Originally posted by: filthylopez
Imp, I'm seriously interested in what you say. How can someone hate math and not be good at it and be an Engineer? I thought you had to be very good at math to even get on an Engineering degree?
I am not a math fan and really not good at it, but I'm still an engineer. As a ChemE, I took four semesters of math (Calc and differential equations), then I took two more semesters in grad school. My math classes were the hardest classes for me and I worked my ass off to do well.
I don't use intensive math in my day to day job (then again, I have a job that's probably different than most other engineers out there). When I do need to use math, usually a simpler form can get me by. A good example is something we were talking about today - I need to design a system to heat up a fluid. Now there are three ways I could go about this:
1) Set up an experiment and run it. Vary my design until I get it right
2) Run a quick set of calculations (quick being a relative term here) to estimate my equipment needs, then set up the experiment and arrive at my final destination with a minimal amount of tweaking to my equipment
3) Do a full fluid flow analysis in two or three dimensions (the above method would involve the same analysis, but I'd do it in one dimension and make the math much easier). The math here would be really intense and I'd have to use a computer to solve the problem. I'd arrive at a solution and could probably spec my equipment and get it right the first time.
All three methods are valid, they just take varying levels of time. I'm going to go with solution 2, because I'm not great at math (if I was I'd probably go with #3) and it'll be the fastest solution for me.
I could do any of those three methods based on what I learned in college. Because I am not what you would call "very good at math" I tend to balance theory and practical experience to get the job done the fastest.
The first method anyone could do and you'd be surprised at how many things are engineered that way. It's not really a good way to go about it, because you can end up wasting a lot of time pursuing a solution that may not even work. That's where some knowledge of theory helps.
I make decent money, I'm right about average for this area. With my Masters degree I'm making more right now than most of my classmates who just did a bachelors degree. You have to be careful with advanced degrees - they can sometimes make it harder to find a job. I never would have landed this job without my masters degree (I got lucky and picked a great thesis topic I guess)