I am about to graduate with my BSME in June, and while I am well-qualified with several internships, I am now realizing that I am about to have a degree that barely enables me to do what I really want to do.
A lot of older engineers grew up in the heydays of the space age and were inspired to work on aircraft and spacecraft. Others are gearheads and love automotive stuff. That's all well and good, but it's not for me. I grew up in the computer age, starting with a classic Macintosh, progressing to building my own computers, and now being fascinated by the capabilities of smart phones. Stuff like this is exciting to me because it's still constantly breaking new ground, not stuff that has been "figured out" over many decades.
Whether it's software, hardware, networking, or something else, I find myself asking inquisitive questions: "How do Google routers handle such massive traffic?", for example. I don't find myself asking questions like that about many "traditional" mechanical topics, like turbomachinery, cars, aircraft and spacecraft, etc.
I think that sort of curiosity is essential to be a good/fulfilled engineer, and I don't appear to have that sort of interest in mechanical topics (or maybe my courseload has simply crushed any extra inquisitiveness beyond that which is required).
So where do I go from here? I have been applying to a couple of ME grad programs to keep my options open, but ultimately I want to go to industry and make cool stuff.
tl;dr
Graduating with BSME in June. Interning at GE/NASA/Amazon made me realize I want to work in some sort of computer company or tech industry. What are my options?
A lot of older engineers grew up in the heydays of the space age and were inspired to work on aircraft and spacecraft. Others are gearheads and love automotive stuff. That's all well and good, but it's not for me. I grew up in the computer age, starting with a classic Macintosh, progressing to building my own computers, and now being fascinated by the capabilities of smart phones. Stuff like this is exciting to me because it's still constantly breaking new ground, not stuff that has been "figured out" over many decades.
Whether it's software, hardware, networking, or something else, I find myself asking inquisitive questions: "How do Google routers handle such massive traffic?", for example. I don't find myself asking questions like that about many "traditional" mechanical topics, like turbomachinery, cars, aircraft and spacecraft, etc.
I think that sort of curiosity is essential to be a good/fulfilled engineer, and I don't appear to have that sort of interest in mechanical topics (or maybe my courseload has simply crushed any extra inquisitiveness beyond that which is required).
So where do I go from here? I have been applying to a couple of ME grad programs to keep my options open, but ultimately I want to go to industry and make cool stuff.
tl;dr
Graduating with BSME in June. Interning at GE/NASA/Amazon made me realize I want to work in some sort of computer company or tech industry. What are my options?