Any Engineers/Engineering Students on here?

[piggavy]

Sorry to interupt guys but im new to the forum and am also a 1st year ENG student, just wanted to ask if anyone knows of the criteria required to get Vacation work, and also what can i expect?

 

[bezz]

You might be lucky to find some volunteer work, but generally for paid work most firms will only take 3rd year up (that way they can capitalise by having a grad already familiar with the business). Some places do take second years tho. My advice would be to go to a career's fair at uni and sign up for Engineers Australia, they publish a guide on Engineering firms around Australia, what disciplines they take etc. When I was looking for undergrad work I basically emailed every firm in the guide relevant to my field.

 

[stocky]

what uni are you at piggavy?

 

[piggavy]

Also guys just wondering if calculus runs pretty much all the way through the course or not? im interested in chemical engineering but every time i see an equation with derivatives it freaks the crap out of me.

Does it get really hard or is it just something you pick up?

also, apparently engineering has a really high drop out rate, anyone heard anything like this??

 

[stocky]

i dropped out of engineering because the math just sucked. and yeah, id imagine you would have to do it for a few years

 

[bezz]

Ive done maths since first year however I think it kinda peaked in second year. In that year I learnt how to do fourier transforms etc. In third year we were given a lookup table for transforms as it was assumed we could do them- in the real world no one would waste their time calculating them, so why should we need to. From then on it was all about applying the concepts we had learnt in first and second year.

In my course there was a large dropout in first year, a few in second, but after that everyone stayed on.

The way I got through it was just to take one subject at a time, and by working hard at it. Once you come to understand the calculus you can basically tackle every problem they throw at you.

It may seem daunting at first but just work through it and it'll be over before you know it.

 

[piggavy]

Ive done maths since first year however I think it kinda peaked in second year. In that year I learnt how to do fourier transforms etc. In third year we were given a lookup table for transforms as it was assumed we could do them- in the real world no one would waste their time calculating them, so why should we need to. From then on it was all about applying the concepts we had learnt in first and second year.

In my course there was a large dropout in first year, a few in second, but after that everyone stayed on.

The way I got through it was just to take one subject at a time, and by working hard at it. Once you come to understand the calculus you can basically tackle every problem they throw at you.

It may seem daunting at first but just work through it and it'll be over before you know it.

Yeah cheers thats some good advice, i am determined to pass and pull through even though the odds are against me, however some of the work we do is just beyond me and i wish it just made sense!

 

[bezz]

Just stick with it man, its not as hard as everyone makes it out to be. It will all make sense to you in the end.

 

[michaelw]

Also guys just wondering if calculus runs pretty much all the way through the course or not? im interested in chemical engineering but every time i see an equation with derivatives it freaks the crap out of me.

Does it get really hard or is it just something you pick up?

also, apparently engineering has a really high drop out rate, anyone heard anything like this??

Engineering is maths. You will learn differential equations which are painful but after that you will be shown tricks on how to avoid them.

There is far more maths in Elec eng than chem eng but you will need to be on your toes. It just takes hard work. You will also have to get used to people says "you uni students have it easy".

"Engineering. The hardest four years of your life or the best seven."

Mike

 

[piggavy]

Engineering is maths. You will learn differential equations which are painful but after that you will be shown tricks on how to avoid them.

There is far more maths in Elec eng than chem eng but you will need to be on your toes. It just takes hard work. You will also have to get used to people says "you uni students have it easy".

"Engineering. The hardest four years of your life or the best seven."

Mike

What do you mean by best seven???

Also, what exactly can i expect to look forward to in chemE?