What's your day job?

C_Claycomb said:
Mechanical Engineer working as a designer of electric motors and generators for aircraft. Before the pandemic I was a senior mechanical designer on the team of five designing the 1MW electric motor for UTC's UTAP project 804. That was definitely an interesting project, which sadly took a big hit when Covid19 came along. For reference, 1MW is about 1340 horsepower, and we were packing it into something about the size of a 20lb propane tank (sorry, couldn't find an accurate beer keg comparison ;))

Now working for Safran on their EngineUS 100kW propulsion motor.

I am biased, but I reckon mechanical engineering is a good route to take in college, if you can handle the maths and are interested in how things work. Lots of job options. The pay in the US is much higher than in the UK, but it is still pretty good, but lots of people with engineering degrees go into other fields. The financial sector likes employing engineers.

Some posts back someone mentioned choosing a path where your work couldn't be done by a computer. This is getting harder, but it is worth thinking about. This video was made seven years ago, but it raises interesting issues.

People have often asked me whether I would try making a living from making things that I have done as hobbies. While it is always there as a vague temptation, I have seen a lot of people I know ruin hobbies they loved by making them jobs, or getting themselves on a treadmill that they cannot easily get off.
Click to expand...

So please correct me if I am wrong, but the project that you were working was to basically create a engine that was more efficient but used less resources thus saving fuel and such? Kind of like a hybrid car correct? The video explained it pretty well but I can't ever put things into words 😂. Very interesting work though.

How did you come about being a Mechanical Engineer? Did you go through internships if any? How is your daily workload? Do you use a lot of skills and the math that you learned and practiced in College? How hands on are you in your job? Lots of deskwork or nah?

Sorry for all the questions but I have to ask. Hopefully it doesn't sound like I am interrogating or beating you down, I'm just curious.🤣
 
Diego_B Diego_B

Yes, that project's aim was to make a more fuel efficient propulsion system. Climb burns a lot of fuel, and combustion engines tend to be optimised for the air density found at cruising altitude, so they are less efficient on take off and climb. The idea of the hybrid system was to use electricity (which could come from a renewable resource) to help with the take off and climb. Like hybrid cars use electric for stop-start city driving, and the gasoline engine for highway cruising.

I had a tendency towards science and crafts at school from a young age. Was doing maths, chemistry and physics for my A-Levels (UK specialise to three or four subjects from age 16-18). Was told I should look at engineering for university, it was described as practical application of physics. I am dyslexic and had a hell of a time getting through the exams at A-Levels with good grades, and a worse time at university. I didn't do an internship, I was worried too much academic info would leak out if I left for a year. I have worked with and mentored maybe ten graduates and mid-degree placement interns and I think its a good thing to get industrial experience if you can, before needing to go find a "real" job. Quite a few students who placed with us came back on the graduate program and stayed as full time engineers.

I don't really know how to answer about workload, and am not sure it it would have much relevance. There are times when everyone is quite stressed. There can be some tough deadlines, but I don't think I know anyone who has pulled an all nighter to meet one. I am in the United Kingdom, and employment laws, pay levels, and work culture are all different than that in the US. We get 25 days vacation allowance per year, plus eight national holiday, right from the day we start work. We cannot be fired on our manager's whim and we can have social conversations in the office without our managers glowering at us, but after 20 years, salary range is equivalent to $58k to $72k, which will sound miserable compared to the average base of over $90k in Texas.

The maths I tend to use is more high school than engineering college. That is just how it has worked out for me in what I do. If I was more into the analysis of loads and stresses, or thermal flow, I would use more advanced maths, although computers have taken on a lot of the heavy lifting. The way I look at the maths on the college course, its brain exercise, and doing it well shows that your brain is capable. I am not particularly good at maths, but there are roles that heavily use statistics, and others that use much more pure mathematics (as opposed to geometry and mechanics). Engineering is a wide field and there is room for the very theoretical, and for the very hands on. I do think I use skills learned at college, but its more about how I approach problems rather than using a technical technique learned in a lecture hall. In many things, the course could only teach the bare basics, but tried to do so for a wide range of subjects. When you go out and get a job, then you really start learning the details, but you need the basic foundation so that you are not totally lost.

My job is at a desk driving a CAD workstation, Excel, Word and some other peripheral software. However, my hands on hobbies have contributed at various times. We use G10 and Micarta type lamiantes, toughened epoxy, 52100 and 440C steels, titanium, we make proper use of lightening strike carbon composite, we worry about flatness, ground finishes, heat treatements, corrosion, machining and the effect of cutting or grinding from hard to soft materials. Those should all sound familiar to a knife maker ;) On a number of occasions I have taken hardware home to my workshop where I can tinker with my tools rather than struggle with the beat-to-hell offerings in the Development-Test workshop. I did get to do a lot of assembly work on some prototype motors a few years back. I think that in larger companies, the folk that do the design don't get so much hands on build opportunities. Smaller companies, folk are expected to do what needs doing.

Hope some of that hot air has been useful.

Chris
 
C_Claycomb C_Claycomb , I have fantasized for years about going back to college after I retire to get an engineering degree, but I really don't think I have the math chops for it. But man I sure like building stuff!
 
C_Claycomb said:
Mechanical Engineer working as a designer of electric motors and generators for aircraft. Before the pandemic I was a senior mechanical designer on the team of five designing the 1MW electric motor for UTC's UTAP project 804. That was definitely an interesting project, which sadly took a big hit when Covid19 came along. For reference, 1MW is about 1340 horsepower, and we were packing it into something about the size of a 20lb propane tank (sorry, couldn't find an accurate beer keg comparison ;))

Now working for Safran on their EngineUS 100kW propulsion motor.

I am biased, but I reckon mechanical engineering is a good route to take in college, if you can handle the maths and are interested in how things work. Lots of job options. The pay in the US is much higher than in the UK, but it is still pretty good, but lots of people with engineering degrees go into other fields. The financial sector likes employing engineers.

Some posts back someone mentioned choosing a path where your work couldn't be done by a computer. This is getting harder, but it is worth thinking about. This video was made seven years ago, but it raises interesting issues.

People have often asked me whether I would try making a living from making things that I have done as hobbies. While it is always there as a vague temptation, I have seen a lot of people I know ruin hobbies they loved by making them jobs, or getting themselves on a treadmill that they cannot easily get off.
Click to expand...
Holy crap dude, I've worked on 1 mw generators that are about 6 ft by 6 ft, by 3 ft deep, that just the windings. You're putting a mw in a propane tank. Crazy to me. What voltage? DC I'm assuming?
 
A.McPherson said:
C_Claycomb C_Claycomb , I have fantasized for years about going back to college after I retire to get an engineering degree, but I really don't think I have the math chops for it. But man I sure like building stuff!
Click to expand...
A McPherson - I would not let the math scare you. I did horribly (like failed) math in early high school (algebra, trig, etc). (I have mild dyslexia also, and I understand the "memory" thing. However, when I got into later studies, the like between how the math would be actually *used* (like in Chemistry, physics, astronomy, and to a lesser degree biology), that "link" between the abstract teaching of "just" math and the real application was more than enough to all of a sudden have the math make sense. something like, gee, a lifetime of experience on you your part, will likely more than enough supply that support for the abstract stuff. Beyond that - it is just slow and steady plodding and practice. Even people like Heisenberg and Einstein were known to be quite "slow" at math - but what made them succeed was the fact that they just stuck with it and plodded through the learning. That was my experience also - when faced with new math concepts and methods - it just took slow and steady practice (though I will *not* compare myself to the likes of Heisenberg and Einstein.). I would say *go for it*!!! You got nothing to loose! (hopefully your local university has a "senior discount" for attending classes - I know the University of Minnesota does - it is literally pennies on the dollar after age 64...... (I have thought about taking some classes in either comp sci or quantum mechanics or astrophysics....)
 
Kevin Kf knives said:
Holy crap dude, I've worked on 1 mw generators that are about 6 ft by 6 ft, by 3 ft deep, that just the windings. You're putting a mw in a propane tank. Crazy to me. What voltage? DC I'm assuming?
Click to expand...
If my memory serves, it was around 600V high frequency AC. Although, the conventional ideas of DC and AC get blurred since power came via electronic control that took in DC and simulated AC with a stepped wave.
Chris
 
A.McPherson said:
C_Claycomb C_Claycomb , I have fantasized for years about going back to college after I retire to get an engineering degree, but I really don't think I have the math chops for it. But man I sure like building stuff!
Click to expand...
I think that I would have enjoyed the chance to learn more if the pressure not to fail and the potential consequences of failure had not been so high. There is stuff I am good at, and I achieved Chartered Engineer status, but regurgitating stuff on exams is not one of them. This is something I confirmed to myself a few years back shortly after I got Chartered, by taking a week long non-engineering course I was interested in with a final exam. I did fine in the week, but got a horrible mark on the exam.

If it is something you are interested in and you want to try, just go for it. At this point you are not relying on success to provide a career, so less pressure. Like the man says, you got nothing to lose. Worst happens and you don’t enjoy it you can end it and go back to just building stuff! The interns I have worked with have said how useful it has been when back on the course that they knew more industry applications of what they were getting taught. Life experience will help some things.
 
Last edited:
C_Claycomb said:
If my memory serves, it was around 600V high frequency AC. Although, the conventional ideas of DC and AC get blurred since power came via electronic control that took in DC and simulated AC with a stepped wave.
Chris
Click to expand...
Awesome dude, insane for me to think about that much power from suck a small motor. Thanks
 
As it happens, my long time 'day job' is being a fashion photographer for catalogs and companies. I started making knives out of my photo studio which is located in an old factory in the NYC area. I have since moved to the Catskills area and set up a separate workshop.
 
C_Claycomb said:
If my memory serves, it was around 600V high frequency AC. Although, the conventional ideas of DC and AC get blurred since power came via electronic control that took in DC and simulated AC with a stepped wave.
Chris
Click to expand...
Thats very similar to how wind turbines "fake" 60hz AC from the variable power input from the wind...they were also DFIGs which still kinda baffles me😂
 
During the week I cook for, and manage a sober living house. On the weekends I sharpen knives at a flee market. When I'm not doing either of those or sleeping I'm spending the rest of my time trying to make knives.

Not a ton of free time lately tbh. It's ok though. I at least enjoy everything I do. So it doesn't feel like I'm working as much as I actually am.
 
Perhaps my work will seem to you the most ordinary, but for me personally it is very interesting and amazing. This is not my main activity, but just a side hustle, but I like to do it as well as my main job. My non-main job is a mystery shopper and it is very interesting and useful for people, since I play the role of a person who provides feedback on a particular institution, service or product and fully describes it. On the one hand, this activity may seem boring to you, but for me to go to different organizations under the guise of an ordinary client, and then write a review about this institution. My job seems cool for me, how do you like it?
 
Last edited:
I make medical device software. I have worked in development, quality, regulatory, and testing, so I have a nice broad perspective on the industry.

I usually wake up, get the kids to school (my wife is at her office usually by 5:30 to avoid Bay Area traffic), and either drive for 90 minutes or (nowadays) take BART to San Francisco (BART is the subway, which often stinks of pot and homeless people.)

Then I am either writing code, requirements, test cases, executing tests, or going around trying to figure out who knows which part of the puzzle, what the piece is supposed to do, and what it is actually doing. It's partly a pain in the butt and partially mentally fascinating, all depends.

One of the fun parts is when I can take out my little Barlow or Lionsteel and use it to poke, prod, or pry something. I feel like an early caveman using a stick to pry open a coconut.

What's really strange is that the mechanical engineers almost universally are fascinated by pocket knives and the software (as opposed to firmware) engineers are almost always cowardly drama queens about pocket knives. Go figure.

I do wish I had become a dentist, though. Lots of working on tiny things with my hands, less industry volatility, less foreign competition, and I would have gotten to take care of patients.
 
ErikMB said:
I make medical device software. I have worked in development, quality, regulatory, and testing, so I have a nice broad perspective on the industry.

I usually wake up, get the kids to school (my wife is at her office usually by 5:30 to avoid Bay Area traffic), and either drive for 90 minutes or (nowadays) take BART to San Francisco (BART is the subway, which often stinks of pot and homeless people.)

Then I am either writing code, requirements, test cases, executing tests, or going around trying to figure out who knows which part of the puzzle, what the piece is supposed to do, and what it is actually doing. It's partly a pain in the butt and partially mentally fascinating, all depends.

One of the fun parts is when I can take out my little Barlow or Lionsteel and use it to poke, prod, or pry something. I feel like an early caveman using a stick to pry open a coconut.

What's really strange is that the mechanical engineers almost universally are fascinated by pocket knives and the software (as opposed to firmware) engineers are almost always cowardly drama queens about pocket knives. Go figure.

I do wish I had become a dentist, though. Lots of working on tiny things with my hands, less industry volatility, less foreign competition, and I would have gotten to take care of patients.
Click to expand...
Interesting!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top