Anyone study for an Engineering degree? What do you do now?

[ChienneDesFromages]

DD is in Year 11 and is interested in studying engineering. The only two people we know with an (ancient) engineering degree went into City insurance and academia, but she’s interested in industry careers (at the moment). Obviously, she’s doing her own research, but I figured MN might be a good port of call to find out about careers for women in engineering.

She’s most interested in mechanical, electronics and robotics. She plans to do A-levels in maths, physics, electronics and classics.

If you studied engineering, what do you do now? Do you enjoy your job? Would you recommend the career to a younger woman? Any other good sources of information for a young person interested in engineering? Any other thoughts and tips welcomed!

I did electronic engineering and worked in the aviation industry. Fellow students went on to work in telecoms, teaching, finance, project consultancy, environmental engineering

I did an engineering degree. 25 years later I still an an engineer. I like my job and it's well paid. You can find many different roles in engineering.

Thank you. Do new recruits tend to come in straight from a BEng, or MEng, or do you need additional qualifications before taking on a role? She says she’d like to work overseas for a while, is that common/doable?

My besties are electrical and chemical engineers. Electrical engineer now works in project quality management, chemical engineer has just stopped working on oil rigs and has landed a job with P&G.

Im in healthcare, it’s just coincidence they both happen to be engineers!

DS completed his engineering degree at Warwick a couple of years ago. He also did his Masters there. He is now working for an engineering company in the Netherlands specialising in land reclamation.

If you want to become CEng with one of the Engineering Institutions, then best to do an MEng.

I worked overseas for a bit.

Seriously, it's a great career, but you do have to have a thirst for knowledge.

Put it this way, it's always been interesting. I was able to work part time for over a decade. I have worked abroad and written a book. I have got divorced but will still be able to retire at 60.

That sounds really interesting. What was his Masters degree in? Did he find it difficult to find a graduate role?

Good friend is a chemical engineer.
she now works for a big chemicals company in a senior project management role so not although not an engineering job as such, understanding the subject matter helps a lot. She’s very well paid.

I did an undergraduate Masters (MEng) and got a job straight from graduation with a company making lab equipment. I would say it's a good job for a young woman, or indeed a young man.

You do have to be prepared for some 'laddish' behaviour- at university I was one of only 6 girls on the course of over 200 students. They were (for the most part) good kids many of whom became good friends but you have to be able to hold your own in that sort of environment. The same was true to an extent after graduating although that would depend on what industry you go into. Manufacturing is still pretty old fashioned with page 3 pin ups and naked calendars everywhere. The engineering team I worked with were all good eggs, even though I was the only female engineer many of them had ever worked with.

Singlespies thank you. It sounds like a brilliant career, with lots of different opportunities. She is very intellectually curious and does maths to relax in the evenings, so she might as well put it to good use! It sounds like there are several different paths from a general engineering degree, which is good if you are making that choice quite early on (obviously it’s influencing her A-level choices.)

His Masters was in Humanitarian Engineering - specialising in Sustainability. He was lucky enough to get a summer internship with a company in Singapore. He was offered a job there but wasn’t able to travel there due to Covid. The company then arranged for the role to be transferred to their base in the Netherlands.

Loads of engineering apprenticeships..
my 20 year old is in his second year of a degree apprenticeship. Gets paid 22k and degree paid' no brainer. At the end of this year he goes up to 33k and then on 44 k after the 3rd year.
Not bad to get your degree paid and a 44k salary at 21.
He does electric design for high voltage.

Sh1eld we have discussed working in a male dominated career. She’s currently at a small, cosy girls’ school. The plan is to do A-levels at the local boys’ grammar, which I guess will give her a bit of experience from that point of view. And she’s already a keen Scout, and more than holds her own. But thank you, that’s not something mentioned in the glossy recruitment brochures.

Long term in engineering you need Chartered engineer status to progress. This is easier to achieve if you do Meng rather than Beng, but it is possible just takes longer.

There are plenty of degrees that have a placement year and this works really well for engineering. You can also study engineering with languages and either do your placement overseas or some of your degree overseas.

Dh did electronic engineering. He's worked for the same company for 15+ years but still finds his job interesting. He does less actual technical stuff now as he's in charge of R&D so its mostly management issues and endless meetings.

Pre covid he travelled a lot for work, but during the pandemic they realised that most things didn't actually need someone to take a flight to the USA/Asia/wherever so hes now got a balance of mostly WFH with one or two days in the office. He works for an international company, so plenty of opportunity to relocate to somewhere else (we have dc settled in school so hes not keen on international moves).

Our teenage dd is super keen on being some kind of engineer, and he's happy for her to go into it as a career.

He loves graduates that have some kind of engineering experience - some degrees offer a year in industry, other students worked in part time entry range jobs like writing basic test reports, setting up test equipment, etc.

I work in engineering, although my first degree was in physics (I have masters degrees in engineering disciplines). I work in renewable energy and love it! Much better for female engineers now compared to when I came in 17 years ago. Renewable energy, as a 'newer' industry has less issues that older branches of engineering (I originally worked in building services and it....wasn't so cool....).

I dispute the comment about doing an MEng to get CEng status. If you want to go through the IMechE, then yes, but there are other routes to being chartered!

Women’s Engineering Society

Women in engineering.co.uk

look for work experience with the larger engineering companies, all of whom want to gender balance their workforces.

Hi, I graduated with a MENg in mechanical engineering 15years ago and currently work in automotive engineering, doing a job that I absolutely love. I would definitely recommend a career in engineering, especially if she is interested in electronics and robotics as there is a shortage of engineers in those subjects.

I would recommend trying to get a work placement in the industry she is interested in. Will give her invaluable experience and obviously looks good on UCAS applications etc.

Check if any unis local to you offer summer schools run to attract pupils considering engineering degrees. These can be competitive to get onto, but could be invaluable to help her understand future options, links with industry, and potential careers. Just phone the engineering faculty or department office and ask, if nothing leaps out from their web page / FB page.

A couple of my friends at unis were engineers, one became an accountant and one worked in industry for a while (I think with BAE) but is now an actuary. In a previous role, I also worked with a large number of engineers who went into consulting, advising on large projects (both construction and just large projects) and advising in disputes on big capital projects.

Where did your DS find out about these, @peebles32? My Y10 would be very interested in exploring these!

Mechanical engineering and working in the automotive industry (DH)
Chemical engineer and …. Never worked in anything chemical, did work a good 15 years in engineering (quality) before retraining in totally different subject (Me)

fwiw I still love engineering but the environment wasn’t the right one for me at the time.
Both in our 50s too unlikely to change path now

Has she considered a degree apprenticeship? My son currently works for Amey, he designs road networks (or something like that!) They're paying for him to do a Civil Engineering degree on block release, he works the rest if the time. He has no debt and they pay for his food, travel, accommodation and related expenses.

Daughter did a Geology Masters and works for a Geological Consultancy firm, I know they have Geo-tech engineers in their firm.
I'd really encourage her to look for bursaries and apprenticeships, the industry really want women to progress as it's traditionally male dominated.

Apprenticeship are really good for engineering.
Also extremely competitive. DH company has always a few apprentices each year. Getting in IS HARD. Think more than 100+ candidates for 20 places.

My cohort of engineers:

• Insurance underwriter for renewable energy.
• Marketing for a medical engineering company.
• IT
• Project managers, commercial managers and technical managers of large infrastructure projects
• Engineers in energy (oil & gas, offshore wind, power stations, etc)
• High up boss of a marine contracting company