Who on here is an engineer/ engineering student?

[Linzi]

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

 

[Brenno]

Engineering is a pretty full on degree in the last couple years, I worked full time the entire time I studied it was bloody hard..

Lifestyle depends where you work and what you want to do.. Can be a desk job, can be part desk/ part field or it can be all field. I know that there can be alot of travel involved but I've also found that to chase big money I had to travel and it wasn't to the coast or anything.. Always seems to be the middle of no and where.

I'm not sure what opportunities exist in electronics and mechatronics, however I do know that in this game employers really need hard workers, it's competitive and the companies need to turn a profit. It's very easy to and a lot of people do bludge a lot..

While in uni you should be able to score placements in summer holidays which will pay a shitload more than centrelink.. We have students who do remote summer placements and earn enough to live smartly for the next year. You also use those placements to walk out of uni into a full time job.. So you need to be prepared to work your guts out and impress the employer to get the offer..

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat some more about it.

 

[Drawnnite]

im not/not have i gone to uni.
however a few fellas i know from school are doing engineering courses and they are enjoying it.

i have been thinking of doing it though. however i dont know of any unis/tafes in melb that do elec engineering at night schooling.

anyway goodluck with it

 

[Brenno]

Drawnite,

Plenty of unis offer electrical eng external.. Just means you study after hours. Lectures are recorded online and you download the slides and watch the lectures.

Night school would be a long shot but external would work for you also.

 

[Drawnnite]

Drawnite,

Plenty of unis offer electrical eng external.. Just means you study after hours. Lectures are recorded online and you download the slides and watch the lectures.

Night school would be a long shot but external would work for you also.

legend.
ill look into it.
thanks for that info.
but do you know what would happen about exams?

also Linzi.
ive worked at a few unis and plenty of people live on campus.
also have spoken to a few people who dont live on campus but are normally in uni type accomodation.
most just go find some part time/casual work and they said they pretty much get by on that, because they arent exactly at uni that much
so have more then enough time to work and so forth.

 

[Brenno]

I did 90% of my courses external.. Exams depend on the uni..

Say your uni is in a different town they will post exam papers to a uni or other school/tafe near you for you to sit the exam at the same time as everyone else in the course. A few times when I was travelling with work they organised 'supervisors' in a town and I sat the exam at their house.

If your uni is in the same town you just rock up to the uni on exam day with everyone else..

All assignments get submitted by post or email..

Remote/external uni is becoming very very popular and as such it's very competitive between unis so some are better then others.. But first step is just contacting a couple.. Talk to them and see if it fits yor needs.

 

[Linzi]

So what kind of hours per week would you be actually at uni? Because I was kind of under the impression that with an engineering degree you would be there all day every day, and when your not you are at home studying? lol, not really leaving much time for a job.

Also whats thoughts on a gap year? I could easily stay where I am now working 37 hour weeks at Foodland (Lol) and earn the ~$21,000 required to get me centrelink to get me through uni, but I honestly don't really know what it would be like getting back into study after a years break. I mean of course people do it, but would I forget a lot of the important stuff I learnt in year 12 that would be required for the course? haha

I have just started looking at some apartments right next to the uni with a mate, before that I was planning on living with my Mum. But she lives about 45min- 1 hour away, and that is pretty inconvenient, not to mention the fuel and all the other expenses involved with that. I think I would kind of benefit more from living with/ around people doing the same degree..

 

[Linzi]

I did 90% of my courses external.. Exams depend on the uni..

Say your uni is in a different town they will post exam papers to a uni or other school/tafe near you for you to sit the exam at the same time as everyone else in the course. A few times when I was travelling with work they organised 'supervisors' in a town and I sat the exam at their house.

If your uni is in the same town you just rock up to the uni on exam day with everyone else..

All assignments get submitted by post or email..

Remote/external uni is becoming very very popular and as such it's very competitive between unis so some are better then others.. But first step is just contacting a couple.. Talk to them and see if it fits yor needs.

Wow that would of been pretty difficult ey? Did you do it straight out of school? Or how did you get into it? Did you find the maths alright without really having lectures/ tutors?

Cheers for your replies

 

[Brenno]

Got accepted to uni straight out of school.. Had a full time job right after schoolies though so i deferred a 'year' That job became an apprenticeship and I started uni about 3 years later.. 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.. I see a lot of uni grads who seem to think 'I have a degree, I deserve big money and shouldn't have to work for it'.. Having a solid full time employment record helped me out a lot.

Maths has always been a strong point for me so I didn't struggle a lot with it. However I did fail subjects solely because I didn't give them the time they needed first time around. Working full time made it hard to get motivated to study after doing a 12 hour day.

As far as lectures and tutors go most unis set up an online forum (much like this one) so you can have discussions and ask questions. They were very helpful. As I mentioned earlier on all lectures are downloadable.

And as far as not having time for a job?

If I could work 50+ hours a week and hold down two subjects and still have weekends (mostly) free.. I can't see why you can't get a part time job even working in a bottle-o at night or something.

 

[Swordsy]

I work as an Electrical Engineer in design (mainly in mining) Its a good fun job and I'm also based near the coast (Newcastle) There is a bit of travel in my job, but nothing stupid, and I get to play with all the "toys" before the customer gets them. There is always something new and challenging to play with and I'm rarely doing the same thing 2 days in a row.
I quite enjoy it, but it all depends on the company you work for.