Automotive vs Mechanical Engineering - Should I Switch?
Discussion
I am soon to finish the first year of my Automotive Engineering degree, and as my course is identical to the Mechanical one for the first year I have the option to switch courses should I wish; yet I can't for the life of me make up my mind. Now obviously I signed up the for the automotive course as I have a great desire to work in the automotive/motorsport sector, however I'm concerned that specialising in a particular field may leave me with far fewer career opportunities should I not find my ideal job once I graduate.
I am due to meet with one of my lecturers to discuss the matter this week but the thoughts of anyone who has had similar experiences; graduated from auto and gone onto a different career path; or anyone who works in the related industries would be greatly appreciated.
Matt.
I am due to meet with one of my lecturers to discuss the matter this week but the thoughts of anyone who has had similar experiences; graduated from auto and gone onto a different career path; or anyone who works in the related industries would be greatly appreciated.
Matt.
To be perfectly honest the specialism doesn't make the blindest bit of difference in my experience.
My degree Aerospace, my job automotive design
Mate 1 degree Aerospace, his job F1 CFD
Mate 2 degree automotive, his job aerospace (aircraft design/engineering)
Mate 3 degree mechanical, his job automotive design
My degree Aerospace, my job automotive design
Mate 1 degree Aerospace, his job F1 CFD
Mate 2 degree automotive, his job aerospace (aircraft design/engineering)
Mate 3 degree mechanical, his job automotive design
You might as well do mechanical, most of the science involved transfers over very easily to other areas - unsurprisingly. Its only for further work, you need to direct your specialism.
A friend of mine did the Automotive MSc at Cranfield, but beforehand he designed engines, and reckoned for what he needed to learn to do his job, he should have done the Design of Rotating Machines MSc that I did.
If you were involved with the car monocoque/shell itself, I would have thought that aerospace would be more useful, as is obvious from the posts above and the following:-
From Wikipedia “Newey gained a First Class honours degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics”
As the one area that demands the most people right now, and well into the future, and pays the most is Oil and Gas, and you cover other bases, then I would do mechanical. But then again I’m biased….
IMHO, I wouldn’t touch motor sport with a barge pole…
A friend of mine did the Automotive MSc at Cranfield, but beforehand he designed engines, and reckoned for what he needed to learn to do his job, he should have done the Design of Rotating Machines MSc that I did.
If you were involved with the car monocoque/shell itself, I would have thought that aerospace would be more useful, as is obvious from the posts above and the following:-
From Wikipedia “Newey gained a First Class honours degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics”
As the one area that demands the most people right now, and well into the future, and pays the most is Oil and Gas, and you cover other bases, then I would do mechanical. But then again I’m biased….
IMHO, I wouldn’t touch motor sport with a barge pole…
Don't think it matters too much really. In my experience there seems to be a lot of cross over anyway and nearly everything is transferable!
For example, I wanted to do Auto, but got knocked back. I was offered mechanical instead. At the time they weren't so bothered about my C in maths as I had A in Physics and Electronics, Auto definitely wanted a B in maths. But now, both courses want a brace of As and an A*.
At the time it did feel like settling for second fiddle, but once I got going and made friends with people (in Auto, Aero, Mech) I realised they aren't really any more difficult than each other and in the first 2 years a large portion of what we learnt was common to all 3. Mech certainly had a broader range of topics to chose from in 3rd and 4th years (CFD, FEA, Design for Manufacture/Assembly, Turbomachinery, Electrical Power and Machines, Laser Materials, Laser and Optical Measurement, Robotics, Mechatronics, Digital Image Processing etc etc) which I think really lets you go for something you're interested in. With the other two I think you have to be much more sure earlier on that sticking to a potentially narrower scope of topics in Auto/Aero is what you want. At least in Mech if you are unsure about what you really enjoy, you can kind of just go with the flow and fall into something that interests you. Obviously this varies by university.
Besides, throughout my 4 years I ended up learning about the Automotive things I wanted anyway as we covered IC engines, gear boxes, turbo machinery, noise and vibration (with a large part on NVH in vehicles as the lecturer ran a number of research projects on it for FoMoCo) and you can even do Tribology if you want (contact mechanics, oil films etc). Here the Mech guys also do a very large share of all the Automotive engine research (both on and off highway). I think we have 5 of 8 test cells running research originating from the Mechanical dept and theres also a second building that has a glass engine for fuel injection and combustion research, again mostly Mech guys.
So I wouldn't worry! Its all transferable and at the end of the day, you're showing you can work and understand to a high level. If you don't learn a particular subject on your chosen course it shouldn't hold you back. At that stage it will not be beyond you to pick up a text book and learn about it.
While I' here and written a long winded post: All the people I knew from my course and their jobs:
1 worked for BAE, now Rolls Royce in the dept looking after the small steam turbines you find in subs
1 Works for Goodrich (aerospace stuff)
2 Work for the National Grid
1 Works for a small consultancy who do a lot of R&D type stuff for RR (aero engines)
1 Works for JLR on turbo engines
1 Works for JLR on Manufacturing
2 - 3 Working their way up in the Nuclear industry (running the plants)
1 Works in Nuclear decommisioning
1 Works in O&G doing some of the most ridiculous CFD I've ever seen (F1 included)
3 Actually work in Finance in the city
1 Works for Scania in Sweden
1 Works for a company that makes film props and effects (Harry potter brooms!)
1 Works with boats and marine engineering
1 Works overseeing power station outages and retrofits
Another guy who did Industrial Design is now actually an Engineer at the RNLI!
So a good range there and to be honest, I think very few of them are involved with the kinds of topics they covered on the course. They're all hard working and intelligent people who've proved they can understand complex subjects. So regardless of the course and course material, I suspect they'd be able to turn their hands to just about anything (of course taking into account things like Law, Medicine, Architecture would require many further years of study which makes it impractical)
TL;DR : Don't worry, if you want a bit broader scope and maybe more choice of subject then switch to Mech. It won't keep you out of Auto jobs thats for sure. Similarly though I can't see sticking with Auto as hurting your chances either, they're as accomplished as each other.
For example, I wanted to do Auto, but got knocked back. I was offered mechanical instead. At the time they weren't so bothered about my C in maths as I had A in Physics and Electronics, Auto definitely wanted a B in maths. But now, both courses want a brace of As and an A*.
At the time it did feel like settling for second fiddle, but once I got going and made friends with people (in Auto, Aero, Mech) I realised they aren't really any more difficult than each other and in the first 2 years a large portion of what we learnt was common to all 3. Mech certainly had a broader range of topics to chose from in 3rd and 4th years (CFD, FEA, Design for Manufacture/Assembly, Turbomachinery, Electrical Power and Machines, Laser Materials, Laser and Optical Measurement, Robotics, Mechatronics, Digital Image Processing etc etc) which I think really lets you go for something you're interested in. With the other two I think you have to be much more sure earlier on that sticking to a potentially narrower scope of topics in Auto/Aero is what you want. At least in Mech if you are unsure about what you really enjoy, you can kind of just go with the flow and fall into something that interests you. Obviously this varies by university.
Besides, throughout my 4 years I ended up learning about the Automotive things I wanted anyway as we covered IC engines, gear boxes, turbo machinery, noise and vibration (with a large part on NVH in vehicles as the lecturer ran a number of research projects on it for FoMoCo) and you can even do Tribology if you want (contact mechanics, oil films etc). Here the Mech guys also do a very large share of all the Automotive engine research (both on and off highway). I think we have 5 of 8 test cells running research originating from the Mechanical dept and theres also a second building that has a glass engine for fuel injection and combustion research, again mostly Mech guys.
So I wouldn't worry! Its all transferable and at the end of the day, you're showing you can work and understand to a high level. If you don't learn a particular subject on your chosen course it shouldn't hold you back. At that stage it will not be beyond you to pick up a text book and learn about it.
While I' here and written a long winded post: All the people I knew from my course and their jobs:
1 worked for BAE, now Rolls Royce in the dept looking after the small steam turbines you find in subs
1 Works for Goodrich (aerospace stuff)
2 Work for the National Grid
1 Works for a small consultancy who do a lot of R&D type stuff for RR (aero engines)
1 Works for JLR on turbo engines
1 Works for JLR on Manufacturing
2 - 3 Working their way up in the Nuclear industry (running the plants)
1 Works in Nuclear decommisioning
1 Works in O&G doing some of the most ridiculous CFD I've ever seen (F1 included)
3 Actually work in Finance in the city
1 Works for Scania in Sweden
1 Works for a company that makes film props and effects (Harry potter brooms!)
1 Works with boats and marine engineering
1 Works overseeing power station outages and retrofits
Another guy who did Industrial Design is now actually an Engineer at the RNLI!
So a good range there and to be honest, I think very few of them are involved with the kinds of topics they covered on the course. They're all hard working and intelligent people who've proved they can understand complex subjects. So regardless of the course and course material, I suspect they'd be able to turn their hands to just about anything (of course taking into account things like Law, Medicine, Architecture would require many further years of study which makes it impractical)
TL;DR : Don't worry, if you want a bit broader scope and maybe more choice of subject then switch to Mech. It won't keep you out of Auto jobs thats for sure. Similarly though I can't see sticking with Auto as hurting your chances either, they're as accomplished as each other.
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