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Im a senior heading to college next year and I want to ask any engineers about their average work day and how it goes?
I'm planning on majoring in mechanical engineering and want to get a look into what the job looks like from a real perspective
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Dan’s Answer
Mechanical engineering is actually an extremely wide field- your day can be very different from one job to the next. I am located in the Midwest USA and that means that I'm surrounded by machinery manufacturing and production companies. In those environments, I spent maybe 60% of my time at my desk using CAD/CAM software, and the other 40% on the shop floor working with the machinists, operators, and quality inspectors. No two days were the same for me.
Thank you, this is really helpful.
Brayden
You are most welcome - if you have more questions about your career aspirations, or engineering in general, please feel free to use me as a resource. Always open to talk.
Dan Costigan
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William’s Answer
Hi Brayden,
Mechanical engineering allows you to work in any place that has moving/rotating parts integrated in their designs - literally in all the major industries. Roles exist in design, production/construction, operation, maintenance, projects, product support, utilities etc.
The nature of work embedded in the roles determine your work content. I spent most of my career in the beer industry, mostly in maintenance roles. The brewery environment is fairly well structured and sections such as cellars (fermentation) and utilities operate 24/7. Other production areas such as brewing department and bottling hall often run 3 or 4 shift configurations depending on market demand - often 24/7 during peak seasons. Maintenance and process engineers tasked with the responsibility of ensuring safe, reliable and economical operation.
The workload includes routine inspections both manual and electronic, emergencies due to breakdowns etc. Problem solving is an integral part of the drive for operational excellence (situational, systemic and strategic). Analytics for identifying trends support the problem solving drive. Performance management provides the overall framework.
It's important that the maintenance and process teams are sufficiently competent to discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.
Mechanical engineering allows you to work in any place that has moving/rotating parts integrated in their designs - literally in all the major industries. Roles exist in design, production/construction, operation, maintenance, projects, product support, utilities etc.
The nature of work embedded in the roles determine your work content. I spent most of my career in the beer industry, mostly in maintenance roles. The brewery environment is fairly well structured and sections such as cellars (fermentation) and utilities operate 24/7. Other production areas such as brewing department and bottling hall often run 3 or 4 shift configurations depending on market demand - often 24/7 during peak seasons. Maintenance and process engineers tasked with the responsibility of ensuring safe, reliable and economical operation.
The workload includes routine inspections both manual and electronic, emergencies due to breakdowns etc. Problem solving is an integral part of the drive for operational excellence (situational, systemic and strategic). Analytics for identifying trends support the problem solving drive. Performance management provides the overall framework.
It's important that the maintenance and process teams are sufficiently competent to discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively.