Mechanical Engineering?

Question

What is an example of a Mechanical engineering job? What do they do? I am wondering whether I should study this in college. I look at the courses I would be taking and they seem kind of dull. But I know that in the real world, you usually don't do they stuff they teach in college directly. So, someone that knows or is a mechanical engineer, what would I be doing on the job?

Answer 1

There are so many possibilities.
For instance, only in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineers are designing airplane configurations, figuring control systems, deriving control laws, computing airplane performance, dimensioning control surfaces, sizing the landing gear, determining the stress in the components, and so on.
You have mechanical engineers in automotive industry, and in the electronics industry (just take the mechanism that puts paper though a printer or a copier, that is the work of a mechanical engineer). If it moves, if it is a machine, there was a mechanical engineer involved.

Answer 2

Mechanicals are involved in everything. I design lighting systems and I'm an ME. The biggest field is of course Automotive. If you like cars ME is the best field to get into. You name it and an ME was there. From making electricity to making the hair dryers that use them.

I design products on a computer using CAD. Then I have prototypes made or I make them myself in our machine shop. Then we test them make changes as needed and send the drawings off so the product can be mass produced.

ME graduates are some of the highest paid. It is not an easy degree to get, in fact it is one of the hardest bachelor degrees you can get. The college of engineering always has the lowest GPA even though they have most of the smartest students because it is so tough.

Answer 3

If you can do it, it can pay well.

Compare to Doctor and Attorney. Although an awful lot of engineers don't do this well, some do because of their skill and ability to make their clients money.

There are a lot of people who don't have the skill, background or education to do the job that insist on calling themselves "engineers". This kind of thing drags the profession down in a way that doctors and lawyers don't have to deal with (because of licensing). You have to be licensed to professionally practice engineering, but many skirt the law until they hurt somebody and get sued. There is also an industrial exemption for engineering (if your product is drawings, you have to be licensed, if your product is hardware or widgets, you don't).

Engineering is simply professional problem solving.

In contrast to the previous post, we spend a lot of our time inventing solutions for our clients. The fact of the matter is that "due diligence" and instructions on how to properly maintain and use equipment, etc. do take time and are detailed. But that's just a part of the job.

Invention for us to take existing devices and recombine them into unique and innovative hardware that accomplishes tasks and solves problems for our clients.