Fareed Naura, Sam Mazzola, Megan Wendel

April 09, 2018

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Table of Contents
Tables of figures ______________ Page 3
Summary ______________Page 4
Introduction ______________Page 5
Methods ______________Page 6
Findings ______________Page 9
Recommendations ______________ Page 13
Discussions ______________Page 14

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Table of Figures
Value of the Dollar Country Comparison Page 9

Industry Information In Different Categories Page 10

Industry Information 1-10 Ranking Page 11

Industry Total Ranking Page 12

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Summary
The article enclosed compares 6 career paths all of which can be chosen by a Wayne State
University student with an Engineering degree after graduating. The team gathered in depth
analytical comparisons for each and reflected the best possible path based on the results
gathered. Secondary exploration has given our team more information to distinguish the 6
workforces based on the criteria below.

 Average Salary
 Average Schedule
 School Curriculum
 Travel
 Miscellaneous

Empirical data and Secondary research helped the team come to these final recommendations.

1. Oil and Gas Industry

Average salary : $136,000

Work Schedule : 40-80 hours per week

2. Chemicals Industry

Average salary : $81,220

Work Schedule : 40-50 hours per week

3. Construction Industry

Average salary : $87,740

Work Schedule : 40-50 hours per week

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 Introduction
The team consisted of Fareed Naura, Sam Mazzola and Megan Wendel.

Fareed Naura, a student at Wayne State is pursuing the same degree that this report talks about.
Knowledge of this topic has been already searched and discussed. Spent a few years at Henry
Ford College and has talked to many professors and current day engineers about what assets to
regard highly post-graduation. During an interview for an internship at a Ford meeting he was
asked to look at graphs showing sales comparisons between the trucks and sportscars and discuss
why in some graphs, the total sales would go down in certain regions and up in others. In his
material science class, he had to solo lecture about nanocomposites and involve charts and
graphs showing why certain metals are strengthened when they undergo that process. Extensive
research was conducted and information was verified via actual experimentation such as cold
working metal.

Megan Wendel, also a Wayne State student, is pursuing a degree in Nursing. Since Wayne State
is a research oriented school, she has some experience with research. She was very interested to
learn about this degree and what it entails.

Samuel Mazzola, another student at Wayne State is also pursuing a degree in mechanical
engineering. He has spent many hours with his close family friend who is the chief engineer at
American Axle and who was previously the chief engineer at GKN Driveline. These two
discussed the average engineering student leaving college through real world experiences of
others. As well as the mentorship that he brings, Sam also has researched a variety of different
topics throughout his college career. At Wayne, the research topics required extensive effort and
digging through sources to find the right data that fits.

This report was created because of an assignment in an English class which required
collaborating with a group to submit a very informative document with concrete data.

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Methods
Starting the data was the first step. What topic would be best situated for us as a team. Two of us
are pursuing an Engineering degree while the third is going for a Nursing degree. We decided a
report on Engineering would be best since two of our members could use the information highly.
The third group member going for nursing was interested in Engineering because they wanted to
motivate a family member to pursue the same degree. The article was best fit for post-graduation
since that’s where most of the information would come. The report is very broad for an
engineering student and allows them to use it even if they aren’t closely relating to the same
degree.
There is so much paths that one could tank so we limited it to six. One of the biggest limitations
for our team was trying to categorize the many industries and first find which would be best. In
the time required the research became intensive and difficult since much information at first
seemed anecdotal based on the engineer themselves. Fareed Naura, one of the team members,
flew to another state to retrieve data from written reports and discuss the best possibilities with a
Petroleum Engineer named Michael Havrilla whom is the lead negotiator and manager at
Chevron.
Fareed was taken into the work place of Michael and was able to discuss with varying Engineers
about career paths. Despite it starting with a Petroleum Engineer, in a company there is more
than one person needed to make things work. It’s a whole system with different parts would be
the best metaphor. Much of the discussion followed the same route that Petroleum was genuinely
the most appreciated and respected Engineering path with the best perks while Automotive
followed as a second favorite.

We guided our interviews and research based on our criteria above

 Average Salary
 Average Schedule
 School Curriculum
 Travel
 Miscellaneous

Keeping in mind every one of these aspects which were not too difficult to do since information
regarding these would usually come up as a first section. We also factored in that this is
supposed to be for a Wayne State University Student.
After doing fundamental research about each industry we started forming tables which better
showed comparisons and differences between each. Allowing us to conclude the best fits easier.
The following industries are ones chosen.

 Aerospace Industry
 Automotive Industry

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  Chemical Industry
 Construction Industry
 Oil and Gas industry
 Materials and metals Industry.

When we established which industries we’d cover, we went onward with our research to start
analyzing the criteria and making comparisons. We then transferred this data category into a
chart to better separate explicit information.

The first step in the researching process was realizing the problems we could face. Things like
false data and hard anecdotal information that would downgrade other categories. One step we
took to avoid that would be to grab information from certain interviews and use it somewhere
else. We’d ask the same question that was answered to us by someone else and see how another
Engineer would respond to it. In our conclusion there was no information that was only justified
for one person. Much of what we gathered stayed constant and valid throughout the research
process. The second problem we possibly could come across and did was time. We were not
given too much time for this project. Articles that are properly done sometimes take years of
research. That is not to say ours isn’t valid, the time we were given is still a just amount for a
great article. As a group we understood this and worked in overtime to meet our deadlines. We
decided the biggest step in the beginning after the obstacles were looked at, was to find the
categories of the industries we’d be talking about. This was rather difficult because Engineering
is such a broad thing that you could basically say ant research and that would be a category we’d
have to consider. Instead of being that specific, it made it much easier to just make our
comparisons and contrasts in broad categories. To better explain, saying ‘’Mechanical’’ would
deal with all those relating to engines. Car Truck and Boats would be summed up into this
category. Aerospace while it does deal with engines itself, has an excessive amount of
differences and follows a completely different curriculum. It is very easy to confuse some of the
degrees because of a few similarities but they would be much more different than one would
imagine.

We wanted to tackle our interviews and articles we’d retrieve data from with certain questions.
Some of these questions were specifically chosen to tackle self-observed opinions.
We did keep in mind the major questions that helped us analyze our data better such as

1. What advice would you give to students who are undecided and don’t know what to do
while going through an Engineering Curriculum?
2. What made you fully decide to lock on a certain industry?
3. What are you looking for post-graduation and which quality would be the most important
for you in a job?
4. Are there any certain likes or dislikes that would change your direction in helping you
decide what your industry you’d want to go into?
5. What degree are you actively pursuing or in the past pursued and what was the first thing
that made you do this?

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 Because Fareed Naura and Sam Mazzola being two members already in an Engineering
curriculum, this made asking questions and retrieving information much easier. We chose
three students in an interview and separated them from the others as their responses were
the most genuine. The interviews conducted with them will be found in the Discussion
section of the report.

We chose to interview engineering students who are actively pursuing their degree to get a better
idea

1. The diversity that’s currently in the same classes industry wise

2. Explore the thoughts of other engineering students and get their opinion based on
their experiences or knowledge.
3. There isn’t a better degree of people to interview more than current engineering
students for the sake of the report.
4. To provide anyone reading this report with answers to questions such as:

1. What field do you currently work in and what made you realize you wanted to
work in X as opposed to Y?
2. What route led you to that field of work?
3. Who or what led you to picking the industry you wanted to work for post-
graduation?
4. Did you determine that you are best fit for this industry or did you have any
regrets?
5. What advice would you give for current students who have concerns about the
industry they’d like to work for post-graduation?

Aside from the interviews, we gathered secondary data from sites pertaining to the following
criteria.

 Average Salary
 Average Schedule
 School Curriculum
 Travel
 Miscellaneous

We used sites such as Forbes, Prospects, The institution of ME, Department of Labor, Quora,
Work Chron, Study.com, Glassdoor.com, Allaboutcareers.com, and Engineering Scape.
Of course, we realized not a single website would answer every question we had nor give us all
the information we needed. We gathered more resources to provide more than one stand point on
the criteria.
The secondary data we retrieved from the sites above gave us a good direction with ranking the
industries. The 6 industries we chose were then compared and contrasted (mainly contrasted
since comparisons don’t do us any good when looking for ‘’the best’’ outcome.)

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Findings
The first aspect that should be kept in mind is the value of the dollar. In this section we enclose
graphs and charts that show values to different industries in different categories. If offered for an
example an Automotive option as a career in two states, you should compare the salary via the
value of the dollar. $80,000 in California is not as efficient as $70,000 in Michigan. This chart is
from 2014 but the ratios are still similar or identical to present year.

Value of the dollar Demographic

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 For hours in the chart below, 40+ means your hours could range from 40 and higher while 40-50
usually stays in that range. While simple, this chart allows us to see the information gathered
compiled into a short summary. Oil and Gas was found to have extreme hours which is why you
see a high increase in salary.

Industry information in different Categories

Engineering Salary Average
Industry Hours Per
Week

Aerospace $94,500 40+

Automotive $80,000 40+

Chemical $81,220 40-50

Construction $87,740 40-50

Oil and Gas $136,000 40-80

Materials and Metals $75,000 40+

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The chart below uses a 1-10 number system to assign a rank for each category. 10 is the
highest or ‘’best’’ rank while 1 will be the lowest. This is just a conversion of the above chart.

Number System ranking for different Categories

Industry Average Work hours

Salary
Aerospace 7 10

Automotive 5 10

Chemical 5 7

Construction 6 7

Oil and Gas 10 3

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 Materials and 4 10
Metals

For the chart below, a 1-10 number scale is also used. Qualities of the industry are taken in via
their numerical ranking in each category and added and then divided by 2.
While Oil and Gas was rated as number 1 earlier in this document, it is extremely dependent on
hours worked. The lower the number of hours worked, The higher the rank on the list. We used
the highest number of hours which would be around 80 and set the ranking there. Because Oil
and Gas received a 6.5, it automatically became the number one pick since the highest ranking
is Aerospace at only 2 points higher. We used the best-case scenario for Aerospace and worst
case for Oil and Gas which is not even close to dragging behind.

Overall Engineering Ranking Chart

Aerospace Automotive Chemical Construction Oil and Materials
Gas and
Metals

Total 8.5 7.5 6 6.5 6.5 7

Rank

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Recommendations
After researching and interviewing our colleagues the team came to 3 final recommendations for
mechanical engineering majors at Wayne state. These recommendations are in no particular
order however they give choices for those wanting to pursue different career fields. The first is
for students wishing to stay in the Metro Detroit area. Students who wish to pursue this path
should attempt to locate a career in Detroit, Dearborn or Livonia in the automotive field. The
second recommendation is for those who also wish to stay in Michigan, however not in the
Detroit area. For these students the path would revolve around finding a career in the Warren,
Troy, or Farmington Hills areas. As for the industry for these students the choices are wider than
the choices in Detroit. They may wish to do research to find out which field would be the
greatest fit for them, though the automotive field is also a valid option here. The final option is
for those who wish to leave the state and start a career elsewhere. For these students, if they wish
to optimize the money they were to make the choice would be Texas, primarily the Houston area.
The state of Michigan isn’t very expensive when it comes to housing as opposed to other states.

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Discussion
The interview answers are as follows.

Olta Altami

1. Definitely look into industries, go to a company and ask to look around. Talk to a manager
and ask what goes on around here.
Watch videos, see what’s the best fit for you. There are plenty questionnaires for stuff like this

2. I wanted to be outside more so I ultimately decided to go with Civil engineering

3. I'd love a job that allows me to be around the country and not just stuck in one place. For me
the most important quality would definitely be freedom.

4. I don’t want to be stuck in any confined place. Anything that was a horrible atmosphere
that’s why mechanical seemed to be a no go for me.

5. I was going for Mechanical Engineering at first but I ultimately changed to civil.
The curriculum in school is a bit easier too so there’s that. I didn’t want to
put myself through something more difficult and something i wouldn’t like.

Mahdy Farhat

1. I would tell them to schedule meetings with their councilor and reach out to
their professors in their engineering courses in order to get their opinions and
learn more about the curriculum.
2. I really enjoyed chemical engineering from the start, I excelled in chemistry
classes throughout my academic years and I knew I wanted to go into
engineering, so it made the decisions of which engineering industry to go
into.
3. For post-graduation I’m looking for a stable job and provides great income,
but the most important thing for me in a job is if I enjoy it or not.
4. Yes, if I dislike the topic of the industry, such as mechanical, then I would not
decide to go into that. Also, if I like the jobs offered for the specific industry or
not would also influence my decision.
5. I’m actively pursuing chemical engineering and the first thing that made me
go in to this major was my love of chemistry and my growing interest of
engineering as a major.

Jimmy Xaldin

1. I would advise them to seek out help from their peers about their experience

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 and ask professors of engineering classes what the program is like.
2. I’m very much interested in protecting the environment I’ve been involved in
organizations to help keep the oceans clean and I enjoy the engineering side
of it as well, so environmental engineering was perfect.
3. After a graduate I’m looking for a job that provides me with an enjoyable
environment and the most important thing to me is a great place to work in.
4. If I disliked the way the job was conducted that would influence my decision.
5. I am actively pursuing environmental engineering and the first thing that
made me do this was when I took part in the Surfrider Foundation when I was
younger, which helps keeps the world’s oceans clean.

The data we discovered began to break down our search into multiple potential options. One of
our most significant findings was the quality of life for potential engineers was extremely
important. With this in mind it came down to if one is happy within the state or if they wish to
travel. Through the Labor Bureaus statistics, we discovered Detroit and the surrounding areas
have one of the highest concentrations of mechanical engineering jobs of anywhere in the
country. Yet, with the number of jobs the mean wages will be lower due to the amount of new
entries into the field combined with the cost of living being lower than other areas. We compiled
the data into charts ranking the top areas to live as well as the top industries. A significant
challenge came when attempting to rank the industries given the wide variety of careers one may
perform. After breaking down the best choices it was clear due to the heavy automotive presence
in Michigan that the industry dominated the state. Many already know this however the
automotive industry has many moving pieces backing it such as research and development and
other fields that all lead up to the creation of the final product. With this being said, there is a
wide variety of careers one may start while working for the automotive industry. Another
interesting discovery was the number of engineers employed by the U.S. government. This is yet
another interesting path but was ultimately decided against due to the inconsistencies in the data
available. When we began to consider careers in another areas besides Michigan, we discovered
the automotive industry continued to dominate the mechanical engineering career field.
California and Texas are the two highest concentration areas of mechanical engineers after our
state. The mean wages for the two were very similar yet surprisingly Texas was higher. Even
with the pay gap being as small as it was between the two Texas has a significantly lower cost of
living than California. Therefore, Texas is a much more viable option then California due to the
money that would be saved, even if there are more job opportunities in the golden state.

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 References
(Picture References)

https://taxfoundation.org/real-value-100-each-state-2016/
https://engineeringselection.com/blog/biggest-challenges-career-engineer/

(Information References)

TARGET jobs, Ross. “Automotive Engineer: Job Description.” TARGET jobs, 9 Mar. 2017,

targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/job-descriptions/275855-automotive-engineer-job-description.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Mechanical

Engineers, on the Internet at https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/mechanical-

engineers.htm

Lundberg, Sofie. “Consumer Goods & FMCG Careers Advice.” Milkround, Milkround, 10 Aug. 2017,

advice.milkround.com/sector/consumer-goods-fmcg.

Kelchner, Luanne. “Aerospace Vs. Mechanical Engineer.” Career Trend, 5 July 2017,

careertrend.com/aerospace-vs-mechanical-engineer-28918.html.

Johnson, Olivia. “The Average Work for a Chemical Engineer.” Chron.com,

work.chron.com/average-work-hours-chemical-engineer-28406.html.

AGCAS editors. “Control and Instrumentation Engineer.” Prospects.ac.uk, Dec. 2016,

www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/control-and-instrumentations-engineer

“Aerospace Engineering: Industry Sector Overview.” TARGET jobs, 23 Oct. 2017, targetjobs.co.uk/career-

sectors/engineering/advice/282395-aerospace-engineering-industry-sector-overview.

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Engineers, www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/aerospace-engineers.htm#tab-6.

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engineering/chemical-engineers.htm#tab-3.

Metallurgical Engineer.” Glassdoor, 10 Nov. 2017,

www.glassdoor.com/salaries

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go-electric/#1bca3c926387.

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