Job Responsibilities
Current role is Vehicle Dynamics engineer. Typical week is spent
like the following:
1 hour - career development / networking with senior management
or my sponsor on career paths, asking for suggested contacts,
etc.
8 hours - in vehicle testing and evaluations (subjective). Most
of this is being taught or aided by a more experienced engineer,
going through how to evaluate certain types of tests and
changes. Documenting results, documenting test details.
20 hours - analyzing test data and making conclusions based on
results.
4 hours - making presentations based on the analysis of data.
2 hours - documenting results / saving files / filing systems
for new assignments / looking for new learning opportunities /
taking training classes.
6 hours - attending team / group meetings, reporting on
everything from administrative organization to test results and
future planning.
4 hours - administrative tasks. Setting up shipment of parts,
making phone calls to check on parts, writing work orders for
things to be done on vehicles before testing can be done, etc.
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Job Requirements
Nature of the program I am in is to get your Master's degree in
Engineering while you work full time.
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Uppers
- Being able to affect the performance of the vehicle, in both an objective and
subjective sense
- Interaction with high levels of upper management, who usually take the vehicle
dynamicists' opinions.
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Downers
- Working in an area (vehicle dynamics) where a lot of people
have worked on this stuff for a long time. At times, being a
less experienced engineer means that, even if you are correct,
people will not believe you unless someone more experienced says
the same thing as you.
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Lifestyle
Work hours vary. At launch, you are working lots of overtime because you are
prepping vehicles to show to members of the press, in addition to regular tasks
for tuning the cars.
Travel is often unplanned and hectic, especially around launch when new issues
can be brought up be executives and they want quick turnaround on problems.
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Compensation
Base salary (w/ MS Engineering degree) - $62,500
Bonuses are based on corporate profits. Roughly $500/year per
$200 million in corporate net profit.
No stock options.
Benefits include full medical coverage.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Do not be afraid to ask questions.
The hardest transition is being able to evaluate vehicles on a
subjective basis. This skill takes years to learn and master.
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