Job: Research Engineer

What does a "research engineer" do all day? We get to play with exotic devices, usually repairing them but sometimes redesigning. (Jeeze, I need to repair the huge broken filling. I didn't realize that I looked so snaggle-toothed.)

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• science
• physics
• electron
• paramagnetic
• resonance
• university
• amasci

[Alexsteen]

Is it possible to do something like biomedical engineering or nanoengineering in your spare time? My knowledge of physics and math far outstrips what is required in my major (mechanical engineering). I'm talking real analysis, topology, and my having a strong grasp of quantum mechanics. Thing is, research doesn't really excite me, and I don't feel fulfilled... It's too abstract for me. I'd like to reap more practical rewards i.e. being doctor .but I also want to contribute scientifically.

[wbeaty]

@Alexsteen To contribute on a professional level, you have no choice but PhD. If not, then instead do amateur projects. Or go into teaching.

If biochem and nano are your thing, you'll be competing with thousands of others, with many being hotshots and top brains.  Science is full of fads and hot topics best avoided. To be useful, avoid these. Polish your skills at sniffing out the many unexplored niches unknown to the crowd-followers. Go against the flow, become an eccentric character.

[wbeaty]

@Alexsteen Another tactic: sniff out facts "everybody knows," which actually aren't correct. For example, "everybody knows" that worthwhile science exclusively involves extreme complexity, and only top postdocs have any chance of working on it. Says who? Classic breakthroughs are often very simple, and entire research communities looked right at them for decades without seeing them. Pursue Feynman's Alternate Toolkit. Develop your intuition (such things are currently disfavored! Big bonus!)

[wbeaty]

Oh also track down the book "The Art of Scientific Investigation" by Beveridge. He reveals many tricks of working professionals. Become one of these rare types...

"Many very serious-minded, solid and knowledgable people work hard in science all their lives and produce nothing of the smallest importance, while others, few by comparison and not highly erudite, exhibit a serendipity of mind that enables them to have valuable ideas in any subject they may choose to take up." -Lyttleton

[CaptainDonou]

so in a nutshell your a glorified handyman who in his spare time dabbles as an inventor/science enthusiast. Neat =]

[wbeaty]

> glorified handyman

Wear old clothes, because today we're climbing around under mass spectrometer magnet

[loltehinternet]

In the US, people are paid for operating far below their potential.

[prototype9000]

you should go for lockheed martin they pay really good for skills like that should have never quit there for dell to be laid off.

[Alexsteen]

@wbeaty Thanks wbeaty! You should write a self-help book for intelligent people lol. There's enough pablum out there.

I definitely want to become that type. If it's possible, a surgeon who does research in the background. But speaking with my med school friends they actually discourage me from medicine in general. 90+ hour weeks, HUGE overhead costs in liability and insurance. And very little free time. Maybe I should just become a firefighter in my spare time.

[21Blitz]

@wbeaty Now I see man this is cool, cuz one i love to fix things even its fancy things u dont do everyday. Plus u seem to have a great deal of intrest in it. U do more then ask "how to fix it" U reserch and pursue them. too Understand them, Kickass