Any Engineers here? (Not Plumbers/Mechanics/Fat people in overalls)

panthro said:
Staff jobs have career development support, which is important when you are young and wanting to gain experience, paid courses for many things such as computer programs, team building, assertiveness etc, plus all the above bonuses I mentioned above. Plus, if you play your cards right you can stand to earn a fair amount of money. Some of the staff guys here are very good at their job and valuable to our company, therefore the company pays them a contractors salary just to keep them as staff employees.
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True enough. You need some experience before you go contract. You can build up your skills outside of work too, keep reading, do evening courses.

The point I was making was: do not sell yourself short. As an engineer you should leverage what you know for the maximum amount of money. It is what the doctors and lawyers do. There are too many engineers messing around on 20K who should be earning much more.
 
Most of the guys I work with have Mech Eng. at either HND or various degree levels. My background is computers, but now working towards mech engineering.

We repair high vacuum deposition / etching and cleaning tools used in the semiconductor industry. There are 22 of us in the team, looking after 140 different machines (each worth £1.2 million - £14million) - Been with the company 13 years & a relatively secure job (because no one else would know how to repair the custom built machines without considerable time and training - usually 4 years).

A very interesting job, where we learn something new everyday. And no, we don't wear overalls, we wear entire cleanroom suits.
 
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I am just wondering. What extra things do you need to do to become chartered, or is it just a degree + x years experience + exam = chartered?

I should be taking a 4yr MEng Course at Bath if I get the 3As, and it is IMechE accredited, with the MEng counting towards the chartered status more than the Beng(or so I was told).

Thanks!
 
NicktheNorse said:
Once again, I don't think anyone in my department would agree with this. Average salary is around £60k. Start as a graduate around the £28k mark and once you reach the senior positions (which make up about a quarter of the department) you are around the £100k mark.

On a regular day I work 10 hrs a day, very rarely more than 5 days a week.
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I think the perception that F1 is low paid comes from the hands on guys so to speak. In 99 I was offered a job with BAR. I always fancied getting in on a sport I loved at the time but wanted to actually work hands on with the car.

The money was crap, about the same as the money I got for being an apprentice in my regular job. Of course the perks with travelling were excellent. With years of hardwork you may get somewhere.

One of the guys I did my apprenticeship with though did take the opportunity, his uncle worked somewhere in the design office at benetton and he now works on the no2 car at renault. I often see him on the TV backing the car into the garage as Fisi screwed another car. :D
 
georges said:
I am just wondering. What extra things do you need to do to become chartered, or is it just a degree + x years experience + exam = chartered?

I should be taking a 4yr MEng Course at Bath if I get the 3As, and it is IMechE accredited, with the MEng counting towards the chartered status more than the Beng(or so I was told).

Thanks!
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You'll have the academic requirements covered easily but it seems you would need 4 years experience before you can apply for chartered status.

IMechE said:
Academic requirements for CEng and IEng have been standardised with the introduction of UK-SPEC.

CEng

* Accredited BEng (Hons) degree plus appropriate Masters degree
* Accredited BEng (Hons) degree plus approved Further Learning to Masters level
* Accredited MEng
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IMechE said:
When you apply for Membership and CEng/IEng, you will be assessed against the UK-SPEC competences . Although there is no specification for the amount of time you need to have been in post to meet the competences, a period of at least 4 years is deemed necessary to gain the competences at the required level for CEng and 3 years for IEng.
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EDIT - If you grab this pdf: http://www.engc.org.uk/documents/CEng_IEng_Standard.pdf it should give you some idea of the competencies you would be expected to have and be able to demonstrate in order to meet their professional requirements.
 
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Aha. Thanks a lot for that. I take it it's fully worthwhile too, from what I've heard. Seems nice that I will not need to do more further learning too after uni (or another degree, at least).
 
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