Back to the Future

[SilverBullet]

Sup guys,

I'm a freshman in college and I am thinking about what my major should be. I am thinking of declaring either mechanical or electrical engineering as my major next semester.

Over the past two years I have become very passionate about automobiles and many other mechanical things by doing some research and some dirty work at the same time, but I still don't know if getting a degree in this will be worthwhile since automotive engineering jobs are far and few between.

So I was wondering if there are any engineers in the crowd who can offer their opinion about what they do day to day and the satisfaction they get out of it, or if anybody else has some input on other career fields I can consider within the realm of the automotive world.

Thanks,
John

[hyunelan2]

Although I'm not an engineer, I work with them, and also know a few. One guy I know (mech engineering major) is graduating this May, and has already been hired by Boeing. There's a lot of elec/mech engineering positions beyond automotive. If you're passionate about that field, odds are you can find a job - but no promise of it being in the automotive field.

Personally, with the housing market being the way it is, architectual/construction engineering is a pretty hot field at the moment. Anything having to do with land development is booming.

Good luck to you.

[Atomic]

Totally off topic, but thats the name of this board anyway so, your avatar rocks!! Killer closet monkey from Family Guy, right on.

I've known plenty of engineers out here. Boeing (5 blocks from my house) and other companys like it are a dime a dozen out here and always seem to be hiring, too bad I don't have the know how or will to learn.

[getfuzzd]

if you like chemistry, try chemical engineering. I have a few friends that have ChemE degrees and one's starting salary was about 70K

[Superman]

Well I work at Terry Buick Hyundai here in Jax, FL. I can say it wouldn't be a bad job working on cars if they would let me do more than damn oil changes and tire rotations. It has its ups and downs, but everyday is a different adventure. But Hyundai doesn't pay crap for warranty work :mad:

[SilverBullet]

Thanks for the input fellas. As for the monkey, yeah, I looked for it for an eternity and picked it up at some honda forum....

I joined my school's SAE chapter today and in the next few months will get to work on our school's Formula SAE project race car doing mostly dirty work so that will give me kind of a nice intro to the actual workplace and after that, who knows, maybe I'll end up becoming a realtor or something, hehe.

I am hoping for some coop opportunities too but overall, it seems like a nice thing to be able to work on something you enjoy. Money is always an issue but it's all about progress and skills, the more you have the more you get.