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FRiendly advice humbly requested: regarding a young engineer.
Vanity. | 09/28/12 | golux

Posted on 09/28/2012 6:55:00 AM PDT by golux

Dear FRiend, happy Friday. I am generally averse to vanity 'appeals' but... I need some advice, and maybe some help.

I have for some time been somewhat of a mentor to an extremely bright, diligent, young Christian man who will soon be taking a bachelors degree in engineering - specialty: aerospace - from a fairly prestigious college.

His grades are very good. He is a VERY hard working and bright man who has consistently taken the 'higher path' in his personal, family, and academic life. He overcame considerable adversity to become a star football player with great grades in high school, then continued to work hard and focus his energies to get where he is today: very near the top of his class in a highly competitive department.

And... He has asked me for advice on how, and where, to get a job. Evidently the "career guidance" folks are not terribly plugged in, as was certainly the case when I was a graduating senior!

I am from a family of physicists and engineers (Dad, grandfather) but sadly these men have passed on.

I would DEEPLY appreciate any advice you could give me regarding paths a talented young engineer with an interest and schooling in aerospace might take. He is a man for whom doors should open, but I am frankly at a loss as to how to help him.

Thank you, thank you in advance for your time, your thoughts, Freepmails or posts today or this weekend.


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: college; engineering; youth
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To: golux

Consider having him get an MBA rather than a master’s in aerospace engineering. An engineer with an MBA should have lots of opportunities even outside the aerospace industry.


41 posted on 09/28/2012 8:58:26 AM PDT by 6ppc (It's torch and pitchfork time)
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To: golux

I suggest that he pull up stakes and move to Everett, WA or another city where Boeing is BIG. He’ll have a job in jiffy, I can almost guarantee it.

Bonus skills are: 1)Computer Aided Design using CATIA and/or Solidworks. 2) Manufacturing processes especially composites. 3) Six sigma.

He can apply online. www.boeing.com

Good for you for helping the guy out...


42 posted on 09/28/2012 9:14:20 AM PDT by 119104DM
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To: golux

First, have him look at the unemployment rate of aerospace engineers. With the shutting down of the space shuttles, I predict he will find employment hard to come by in aerospace. Encourage him to look at structural engineers, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers. All of these fields are much broader and even overlap into the aerospace fields.


43 posted on 09/28/2012 9:22:20 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.)
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To: golux
With NASA gutted, I am not sure that aerospace engineering is a good choice.

What I would suggest is a dual-major in math and physics. Math and physics are the foundation of engineering. They are the hard part. If you know the math and physics, the applications are a piece of cake.

With good enough grades he could get an aerospace job with that alone if NASA is resurrected.

If not, he has a lot more flexibility with that combination. Any field of science or engineering would be within his grasp.

Grades would be everything.

44 posted on 09/28/2012 9:36:49 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Government is the religion of the sociopath.)
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To: RavenATB; golux

Don’t look at the Eglin area. It’s nice, lovely country, but there aren’t jobs here. The company my husband worked for laid off several hundred people back in April, we’re trying hard to get something somewhere else. If there are any jobs here, there’s plenty of local unemployed engineers trying to get in.


45 posted on 09/28/2012 10:15:00 AM PDT by JenB
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To: golux

Hmmmn.

Surprised NOBODY has said apply to USN as Engineering Duty Officer (USN Nuclear is advertising for junior engineers in ALL of the engineering technical/student magazines I have subscriptions to (Tau Beta Pi (engineering honor society), ASME, Nuclear News, Texas A&M alumni association, corps of cadet association, etc.). My older brother went to USN Officer Training School (90 days) with a degree in physics, that’s another option for a 6 year commitment; I was NROTC and a direct enrollment right after school. I was nuclear construction, nuclear repair, and submarine repair. Wasn’t on sea duty, lots of shipyard days.

USN is advertising for aero engineering duty officers, see www.navair.navy.mil They won’t fly, but do maintenance and design and weapons analysis and support.

My younger brother just retired from the USAF with duty as (non-flying) communications, computers, flight scheduling, crypto and intercept, aero maintenance squadron officer, and NATO duty, etc.


46 posted on 09/28/2012 10:41:34 AM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only donate monthly, but socialists' ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: JenB
Jen,

There are unemployed engineers all over the country. But as someone who used to supervise dozens of what I consider to be the “best and the brightest” in the DoD, I can tell you that not all engineers are the same, and not every unit and/or contractor is looking for what you might assume they're looking for in an engineer.

I'm sorry to hear that husband lost his job. But the fact is that Eglin is exactly the type area it sounds like this young man might be looking for. And if he's as sharp as his “friend” indicates he might do very well for himself.

I doubt that he'll be moving his furniture before he's received a job offer anyway. So why not advise him to look to the best option, rather than the “safest” option?

47 posted on 09/28/2012 11:20:03 AM PDT by RavenATB
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To: RavenATB
And if he's as sharp as his “friend” indicates...

Look, I really am this fellow's "sort of mentor." (I am not his father and I do not presume to take on the mantle of "Mentor.") I just really care about this guy, have for years, am a friend of his Dad's, and I am reading all of these posts with great interest, and doing as much research as I can, and continuing to read and think on what you have to say.

Long before I had this 'nic I remember wishing that there could be some way for Freepers to have an in-person reunion or something every once in awhile. The election "ball" for GWB was the closest I have ever experienced, and it was great. (Along with the "pro-Hamas" counterprotest at the White House...) You guys are simply awesome. Thank you, thank you.
48 posted on 09/28/2012 12:13:30 PM PDT by golux
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To: CodeToad; golux

Most of the aero-engineer jobs in Phoenix have gone to India.


49 posted on 09/28/2012 12:41:39 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: DuncanWaring

True, many have but Phoenix still has some good jobs. It’s one of the major cities for aerospace. On the aircraft avionics front, many jobs are coming back as the foreigners have really made a mess of things.


50 posted on 09/28/2012 1:15:32 PM PDT by CodeToad (Be Prepared...They Are.)
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To: CodeToad

Last I heard, Honeywell had screwed Boeing so badly and so often that Boeing will no longer even accept bids from Honeywell - and Boeing was half the revenue base for that business group.


51 posted on 09/28/2012 2:04:42 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: golux
My advice is to join the Military with OCS, get a commission and learn leadership. That training will be invaluable in later years.

Try the Army or Navy as an Engineer or Seabee.

That being said, he can also try Huntsville, Alabama. Great place to live and work:

http://www.huntsvilleareajobs.com/

52 posted on 09/29/2012 5:10:24 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage? (Holding my nose to vote.)
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To: golux
SpaceX!

Elon Musk wants to die on Mars (Just not on impact, he says).

Between his ego, his drive, his billions and his government contacts, I fully expect it to happen. And he's going to need a LOT of help.

53 posted on 10/05/2012 11:20:00 AM PDT by swamp40
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To: golux
When I was 10 I wanted to be an engineer.

Had my heart set on going to Georgia Tech.

Then I got their brochure and they had no classes on how to operate a train.

54 posted on 10/05/2012 11:24:34 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys=Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat, but they know what's best for you.)
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