Spoke with a few buddies from school and basically can mirror 'crankcall' comment about P. Eng and M. Eng not really doing much for anyone in the fields they selected. We all graduated with Aero degrees and only a handful of us stayed in it. The guy that did was the only one that did his M. Eng. because he did the co-op there, and they wanted it for him to have it. The rest just worked their butts off to show that they're capable, and continued making advances in the field that they selected. Some jumped around to get more $ (myself included...30% increase within a year due to job changes), and some jumped around and made it full circle back to their starting company after they found out that grass isn't greener on the other side. In the end it'll come down to work ethic, and ensuring that you continue showing that you are capable and willing to go above and beyond. If the company doesn't appreciate it, you move to the next one. Build your contacts and professional circle, and if you select a specific niche then it's easier because it's a much smaller world. Good luck.
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Mechanical engineering
- Thread starter RockerGuy
- Start date
Machinists always have to tell engineers what's possible & what's not. Just because it works on paper doesn't mean it'll work in real life.
If you ask me, an engineer should have some form of hands-on skills in his training. How can you be an engineer if you never applied these things in real life?
The farmers that become engineers are the best if you want things that work. Normally they get in trouble politically though and aren't likely to climb as far/as quickly.
Kri$han
Well-known member
Little late to the party here, and most people are right, however I can't echo the sentiments that an M.Eng is useless, let me clarify:
To the OP, I think going after an M.Eng at this stage in your game in order to solidify a certain pay-scale, get a job or advance in a company is the wrong move (as everyone has suggested), however I have a handful of friends that went on after our BASc's (waterloo engineering) to do their Masters, and all of them are doing very well; One guy works as a design engineer on a NASCAR team, which is cray.
A few of my friends who specialized in their undergrads (with valid co-op experience, and work experience) are still working as engineers - some of those guys continued that path of specialization into their masters degrees; an engineering masters often has you working alongside a professor on a study which is backed by a major corporation, such as Ontario Power Generation. Please believe that once your masters is done, and your thesis is published, OPG sees your name on the publication and (if you play your cards right) it can get you in the door... from there you can have a pretty good career with a specialized field of study. This is rare, though, as you will need to specialize in something that has a high demand.
I'm a mech eng as well, working at a small consulting firm with almost 10 years experience; the only reason why I'm still working here is that my company values my varied background from manufacturing, project management and machine & product design. The pay is dog ****, though. I used to be independent, but I needed more steady income so switched to full-time before I got married. My hours are reasonable now, except when one of my old clients reaches out to me and has me moonlighting on the side for extra $$. I'm thinking of getting a real estate license.
To the OP, I think going after an M.Eng at this stage in your game in order to solidify a certain pay-scale, get a job or advance in a company is the wrong move (as everyone has suggested), however I have a handful of friends that went on after our BASc's (waterloo engineering) to do their Masters, and all of them are doing very well; One guy works as a design engineer on a NASCAR team, which is cray.
A few of my friends who specialized in their undergrads (with valid co-op experience, and work experience) are still working as engineers - some of those guys continued that path of specialization into their masters degrees; an engineering masters often has you working alongside a professor on a study which is backed by a major corporation, such as Ontario Power Generation. Please believe that once your masters is done, and your thesis is published, OPG sees your name on the publication and (if you play your cards right) it can get you in the door... from there you can have a pretty good career with a specialized field of study. This is rare, though, as you will need to specialize in something that has a high demand.
I'm a mech eng as well, working at a small consulting firm with almost 10 years experience; the only reason why I'm still working here is that my company values my varied background from manufacturing, project management and machine & product design. The pay is dog ****, though. I used to be independent, but I needed more steady income so switched to full-time before I got married. My hours are reasonable now, except when one of my old clients reaches out to me and has me moonlighting on the side for extra $$. I'm thinking of getting a real estate license.
I honestly think part of the problem is when engineers start, they are not particularly paid all that well in Canada, at least compared to many other "professional professions" if you will, i.e. lawyer, doctor, etc. And engineers that have hands on experience, soft skills, project management skills, etc as well as the physics/science/math skills are often groomed early on towards project management and management roles. So the best engineers with solid engineering skills and soft skills with hands on experience don't stick around in engineering jobs and end up taking much higher paying jobs that are not very technical at all usuall. And the people that end up working engineering jobs and end up being known as and representing engineers likely have higher percentages of people that maybe lacking other soft skills which did not allow them to move up the chain even with their engineering background and skills.
Like if you never built a bridge how could you design a bridge? Every HVAC company I've ever worked for used in house or engineering services. It's good sport and satisfying to take the piss out of engineers but some of the trades guys need to get over themselves. It's when the engineer gets arrogant that I don't mind taking the gloves off.
RockThis52
Well-known member
Hit the nail on the head.
I recently graduated and got a job with a design firm in civil engineering. One of my buddies got a job with infrastructure Ontario, he does zero design and gets paid almost 100% more than me and he starts with 4 weeks vacation. He's riding the gravy train that's for sure.
Another buddy got a job with Verdi alliance (through his dad who's a vp), as a project engineer (also no design if Im not mistaken) and gets paid 50% more than me as well has a company car that he can use for personal use and a gas card that he can use for personal use.
Not sure why the designers never get any love lol.
It's not that they don't get any love, it just seems that it's not as rare as someone that has the designing skills and those others mentioned like soft skills, project management, hand on experience, etc. on top of the design ability. And as a result is compensated for accordingly. I'm pretty new where I'm at and you can already see the different ways they treat new engineers based on what they bring to the table.
Generally most of the new engineers here have comparable technical abilities. Definitely not entirely equal, but we all offer different skills/strengths, some more mechanical, some more electrical, some more programming, and weaker in others. But our ability to run a project to install a new piece of equipment and integrate it into the existing system, run large construction jobs with technical issues like robots, PLC programming, etc is where they see if you're worth grooming. If they see you can get through all the paperwork, presentations, approvals, and actually implement something and make it run and work well, they will literally throw money at you to move up the ladder for them. Yes albeit often with a lot more pressure as well.
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