Chemical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or Mechatronics? Please help!

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Cheers for this!!
You are currently achieving your areospace degree right?

I was looking at the university of Sheffield and they offer a 4 year course which includes 1 year of going to work abroad in the industry. Do you think the one year work experience would be useful into obtaining a job in the future?

Most definitely work experience helps with getting a job. If you have an engineering degree, then you're going to be, by definition, applying for graduate jobs. Every applicant will have a degree, but not every applicant has work experience. Some have never done a days work in their life - as an employer, who would you deem the least risk to your business? I did summer placements instead of a year in industry, but both offer the same advantages, and indeed, with a year, you can get stuck into to a good project for longer.

Original post by Parente

It would be nice to have a good wage and do something I enjoy, but do chemical engineers really get the salaries that people say? My friends always say I should do chemical because they get the best wages, but surely aerospace can be good also if you get the right qualifications as well as the degree itself?

Doing Chemical because it "gets the best wages" isn't a good plan. With an engineering degree, you can go and work in banking if you just want money, and you don't need an chemical engineering degree to do that. As far as engineering goes, yes, chemical can be seen as one of the best paid disciplines, but that isn't a reason to choose it. None of the disciplines are particularly badly paid, and you can just hold out for a well paid job if you're not happy with the average salary for your discipline. Well paid chemical engineers have extra risks that go with the pay - most will be working on oil platforms, but you can find mechanical engineers, electrical, civil too, all on the same pay scale, on the same rig.

Besides, engineering in general is well paid. you can check out salaries on most corporate websites - Jaguar Land Rover - £28,000 starting. Rolls-Royce - £28,800 starting. BP - £32,000 starting. (that's for all types of engineers, not just chemical)

So as you can see, there isn't a huge amount in it, when you consider a bank will start you on £40k+, heck, even Lidl had a £40k starting grad scheme on offer when I graduated. The job just didn't interest or appeal to me though.

Choose the discipline you're most interested in. The one that excites you, the one where you've seen a product or technology that you can really see yourself working in. Honestly, it isn't worth choosing the discipline you will study on salary prospects alone - it's easy enough to transfer once your done - I mean I did, from electronics to aerospace.

Stu Haynes MEng MIET MIEEE

Reply 21

shaunbrockhill

Original post by mojomo94

Hi do you know any books to read about aerospace engineering to include when writing your personal statement

Good question, I'll second that...

Also while I'm here, does anyone have any tips for writing a good personal statement catering for Aerospace and/or Chemical Engineering?

Or any additional content I could read/look up to include in my statement?

Reply 22

Parente

Original post by pheonix254

The fact that I sign off using Stu Haynes MEng means I already have my degree, and can use the letters. I graduated last year. The MIET MIEEE bit means I'm a member of the professional institutions of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. So I have a degree in Electronics, as it happens, but I work in the Aerospace industry, yes.

Most definitely work experience helps with getting a job. If you have an engineering degree, then you're going to be, by definition, applying for graduate jobs. Every applicant will have a degree, but not every applicant has work experience. Some have never done a days work in their life - as an employer, who would you deem the least risk to your business? I did summer placements instead of a year in industry, but both offer the same advantages, and indeed, with a year, you can get stuck into to a good project for longer.

Doing Chemical because it "gets the best wages" isn't a good plan. With an engineering degree, you can go and work in banking if you just want money, and you don't need an chemical engineering degree to do that. As far as engineering goes, yes, chemical can be seen as one of the best paid disciplines, but that isn't a reason to choose it. None of the disciplines are particularly badly paid, and you can just hold out for a well paid job if you're not happy with the average salary for your discipline. Well paid chemical engineers have extra risks that go with the pay - most will be working on oil platforms, but you can find mechanical engineers, electrical, civil too, all on the same pay scale, on the same rig.

Besides, engineering in general is well paid. you can check out salaries on most corporate websites - Jaguar Land Rover - £28,000 starting. Rolls-Royce - £28,800 starting. BP - £32,000 starting. (that's for all types of engineers, not just chemical)

So as you can see, there isn't a huge amount in it, when you consider a bank will start you on £40k+, heck, even Lidl had a £40k starting grad scheme on offer when I graduated. The job just didn't interest or appeal to me though.

Choose the discipline you're most interested in. The one that excites you, the one where you've seen a product or technology that you can really see yourself working in. Honestly, it isn't worth choosing the discipline you will study on salary prospects alone - it's easy enough to transfer once your done - I mean I did, from electronics to aerospace.

Stu Haynes MEng MIET MIEEE

Thanks so much for the info!! Sorry to bother you again (You seem like you know your stuff!) :smile:

Do you know anything when comes to scholarhsips?? I obviously want to try and avoid paying full price for everything, I will be able to get the bursary thing but that isnt really enough :/ Do you need to have outstanding grades or can even someone who maybe isnt so great get a decent scholarship? And what uni's do you think are best for Aerospace engineering?? I hear so much about Cambridge, Bristol and Imperial but nothing about the likes of Sheffield and Leeds who supposedly also have really good internationally reconised courses.

Reply 23

pheonix254

Best places for scholarships - well , your university may offer some. Take a look at engineering/physics institutes and academies - IoP, IMechE, IET, RAE, RAeS, IMAResT, IChemE, RS, that sort of thing. MANY will offer scholarships - some will be for high potential candidates, some will be for a project you've done in your spare time. Most will offer funding for "hardship," which may or may not count you out based on your parents' situation, but generally, they're a lot easier to bag than people think, and highly undersubscribed.

Finally, some companies or the armed forces may sponsor you - these can be hit and miss, and often have contractual clauses whereby if you don't join them, you pay the money back, but there are sponsorships which have no strings whatsoever - their downside is that the company don't have to take you on and hence you don't have a guaranteed job.

Sheffield, Leeds, Southampton - they're fine. Any Russell group university will be recognised well by employers, and you'll find the aerospace bunch aren't nearly as snobbish as the Eton fraternities that run their own (small) hedge funds and only let "members" work for them. Generally, if you have good aptitude, it will not matter where you went to university, provided you have that 2:1+ piece of paper at the end, but the research projects you'll work on will be so much better, interesting and industry relevant at a well funded, research-led university, hence choose Russell group if you can.

Stu Haynes MEng MIET MIEEE

Reply 24

pheonix254

Original post by mojomo94

Hi do you know any books to read about aerospace engineering to include when writing your personal statement

In short, no. "Books read" for engineers is not nearly as important as it is for a Latin or English Literature degree.

You can show you have a passing interest by saying something about an engineering article you read in newScientist, but the lecturers will probably be surprised you actually read print material when everything is online now. Or describe the one key thing that inspired you to study engineering - Bloodhound SSC is a good one at the moment.

Better still is mentioning a project you did in your spare time, and how it shows your engineering aptitude for problem solving, doing something with limited equipment and budget, teamworking and making something useful at the end of it. This can be hard - a lot of people have never done anything like this whilst at school/college, but think outside the box a little - this could be anything from building a bike ramp (though preferably recently, not when you were 5) to coding something on the computer.

If you haven't done anything like that - its the Summer Holidays, get out there and do something cool. Design a UAV with a load of polystyrene and a raspberry pi, or a bomb disposal robot with old mobile phones, or an app to display your lectures whilst at uni (okay, that last one isn't exactly fun, but it shows you did something). If you can do it whilst spending less than £20, then congratulations, you're showing that you understand engineering. Anyone can do something with an unlimited budget, it takes ingenuity to do it on a shoestring.

Stu Haynes, MEng MIET MIEEE

Reply 25

vercetti6

all the three department are great... but if you love control system or robotics... mechatronics is a good way to start...... it is a combination of electronics and mechanical engineering.....