Job

I know a lot of mechanical engineers, they know absolutely nothing about cars, I would be surprised if they could change their own oil. Half of them don't even own a car and ride a bicycle to work.

>>15984331
Kek

>>15984340
That's not a joke, that's just the way it is. Hardly any engineers at car companies have anything to do with figuring out how anything actually works, they are just on a subteam of a subteam that's working on a dome light or some other small detail. There's maybe 3 people that actually have any idea how the car is actually going to work and they sure as fuck aren't mechanical engineers.

>>15984319
I used to be a car mechanic, now I do maintenance in a factory.

1.10k times easier
2. use 9/16" wrench and 3/16" allen 99% of the time
3. get paid twice as much
4. inside all the time, we have giant water cooling towers that keep the temperature stable in the plant
5. work 12s on a rotation so I basically work 7 days every two weeks, never more than 3 days in a row.
6. look like a mechanical god because I worked on cars and am good at it, and these guys have just been derping around the plant and nothing else.
7. basically do 3-4 hours of work and fuck around on my phone most of the time.

>>15984331
This. I don't think OP knows what mechanical engineering actually is.

>>15984319
If you want to know about cars, just learn about cars. Buy a simple one and the shop manuals. Take it apart, put it back together. Literally zero math involved.

>>15984340
He's right. It's not even funny.

Book smarts aren't street smarts. There were so many people in my program that went to their first jobs having never held a drill. And when people with actual skills, limited as they may be, have to interact with these people who claim to know what they're doing because they took the class, then forget that things aren't screwed together using fucking magic and forget to even put spaces in their designs for bolts or welds or anything... It's frustrating because you can't trust them to actual produce anything.

People need a combination and sadly it seems we're progressing more and more toward one or the other. Immigrants are particularly bad for this.

>>15984319
I went to school for a semester to be a ME so I'm more than qualified to answer any questions about anything.

im an electronic specialist trying to get into the medical equipment feild and engineers are basiclly people such as myself who also have a lot of money

>>15984331
>>15984360
I think a lot of mechanical engineers who like cars wouldn't actually work at car places, because they know they wouldn't be in charge of parts on an actually good car. Design some great suspension and it won't be made because beancounters don't like the cost. Make a great engine and it'll be choked to death from emissions stuff. And it's all going to go in some bloated crossover anyway.

>>15984360
Define mechanical engineer? Someone with a mechanical engineering degree?
Most car manufacturers won't even look at a potential employee without one.

>>15984381
>>15984360

In reality, non-fucktards should be able to apply what they learned in school. Most don't though.

>>15984420
You post like someone who's never even had a proper job.

>>15984420
These days you are lucky to get hired anywhere, I guarantee they don't care, they get an internship where they can and pray they get an offer. Nobody that hasn't been in the field a long time is out there picking and choosing

>>15984429
Someone who is working as a mechanical engineer in the field. Not all have degrees, but most do or at least a closely related degree.

>>15984430
Right, but they don't teach you the real world in school. Things like availability of parts, ability to manufacture, generally accepted/standard practices, all things you'd know having been around the things you're working on.

>>15984470
The guy I know who's a mechanical engineer in the auto sector knows an awful lot about cars and doesn't spend his time designing dome lights.

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>>15984470
>Someone who is working as a mechanical engineer in the field. Not all have degrees
is it possible to be a mechanical engineer and not have a degree?

>>15984319
>I assume it would really help in tuning of a car the most optimal way and noticing things most people don't
You assume wrong.

Unless you specifically take a course in chassis dynamics you won't know any more than anyone else.
Unless you consider knowing basic physics definitions a major advantage.

>>15984470
>These days you are lucky to get hired anywhere
Is this a meme? M.E. has an 80% direct placement percentage.

>Mechanical Engineer reporting in
>Work in the aviation industry
>Into older Jeeps, general off road shit
>Love rebuilding transmissions, transfercases and custom axles.


The degree only really helped with understanding good fabrication techniques, understanding stresses on components, and elemental understanding of why/how something works. It does not relate much to auto mechanics in a literal sense; experience trumps all. I know most knowledgeable mechanics could build an engine better than I could. I also know that it killed my ability to do anything 'artistic'; I can't do body work for shit. My instinct would rather weld plate to a dent it to make it stronger.

I'd say 50% of the people I know with a ME degree could change their own oil, 25% frequently change their own oil, and less than 10% are extremists that rebuild their own engines or fabricate their own roll cage.

I got lucky enough that I work with two other mechanical engineers that are big into off road stuff. Most can relate to turning a wrench, but a lot of them will never do so.

No, engineers aren't taught how to produce things in the real world. That defies everything they've been taught. That doesn't mean they're retarded or don't understand how to make something work, it's that they're going to produce something that literally cannot exist, it's machinists and fabricators who make their ideas come to fruition. An engineer will ask someone to produce two parts that fit together one that has an outer diameter of .500" and one with an inner diameter of .500". Anyone making this part knows that that's impossible but the engineer (or the machinist, because we don't put up with bullshit) will defer to tolerances and make the part work within reasonable tolerances. Engineers don't build, they design. It takes a team of engineers and mechanics, machinists and fabricators to actually make something worth a damn. As a machinist I don't really understand the hate, engineers are a necessary resource in determining design of bloody anything.

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>>15985567
>engineers don't know about fits and tolerances
>engineers don't build

>>15985166
>and less than 10% are extremists that rebuild their own engines or fabricate their own roll cage.
so about 1000x higher likelyhood than the general population

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>>15984319
I'm a mechanical engineer. While my knowledge certainly helps me when choosing modifications to my car outside of a race track it really isn't as applicable as you would think. It's not like I am designing an engine or new part, everything you or I buy or do has been done before.
>I have yet to choose my career I wanna hear your experiences
STEM. The fucking end. Or accounting or another specialized type major. Work is not supposed to be fun. If it was they wouldn't pay you. While the industry I work in is certainly far from my college dreams of working for an auto company or a firearms manufacturer, I enjoy what I do and do a damned good job.

Don't be one of those retarded faggots who gets an English degree or psychology or that shit and gets to wait tables with 65k in student loans. While I may have had 65k in student loans, that was also my starting salary out of school. Money is freedom, work is slavery, and very few find happiness through their work. Hobbies, friends, and family man.
>>15984331
This. My knowledge of cars simply comes from it being my hobby. They don't teach you much in school that is practical to your average "tuner"

TFW just a mechanic

>>15985567
>anyone making this part know that's impossible
Stop right there, criminal scum, press-fit and heated press-fit are things.

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I >>15985688
completely agree with you. >>15985166

For the most part we just look at things differently than others. Very little is applicable to the day to day automotive hobby, and all can be learned elsewhere. Being a mechanical engineer certainly doesn't make one a better mechanic nor driver.
>>15985567
>mfw I've worked as a machinist and have years of experience in optimization of design for manufacturability
pic 4 u

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>>15985567
Also sorry you work with shitty engineers. There are a lot of them out there sadly who don't even own a fucking machinist's handbook.

>be inna third world country
>no job no car
>2nd year of 3 year car mechanic course
>teacher forces the group of 25-30 into 1 or 2 engines/suspension setups (minus the chassis of the car) and tells us to dismantle it, how to do it, usual problems with each part, how to put it together, if shit goes wrong what the cheap replacements are
>i am actually given a title
>planning to take the extra fuel injection, AC, and tunning courses
>love studying this shit
>actually learning a lot
>forces everyone in the class to do something dirty or to work on an actual car
>teacher tells us shortcuts when space is an issue when working inside cars, some common cars with weird details like how in some common cars here its easier to remove the entire chassis from the engine/tranny instead of the other way around


Cant be more happy until they actually decide to teach even more high tech shit. It works to fix stuff and understand how it works but not to be hired by ferrari or Nismo.

>>15984381
>immigrants are particularly bad for this
i'm in a mechanical engineering program, the majority of kids in my class are straight out of india. all of them have a 100% average in engineering math class but can't even use excel to make a very basic spreadsheet. come time to use cad and they're completely fucked. i rushed my last assignment like shit, i got 75% on it and the class average was somehow 55%. had i spent more than 45 minutes on it i might have caught the hidden lines in my drawing that i missed and got close to double the class average. that's fucking sad considering the majority of the job is going to be drawing stupid shit in cad.

there should be a common sense test to be taken prior to school entrance and not just math/sciences course. Literally anyone can memorize shit and regurgitate it onto paper, the people who actually matter to a company knows how to take information and do something meaningful with it.

>>15985773
>the people who actually matter to a company knows how to take information and do something meaningful with it.
Don't worry man, the real world isn't like acadamia. The shitty engineers get weeded out or never move up. Hell, just being able to talk to people and able to get laid means you will excel after school compared to half your classmates.

robots and foreigners are the type who spend their lives checking calcs or god forbid in QA.

Graduated last spring, got a job immediately

Is this the thread for bitter blue collar grunts?

>>15984331
This is true. Studying Mechanical Engineering in New Zealand.
There's very few people who do work on cars. Out of 180 students I'd say about 3 of them work on their own cars.
There's the SAE guys but they are also a minority.

>>15984784
In New Zealand there are some Engineering positions that you get to by being in that trade for long enough, where you have more experience than Engineers coming out of University.

The best way to describe it is by looking at Warrant Officers in the US Army or any branch. Once they get high enough they become irreplaceable because of all the knowledge they've gained over their career.

>>15984784
In the US it is generally illegal to call yourself an engineer unless you have a BS degree from an ABET certified school OR you have gained enough experience in your State to pass the PE exam per the applicable laws. In my State, you cannot even put "engineering" in your business name unless you are or employ at least on licensed professional engineer.
>>15986032
Engineer vs "engineer"

>>15985567
You're retarded. They learn about fits in school, if they need a specific fit they will learn about it while they are designing something, probably straight from the same handbook as you. A fabricator can make anything, yes, but an engineer can optimize it for space and weight, enhance the design, and prove that it works. A good one anyway.

>>15984784
No. Not a real ME at least. Without your degree you can only go so far, and it's also illegal to call yourself an engineer most places. You have to be given the title after so many years of working as one.

>>15984331
>>15984370
Funny, I don't know a single one who isn't a redneck at heart who loves to tinker and wrench. Must boil down to where you're from and what people there like to do.