[USELESS FACTOID] 6 famous people you may not know are engineers

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by JazzyFlame

The professional status from Apega carries alot of merit when applying for various business related jobs.

That would be why it looks good behind a person's name.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by Reaper

In Oil and Gas the majority of those with a P.Eng designation did practice at one time but have moved upward on the ladder.

What industry are you in?

Land Surveying.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

Land Surveying.

^ This guy loves the pole.

[Kybosh]

I have a professional stamp which has only been used on Christmas or birthday cards.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by Reaper

That would be why it looks good behind a person's name.

I have found that it really helps when you are talking to another engineer. Especially when you have to tell him why the pile drawing that he sent you isn't right.
All I need is a coordinate and something to hold for a bearing. Site north is quite arbitrary, especially when you didn't have someone establish the boundary of the site before designing the new layout. Also, the known point should be a physical point on the ground, not an abstract concept like the corner of the site that was pulled from a mapping file and has a 5 m error.

[GP_Matt]

Originally Posted by fotze

Whoa Pointdexter, settle down.

Sorry,
I just finished dealing with a big pile layout that almost had me in tears.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by GP_Matt

Sorry,
I just finished dealing with a big pile layout that almost had me in tears.

Been there and I am not even an engineer. (literally and in the off-colour joke manner)

[Bill Bumface]

This thread did a great job at drawing out all the arrogant engineers that people loath having to talk to in either work or social situations. Exactly why my ring is collecting dust, to avoid the association. I like the pleasant surprise when people find out I'm an engineer: "You can't be an engineer! You're not an arrogant dickhead! ...And you shower!"

[JD]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

This thread did a great job at drawing out all the arrogant engineers that people loath having to talk to in either work or social situations. Exactly why my ring is collecting dust, to avoid the association. I like the pleasant surprise when people find out I'm an engineer: "You can't be an engineer! You're not an arrogant dickhead! ...And you shower!"

Weird. This post comes off as totally arrogant. You think just cause you shower you're better than the rest of us?

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by JD

Weird. This post comes off as totally arrogant. You think just cause you shower you're better than the rest of us?

You know that shower in the basement of A block? I totally thought about using it once....

(I always thought that thing was kind of funny, was the intent to encourage students to never actually leave school?)

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by fotze

Where, I don't see any of those posts?

I got too fat for my ring.

I have heard these stories a lot regarding engineer's superiority complex, but have never witnessed an engineer talking down to or belittling a non-engineer. I know there is the whole "I took 16 classes last year" one-upmanship, but after university I haven't observed that.

The only time I heard something resembling this was in university when a prof. told our lab class that "you need to better understand why our experiments didn't work, and use our brains to determine the next course of action, otherwise we were no better than some technician randomly trying different components until things worked."

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I have heard these stories a lot regarding engineer's superiority complex, but have never witnessed an engineer talking down to or belittling a non-engineer. I know there is the whole "I took 16 classes last year" one-upmanship, but after university I haven't observed that.

The only time I heard something resembling this was in university when a prof. told our lab class that "you need to better understand why our experiments didn't work, and use our brains to determine the next course of action, otherwise we were no better than some technician randomly trying different components until things worked."

Are you an Electrical Engineer? That actually sounds like a conversation one of my 3rd year profs had with us as well.

[Doodlebug]

So whats the the unofficial hierarchy amongst engineers? Do electrical's look down at mechanical, who then look down at chemical, who all then look down at civil?

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by Doodlebug

So whats the the unofficial hierarchy amongst engineers? Do electrical's look down at mechanical, who then look down at chemical, who all then look down at civil?

EEs, Mechs, and EPs had the heaviest course loads. Civils were like Arts students.

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by Doodlebug

So whats the the unofficial hierarchy amongst engineers? Do electrical's look down at mechanical, who then look down at chemical, who all then look down at civil?

Whatever discipline you're in is usually at the top of the hierarchy. Then everything else gets the same amount of respect/disrespect, except for Software. Nobody respects Software Engineers.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by _Q_

Are you an Electrical Engineer? That actually sounds like a conversation one of my 3rd year profs had with us as well.

Yes, I am. That was in my 3rd year at the U of S. I remember thinking, "wow, I am glad none of the lab techs were around to listen to that."

[Doodlebug]

Originally Posted by _Q_

Whatever discipline you're in is usually at the top of the hierarchy. Then everything else gets the same amount of respect/disrespect, except for Software. Nobody respects Software Engineers.

I remember when I was in university it seemed pretty clear that EE's were at the top of hierachy.

Was always good for sh*ts and giggles to watch the mechanical and chemical types sound off for #2 bragging rights though.....

[bizaro86]

I remember it being more like this:

Originally Posted by _Q_

Whatever discipline you're in is usually at the top of the hierarchy. Then everything else gets the same amount of respect/disrespect, except for Software. Nobody respects Software Engineers.

than like this:

Originally Posted by Doodlebug

I remember when I was in university it seemed pretty clear that EE's were at the top of hierachy.

Was always good for sh*ts and giggles to watch the mechanical and chemical types sound off for #2 bragging rights though.....

Of course, my degree was Mech, so maybe we were just oblivious at how far superior the EE's were . It also could have been timing. I went to school during the resource boom, not the tech boom, so the job prospects for EEs weren't as good as mech/chem at that time.

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by Doodlebug

I remember when I was in university it seemed pretty clear that EE's were at the top of hierachy.

Was always good for sh*ts and giggles to watch the mechanical and chemical types sound off for #2 bragging rights though.....

That's interesting to know. I always thought all other Engineers kind of viewed themselves as superior to the others. I guess I truly am at the top of the heap then. I never knew everyone else thinks I am as well.

All kidding aside, I think it all depends on what discipline is the most difficult to get into at the time. I remember a few years before I went into my second year, Electrical was the most difficult to get into. Back in the late 90's, everything high tech and computer related was seen as the future, so all the super nerds wanted to get into Electrical or Computer Engineering. Then the dot-com bubble happened and the oil and gas industry picked up here in Alberta, so all the smartest Engineers wanted to go into Chemical, Petroleum and Mechanical Engineering. When I was accepted in Electrical, I had a pretty crappy GPA, but was basically thrown in there because nobody wanted to be an Electrical Engineer. At the time the thought was the workload was too hard and the prospects of finding a job after were pretty low. So during my time at UofC, most of the Electrical Engineers were actually pretty fun to hang out with since they weren't the typical anti-social nerds.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by fotze

EE's were 'all that' when I went to school. ('all that' was also a popular expression at the time).

Everyone went to work for Nortel for these high paying jobs, then the tech crash happened and it was hilarious.

At the time, we all envied those guys who got the Nortel internships, and later jobs and came back bragging about their stock options and everything. It really sucked graduating right when the tech bubble burst following the implosion of Nortel and having to compete with all of those guys for jobs.