Is anyone an engineer or scientist?

Setherial

Setherial

Metal Slug Mechanic
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fatson said:
So many education levels in this thread.
Makes me feel a bit dumb, I never finished highschool :(
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Don't sweat it dude. Being educated and being smart are 2 different things. Remember that ;)
 
joe8

joe8

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StealthLurker said:
Hmmm that's interesting. Every company I've worked at so far requires a related PhD at a bare minimum to earn the title "scientist."

Quite a few of the engineers on my teams have as many as 3 masters degrees in electrical, mathematics and or some area of physics. Some even have PhDs.

The boss that I respected the most in my career was an Engineering manager with a PhD in nuclear physics and mathematics. Boy was he sharp. His wife also had a PhD in Chemistry and would come in and help out here and there as a sub. Over the years, helped him pen quite a few papers and proposals. We did all sorts of interesting work from toxicology, gene expression, distributed computing, helicopter health monitoring with neural nets, blah blah blah. I miss being in R&D.
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So what are you saying, that some of your people on your team have engineering degrees, as well as science masters in mathematics, physics, electrical, etc? I have heard that you need at least a PhD in science to have decent chance to get a job (at least in Australia, where wages are high). Engineering seems a better option, as there is the potential of getting a job after 4 years, as well as doing further study to parlay it into something more of a science career. I am looking at doing Mechanical Engineering, as it can be involved with scientific fields such as nanotechnology. It's hard to get a job as a scientist in Australia, but you can go overseas, where minimum (starting) wages are lower.

Deciding between becoming a scientist or an engineer kinda depends on your expected career path. To get respect as a scientist (within your profession) you need to get a phd and more. You'll end up at a school doing research, or working in a lab at a company. The ones I worked with worked primarily in the product development and environmental department. It seems like it is very difficult to leave the technical field to become a manager (if that's your thing)

The engineers need at least a bachelor degree. Going further "focuses" you into a specialty. (I guess there are those combo general and MBA programs as well). The farther up you go, the more like a scientist you become. In my company engineers are mostly in the manufacturing side and work in production, projects, or maintenance. They are tasked with keeping the place running efficiently and safely. Almost all the managers in the company are engineers (Including VPs and Ps).
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What do you think of doing an engineering degree, and then further study in a science degree? Or is it better to just do one or the other? Or do whichever degrees fit the career path/specialty you are trying to do?
 
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ki_atsushi

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joe8, do the world a favor and don't try to become an engineer or a scientist.
 
StealthLurker

StealthLurker

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joe8 said:
So what are you saying, that some of your people on your team have engineering degrees, as well as science masters in mathematics, physics, electrical, etc? I have heard that you need at least a PhD in science to have decent chance to get a job (at least in Australia, where wages are high). Engineering seems a better option, as there is the potential of getting a job after 4 years, as well as doing further study to parlay it into something more of a science career. I am looking at doing Mechanical Engineering, as it can be involved with scientific fields such as nanotechnology. It's hard to get a job as a scientist in Australia, but you can go overseas, where minimum (starting) wages are lower.


What do you think of doing an engineering degree, and then further study in a science degree? Or is it better to just do one or the other? Or do whichever degrees fit the career path/specialty you are trying to do?
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Yes, in fact last week I hired a guy to work in my algorithms team. He has a bachelors and masters in nuclear engineering. Also a PhD in fault diagnosis.

I don't know about other folks/areas, but in my circle of friends who are in the science/research fields... you'll get nowhere without at a least a PhD.

Yeah in engineering you have a better shot at getting a decent job with just a bachelors. Also depends on what field of engineering. Usually computer engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering are fairly easy to get a job in.... though in EE, it's harder to get a start vs CE/CS. In my area, it's hard to get a job in mechanical.

If I could do it all over again though... I'd just be some kind of medical doctor :lolz: Maybe a dermatologist for a nice 9-to5 haha
 
MidnightMonkey

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StealthLurker said:
If I could do it all over again though... I'd just be some kind of medical doctor :lolz: Maybe a dermatologist for a nice 9-to5 haha
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I second that notion. Dropped out of college and now I kinda engineer satellite networks. It sucks. The pay sucks. The people suck. I should have been an anesthesiologist.
 
NeoSneth

NeoSneth

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MidnightMonkey said:
I second that notion. Dropped out of college and now I kinda engineer satellite networks. It sucks. The pay sucks. The people suck. I should have been an anesthesiologist.
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That's a good choice in MD fields. All the pay and none of the work.
 
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