Is anyone here an engineer of the real-world kind? Like building devices, vehicles, roads, dams, etc., as opposed to circuits and software? Can you share a bit of what your day-to-day’s like, what kind of projects you typically work on (and how you work on them, like is it a lot of CAD and computer time, meetings with clients, sitting in front of a big table with blueprints…?)
Also have a specific question: What kind of maths do you tend to use, and how much of it? Is it mostly on the computer these days, or a lot of pen and paper still?
I’m really just asking for personal experiences and anecdotes
For context, at ~ 40 years old, I’m thinking about going back to school to get a master’s in some sort of engineering – maybe “environmental engineering” (but the definition of that isn’t super clear to me). My BS was in environmental science, which only had the most basic of engineering principles (a teeny bit of fluids and electricity).
I’ve been a web developer for a while, surrounded by “software engineers”, but am looking to exit the industry altogether. It just wasn’t a good cultural fit for me.
Thankfully, though, because I primarily worked in renewables and solar, I’ve also been exposed to a few electrical engineers. It got me thinking about a lateral transition into engineering proper, vs software work. I don’t think EE is for me (too close to computer software & hardware and embedded devices)… I’m more interested in civil infrastructure, municipal power, etc. Granted, there’s a lot of electronics in everything these days, so I’m not looking to entirely avoid software and circuits… just not have them be the primary focus of my work.
I’m not really sure what the day-to-day of other engineers are like, though. Are there still people building, testing, improving things like bridges, dams, wind turbines, wave power, etc.?
I’m probably not smart/hard-working enough to be in academia doing the basic research behind those things, but I’d love to be able to help build them in the real world, if that’s even a realistic goal anymore. (Maybe it’s all coming out of China these days?) To the best my understanding, that is generally what the broad field of “engineering” does… but please correct me if I’m wrong!