New mechanical engineer question?

Question

I am about to graduate college with a batchelors in mechanical engineering and I already have a job line up for when i get out. I am going to be doing finite element/structural anaysis for general dynamics.

My question is this: If I want to eventually get into machinery design or something along those lines will I be less sought after because I worked on finite analysis and have no experience in design? Or, would any previous mechanical engineering job 'in the real world' be better than being fresh out of college, even though it doesn't directly relate to what I would be doing at this new job?

Answer 1

Machinery design isn't anything like the structural finite element analysis and design that you are going to be doing for general dynamics.

Most of your work is going to involve learning how to use and apply computer programs to do your finite element analysis work. The computer programs that you will be learning to use will be whatever general dynamics happens to be leasing for its engineering departments at that time. When you finish your work at G.D. you will be very good at doing finite element analysis using their specific programs and design procedures, (hopefully) but this is a very narrow and specialized field and it might be difficult to break out of it and jump into something else in a different field without all of the computerized support that you will become used to.

G.D. is a great company and one of the best defense contractors there is, and they will probably have a lot of work for a long period of time, and they probably pay at the top of the scale, but if you are not going to be happy inputing and analyzing a lot of computerized data and outputs stay away from it.

If your real passion is to do machinery design, then find a job where you can do that.

Answer 2

In general, real world experience is very valuable and highly transferable early in your career. Simple things like working with others, document control systems, and notebook discipline (to name but a few) are generally not taught in college but are found in almost all engineering departments.

Further, if you want to do machine design you will find use for your experience in finite element analysis which is broadly used to "proof" critical components.

And lastly, you will find that an advanced engineering degree is exceedingly valuable and you will want to plan that in from the outset. GD probably has a program which will help you get that MSME maybe even on site classes. Look into that benefit and good luck.