Advice?! haha

[brndck]

"tech" school is a waste of time and money unless you're in the chassis design and fab program. All the stuff they teach can be learned in community college auto classes, for a fraction of the cost, or just by getting a entry level job at a good shop and apprenticing under some good mechanics. The downside is, most hands-on mechanics top out at $50-60k a year. Yes there are exceptions, but it's a pretty Limited ceiling. Now, if you go to real college and get a degree as an engineer or something, your STARTING pay will be closer to $60-70k a year, and you can still be in your garage in your free time.

[Rag]

Originally Posted by brndck

"tech" school is a waste of time and money unless you're in the chassis design and fab program. All the stuff they teach can be learned in community college auto classes, for a fraction of the cost, or just by getting a entry level job at a good shop and apprenticing under some good mechanics. The downside is, most hands-on mechanics top out at $50-60k a year. Yes there are exceptions, but it's a pretty Limited ceiling. Now, if you go to real college and get a degree as an engineer or something, your STARTING pay will be closer to $60-70k a year, and you can still be in your garage in your free time.

I work in the automotive industry, this advice is spot on at least for the general tri state area.

[Corbic]

Originally Posted by Rag

I work in the automotive industry, this advice is spot on at least for the general tri state area.

I didn't realize there was an automotive industry in New Jersey.


Your typical grease monkey makes $10-$15 an hour. Their pay is heavily based on their actual logged job hours. The better you are the more jobs you can complete - so in a 40 hour work week you may bang out 60 hours of business. Master Techs at dealerships will often be straight salary and can be very well compensated, but these are often people with full educational backgrounds, certification and years (ie decades) of experience.

Being a Mechanic is a blue collared "skilled trades" job. This is very different then being an an "Engineer" - which BTW there are dozens of different types.

For the Big 3, who still have not refilled their ranks to pre-2006 levels, an out of college Engineer from Purdue, Michigan State, ect can expect to make... nothing. They often have internship programs you can do your senior and post graduate summers which pay $0-10 an hour. If you can shine you'll get an entry level job if something is available. These jobs pay $40-50k a year. Obviously over the years you'll be able to move up the food chain but you won't get past $80k as a "straight engineer". The people making that money are in decision making positions and are not doing hands-on engineering anymore -they are managing resources, people and projects.


OP if you really are a lazy, no direction stoner who sucks at math and has a shit attention span - Engineering is not a job for you. It requires extreme levels of organization, attention to detail and dry information memorization. You'll need remember all the various specs of coatings, metal types, GD&T, safety specs, industry standard crap, fastener nomenclature, torque requirements.... on and on.

You'll need to be able to articulate why X-weld code was used in place of Y-weld code. You'll need to stare at a computer for hours and will find your self constantly going back to the same drawing or design making revisions to satisfy suppliers, manufacturing, assembly and accountants.

It is something you have to REALLY want to do... and if your on the internetz asking people cause you have no direction, then it's a safe bet you won't like it. If you don't like being in a 90 minute math class - then you are not going to want to sit in a 6 hour QAP meeting, even if you are being paid $30 an hour.

[MorganS13]

Originally Posted by Corbic

For the Big 3, who still have not refilled their ranks to pre-2006 levels, an out of college Engineer from Purdue, Michigan State, ect can expect to make... nothing. They often have internship programs you can do your senior and post graduate summers which pay $0-10 an hour. If you can shine you'll get an entry level job if something is available. These jobs pay $40-50k a year. Obviously over the years you'll be able to move up the food chain but you won't get past $80k as a "straight engineer". The people making that money are in decision making positions and are not doing hands-on engineering anymore -they are managing resources, people and projects.

You are focusing in on a small segment of the market. What you are claiming *may* be true for the Big 3 at this moment, but it is simply not true for all auto manufacturers in the US. Also, the vast majority of the hiring is done through suppliers. $60-70k is most definitely a realistic salary for an engineer starting out in the auto industry nowadays (yes, in the midwest).

You can easily get past $80k as an engineer nowadays as well. Granted it may take 10+ years, but it was not anything unusual in my experience with several companies. Most engineers I know who switched roles simply got bored/fed up with their current position and wanted a change.

BTW OP, you would be doing yourself a great service learning the "blue collar" portion of the industry prior to becoming an engineer. My advice would be to work part-time while getting your pre-req's out of the way.