Who on here is an engineer/ engineering student?

[frogsta]

I never did engineering but you barely have any money while at Uni haha. Just make sure you're focused and study. I just flew through high school and tried to do the same in Uni, didn't work haha. Ended up taking a gap year and getting full time work, I am in a good position at work and have 10 years to do the course so am currently putting it off again, just be careful and motivated if you do take a gap year

 

[Brenno]

I quite enjoy it, but it all depends on the company you work for.

This is the most important thing you will get out of this thread..

I have worked for 5 companies including the government.. I am very happy where I am.. Every company is different.
At the moment my base salary is the worse I've been offered but all the other perks (travel/overtime/bonuses) make it the best.. Also work a 5 day week.

The best salary I had was 21 on 7 off working remote. Did 12-14 hour days for the 21 on.. It was ridiculous.. As there was no overtime, breaking it down into an hourly rate meant I was getting really underpaid.

 

[Linzi]

Personally (and this won't be true for everyone) but doing the trade gave me a work ethic lots of uni graduates don't have..

Thats what my old man wanted me to do, get a trade first, because he is an electrician and always comes home having something to whinge about engineers lol. Also doing work experience with an engineer, I saw a machinist come up and tell him a better way to design the thing and they had a big **** fight about it, was quite funny actually haha. But it would help you to see each others point of view, so I spose thats why a trade would help as well.

I think I would enjoy the work from what I've read heard, but as you guys have said it really depends on each individual job. Also, I'm not going to lie, but I would like a lot of money haha, but, apparently once you are an experienced engineer (10+ years) thats when the real money starts coming in.. but I'm just going off what I've heard, not my own experiences lol

 

[Brenno]

Experience does pay more mate.. But good work ethic/quality pays the most.. Avoid big companies though as they don't negotiate salaries on performance, but they usually have better security..

You'll always get more money if you're willing to travel though.. Working offshore is big money.. FIFO is also a pretty good option.. I find that salaries in engineering aren't huge.. It's the travel allowances, mileage claims and bonuses that make the income great.

 

[walkahz]

Doing Mech Eng at uni.
I Decided to move from sydney to melbourne to do my degree, more personal choice than anything.
Moving out of home will generally entitle you to some form of centrelink payment, Unless your parents are quite loaded. Maximum including rent assistance is around $450-$500 a fortnight, just enough to live if you are frugal with your money.

Depends on the uni but generally the first 2 years are pretty theory based and not overly hard, some find the hardest thing is keeping themselves from going out too often.

Depending how smart you are, it is possible to have some sort of social life while studying engineering, in class time per week is around 20-25 hours if you go to all your classes (I dont). Lecturers claim you should do the same amount of study out of class, it never happens.

If you can, dont slack off during the first 2 years, they are easy marks that will help boost your GPA in the later years when things get hard. To start with nobody cares about their GPA, rookie mistake when it comes to getting a job with little to no experience.

You will have to do work experience in between 3rd and 4th year. It is a good chance to set yourself up for a grad job and save a bit of money for the following year.

Good Luck with it all!

 

[c2105026]

I did a 4 yr civil engineering degree at Newcastle Uni and worked with RTA of NSW for 4.5 yrs before leaving in disgust.

I made the mistake of listening to others telling me what to do with my life. I was 100% people pleaser. Engineering is not anything like it is depicted on national geographic or the discovery channel. It is unlikely that you will have much involvement with big shiny projects - if you do you will be right down the bottom, doing QA work. A colleague of mine worked on the Chunnel. He hated it, most boring thing he had ever done......make sure your uni has design work built into the course using up-to-date CAD. Mine didn't, and beyond the RTA/Local government I was of little use to the industry so I left it completely. I was in the RTA graduate program; beyond having free rent in most placements it stank. Moving every 6 months meant I couldn't start meaningful relationships, projects etc. When I did get permanent work, my boss was a complete and utter bitch and I had a nervous breakdown and had to leave. In the public sector, giving a crap about your job gets you branded as a troublemaker. At last in education, you are expected to give a crap. I started doing primary teaching degree, but after 2.5 yrs of the glitter and glue I switched across to teach secondary maths, which suits my personality better, and has hugely improved employment prospects. In fact I recently got a scholarship with the DET which pays me to study and has a guaranteed permanent placing at the end (chronic shortages of maths physics and english teachers). So things all worked out fine in the end.....

But anyway, back to your question.......

The engineering coursework was fine for me, others found it tough. There are some crazy design assignments. It's take a very strong person to do FIFO mining; I could not. If you are good at maths and science, what about teaching those subjects? Working hours very flexible,unless you are a peddo or a lunatic its stable employment, pay is comparable to engineering in the early stages (starts at $55k, most you'll get as a regular teacher is 'only' $90k), physics and maths has scholarships going (you missed it for this year, try next year), and unlike doing superflous QA work in engineering you'll be making the world a better place from day one

 

[Brenno]

See I had the complete opposite experience in engineering..

So job would have a lot to do with it.. I worked for transport department for about the same time though mate.. Also left in disgust.. Now contract back to them..

Have been involved in quite a few major projects but to me the glitter wore of those fast.. I prefer mid sized projects where I can change what I'm doing 4 or 5 times a year.. Construction management is a lot different to QA management though.. Still got plenty of paperwork but supervising GPS guided machinery and running verification against electronic project DTMs is my major job..

Civil is a lot different to electrical though.. And I think the OP was interested in elec or mech.

 

[MAG00]

So, school is finished and I have just received my ATAR and found out I'm going to uni to hopefully try and become an engineer The course in particular that I'm looking at is a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Mechatronic) at Uni SA.

Just wanting to get people's opinions who have done, or are doing an engineering course on what it's like, how difficult it is, what the lifestyle is like, and what the job is actually like once it is finished, and the opportunities.

I live in the country, so will be moving to Adelaide, which is going to be difficult as I am not sure where my money is going to come from, considering Centrelink is going to give me f*** all. I have thought about taking a gap year and becoming 'financially independent' so I can get youth allowance or something from them, but I don't really want to as I think it would make it hard to get back in the swing of things/ I'd forget everything from high school with in that year lol. Also was thinking about getting a part time job whilst doing the course, but from what I understand it is a full time course, so not really much time for a job.

So yeah, just seeking people's opinions and experiences

I started to study Electrical/Electronic Engineering at Adelaide Uni, travelling from Murray Bridge everyday. The travelling was difficult (drive to Mount Barker, bus from there to Adelaide), at a minimum I'd be travelling 1.5 hours each way, depending on my timetable I may have finished late and only caught a non-express bus (close to 2.5 hours travel). So the travelling component is taxing.

Anyway, I dropped out of EE eng mid year, after getting a HD, HD, D and a P. Only reason I got a P was because it was my first exam and I choked. Anyway, I dropped out because it wasn't what I truely wanted to do and I had no idea what that was. I wouldn't say that the course so far was overly hard, but one of my school mates failed to pass anything because he is not maths minded (and shouldn't have gone into Engineering because of this). If you are a bright lad, you won't find it hard.

I've now put in my SATAC application again to do Software Engineering, at least 3/4 of the subject I already completed will count towards my new degree.

At Adelaide Uni, the first year of engineering is very similar in all degrees.

A good tip is to enrol in all your classes as soon as they are available, this way you can get a good, tight timetable. Otherwise you'll get left with the bad slots and your classes will be very spread out, which is not as good as it sounds.

I've had this last half of the year off, I worked full time for 3 months at the job I already had. Now I'm unemployed, having a holiday soon and I am keen to get back to studying.

I don't know what Uni SA is like, but Adelaide uni was great.

The one thing I will say is don't become an engineer if you just want to say you're an engineer, it's not as easy as it may be cut out to be, typically there's a lot of maths/theory involved. AND don't become an engineer just for the potential money. You need to enjoy your work.

Pick something you like to do and try to turn it into a career. If you like installing electronics, be an electrician. If you like working on cars, be a mechanic. If you like designing electronics, be an electronic engineer. If you like designing mechanical devices, be a mechanical engineer.

You're leaving it a bit late to get your preferences sorted. I would take a gap year, perhaps do some work experience with your dad and work out exactly what you want to do.

Money is not everything, you should enjoy/not dislike what you do for a living.

 

[K-Man]

I did one year of Aerospace Engineering straight from high school. Decided chasing girls and drinking beer was more fun. Then Joined the RAAF and got paid to do that. But, 7 years later, It do regret not having the dicipline or motivation to finish it.

I suppose the moral is dont waste your time on any degree without the will to complete it.

 

[MasterOfReality]

First 2 years are hardcore maths and physics, last two years are more specialised although no doubt there will be subjects that will really mess with your head whatever the specialisation.

Graduated with a bachelor of mining engineering back in 2001. Since then I have done site work, government work and now consultancy work. Will be going back to site work this year as I'm over office based jobs.

Most of the engineering jobs paying top dollar require some sort of sacrifice, either long hours or remote working locations, or huge responsibility. You will soon realise they don't pay that sort of cash for the fun of it.

I did it purely for the monetary aspect but I'm lucky I also enjoy it as well. Would be hell if I didn't.