Interview For Çlass

• Please describe your engineering field.
  
• What is your current job title?
  
• Please describe your particular job and duties.
  
• What is your average work schedule? 
  
• Starting with high school, please describe your educational background chronologically. 
  
• If you had it to do over, related to your career or education, would you do anything differently?
  
• What advice would you give to me as someone interested in pursuing a career path similar to yours? 
  

• Name
  
• Specific degree
  
• Place of employment
  
• Email address
  

David17030 said:

• Name
  
• Specific degree
  
• Place of employment
  
• Email address
  

Thank you for your time!

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• Please describe your engineering field.
  
  I have a BS in environmental engineering and my PE license in Civil-Water Resources/Environmental. I work as a regulator.
  

• 
  Sanitary Engineer
  

• 
  I inspect permitted facilities to make sure they are following and meet regulatory regulations. 
  

• 
  35/week
  

• 
  I was in a "science magnet" program in HS that required 2 science classes per year. My Sr. year had an internship program. In college I earned a BS in environmental engineering.
  

• 
  Sometime I question whether regulator was the right path. There isn't always much "engineering."
  

• 
  Set a goal, work hard, and stay focused. I didn't pass the PE exam because I'm smart, I passed because I worked my a$$ off. I wish I did more of that in college.
  

• Please describe your engineering field.
  
  I'm a bridge demolition engineer, but the field is better described as a mix of structural engineering and construction engineering.
  

• 
  "Bridge Engineer" (we're really creative)
  

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  I work with contractors (construction companies) to develop plans to build or dismantle bridges. This requires a lot of structural engineering analysis and calculations day to day to develop and deliver the plan. Once the project gets going, we visit the site to make sure everything goes as planned -- especially when you're dealing with old bridges from the 1920s, something is always unexpected and requires a quick solution on-the-fly.
  

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  40-45 hours most weeks (in the office). We occasionally make visits to projects, then we work on the contractor's schedule (typically 10-12hr days, some night shifts).
  

• 
  Pretty standard HS experience, but I took as many high-level math and science classes as I could, including some at the local college
  
• Bachelors degree in Engineering at a state university focusing on science and technology
  
• Masters degrees in Engineering and Eng. Management at same university (although Eng. Mgmt. was largely just biding time until my wife graduated).
  

• 
  Take as many college credits as you can early. In fact, consider spending your first few years of college at a local college, then transferring. It's cheaper, sometimes easier (smaller classes, etc), and the laws of physics don't change between Podunk Community College and Spendy State University. Just make sure you have a plan, and be talking to counselors and admissions personnel at both schools continuously to make sure the credits will transfer smoothly.
  
• Because I work with contractors daily, knowing about construction helps -- get a few summer jobs in the field. Engineering can be taught, knowing which end of the hammer to swing requires experience.
  
• When you start applying for jobs and interviews, know your abilities and don't let recruiters tell you "no". You'll constantly be told that your experience isn't good enough, or doesn't quite match what they're looking for. Those are both true. But, when you start your first internship and job, what you can do is be an attentive listener, work hard, and apply the problem solving skills you've developed. You may never solve a fluid dynamics equation again, but the process you took to understand that problem is the same process you will take when your boss hands you a task.
  
• If you work in any of the Civil Engineering fields (water resources, environmental, structural, geotechnical, transportation, etc) (also some mechanical engineering fields, or electric power distribution), make a plan early on to get your PE license. It's a major career milestone and boost.
  

knight1fox3 said:

Should we also add our mailing address and SS #?

@matt267 PE, please address the questions above. 

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David17030 said:

Hi. I'm a high school student currently and I am interested in taking a look into the engineering field. I am taking an engineering/mathematics class at the moment, and one of our assignments is to interview a professional in the field to get to know more about how the career path is. I just have some general questions about how everything goes. I don't need essays, but moderate detail would be appreciated to help me get more insight.

• Please describe your engineering field.
  
• I currently work in the surge protection industry.  The company I work for does lightning surge protection and RF filtering
  
• What is your current job title?
  
• Sr. Mechanical Engineer
  
• Please describe your particular job and duties.
  
• I do mechanical design, perform FEA, prepare solid models, drawings and related documentation to prepare a design to be handed off to manufacturing.  I do a lot of sheetmetal design, machined part design, and some injection molded part design.
  
• What is your average work schedule? 
  
• 40 to 60 hrs/wk
  
• Starting with high school, please describe your educational background chronologically. 
  
• High school grad, spend 2 years at Seattle Pacific University studying general engineering and then transferred Washington State University and entered the BSME program.  Graduated in 1996 with a BSME,and promptly took the EIT and passed.  In 2007, I got a patent agent license.
  
• If you had it to do over, related to your career or education, would you do anything differently?
  
• I would have gone for the PE much sooner than I did.  I waited until 2015 to even try for it.  I also would have gone back to grad school much earlier.  I still plan to do that, but it is about two years out for me now, still.  The patent agent license has been one of the most valuable things I have achieved thus far.
  
• What advice would you give to me as someone interested in pursuing a career path similar to yours? 
  
• Finish your degree.  If you decide later it's not what you want to do, do something else, but a partial degree is completely worthless.
  

And some optional information about your background in the field would be appreciated.such as...

• Name
  
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-palmer-p-e-a7711121
  
• Specific degree
  
• Place of employment
  
• Email address
  

Thank you for your time!

You're welcome.

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• If you had it to do over, related to your career or education, would you do anything differently?
  

matt267 PE said:

Looks like @David17030 hasn't logged in since his initial post. I wonder how his project going. You can't be an engineer without follow up.

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Ramnares P.E. said:

• If you had it to do over, related to your career or education, would you do anything differently?
  

Yes, I would have went into the medical field like my dad told me too and made *REAL* fatty money.

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