have a clue of what's going on in my head are the guys I build cars with and my family because they're all the same way....... I need to move to Germany. My two cents.
Mark D.

[root]

Engineers are my enemy at work, I am a designer
Just about every time i have a ool idea, one of them says, " No, you can't do that." Sometimes I feel like ingenuity is dead.
Mark

If you can think of it..... it's ether already been done or it's not practical!
If it's not practical, you may end up expending your resources trying to accomplish it.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/chairfall.gif)
But that doesn't mean you can't do it!

In my experience a good engineer must be willing to take on some risk to produce novel work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[brp914]

BS chemistry. Interesting in school, but from what I've seen, kinda sucks as a career. I bailed and now develop and support lab software. Life in cubicle-ville ain't too bad. From (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif) to (IMG:style_emoticons/default/type.gif)

[914rrr]

Does an associates degree in EE Technology count? Had one actual job as a tech fixing check printing machines (sucked). Worked mostly in technical sales.

Currently employed as a sales rep for an aerospace component manufacturer.

Anybody need any aircraft antennas, especially in really BIG volumes???? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

BTW, my territory is western US, TX to CA.

[Pat Garvey]

Was a TLC chemist (thin layer chromatograpgy) for Sterling Drug (AKA Kodak) back in the 70's. Spent my days laboring over Benzene & Chloroform! Then, the FDA scared the crap out of me. Went back to school & became a bean counter, then got my MBA.

Then learned how to terminate(shut down) pensions plans as a pension admiistrator. Don't burn me at the stake - everyone got paid out & are better for it, because they can handle their own investments. Yeah, even terminated my own. Made lots of additional money because I control my investments. So, don't make a demon out of me. No one has ever bitched!

Anyway, the tech thing was too dangerous for me.
Pat

[sww914]

Engineers are my enemy at work, I am a designer
Just about every time i have a ool idea, one of them says, " No, you can't do that." Sometimes I feel like ingenuity is dead.
Mark

If you can think of it..... it's ether already been done or it's not practical!
If it's not practical, you may end up expending your resources trying to accomplish it.
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/chairfall.gif)
But that doesn't mean you can't do it!

In my experience a good engineer must be willing to take on some risk to produce novel work. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

In the 1850's some notable bonehead who's name I can't recall said that science was dead because everything that there was to invent had already been invented, and everything there was to figure out had already been discovered. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

[cantley914]

Natural gas pipeline technician. Not an engineer ! Only the guy that knows which end of the pipewrench to hold!!!

One day I saw 3 engineers trying to measure the height of a pole. Everytime they tried to extend the tape measure above 11 feet, the tape would bend and fall back down to the ground.
After 10 minutes watching them unsuccesfully, I stepped in and told them I could measure it for them. They stated that if 3 engineers couldn't do it, a technician would not prevail. So they all took a seat and urged me to prove them wrong. So I took the pole, undid the hook up at the base and lied it down on the ground and proceeded to measure it.
One of the engineers sttod up and said: look at this smart ass technician, here we are trying to get the height of the pole and he will give us the lenght instead !!!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) God bless engineers !!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

Friendly,

Steph

[SGB]

BS Civil (Environmental) Engineering, 1982
MS Engineering Management, 1992
PE in Environmental Engineering, 1990
I'm a project manager for superfund sites.




BTW Jake- A degree is just one path to being an ENGINEer. I'm pretty sure you would qualify for an honorary doctorate at least.

[Katmanken]

Uh Oh, I 've been spotted.....

Mechanical Engineer taught by the rocket scientists that put man on the moon. Compulsive tinker and constant builder of small devices. Able to fab parts.

11 years in computers and computer peripherals designing and testing printers and displays,

3 years in gee whiz military/aerospace- designed and developed satellite communications systems, early star wars, lasers, saatellite antennas, mass data storage systems and had a "clearance"

14 years in medical devices. Got in on the ground floor of endoscopic surgery designing and developing medica devices. Prolific inventor- 22 issued patents and about that many chugging through the patent office...

Now I'm a registered Patent Agent writing and prosecuting patents with the Patent office. I now work for a law firm and went from cubicle boy (engineering) to rosewood office man.

And for Jake, I tink. Gimme a hammer, a sandbag, and a scrap of metal and I make flares. Give me a bunch of tubing, some UV cure glue, sheet metal and a model shop full of tools, and I can deliver a working medical device prototype that bends and articulates and places fasteners in tissue. And, it all fits in a shaft as big around as your little finger and fits down a half inch diameter tube.

As per today, the sales whores have taken over this country. No longer do we worry about having smart engineers making things, we just make sales.... The sales guys (no engineering degree) have taken over and run the companies that used to make things and they believe that the future of engineering is a pack of Indian or Chineese engineers working for $4.95 a day making products to earn them a big sales commission. I used to work for a huge well known and formerly respected company. One day they informed me I was no longer needed as a technical innovator creating ingenious working products, but innovation was now redefined as "an innovative business or sales process" and I just didn't fit.

Any questions why their stock hasn't gone up in 6 years, why their quality and reliablity went down, why they are losing sales, and why their malpractice lawsuits are increasing?

Ken

Ken

[Dr Evil]

Hmm, not sure.

16 years of electronics experience (since 14yo), actual ROP classes in high school for 2 years, coast guard trained avionics technician and 6 years woking on HH-65 helicopters. Does this count for anything?

Then...BA in psychology, and currently working on an MD (medical science, no?)

[Aaron Cox]

have another year or 2 for my BS in Civil Engineering....
will take my E.I.T. exam in the next year i think....

currently doing a ton of traffic engineering for a local city.

[Mid_Engine_914]

Where did you get that quote.... I want the source so I can post it in my office... because it's true!

Thomas, it's from a book called Multi-Body Systems Approach to Vehicle Dynamics .

When I was a kid I viewed anyone with a PhD in math or physics as being god-like in intelligence but after dealing with a few of them I don't feel that way anymore. The last course I took, for example, I asked the professor to check if my proofs to a couple of problems were correct and when she said they weren't I emailed the textbook author and he confirmed that both proofs were in fact correct. They're just people.

[Lou W]

I spent 12 1/2 years in the aerospace industry, last job title was a Senior Electro/Mechanical Design Engineer (Senior Designer), left the industry in 1989. Worked mostly as a "job shopper", Northrop, Hughes Space and Com, Radar, Ground Systems Group, EDSG, Jet Propulsion Lab, etc.

I made great money during the 80's... we young ones thought "this cold war will never end, the Soviets will always be a threat...we'll always have a job"... damn. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

[Grngoat]

Interesting thread. It got me to quit lurking for once, as is my tendancy, and actually post.

Aerospace Engineer by education and employment. I like it quite a lot. I couldn't imagine doing to many different things. Always have enjoyed figuring out how things work and ways to improve on them. It's just natural to engineers. Or should be if they are any good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySpOuaYwLQU

PhD - if that's the only thing we know about someone, it's a fair bet that they are useless when it comes to anything practical. I know at least one exception, but that's the rule.

[PeeGreen 914]

Ummm. I kinda feel silly for being in this thread. My brother is as close to an engineer as I get. I am an artist by degree, and a business/ sales man by trade. Nice to see we have all of these engineer type here though. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/boldblue.gif)

[BahnBrenner914]

I have 2 years done on my BS Mechanical Engineering Degree. I'm planning on a Masters and a minor or specialty in aerodynamics, so I can work on F1 or le mans cars or something really fast and sticky (downforce-wise).

[pin31]

No pocket protector, goofy glasses or dual slide rules but yes an engineer.

I have a double whammy for abuse: electrical engineer AND program manager.

I am a program manager at Raytheon, Integrated Defense Systems.

My program is AN/BSG-1. This is a "portable" weapons launch system that can be brought aboard a SSN (688 and Virginia class subs). We launch (via the horizontal tubes) a TLAM-N (UGM 109A) = nuclear TOMAHAWK missile.

We have completed the SW and HW development phase and recently completed the production of 12 systems. I hope this system sits on the shelf and is never used.

If it is ever needed, it will work flawlessly.

[i love porsche]

going into my last year for my BS in Mechanical engineering, not sure what im doing after

[Justinp71]

Just Graduated a year ago with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, now I am working with conveyor systems design.

It's funny when you get into the field and find out that most of the people you work with get paid more b/c they get overtime and travel bonuses. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)