As an Engineer, will you just sit on your butt?

Woopydalan

Maybe community college teacher or high school. I know they make squat for cash but if I can live frugally and get the summer/winter to travel it'd be more worth it than working year round for twice as much money, especially if I can only spend it on things that I care less about (house size, cars, etc)

KidWonder

Thanks for the heads up Guys.

I just want to enjoy my job. I think I envisioned the wrong picture of what an Modern Engineer does on a daily basis.

It's depressing to me, if I have to stare at a Computer Screen ALL DAY LONG. I want to design, build, test, and refine. But, that's certainly not happening.

Woopydalan

Maybe you should get a PhD and become an academic engineer, then you get to do the real nitty gritty of design.

KidWonder

What is a Academic Engineer?

Woopydalan

Someone who is a professor of engineering at a university, they conduct research at their school. I'm guessing they get more design freedom than your standard engineer in industry, but what do I know

Pyrrhus

What do you mean by those words?

Design -> Sitting with software tools, staring at a screen.

Build -> Actually using tools, and putting metallic frames together? (that is a machine and/or a mechanic work). However, INVENTORS do those kind of jobs, but I think that's mostly freelance work.

Test -> It's a way to collect a lot of data of your prototype, and then you need to analyze through a available software, or program your own (more time sitting).

Refine -> Improvements in design? additional testing? more time sitting.

FAlonso

Go to an oil rig and you wont be sitting in office.

Go to a mechanical design company, you will be desperate to find a chance to walk around.

ME is a very broad field. Do not generalize it by looking at one or two person.

WannaBeME

I hope to not get just the average mechanical engineering job, with a concentration in aerospace I and hopefully masters in aerospace engineering that I can do something more exciting, but I'm not counting on it right off the bat. Even if I end up in a regular ME job, I could justify it by using my knowledge and skills to design, build, test things of interest in my free time. Better than not getting paid well and working with my hands by putting together someone else's design.