any industrial designers here?
- Thread starter pnj
- Start date
Are you talking about the kind of job were you streamline a manufacturing process or the artsy fartsy job where you come up with the latest colored plastic shapes for Apple.
I've kind of been the manufacturing type and still work around a lot of them. It is nice because you typically aren't chained to a desk all day but your life is controlled by statistics, boring meetings and smelly old men in thick safety glasses. The only women you will see on a daily basis are 4"3 200lbs and typically have a face full of chewing tobacco. You'll battle with unions and spend countless boring hours dealing with OSHA and ISO documentation,
Used to work for an iron casting company. Designing engine blocks, compression cylinders, etc... from blueprints, in Solid Edge. Search for jobs as a designer in the foundry industry.
place to start finding foundries:
http://www.afsinc.org/
if it helps
place to start finding foundries:
http://www.afsinc.org/
if it helps
![=[Stinky]=](/data/avatars/m/0/414.jpg?1000521489){kind=avatar}
I am not one, but a good friend is graduating as an industrial engineer. He put it like this. "when some one has a nifty idea, they explain it to me, and Im the person who draws it out, puts their idea on paper in color, and makes it look pretty. Then it gets passed on to the next dude who figures out how exactly to make it function well.
he does a lot of work on the comp with grapgics programs.
Maybe some one else can shine some light.
ANdrew
he does a lot of work on the comp with grapgics programs.
Maybe some one else can shine some light.
ANdrew
Industrial engineers are a whole different breed from industrial designers. I have an IE degree from Penn State (one of the best IE progs. in the country) but I couldn't fool a blind man in to thinking I was an industrial designer. I've worked for a major industrial pump manufacturer, a subway car builder, and now an aerospace company with various titles but the short and sweet version is I do process improvement. Everything from the methodology of manufacture to reducing waste, blah blah blah. I interface with customers, production, engineering, procurement, production control, etc to deliver what the customer wants when they want it. In addition to my core classes I took a lot of mechanical engineering that has helped a great deal in my real and in my part-time for fun job in my sig.
Like Westy said, the ID type jobs are more of taking someone elses idea (marketing, engineering, customer, etc) and making it look good.
Like Westy said, the ID type jobs are more of taking someone elses idea (marketing, engineering, customer, etc) and making it look good.
Honestly, I never studied at all from grade school through high school. I probably had something like a 3.95/4.0 with some AP math, english, and I think history. I took the SATs twice and taking my best math (first time) and best verbal (second time) I think I had a combined 1350 or so. My high school was also pretty well respected by the admissions department at Penn State. We had 2 kids with perfect 1600 SATs and several in the 1450+ neighborhood.mack said:
The first 2 years of college were pretty easy considering I was working 2 jobs and drinking my fair share. The next 2.5 years (with 8 month co-op thrown in) were definetly more challenging but the classes for my major were a cakewalk, it just came naturally.
If you search around you'll find the average SAT/ACT scores that schools are accepting or average GPAs. PSU consistently ranks in the top 1 or 2 for applications received so that get a lot of people to choose from. Most freshman start at a branch campus and transfer after 2 years to the main campus. I started at the main campus and if I wasn't offered admission straight to main, I would have probably gone to one of the schools that offered me a scholarship.
By the way, PSU has a good civil program, Woodward is ~1/2 hour away, nice DJs just off campus, and some of the best singletrack in PA. 20,000+ women age 18-25 in a 10 sq. mile area isn't too hard on the eyes either. If you like to party, you can't beat football season, check team507.com (and we've all been out of school for 4-8 years).
mack said:
Just a heads up, I don't know why but civil engineers don't get paid as well as other engineers. Taking from friends experience, Civil Engineers need to get Masters or even PHd levels of education to get paid as well as an EE, ME or CE. But then again, Civil engineering jobs rarely get outsourced overseas and they get to wear cool hardhats and stuff.
i am currently in my third year in Industrial Design at Rhode Island School Of Design and love it, it is a super fascinating field of study, i don't have any real world experience yet, but all of my professors are accomplished industrial designers who are still active in the field. they have worked on everything from automotive design to pen and toy design. with names like Nissan, BIC, Hasbro,NASA, Burton, Cannondale etc. on their reasumes they are quite interesting people to talk to. i would say that it is deffinately worth taking a look at. i am personally in the process of finding an internship for the summer that will hopefuly be in the bike/outdoor sports end of the field.
Couple of years ago I worked as a ME for an injection molding company. Let me tell you it's the industrial designers that were a pain in my ass. Shure, they can come up with some very attractive ideas, but it doesn't ammount to a hill 'o beans if the design can't be made for a reasonable cost and level of difficulty. Now I work in a totaly different industry, and it's the chem engineerds that I fight with. O brother. 
From talking to people that have been in the field, and trying to go that route when looking for jobs, Industrial Design is all about experience, skills, and creativity. I have my Bachelor's in Mech. Engineering from Northeastern, and its tough to transfer that directly to ID jobs.. Most firms will look for Industrial Design majors with experience, so look for a college that has a co-op program,(NU has the top rated co-op program in the country!), its helpful in whatever major you decide to persue...i graduated with over 2 years of field-related experience, when most colleges rarely have co-ops or maybe a summer intern here and there.
Skills that you will need to master real well are 3D modeling, especially complex surfacing. Pro/Engineer is one of the best programs out there, and im not saying that because i work for them either
It has better surfacing capabilities than say Solidworks. So if youre interested in ID, see if there are any classes you can take on Pro/Engineer. (not cheap though)
lastly, Industrial design is mainly a creative and artistic field, with some engineering influence thrown in. If you're not creative, you wont succeed...bottom line.
Skills that you will need to master real well are 3D modeling, especially complex surfacing. Pro/Engineer is one of the best programs out there, and im not saying that because i work for them either
It has better surfacing capabilities than say Solidworks. So if youre interested in ID, see if there are any classes you can take on Pro/Engineer. (not cheap though)lastly, Industrial design is mainly a creative and artistic field, with some engineering influence thrown in. If you're not creative, you wont succeed...bottom line.
mack said:
Q: Do you know what they call an engineer with a low GPA???
A: An Engineer!
Yep, same year. One kid was purely book smart and had absolutely ZERO common sense, coordination, or social skills and took the full ride to Cal Tech. The other was an athlete, very social, and one of the nicest people I've known. He took the full ride through Penn State's University Scholar program, graduated in 3 years and went for his MD at Duke. Not sure where either of them is now.the Inbred said:
Hmm ... google comes through, looks like the social one is on staff at Duke now and has been doing some writing
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=andrew+baraniak&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Search