Have a look at: The New Science of Strong Materials: Or Why You Don't Fall Through the Floor by JE Gordon

Another shout for JE Gordons book.

again mate. a mech eng course at a proper uni wont be particualryl hands on.

if you want to do engineering as you like engines, taking things apart etc, then look elsewhere!

well, it's not the 'too much maths' thing, it's more the 'stuck in a lab playing with theory' thing… I want to be outside getting my hands dirty, and if this can be done whilst taxing my brain at the same time, then all the better… I'm sick and tired of not living to my potential, it's doing my head in now

What Tracknicko said ^^^^

It sounds like your expectation of what jobs an engineering degree might lead to and the reality of the typical career path for a new grad, say, mech eng are pretty much at odds.

but 'eventually' it could lead to more hands-on stuff right? I'm hopeless with engines TBH, but I do like challenges and problem solving… everything I read about engineering sounds like it'd suit me well, for some reason it's got me interested anyway… shall take a read of JE Gordons book to get a feel for some of the subject, should be a start anyway…

sorry dude. there's two reasons we lose 15% or so of first years at the end of the 1st year.

1) cant keep up with all the maths and fail
2) didn't realise how maths/theoretical it was and leave as it's 'boring'

where're you based Tracknicko? Sound's like you're at a Uni?

Civil engineers maximise the use of nature’s resources to the benefit of mankind. Today, heightened concern about the protection of the environment means that civil engineers are very much involved in minimising the impact on the environment of construction and development projects, and in controlling pollution. Civil engineering covers a wide variety of activities. These range from projects in the Third World such as water supplies, irrigation, pollution control, roads and bridges, to major projects in the UK such as the 2012 Olympic sites and Battersea developments. Civil engineers also play a key role in the drive for the regeneration of inner cities and areas of urban decay. There are many opportunities for working abroad, and engineering projects can often make a major contribution to a country’s social and economic wellbeing.

From Imperial College's website… all sounds pretty good to me, though I do get that there's a lot of maths behind it all, but it's 'real' maths, not theoretical mumbo jumbo, right?

In the town of your current world champ doing a PhD in engineering – hence my overactivity on biking forums…

I'm Australian… 😉

he's everyone's world champ baby!

Yeah, but that's a website 😉

Unless you can land on your feet in a small company where you can get your fingers in lots of pies, the reality will be that as a new grad in a large company you will expected to do some pretty noddy stuff, non client facing, in an office for a quite a while. The reality is that the skills you get from your degree are in helping the design process through calculation – most of the hands on stuff will be done through technicians in a company/contractors on site and you supervise what they do…… if you actually want to do and make stuff, then look into becoming a technician.

Having an engineering degree means that you get to sit in meetings and listen to people disscusing seriously dull dull dull …….. nonsense that has nothing to do with anything. The qualification means that its your signature that goes on the reports, so that you can be blamed when things go wrong.

You might want to consider an advanced modern apprenticeship in something. The guys at HOPE, for example, did their apprenticeship tool making at Rolls-Royce. It is hands on and it is a first rung on the ladder to further opportunities.

How about Physics and Astronomy? The astronomers did lots of practical observation and the maths in the astronomy lectures was never very hard. Could very much depend on what facilities the dept. has though. While I was in the first of my physics course we had to do extra maths because even 12 yrs ago A-level maths didn't get us up to the required standard. Uni was very friendly and I found there was always lots of help available.

I've an engineering degree from an old uni (late 90s).

It was very theoretical and maths-intensive. It may have been an age thing, but despite being fairly capable, inquisitive and interested in technical things, to be quite honest, I didn't enjoy the course much at all. I did pick up a lot of information and various concepts, but I didn't like the very academic way that the course was implemented.

FWIW, I'm still a fan of Engineering, but have never found an engineering job I'm that happy with -I'm certainly not fulfilling my potential.

As above, there are a lot of meetings and documentation.

From what I've seen, Site Engineers on construction projects seem to have jobs that keep them busy, but a lot of hassle when progress slips.

-If I was you (or if I had my time again), I'd do medicine instead.

One thing worth considering is Computer Science. Some people argue it is engineering, some argue it is science, but it doesn't really matter.

In the modern world, probably way more of what makes things happen is actually in software than building hardware. Even crazy things like camera lenses have a chip running some software in them. An electrical engineering degree will teach you lots of programming, and a load of stuff about electricity, whereas on a CS degree, you learn all about computer based problem solving in depth. Personally I think most of the more interesting problems involving tinkering with software rather than hardware.

Like engineering, there are lots of boring jobs you can go into after a CS degree, but there are also cool things that require programming.

At the moment, I am messing around with automated ride systems at work. They are cool in a big machinery way. The engineering element is pretty much a solved problem (some clever engineers put some big motors together, and make a control panel with lots of safety limits on, we hook some actuators on to the control panel), whereas the ride automation stuff we're looking at is purely software, and no one has done it before.

Computer science is a bit mathsy, and being good at maths really helps you be good at programming, but to be honest I reckon on most CS courses the maths is way less hard than engineering maths.

Joe

https://apprenticeshipvacancymatchingservice.lsc.gov.uk/navms/forms/candidate/Apprenticeships.aspx

I did Aeronautics in the early 90's (now I feel old) and it was all maths, maths, and more maths. There were labs, of course, but even there the focus was on data collection and then doing the maths on the results…

I now work in IT, I probably should have done Computer Science instead 🙂