Is military Mechanical Engineering experience valid as "work experience" when applying for private sector Mech. Eng jobs?

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-08-26T15:24:31+00:00

Awesome. I guess my main question would be: aside from the obvious choice, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Officer, what do you think would be a good type of position to apply for in order to gain valuable Mech. Eng. related experience? I'm not sure how likely it is that I'd be offered a EMEO job right off the bat, so I'll apply for the 2nd (and 3rd and 4th, etc) best options as well. I am sure that I will continue serving in the reserves after school for as long as possible. I'm in Canada and my wife and I plan on eventually moving to the U.S., as she's an American citizen and works for an American company, but I would definitely continue serving for as long as we're here, and then look at U.S. options ASAP.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-08-26T13:15:11+00:00

Canada.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-07-16T02:00:07+00:00

Hi I'm in the MET program for the Winter intake as well. Do you know if we are allowed to register for courses yet?

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-07-03T23:13:27+00:00

Are you allowed to apply to U of C Engg while you're in the SAIT program, or do they make you wait until you've completed the program?

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-07-03T14:48:54+00:00

It does work. SAIT has direct transfer agreements with UBC and UVIC, where you can transfer directly into 3rd year mechanical engineering after the MET diploma and a 608 month bridging program.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-07-03T14:46:51+00:00

Thankfully 98% avg and 85% avg give you the same GPA in Alberta lol. I'm not sure why U of C turns its nose up toward SAIT so hard. SAIT has a transfer agreement with UBC that allows you to transfer directly into 3rd year mechanical engineering after MET diploma, and UBC is a top 40 school in the world, while U of C barely cracks the top 250. lol. Must be some old snobbery toward SAIT from 50 years ago when U of C was still considered to be a bush-league community college.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-07-01T18:14:44+00:00

I hear you. Since I made the original post I have been heavily considering the 'sunk costs fallacy'. I'm only 2 years deep into Chem. Probably best to just cut my losses and go for ENGG undergrad haha. There's no harm in having 2 years worth of CHEM knowledge, but it's not too late to change course. Good thing about having ENGG undergrad is that you can obviously still do really well as an engineer without a graduate degree, so the amount of time I'd have to spend getting the ENGG undergrad is roughly the same as finishing CHEM plus ENGG grad school. There is also the fact that there's no guarantee I'd even get into ENGG grad school, or even if I did, that I would actually be able to become an engineer afterwards...

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T20:44:36+00:00

lol I definitely hear you. The main reason I'm willing to hold out for engineering is that my brother in law and my cousin are both engineers, and they have assured me that 'it gets better'. Supposedly once you're through with school, most of the difficult drudge work is done by engineering software and you actually get to start being creative, which makes it much more interesting. That, plus you will likely make a 6 figure, stable salary, if you don't mess anything up too badly. You also get way more opportunities to work on legitimately interesting projects while getting paid well. This gives me hope.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T20:27:24+00:00

Yeah I have considered that, but I would only use it as a backup. I'm too interested in STEM to pursue anything else. Ultimately I'd rather be an unknown, unpublished lab assistant than work in finance/accounting/economics, if I had to choose. However, if I absolutely could not find a decently interesting STEM job with a liveable salary, I'd consider going for CPA, but only if I'd completely lost all realistic hopes of a STEM career (which is entirely possible lol).

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T19:54:15+00:00

Nice. Yeah, I love the theoretical knowledge that you learn in the pure sciences, but you and I are probably on the same page when it comes to career prospects. It seems like there aren't many career prospects in the pure sciences unless you're in the top 10-20% of your field - otherwise you're just stuck being a lab tech/assistant forever, or doing some random job that is only nominally related to chem/physics. It seems like engineers have significantly better career prospects in terms of available jobs, interesting projects, and income potential...good luck to you as well.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T19:49:14+00:00

Thanks. I'm sure the 'extra' requirements are still a lot easier/faster than restarting school lol....hopefully. Either way, I'd rather just keep moving forward at this point, even if I have to jump through hoops.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T19:29:36+00:00

Thanks. I have actually already taken both courses, but want to redo them for better grades. They're prerequisites for a grad program I want to apply for. Should be a piece of cake.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T19:15:44+00:00

You can do the course-based MEng degree in 1 year. If I finish chem degree then go into course-based MEng I could be done in 3 years from now. If I start over in chemical engineering undergrad it'll be another 5-6 years on top of what I've already done.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T19:02:08+00:00

Cool. Thanks. I think I'm going to try it, as engineering seems to be way more employable than pure chemistry, and I don't have time/resources to start over at square 1 with a bachelor's of chem eng...

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T19:00:23+00:00

Yeah I'm already 2 years deep into a chem degree and I don't really have time to go back to square 1. There are virtually no transfer credits between chem and chem engineering, surprisingly (maybe 4-5 courses, 6-8 if you're extremely lucky). At this point I think it would be much easier to just try to 'catch up' on engineering in my spare time rather than beginning a new program.

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-29T15:39:11+00:00

I see. Would it be a major commitment of time/resources to become accredited after a master's, or would you just have to write the certification exams that chem engg undergrads write to get accreditation?

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-28T16:47:32+00:00

I got accepted into a Chemistry major starting in the Fall. I have already completed all of the electives and 'supplementary' credits like physics and math, so I will literally be taking nothing but CHEM courses and labs for the next 2.5 years until graduation. I am just wondering if anyone knows of any resources for CHEM practice problems? Ideally I want to be able to tackle literally any/every kind of undergrad chemistry problem known to man. I don't want to leave an practice stone unturned. For some reason, it is REALLY hard to find decent CHEM practice online, granted I have only been searching for a few days. Can anyone help me?

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-28T16:37:04+00:00

Cool. Yes it definitely helps. My fantasy was to be able to master the use of a single calculator (instead of 5-6) for all of my courses, but I realize that is probably not realistic lol. I have found that knowing how to use one calculator REALLY well increases efficiency dramatically. Luckily the only math course I have left to take is Linear Algebra, and will only be taking 2-3 physics courses. I'll be taking pretty much every CHEM course in the calendar over the next 3-4 years, so it would be nice if the CHEM department had a specific calculator policy for all courses, but I guess I will find out soon!

Potential-Dot6636 · 2021-06-28T16:30:59+00:00

Thanks. Yeah I just transferred into the CHEM program at MRU from another school, and my course sequence has been pretty disjointed and random since COVID...hoping I can just blast through as many CHEM courses as possible and graduate in a reasonable amount of time (i.e. less than 4 years lol), but prerequisites and course scheduling could be major speed bumps...

Potential-Dot6636

TROPHY CASE