Hey guys! I'm a third year student at Cal Poly Pomona in Southern California majoring in Mechanical Engineering. A few of my friends are going for some internships so I figured it'd probably be a good idea if I tried to get one, too. I was just wondering if anyone could help me out or know of a place that needs an ME major. I hope to work for some car company when I graduate though Dunno which one yet. I just really want to get an internship! Hopefully someone out there can help me Please? Thanks!

-Analisa

 

Hey Lemina-

I'm a second year ME student at Pepperdine Univ...I can't help you out with the internship thing, but I was wondering what kind of options there are for engineeers in the automotive business(tons, obviously, but I don't know a whole lot). Do you have any career plans yet? I did an intership with Mosler, but I probably won't do a any others till at least my 3rd year like you. I don't really know what I want to do but I know I want to work in the field, and all the import car companies are based in Socal, so it seems like a good choice, since I surf all the time. Are there any research-type automotive careers? I've thought about going for Med. Science just because of the flexible hours, but I just dont't think I'd enjoy it, but I don't know of any similar jobs in the auto field that would leave me time to surf on weekdays.

Another quick question--if you want to work in the automotive field, are you doing any kind of competitive racing, like karting or anything?

 

Hey! Thanks for replying! I know someone who is a mechanical engineer for GM up in Michigan and he enjoys what he does. I know he does some designing for some of their cars and makes sure that the doors and other things fit/align properly. I forget what else he does but I think it would be cool to do some designing...not exactly for GM cuz it gets really cold in Michigan. I haven't done any racing yet. I don't have a whole lot of money to put into my car. The only cool thing are my strut tower bars for my 01 RS. I installed them myself. I thought about autocrossing but I don't have much money to be doing that either. I did build a couple of RC cars and wanted to race them but I end up not having much time for that. I made a thread a while ago called "RC cars anyone?" and that's where I put a few pictures of my RC cars. There is this club at my school called FormulaSAE which I wanted to join but my job conflicts with their meetings. Here's this website that I found on what exactly mechanical engineers do:
http://www.mechanicalengineer.com/oohinfo.htm

 

Thanks for that info...the salary range is higher than I thought...solid...maybe all this hard work will actually pay off. ive heard about that FormulaSAE, and I've been dying to do it. Does anybody think I'd be able to get something like that started if I am only here for one more year, or does it take more time than that? I'm actually transferring after next year, maybe I'll look at Cal Poly, there's some good waves up there (a little cold for a guy from Florida but Hazards, jesus!:
http://surfline.com/travel/surfmaps/...ard_canyon.cfm

Lemina I met the VP of Scion (...i told him the cars were lame and wouldn't sell before I knew who he worked for..) a while back and talked with him for a while, Product Development sounds pretty cool (basically figuring out what a particular market needs/wants, and building a car to suit them). He kinda laughed at me when I asked him if racing is a good thing to have on a resume, so I'm not too worried about that. He actually kinda laughed at me just because I was interested in cars, as it can get in the way of designing a car for someone else. All the guys who get to work on the really sweet cars, though, seem to be car guys to the extreme.

Will someone tell me this though--am I actually gonna have to use this physics for the rest of my life?

 

Hey...I have nooo idea how long it takes to start up a club like FormulaSAE but if you did, that would look really good on a resume You could always e-mail the FormulaSAE club at Cal Poly Pomona and ask them how you could get one started at your school:
http://www.csupomona.edu/~fsae/
Did the VP of Scion tell you anything about how to go about getting a job in mechanical engineering or anything? How the heck did you meet him anyways?
As for physics...the guy I know that works for GM knows his physics pretty damn well cuz he's good at explaing stuff like aerodynamics of cars and the different forces acting on them, too. I'm actually taking the second physics class that I have to take...I have to take three total. We're going over some pretty cool stuff actually.
By the way, you should really transfer over to Cal Poly Pomona. Engineering at CPP is a really good program and it's a pretty cheap school to attend. It's about $900 a quarter for tuition.
What car do you drive anyway?

 

i was in your guys spot a few years back.

if you want to go into the automotive industry you are going to have to move to michigan or ohio. there is almost no getting around that for an entry level position. joining sae is a great thing to do. i have been a member for a few years now.

it might be a little late but the sae world congress is coming up next week. that would be a great way to find out the possibilities that are out there. plus they have some awesome seminars going on there. i think its a lot cheaper for students to go as well.

join sae ( www.sae.org ) even if you can't go to the meetings with your school. cause it looks good on your resume. also join asme as well. the more professional affiliations the better. and try to attend those seminars/conferences if possble. thats where you will meet people in the industry and hopefully get some good contacts for when you graduate.

right now the job market sucks for mechanical engineers, but in a few years its supposed to get going again.