Help finding a good career

[Kims Robot]

Originally Posted by JamesBrown

My advice is to find something you enjoy doing that is a bit more narrow to be your core focus.

This is a very good place to start. When I was in high school, I wanted to be everything from a glaciologist (who wouldn't want to have to ski & get paid to do sciency work??) to an art teacher (my more "creative" side), and several things in between. When a FIRST team started in my school, I found I liked engineering too... and it made it even harder to find what I wanted to do. I liked working on mills & lathes, I liked learning CAD, I liked designing crazy parts, I liked running the student leadership team, I liked designing our team's patron book, I liked storyboarding our animation, I liked wiring up the robot, I liked coaching the drive team, I liked doing strategy... on and on. I basically lived and breathed everything in FIRST.

Anyways, I saw engineering as a very stable and potentially challenging career. For some reason, mechanical engineering seemed really intuitive to me, software engineering made me think I would be behind a computer screen all the time, and electrical engineering seemed like a challenge I didnt quite have my arms wrapped around. So I chose electrical engineering.

I went to Clarkson and started a FIRST team there, and found that I really loved their honors program - at least one class per semester you were thrown in with the other honors students, students of all different majors, and got to work to solve some really big problems in teams. I was really drawn to the team atmosphere and found I thrived best working with others.

My senior year I interviewed with 30 companies on campus, in everything from RF Engineering to Digital Hardware to MEMS to Systems Engineering. The last one was entirely an accident, but I found that it intrigued me the most. Harris offered me two jobs - one in digital hardware (what I thought was what I really really wanted to do), and one in Systems Engineering. In the end, I chose the latter because for exactly the reasons you state, I loved being able to do a little bit of everything, and it would take my team skills and big picture thinking to really be successful at it. I've done everything from power supply design, to supplier outsourcing, to data sheet design, to requirements development to product fielding, customer support, user manual writing, networking architecture, etc etc... So that's an option...

Though I think I would caution against getting a degree in Systems Engineering. It can be very academic feeling, and it sounds like you might be better off starting with a focused engineering degree and then tackling a Systems or Product Engineering style job. So like James suggested, find an area that interests you enough that you can spend 4 years working hard at it... and then branch out and find what you really want to do in life

Here's something I'm looking into for college:

Engineering -> Mechanical engineering -> Mechatronics

Mechatronics is basically robotics. It's engineering with everything in it. You have mechanical, electrical, software, etc. Though you don't need to do everything, some people do. You get to stay in robotics, and you get the openness of being a mechanical engineer who programs a machine you did the electrical for but never built. Or you can do a little of everything. Once of my friends who graduated from the team last year said she does mechanical engineering, and works on the software, wiring, and building of 1 specific part of the machine, whether it be a mechanism, or a drivetrain.

[Ian Curtis]

I'm not sure it really matters what your college degree is as long as it is in the right ballpark. Something to consider is that there is a small pool of "really awesome" jobs. For example, thousands if not tens of thousands of students take orbital mechanics every year, but there are almost certainly less than 1,000 people that do orbital mechanics as a full time job. I think that most engineering jobs are actually pretty cool, but if you walk into an engineering degree absolutely set on a specific position, chances are fairly good you'll be disappointed. I didn't even know my job existed when I started my freshman year of college!

My standard advice is do Formula SAE, Formula Hybrid, AeroDesign, DBF, Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, etc. They are a much better approximation of the real world than your classes are, and they give you a ton to talk about in interviews. Even more importantly than giving you something to STAR about, you actually learn a lot about engineering and people. But you've done FIRST, so you probably knew that.

I learned way more in my 3 month internship than I did in my first two years of college, and I've spent most of my last year waiting to start working. However, I can safely say all of those 3 months would've been totally lost on me if it wasn't for those two years of groundwork.

[jakey]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

Here's something I'm looking into for college:

Engineering -> Mechanical engineering -> Mechatronics

Mechatronics is basically robotics. It's engineering with everything in it. You have mechanical, electrical, software, etc. Though you don't need to do everything, some people do. You get to stay in robotics, and you get the openness of being a mechanical engineer who programs a machine you did the electrical for but never built. Or you can do a little of everything. Once of my friends who graduated from the team last year said she does mechanical engineering, and works on the software, wiring, and building of 1 specific part of the machine, whether it be a mechanism, or a drivetrain.

I actually attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and have a Mechanical Engineering degree with a concentration in Mechatronics. This is one of their degree paths that you can choose to take in their Mechanical Engineering major. After my affiliation with FIRST when I was in high school I knew that robotics is what I wanted to do. I really enjoyed the mechanical design and testing as well as the electrical aspect of robotics. I had no clue about programming but it definitely has grown on me. Mechatronics is definitely a bit of everything that I loved doing when competing in FIRST.

Cheers

[jerrymaurer]

What course should I take, if I want to learn more about robotics?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by jerrymaurer

What course should I take, if I want to learn more about robotics?

That depends a LOT on where you're going and what you're interested in. Here's why, and what you want to do...

1) Robotics is often a graduate-level program of study, if it's offered. You need your undergrad education--maybe minor/concentrate in robotics if you can. (Also note that robotics is not all of engineering. I spent 5 years building R/C aircraft in college...)
2) Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science are all valid ways to get more into the robotics side (computer engineering builds the computers that computer science programs and electrical engineering wires together; mechanical folks have to make sure that nothing breaks while it's in operation).
3) So, here's what you want to do: Make sure that whichever course of study you take, it has at least two of the other three I mentioned included. Where I went to college as a Mechanical, all the MEs had to take a basic C++ course and a basic circuits course. Then we all had to join the electricals for a class in Mechatronics.

Mechatronics is where you'd be looking. The thing is that you need the fundamentals first. Get those, then you take courses "outside" your major to get the skills for robotics.

[JamesBrown]

Originally Posted by EricH

(computer engineering builds the computers that computer science programs and electrical engineering wires together; mechanical folks have to make sure that nothing breaks while it's in operation).

As a computer engineer (and computer scientist) I would like to clarify a little.

Computer Science- Focuses on software and firmware with very little work in hardware. This can range in level anywhere from low level hardware control languages up through high level theory and algorithm design.

Electrical engineers- Focus on hardware design, including computer design. Hardware design can range anywhere from PLCs through Electric power. Electrical engineers traditionally work only in the hardware realm. However you would be hard pressed to find an EE program anywhere that you can make it though without a working knowledge of programming.

Computer engineers- Cover the gray area where software meets hardware. The CompE curriculum usually reflects this, during the first 2 or 3 years time is split almost equally between CS and EE courses. From a career perspective a CompE could work on anything with a software/hardware interface. Designing hardwae or writing software. CompE isn't a brand new discipline but it is relatively young. The interface between software and hardware has become very blurred and their is increased demand for people who have a firm grasp of both sides.

Mechanical Engineers- Break things and blame it on the software/electrical guys (I kid)

Lons story short CompE is a subset of the combined CS/EE curriculum. I know that some companies (mine included) are still trying to work out what CompE's are really capable of. With the exception of me every one in my department is a Programmer or an Electrical engineer, when there is a project that requires hardware and software they are paired together and each do their part. When I was hired I was used almost exclusively as an EE, I slowly started taking over the embedded software parts of my projects, and now when schedule allows I am asked to handle the project completely, from board design through GUI programming.