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Best area of engineering

amistyfog

Hello all,
I have to fill out my CAO application in a few weeks and im feeling very nervouus thinking about it. I was set on mechanical engineering in DCU but ive talked to a few people and theyve said that its near impossible to find a job in mechanical.

What is the best area of engineering for gaurenteed, well paid work? Please give me your side of things, i really need some solid advice.

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Boston

wooly69 wrote:

LiouVille :mad: , rite for a start have you any actual facts to back these dubious comments.

As a DCU eng student and from talking to various employers; DCU has actually an advantage when looking for a job; as a 6month work placement programme exists (INTRA) in third year. When employers are looking for college graduates its looks very good to have on ones CV to have already worked with Intel, HP etc.

I know my course had over 80% of that class found a job, where as many others went travelling etc.

Have you any facts and figures to back up your dubious claims? Many universities offer the 6 month work placements. I've known people in DCU who where not able to obtain work placements. Experience always looks good, no doubt. The first time I heard it suggested the mech eng students can't find employment was on this thread. I did two years of mech eng in trinity (benefit of trinity) and now I'm finishing off with elec, I've never heard anyone talk about not being able to get a job.

Tar.Aldarion

440Hz wrote:

Im doing an elec eng PhD and loads of the graduating class here seem to be sorted for work. The numbers are really dropping for Elec/Comp Eng in UL this year. Only 6 first year comp eng'ers for this academic year... very low. And NO girls... boo. (Not that I mind being the only girl of course :v: )

Numbers are dropping a lot alright, last year when i was in first year there was only about ten elec+comp engeneers and ten electronic whereas there used to be way way more. Some are dropping out now too and technicall there are no girls in my class.
Two in elec though...:)

Mr. Grieves

Last year when i was in 1st year, the undenominated eng class in ucd were given a talk by representives of all the branches of engineering before we made our choice. The mech guy basically said there were no design jobs in Ireland at the moment, but this didn't seem to put many people off (the class is huge while only 4 people entered elec from undenom).
I imagine there are still jobs in other areas for mechs but information about these thing always seems very vague. Anyway everyone always says it'll be totally different 4 years down the line when you graduate.
I chose elec after 1st year because it interested me, but when i was filling out my CAO, i wouldn't even have considered it ( i put undenom and mech at nos 1 and 2).

SparkyLarks

Ther isn;t much point in filling out your CAO form based on the jobs market.
When I started Elec Eng it was the course to do, points were soaring up, despite the places being increase every year.
graduate salaries and packages were great, it was the same all the way up till I started my final year.

I know a lot of the class the year ahead of me took a year out rather than starting work because there would be no problems getting Elec eng jobs.

then in April( I think) two days before the were due to show our final year projects, technology stocks crashed, fortunes wer wiped out, and most technology firms initiated hiring freezes. It was very very hard to get a job for an Elec eng Grad for the next 18 months.

meanwhile the civil engineers( a lot of whom has Elec eng down as their first choice) found that that they were in huge demand and since then the points for civil have gone up and up.( and the points for Elec eng gone down and down) . though it is only this year( maybe last too) that the civil graduates actuall started after the Tech crash, so none of the civil grads over the past few years went because it was the "Best" engineering for jobs.

and in 4 years time the building industry may have slowed down, and ther may be a glut of civil engineers, and a huge demand for electrical( because of the small no's of EE grads)

I know I've left out most of the disciplines of engineering in my tale but the job market for each fluctuates so knowing what's hot in 4 years is almost impossible, especially as crashes tend to happen suddenly.

However, if you do something you are intrested in and that you enjoy, you should be able to be good at it, if you are good at soomething you wil make money

franman

Nukem wrote:

Your havin a larf right! In my final year and iv gotten a few calls regarding work in the next few months. They are crying out for Mechs in the Munster area - Centi core job and Anjem have all new plants and there are about 6 more companies sitting on the fence on the pharmaceutical side ready to build in Ireland. Buddy has been moved from Intel to Pfizer and now he is off to someone else they cant get him to jobs fast enough!

So you don't actually have a job!! no offense but just because you have gotten a few calls doesn't mean your gonna walk into an engineering job. As for your friend what type of work is he doing the the pharma industry? Its where i ended up myself and im just interested to know what another mech engineer is doing.

Nukem wrote:

Your a grad i understand but where are you getting your info? The only other extremely flexible engineering is Marine Eng and i know a few and they can talk the talk and walk the walk on any job.

I graduated in 04 so have been out for over a year. Info just from chem engineers that i have ended up working with that know mech engineers that are struggling. Also my own class the fact that i have a link to the head of engineering outside of college.

Nukem

franman wrote:

So you don't actually have a job!! no offense but just because you have gotten a few calls doesn't mean your gonna walk into an engineering job. As for your friend what type of work is he doing the the pharma industry?

Never said that what i said was that there are possibilities out there. Your saying there are none. By the way i worked from May to Sept in Engineering and got another call from another crowd asking was i available for a six month contract before christmas (turned down as i have only 3.5 months to finish my degree)

franman wrote:

As for your friend what type of work is he doing the the pharma industry?

He is in the biz of actually building/designing/installing new modules in new plants.

godtabh

SparkyLarks wrote:

and in 4 years time the building industry may have slowed down, and ther may be a glut of civil engineers, and a huge demand for electrical( because of the small no's of EE grads)

If the economy slow down civil will be one of the first industries to suffer. If there is no money to build roads there is no jobs for civil. But if there is a slow down every industry will be effected nit just civil.

One of the advantages do of studying as an engineer do is that fact that many other industries look to employee us so if there is an industry specific slow down chances are you could do something else like work in a bank etc

civdef

Fire Engineering - not too many of us around, you need to go to the UK to get an undergraduate degree in the subject, but there's lots more jobs than graduates. Another popular option is to do a masters in the subject on the back of an engineering degree in another discipline - University of Ulster offers such a course.

The labs are fun too

Nukem

Is that to do with fire panels (basic layout) and then the more advanced explosive supression systems and all that capper. Majorily cool. Buddy works for Chubb and he wants to do that course in England to specialize as there is very little engineers of that nature around.

Nuke

civdef

It's not so much fire alarms (though that is covered) as how fire itself works, and how to suppress/prevent/limit it.

I did explosion suppression systems as a research topic at one stage.

Nukem

civdef wrote:

I did explosion suppression systems as a research topic at one stage.

Just sounded like such a unique topic to have specialized in - blow something up because you have ta

Nuke

civdef

Funnily enough the novelty wears off very quickly!

(Spending hours trawling through thousands of lines of datalogger entries after a test which took about half a second plays a large part.)

Nukem

Ya i heard a funny story about a Dell supression system that went off by accident triggered by a cleaner and lets just say he said it was impressive before they showed him the door!
Took them ages to fix it afterwards

theCzar

haven't read the preceeding, but in reference to thread... follow your heart!

But if you have no heart (and so will make a great Engineer)

Civil: Loads of jobs at the moment, and for forseeable future

Mech: Don't know much TBH

Chem: From my experience, the best paid, there's competition for the best jobs but there seems to be no shortage otherwise. Loads of companies in Cork, probably bacause they feel chemical spills will have the least enviromental impact there

Elec: My own discipline, therefore the best. Hardest course apparently, with extra helpings of advanced calculus at every oppourtunity. Jobs are available, especially with Ericsson and Intel.

godtabh

theCzar wrote:

Civil: Loads of jobs at the moment, and for forseeable future

Just a pity they dont get paid the best!

amistyfog

Followed my heart i did, you only live once and i intend to study something i like. Filled out my CAO on friday night over the net.... My first choice was Medical Mechanical Engineering in DCU i believe its the course for me

More info on the course here http://www.dcu.ie/prospective/deginfo.php?classname=MEDM&mode=full

Thanks for everybodies words of wisdom and guidance, cant say thanks enough

Single Cell

AmistyFog....

My advice is to study something that you have an interest in, believe me when you have interest and like what your doing, then that 90% of the hassel when it comes to exams. If the demand for Mech Eng is not high now who knows what it'll be like in 4yrs.

Caio.

amistyfog

phantom_lord

amistyfog wrote:

a

eh??

mac_leinn

Hi amistyfog

I went to DCU myself. I did computer-aided mechanical and manufacturing engineering. I noticed from your first post that you had your heart set on mechanical engineering. Well your going to get a good dose of mech eng as there is a lot of overlap between the different degrees. First year is a common year, even if you specify what type of engineering you want to do, be it computer-aided, medical or business. I assume its still like that now. Theres still a lot of common courses in 2nd year. Its third and fourth when you start to do course specific subjects.

I dug this out of my DCU folder on my computer:

-Digital Image Processing to detect abnormalities

-An investigation into food rgeology in the treatment of dysphalgia

-3-D reconstruction of microstructures from consecutively recorded 2-D images

-CFD modelling of the dispersion of inert particle contaminants in a room

-CFD modelling of cross flow heat exchanger.

-Digital Image Processing to detect abnormalities

-Design optimisation of a direct muscle tendon vibrator for strength training

-Stress Analysis in Intracranial Saccular Aneurysms

-Design, manufacture and testing of Silicone Rubber Tubes for the production of Arterial Bioprosthesis

-Development and validation of a Finite Element model of a silicon based artificial arterial bioprosthesis

-Biomedical Coatings – Film deposition for hardness augmentation

-Evaluate & analyse the effects of various materials and or design’s for the Fusion Process to optimise the tensile strength & detachment times of the coil & core-wire interface

-Finite Element Analysis of Curing of Acrylic Bone Cement

-Creep Testing of PMMA bone cement

-Design, Construction and Analysis of a Dialysis Demonstration Unit

-Manufacture and Mechanical Testing of Tissue Engineering Substrates

Its a list of all final year projects carried out by medical mechanical students in 2004

This list will also give you an idea of the research areas the lecturers and school are interested in.

Hope this info is of some use. I know you already made your choice but you can never have too much information

mac

Darren1o1

I currently study medical mechanical engineering in dcu and find it is a great choice. The course was recently accreditted to the institute of engineers, whereas other qualifications have yet to be accredited eg ul biomedical degree. The title of the degree is being changed next yr to biomedical and mechanical engineering and will give you a choice in career path. The course is like all other eng courses quite tough with long hour

A guy further up said the hiring rate is poor from dcu eng. Well from what i have seen there is no problem, with from what i have been told boston sci and other comps preferring dcu grads to other couterparts. There is good international collarboration, i am currently on work experience in germany with a large international company while friends of mine are in austria doing research.

There is alot of jobs in biomechanical engineering at the mo despite what people say. Boston sci have recently moved i research centre from the states and 8 out of the top 10 medical companies in ireland at the moment you should be ok for a job

I would give it the thumbs up, but i suppose it is a personal choice. If you have a q's just give us a shout and i'm sure i can help

JoseJones

anyone studying or know anything about aeronautical engineering?

Nukem

franman wrote:

So you don't actually have a job!!

Well just thought id update on this moan about mech jobs. Finished college exams on Saturday 11.30 and start work Monday 8.00.
Our class had 80% employment before leaving college,talking to people who start tomor and all this week. People going to Coffey,Rolls Royce,Pfizer,Boston Scientific,Guidant,Airbus and Sikorsky....and so on. Mech & Aero as you can see has a very high employment rate.

JoseJones wrote:

anyone studying or know anything about aeronautical engineering?

Just finished with a load of Aero heads from UL,class course but in terms of jobs you will most likely have to go abroad:o unless you can get into somewhere like the Air core or Shannon Aerospace.They do a coop where you can be sent to a company like Airbus or Boeing or the like for 9 months abroad to get experience.Check www.mae.ul.ie for more info and classes

ScabbyLeg

I've just finished third year in Aeronautical engineering in UL. You start off in first year with the exact same set of subjects as mechanical and biomedical engineering, and as the years go by the subjects get a little more specialised in each area. This past semester I had 3 subjects that were shared with the mech eng class and three that were aero specific.

I wouldn't really take too much notice of what each college tells you regarding job prospects... looking at it objectively, whichever college you're in will try to give you the impression that they're the best or have the best employment records. In general though engineering does seem to be a pretty safe career path to be on.

UL certainly isn't a perfect college but one thing they really got right was the coop / work placement programme. I think all of the class got placement in an aero-related field and lots of us were able to go abroad- I spent 8 months working in Germany and others were over in France working for the likes of Airbus and Snecma.

When I was chosing Aero Eng at the time of the CAO, a lot of people told me that it didn't specifically matter whether I decided on mechanical or aero (or even biomedical)... and the further I get through the course, the more I realise that that really is the case.

Still ****ing delighted to be finished those exams last week though!

PDelux

There were a couple of articles in yesterday's Financial Times basically saying how the British have to import engineers from Germany and India because they do not have enough graduates. So, loads of jobs over there

These days in Ireland I think the business graduates are the ones with the pick of the jobs and high salaries.

ScabbyLeg

Having done my coop in Germany I know that they're screaming out for more engineers over there. Lots of German students I met working were studying a mix of half business and half engineering and were working in logistics type jobs, so lots of companies are still looking for pure mechanical type engineers. That's how it was in the north anyway, with companies like Airbus and Lufthansa doing very well at the moment.

I don't really know what to make of business studies. There might be rake loads of jobs but there are also rake loads of graduates! Probably double the number of engineering graduates in UL.

DJDC

I am a 3rd year in Mech Eng in UCD and I'd say most of my class have decent work experience lined up for the summer.The IAESTE program really sorted out loads of people and also others are working in BMW,ESB etc.Its seems the UL class have done really well too.

The facts speak for themselves.If you want to become a mechanical engineer go to UCD or UL,because you wont have difficulty getting a decent job upon graduation.I dont know what the story is with the other colleges but in my opinion they are the 2 best undergraduate mech courses in the country both in terms of calibre of student and quality of course and employers know it.

Nukem

DJDC wrote:

mechanical engineer go to UCD or UL,because you wont have difficulty getting a decent job upon graduation

CIT has come leaps and bounds - talking to a few lads and they are all employed as well:D

Borzoi

DJDC wrote:

I dont know what the story is with the other colleges but in my opinion they are the 2 best undergraduate mech courses in the country both in terms of calibre of student and quality of course and employers know it.

So as an under graduate, you have some sort of of broad sweeping generalisation, without any direct expereince.

As an employer, it doesn't matter to me, where you got your degree, just as long as you have a (vaguely) relevant one. It's going top be at least 12months further on the job training and experience before you're of any use - some jobs require more time, some less.

Consider the IEI's view that it requires 4 years of responsible experinence to be chartered, ie a professional engineer. By which time you'll realise how little college teaches:D

copacetic

Borzoi wrote:

So as an under graduate, you have some sort of of broad sweeping generalisation, without any direct expereince.

As an employer, it doesn't matter to me, where you got your degree, just as long as you have a (vaguely) relevant one. It's going top be at least 12months further on the job training and experience before you're of any use - some jobs require more time, some less.

Consider the IEI's view that it requires 4 years of responsible experinence to be chartered, ie a professional engineer. By which time you'll realise how little college teaches:D

as he says, i thought having gone to UCD (elec), struggled through 4 years of what is considered one of the most academically challenging courses with over a 50% failure rate for the second years exams it would count for something. As it turns out employers couldn't give a ****e where you went to college (as you soon find out you learnt feck all useful and they know it). No-one employs a grad expecting them to be able to do anything useful for 6 months to a year...

I remember all that talk in college from lecturers and students about how UCD was the best, trinity was mickey mouse, dcu wasn't any good and as for DIT! (This was 9 years ago now) I did my master in TCD and the same crap was spoken there, but with the we are a 'small elite' faculty take on it. Then you get out in the real world and no-one gives a crap about where u went, only what your final result was and possible what your thesis/final year project was on. Once you have a years experience, thats all the matters.