[H0T_S0UP]

When I was in undergrad I really loved engineering (aeronautical). I thought I wanted to get a PhD focused on fluid mechanics and aerodynamics. After being in industry and deciding not to get that PhD (financial reasons mostly), I am realizing I am hating it...but I am not sure why. I still love math and the physics, but the day to day engineering work is making me so depressed. I also feel like aerodynamics and fluid mechanics is a dead field. Other than turbulence where are advances to be made? I try to go home and work on some stuff after I get out of my job (a class in scientific computing), but I find it absolutely miserable to sit through a class/homework after sitting all day for 8 hours looking at paperwork. I don't know, I feel kind of hopeless/depressed right now. Life isn't working out the way I planned it. I think all I care about now is making money, though deep down I want to have legacy, but I realize the only way to get ahead today is if you are rich.

[wyldckat]

Greetings Alex,

Originally Posted by H0T_S0UP

I don't know, I feel kind of hopeless/depressed right now.

You might want to get an appointment with a doctor for assessing if you're actually getting into a depression or not. It's a very dangerous medical condition if not taken care of as soon as possible.
Either that, or take a 1-2 week vacation somewhere away from work.

Originally Posted by H0T_S0UP

Life isn't working out the way I planned it.

Planning is essential, but things rarely go according to plan. Here's an interesting quote: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

--------

Originally Posted by H0T_S0UP

I think all I care about now is making money, though deep down I want to have legacy, but I realize the only way to get ahead today is if you are rich.

The usual paradigm is simple:

1. Either you choose a job for the money alone and you stick to the plan of earning money.
   • Then have a hobby or two that you like.
2. Or you choose a job where you do exactly what you like to do and don't care about the money.
   • With luck, you end up being the best in the work you do and possibly make a lot of money when you reach that status.

Either way, the usual way to earn the big bucks, is to become good/great at what you do.

Beyond this, many people start their working lives in one field and after a few years, they simply change fields.
There is even a work-study paradigm that states that in the future (er, perhaps already in motion?) working in a field won't be much more than 5 years, before going back to school for 1-2 years for working in another field.

Last but not least: Engineering has a pretty broad work spectrum, ranging from anything in-office simulations to outside field experiments. Perhaps you're working on the wrong end of the spectrum?

Good luck! Best regards,
Bruno

[kmooney]

Some B.S. level engineering positions can end up being a daily grind. If you want to start working on more exotic stuff then you might need to try any move into R&D positions, either through personal development within your company (if thats possible) or getting a MS or PhD to get away from the lower level stuff. Everybody's career path is different, but in the end you're in charge of your work and need to make a change if needed.

[ErenC]

I know this is an old thread but,

When I was in BS my scores were not great and I was not really intrested to be a great engineer. I was going to work at machining industry. Of course, It would be terribly boring life. I knew it.
But when I started to research for my thesis, I found that thermo-fluids were amazing. I decided to raise my scores so I can apply master. I did. I studied with a terrible advisor in master, still, I learnt a lot by myself.

Now I am doing PhD with great advisor, I am learning new stuff everyday, economicly it is a terrible zone. I prefer to say that "I am in a transient zone", but knowledge comes with a cost.

If you haven't already, just like a old "Dark Souls" writing says: "take the plunge". At least you will have clear con'science.

[random_ran]

Originally Posted by ErenC

"take the plunge".

Have you ever try this: https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/o...?rrec=true#spc

Crappy tire always gives me a shock.

[braakk]

There are other scientific fields that use fluid simulations, you might enjoy those for example: meteorology, climate science, oceanography, seismology, magnetohydrodynamics, study of extraterrestrial atmospheres and other earth related fields

[geth03]

i would really like to know what HOT_S0UP is doing right now.
i'm in my first job now, simulating and programming multiphase flows and i don't like it, too.
i wrote a piece of code that has a good agreement with experimental data, so i'm simulating different kinds of machines now. i'm the only one that can write code with C++ and also has the physical background to understand the staff.

but i did expect much different things from work life. i even don't get the salary i deserve.

[atelcikti1]

haha i feel similar now after 6 years with CFD, doing simulation or writing code dont make me fun. unlike my youth i really enjoy playing video games ^^

[Gert-Jan]

I am a free lancer and have about 20 completely different projects each year. In this way, the CFD work keeps interesting since every project is brand new. For an eager scientist/engineer like me this is absolutely mandatory to keep the work interesting.
If I would work in a single company and would have to work on one typical machine for years writing a code, I would get bored and leave the company within half a year.

Bottomline: make sure your have enough variation in your CFD work. Sometimes do easy jobs. Choose the low hanging fruit. Easy to score. That keeps you motivated. Most interesting are projects where things do not work out in pilot scale as engineerined in the lab. Or when things go wrong during scale up from pilot scale to full scale.
Then customers want a solution yesterday and money is not an issue. Then first mitigate and then come with a permanent solution. That will really show the nice things from CFD as you can open the black box, look behind the stainless steel boxes and in the equipment and show what is going wrong. And tedious grid studies are too time consuming ;-)

If you don't want to become a free lancer or if you don't have the money to buy a commercial license, apply at a consultancy firm. In general they have various projects to work on.

[ErenC]

Originally Posted by Gert-Jan

I am a free lancer and have about 20 completely different projects each year. In this way, the CFD work keeps interesting since every project is brand new. For an eager scientist/engineer like me this is absolutely mandatory to keep the work interesting.
If I would work in a single company and would have to work on one typical machine for years writing a code, I would get bored and leave the company within half a year.

Bottomline: make sure your have enough variation in your CFD work. Sometimes do easy jobs. Choose the low hanging fruit. Easy to score. That keeps you motivated. Most interesting are projects where things do not work out in pilot scale as engineerined in the lab. Or when things go wrong during scale up from pilot scale to full scale.
Then customers want a solution yesterday and money is not an issue. Then first mitigate and then come with a permanent solution. That will really show the nice things from CFD as you can open the black box, look behind the stainless steel boxes and in the equipment and show what is going wrong. And tedious grid studies are too time consuming ;-)

If you don't want to become a free lancer or if you don't have the money to buy a commercial license, apply at a consultancy firm. In general they have various projects to work on.

Can you recommend a consultancy firm? I'm always getting "do my homework, do my thesis" job offers in freelance websites... I really would like to work on something matters...

[Gert-Jan]

It strongly depends on where you live. In Europe where I live, the possibilities can vary from country to country. The general attitude in the companies should be that outsourcing is not an issue. I know in Germany the companies tend to keep all knowlegde in house, making consultancy companies less succesfull. Whereas in Sweden, The Netherlands, England, etc.outsoursing is very common. In Oceania and North America, outsourcing is common practice as well. For Asia and other continents, I have no idea.

Regarding students I fully agree with you. For that reason, I wrote the following in the Free-lance forum of cfd-online some time ago:

Introduction

[ErenC]

Originally Posted by Gert-Jan

It strongly depends on where you live. In Europe where I live, the possibilities can vary from country to country. The general attitude in the companies should be that outsourcing is not an issue. I know in Germany the companies tend to keep all knowlegde in house, making consultancy companies less succesfull. Whereas in Sweden, The Netherlands, England, etc.outsoursing is very common. In Oceania and North America, outsourcing is common practice as well. For Asia and other continents, I have no idea.

Regarding students I fully agree with you. For that reason, I wrote the following in the Free-lance forum of cfd-online some time ago:

Introduction

How about remote work(residence shouldn't matter in this scenario right)? Do you have any recommendation to where to start?
I have two Q1 papers, 3rd one is under-review, and I just started my PhD thesis... (In Turkey you have to take classes and pass qualification exam before starting to thesis). But I am having hard time while looking for job...

[Gert-Jan]

Giving important and confidential work to a free lancer is giving work to a person that is to be trusted completely and trusted people are the people that you know and are not too far away in a country with a well respected legal system, as a minimum requirement.

So, you need to know the people in person. Go to exhibtions, talk to people, visit conferences, especially software user conferences, build a network of people, build trust, build a relationship. That is really something for the long run and in real life situations.

You can argue there is a lot of nepotism, but as long as you only work online, you'll have a hard time to get other work than student thesis or other crap.

CFD-online is a start but you have to compete against the whole world. That is difficult against well educated people from Asia that work for very low rates.

Probably there are CFD consultancy firms in Istanbul or Ankara. You could apply there.

[ErenC]

Yeah I applied few of them. But I think OpenFoam ability in my cv and in my publications prevents me from that jobs, because all them are using commercial packages. I know how to use ANSYS products too but, they are distributor of the software... Anyway, I just feel like getting PhD is not helping me at all when I'm 30, so I started looking for jobs etc. Thank you for your comments.

[Gert-Jan]

With a PhD, you have the right mindset to become a very good consultant. So, I would not be too negative. Unless these companies only want to sell licences. Nevertheless, they can be very helpful since they know the market and know which companies use the software. A perfect opportunity to build a network.

For now you have to stay in touch with them, understand their problems, build a commercial attitude and learn the commercial codes, Even better if you know the open source packages as well. That really helps a lot.
And visit user conferences. You have to get in the head of those people. When they look for someone, they immediately think of you........that should be your goal right now.