ukscooby

Im just bout to finish an HND in Auto Engineering and I want to become a design engineer. Using CAD/CAM packages. Just wondering if there are any scoobynetters who can help me out-point me in the right direction. Written to a fair few companies and not much luck!

The old 'cant get a job without experience-cant get experience without a job!'

Wouldnt ming getting into any sort of auto engineering, just need some helpful connections! Any advice would be superb.

Al

Apple

ukscooby

have you thought about any of the recruitment fairs when they start - many are looking for graduates but if you can wow them with loads of "related experience" and commitment they might consider you. it might be possible to get onto a company training scheme somewhere. are you a member of any professional institutions etc and get their magazines for either recruitment pages or going to talks / courses etc - all ways of networking and getting seen / making contacts.

did you do a placement on the HND? are there any contacts from this?

what experience do you have that's not job related but is related to what you want to do e.g. motor clubs, temporary jobs, practical knowledge (tinkering with cars / engines) etc?

are you wanting to be a designer or an engineer? there's a quote from somebody I can't remember "engineers design, designers style".

have you used the cad/cam packages that industry uses so you have relevant experience? these packages are only tools to get a job done easier - like a pencil only writes on paper but you have to know what to write. I once went to an RAF careers office for an engineering job and somebody who wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer came in and said that they wanted to joing to drive land rovers - nothing else. they didn't get very far . I'm not in the RAF as it seemed they only wanted pilots only at he time

anyway, that's a start with some info

Apple

ukscooby

Apple,

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I didnt do a placement as it was a two year, full time course. Im not a member of any institutes yet either. As for motor clubs etc, im hoping to go to a few races he competes in. He races a porsche gt2 in the euro GT series. May get some contacts there but not hopeful. I agree that getting a training scheme with a company would be perfect and so im looking hard. Ill keep my eye out for recruitment fairs too, that could be a great help. Thanks mate

Al

Ray_li

Im a final year Industrial Product Design at Coventry University with less than 8 weeks to go.
what we do is to design anything from cars to bathroom taps. As a bonus we make these product look sexy aswel as practical .
From 3 years of training this is what we have at the end.

Design Skills
CAD/CAM (AutoCAD 2000, Solidworks)
Engineering Science
Manufacturing Technology and materials
Electronics
mechanics
Drawing skills (product rendering, styling)
Visual Language
Machine Shop (Model Making)

Examples of design work:
JCB shovel
innovative floatation device (Speed0.)
martial arts equipment
product for Nokia
suitcase
chairs
loads more. yada yada yada

I hope this gives you an idea of what a product designer does. its hard work but the job is very enjoyable.