Calling all oppo engineers. I have a few questions.

"BATC42" (BATC42) 02/05/2014 at 17:46 • Filed to: None

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Take this airborne M3 for your troubles. After the jump is some personnal stuff about studies and what I'd like to do later. I have some questions that oppo engineers (or not) might be able to answer.

So, I'm a student at a French engineering school. I study mechanical, power and industrial engineering. I'm currently in my 4th year after highschool so I have one year left, which I will spend studying engineering at University of Auckland.

My dream is to work surrounded by cars, but I have a lot of questions about what an engineer really do. Like, what is your job like? Did you feel like, when your where in school, you would be able to do all that?

Also what is oppo's feedback on big manufacturers vs smaller ones ? My dream is to be able to be close to cars, to take part in road tests, winter tests, ...

I won't trouble you anymore Oppo, I promise.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 17:54

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Become a mechanic or write for an auto blog.

Doge_Supreme drives a BRZ > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 17:55

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I never had any formal training, but i do mechanical design work for a company now, and work with a few other engineers both with and without formal schooling. Its mostly just doing work on a computer with programs like Solidworks, and I very rarely go out to our shop where stuff gets put together, unless i need to measure something or talk to one of the people running our laser or building our machines. Really I was hoping to be a bit more hands on with what I do but the experience will take me along ways when i decide to move on.

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 18:17

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Super!

tu es a ecole superieure? Tu vis en France ou au Canada alors?

LuczOr > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 18:22

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I work for a major automotive OEM. If you want to be around the cars, get into the testing group. I work at the wind tunnel, so I get to see the actual vehicles every single day. The guys in the design group basically never see the vehicles. If you want to be around full functional vehicles and not just brake pedals and suspension arms, try to get into the fuel economy testing group or the vehicle performance testing group. Those guys get to work with the final product more than anyone else.

tromoly > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 18:34

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When you get to University of Auckland, get involved with their Formula SAE team. You will not regret it.

yamahog > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 18:38

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I graduated with a bachelor's in aerospace engineering in 2012.

My university has the 3rd ranked aero program in the world, but more importantly, I'd interned for two summers and I grew up helping my dad work on his Mustangs and motorcycles. I shit you not, I was the only one in a 300 level lab who knew how to work a torque wrench.

In my first job out of school, I was a structural design engineer on a large, overbudget fighter jet program. My day-to-day was working in CATIA (which I taught myself while interning) and patching up things that were done wrong about 10 years before I even got there. I was the only engineer under 40 by a long shot, and didn't like the environment at all: Too slow, a lot of red tape, and a manager who was throwing me under the bus. On to the next one.

I'm now working at one of the Big 3 as a product engineer and loving it. A lot of my coworkers have complaints, but I have more responsibilities and it's a much better fit for me. Basically, I'm responsible for a group of parts across various vehicles, from initial designs to sourcing to final releases, production, and launch. It's not insanely technical and I don't get to do much CAD work any more, but I get to deal directly with my suppliers, the environment is younger and more fast-paced than in defense, and I get much more hands-on time with my parts and the vehicles. Ideally, I'd like to move to our aero/thermal group and work in the wind tunnels more often.

If you want to be close to production cars, especially for testing, you'll have your best shot at an OEM. Ford, GM, and Chrysler are all hiring engineers like crazy right now. It seems like you're European so you might like the new environment at FCA. You can also try applying to race teams, but they are smaller so there aren't as many spots, and they lean toward more experienced engineers. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions.

Montalvo > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 18:53

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I am still in college but I already have 4 years of work experience under my belt. I worked on both the design and the consulting and installation side of HVAC plumbing and electrical systems. If the building is taller than 7 stories and it is in NYC I have probably done some work on it. I never worked for a car manufacturer but I am friends with people who have. Regardless of where you will end up you will likely be using some form of CAD software like Solidworks, NX or Autodesk. From what I heard from my friends who have worked for Chrysler and professors who have worked in all levels of vehicle design even the crazy stuff like Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, car manufacturers can be a game of Russian roulette. You can be assigned a cool project or get stuck designing a door handle. There is generally a bit of freedom when you get your foot in the door within most companies and it is possible to get transferred where you want to go. I will tell you right off the bat you can feel overwhelmed when thrust into unknown territory. Your employers will expect that, what they want to see is how fast you can react and adapt your knowledge from school with the training from a mentor or supervisor they will provide. The best thing to do is just take a deep breath and just dive in, don't worry about if you stumble because the support from fellow engineers is infinitely diverse and vast.

Distraxi's idea of perfection is a Jagroen > tromoly 02/05/2014 at 21:27

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Yes and no. It's a lot of fun, and a great entry into motorsport-related jobs, but FSAE team members tend to put unreal hours into it, and their grades suffer as a result. That may hurt you down the line if you don't wind up in automotive. Or it may not, depending on the employer. Personally, when I'm hiring engineers, something on their CVs that says they love engineering for its own sake will probably get them onto the longlist, at least. But other employers don't see it that way.

Brewman15 > BATC42 02/05/2014 at 22:23

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I graduated with my mechanical engineering degree in 2010. Since then, I worked at a medium size company that made trucks for almost 3 years, and I've been at my current company that makes very large diesel engines for about a year.

In both jobs, I specialized in rotating engine components, (pistons, bearings, crankshafts, connecting rods, etc...), and I really like it. I'm a design engineer, so I 'own' the components I work on, which basically means I do current product support, which can be cost reductions, robustness improvements, warranty issues, or even just making sure the drawings & models are up to date and match the part. That also usually includes all new programs for the engine my parts are in, which in the diesel world is typically the latest emissions regulations. My time is split about 50/50 between my desk and being either out on the manufacturing floor or analyzing returned parts. So, if you want hands-on, I'd recommend that.

I'd also recommend a small to medium sized company. My current company is too massive. It is very easy to get lost in the mix. Most my reports get handed up to managers, which means I get little to no credit. It's also a pain in the ass figuring out who I need to talk to to get anything done.

BATC42 > Brewman15 02/06/2014 at 15:20

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Thanks for your input. The way you describe a big company is exactly what I see when I think about them. I don't think I'm fit for a huge company since I don't want to be lost among other engineers.

BATC42 > yamahog 02/06/2014 at 15:22

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Thanks !

On the matter of race teams, I'd realy love to work for one. But as you say, and from my discussion with engineers and people working for race teams or motorsport companies, it's realy hard to get into if you have no experience in the field.

BATC42 > LuczOr 02/06/2014 at 15:25

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That's exactly what I'd like to do : take part in road tests, winter tests and the likes. This is the only way I feel I'll be able to fullfill my desire of working close to the car and being able to move around and not be stuck in a single place.

yamahog > BATC42 02/06/2014 at 15:33

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As was suggested elsewhere in the replies, being involved in a student team like Formula SAE can definitely count toward experience and making the connections that get you the race team jobs. Don't be afraid to apply for positions asking for 3-5 years experience, talk up your projects, internships, and engineering teams. Unless you want to get a Master's, grades don't really matter much after you get your first job anyway.

STREPITUS > BATC42 02/12/2014 at 15:49

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Just saw this in Best of Oppo and realized I never replied.

I graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2012 and went into the auto industry straight out of school. I'm currently a product engineer for one of Detroit's Big 3. When I got here I thought I'd get to work a lot with cars and would be surrounded by car guys and girl. Unfortunately that is not the case. Most people in the groups I've worked in don't care at all about cars. That said, the work is still really interesting, although its not entirely what I hoped for. Seeing the car design/engineering/manufacturing process from the inside is really educational and you learn a lot really quickly. My biggest problem is the fact that everything is overly bureaucratic, but thats unavoidable at a huge company. I spent 2 years as an opto-mechanical engineering intern at a small startup where the whole engineering team was probably 10 people. At the time, I didn't like it and wanted to move up to a huge company, but now that I'm here I realized that I didn't like what I was working on, but the work environment actually was ideal (for me at least).

Back to cars - if your dream job is to be surrounded by cars, defiantly try to get into the testing groups. As a product engineer, I'm surrounded by components of cars, and have nothing to do with the car once its fully built. I am working on changing that though. Starting next week, I'm moving out to one of our proving grounds with our vehicle dynamics team where hopefully I'll be driving cars on the track all day. From my first impression of the team, it also seemed like they were also way more into cars than the rest of the company - 3 of the guys I spoke with raced Miatas. I can report more on that once I start.

The biggest bit of advice I can give you though is to look for a company that has a rotational program. That would let you experience many different aspects of the company, network with many different people in a variety of departments that you wouldn't deal with otherwise, and find out if what you think you wanted to do in college is actually what you want to do. I'm in one of these programs and since I started here I've done some prototype build project management on a van, front structure design on a truck, and am currently wrapping up a rotation doing production launch of a SUV. As I mentioned, I'm moving into ride/handling/dynamics testing next where I won't be working on a specific product, but the company's whole range of current and future products as well as competitor benchmarking. And after that I will hopefully be doing chassis designwork for the company's performance division. Once I "graduate" from the program I will be able to more-or-less choose where I want to work based on my experiences during the rotations.

When I was job hunting in college I was only looking at OEMs and suppliers and didn't think of looking at racing teams. Kinda wish I had though. A close friend of mine is a race engineer for Chip Ganassi Racing and she loves it. Shes been doing design and research work for Scott Dixon's and Dario Franchitti's IndyCars, but I'm not sure what that entails exactly. She just described it to me as "engineering porn". Sure she doesn't get to test the cars, because race car, but it still seems like a really cool job.

So keep an eye out on all company and team job portals.

Oh, and this . Do that. If it works out, expect a phone call from me asking to pull me in.

BATC42 > STREPITUS 02/12/2014 at 17:44

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That's why I don't really want to get in a big company, I'm afraid I'll be lost among the engineers and won't be able to work close to the cars. I've already spoken to an engineer who works for a major OEM, and he told me exactly what you said : get into testing.

For now the hardest part is finding an internship for the 6 months between July and December. I want to stay in Europe, and in France I don't want to intern for Renault since I've already been with them last year. I'd like some diversity. I had HR and engineering contacts at Aston Martin but it didn't help :/

I'm looking at some other companies with wich an internship could provide me knowledge I could use in a car company.

Oh and Koenigsegg <3 I'd love to work on the camless engine. I sent them an application, never got an answer though.

STREPITUS > BATC42 02/12/2014 at 17:57

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Your internships don't need to be automotive. I'm a recruiter for my company, and I like to see a variety of experiences on candidates resumes. It will help you be a well rounded engineer, as well as experience different industries and company sizes. This is the technology I worked on during my internships. If you're set on automotive though, I know Bentley has some really nice programs. When I was looking there were a few I would have loved to do, but at the time they were not accepting applicants based in the US.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > BATC42 02/13/2014 at 10:59

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Mech Engineering student here, graduating in May and going to work for the DoD immediately. I came to school thinking I wanted to do automotive but eventually settled on Aerospace. I love cars and always have but I realized that I dont want that to be my job, I want that to be my hobby. Honestly, I just enjoy things that go fast so naturally aerospace is even better! Anyways, I think "office environment" or the "overall experience" is more important than the subject matter of what you are working with. My job does not involve as much hands on work as I would like but the team I work with is irreplaceable. In addition, I will be in a pretty sweet rotational program so I will get to experience more things. My point is that you should definitely find a team that you really enjoy working with, regardless of industry.