United States Air Force, Micro-miniature repair technician (AFREP). Been in 6 yrs and love it.

2001 F-150 SCREW
-- Lariat
-- 4x4 Off Road

 

Ford auto trans tech

 

32 years experience probably makes you pretty good at your job, but it doesn't make you an engineer.

If one of your designs kills someone do you go to jail, or get sued ?, I'm guessing not. Probably the engineer who signed the drawing off does.

 

I'm not a design engineer, I'm a manufacturing engineer and I manage the manufacturing engineering dept. What we do is after the order comes in, we are the ones who determine how the parts are to be made. We make sure all the materials that are called out on the prints are purchased to the required specifications, we determine if tooling needs to be made and we have a say in how it is made to assure the part meets the print, we specify the sequence of operations and spell them out in detail on the shop router, we assist the manufacturing floor every step of the way, and we are heavily relied upon by the quality control dept to assure that every detail pertaining to the manufacture of the part or complex assembly is completed correctly before it reaches final inspection. Our job isn't finished until the order ships. And this is between 1800 to 2000 active jobs at any one time with 475-500 shop routers per month being issued to the production floor.
I also used to program 4 & 5 axis horizontal machining centers, and I am qualified to teach adult education basic and advanced metal machining. I may not have the sheepskin that says "engineer", but I'd like to see someone just out of school do what I do or do what any of the guys that work for me do. I am proud of what I do as is my entire department, and with all the government orders that we have been doing for the past few years, there's also the sense of pride in our country. We support the war effort 100%.

I didn't take offense at what you said, I just thought I should clarify a bit.

 

If you had the sheepskin you could prolly double or triple your income. I do agree with you the best educator is expirence. When I was first starting college I read a study that reported the average college student only retained like 5% of what they learned.

 

I'm an IT Systems Analyst for USAA. You military guys should know who that is.

 

I know this is getting more off topic, but oh well.

I'm also a degreed engineer, but I don't really agree with this statement. I've got electricians working with me that make more than I do (they get paid OT, I don't) base salary, mine is much higher. Anyway, the point of a degree isn't to make more money, at least not for me.
For me, it's keeping out of a mundane job where I just go in every day and have someone else tell me what to do. My job changes every day and I very rarely do the same thing twice. It's exciting and challenging. What the degree gives you is better opportunities and you learn things faster.
I know some people here who have come up the ranks from electrician to technician to engineer, all without a degree, and they're great technical people... BUT... it does, in general take them longer to pick up on new technologies and it definately takes them longer to move up.

Just MHO.

 

ieee_raider--

I guess the one thing that can be said about a degree then is it all depends on your field of work and what your degree is in on how importatnt it is. My wife hit an income ceiling because she doesn't have one. Here boss told her she would be able to obtain one more promotion if she started back to school but that she was pretty much topped out until she finished it. She is one of the companies senior underwriters and only has 7 years expierence in mortgages, she picks things up quickly though.

 

I know this is still off topic, but I swear it's the last thing I'm going to say about it.


I totally agree with reloader that experience is the best teacher, being a new engineer I have learned more applicable skills in the last 2 years than i did in my 5 years of engineering school, but I like to think that my schooling helped me pick up these skills much faster than I would have otherwise.

But most of all it helped me buy this wicked a$$ FX4 I have now !!!

 

I am a Social Studies teacher who really likes the environment of teaching 11th graders about U.S. History. I've been at it for the last 10 years.

 

Criminal Investigator for the Buraeu of Immigration and Cutsoms Enforcement. Well almost, Im a K-9 handler for the USCS.

 

That's great, I'm a history major when I'm not working my real job. Should be able to get a MA before I retire.

 

Electronic Engineer by day, we make processors that run home theater and in-car audio equipment. (In Lexus, Audi, BMW's, Mini-Coopers, no F-150s yet ;(

By night, helping my girlfriend's dad keep his '41 ford flathead pickup running..

 

Real Estate Agent/Consultant

 

I am a sales rep for several aftermarket parts manufacturers. I am fortunate to work for several of the better companies in the industry. If you ever go to an NHRA race in the southeast, and visit the manufacturer's midway, you have probably spoken with me at some point. I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to all the military folk on this forum and in the sand, mud, sea, and air, both active and retired. How many new vehicle post do Iraqis visit on a daily basis? Whose anthem do they play before the races in Afghanistan? NONE, they dont have races.... We are fortunate to live in a fantastic country with freedoms that most people cant even understand, and it is soley due to our military that we have these freedoms.