What inspires you?

Originally Posted by RayPooley

You said "I am trying to break into a software engineering role" which implied, to me at least, you were doing something other than software. Anyway, what platform are you coding in?

Yes I am a student still that is why lol. I am doing part-time work with MS .NET MVC 3 and coding in C# just like yourself. My current project involves fixing bugs for their existing web applications. Before that I worked on converting one of their web apps to work with touch-screen mobile devices, specifically iPads but I wanted to safeguard for all touch devices since they are heading that direction anyways. I am just using this as an "internship" until I find full-time work somewhere else post-graduation.

Originally Posted by nikkeiS2K

Yes I am a student still that is why lol. I am doing part-time work with MS .NET MVC 3 and coding in C# just like yourself. My current project involves fixing bugs for their existing web applications. Before that I worked on converting one of their web apps to work with touch-screen mobile devices, specifically iPads but I wanted to safeguard for all touch devices since they are heading that direction anyways. I am just using this as an "internship" until I find full-time work somewhere else post-graduation.

Ok. I get it now. Word of advise. Don't put all your faith in MVC or even MS for that matter. If all you do is spoon feed on MS and .Net you will never undestand the fundamentals of software development. I always refer to .Net as the .Net lego set. Its little blocks of code that you assemble in accordance with the instructions on the lid. You really need to be aiming for platform independance. When you can build an application end to end with nothing more than a text editor and a compiler then you will be a software developer. As your software career develops in the commercial world you will find that you start to come across more complex requirements that can't be delivered by plugging .Net framework blocks together. You will need to be capable of designing more and more of your own custom classes in order to deliver the solution.

I'm not sure what it is about this forum that periodically drives people to write these manifestos.

What inspires me. Tits and Pussy.

Originally Posted by RayPooley

Ok. I get it now. Word of advise. Don't put all your faith in MVC or even MS for that matter. If all you do is spoon feed on MS and .Net you will never undestand the fundamentals of software development. I always refer to .Net as the .Net lego set. Its little blocks of code that you assemble in accordance with the instructions on the lid. You really need to be aiming for platform independance. When you can build an application end to end with nothing more than a text editor and a compiler then you will be a software developer. As your software career develops in the commercial world you will find that you start to come across more complex requirements that can't be delivered by plugging .Net framework blocks together. You will need to be capable of designing more and more of your own custom classes in order to deliver the solution.

Thanks for that advice. Working with these IDEs is of course not going to give you the whole picture of the SWE development cycle. I am aware about requirements gathering, designing, implementing, testing and maintaining software, but as a student it is hard to break into the more practical stuff. What do you suggest I do to get more practical experience? I have done quite a bit of work with web development and databases, but these projects are still at the amateur level. Now I am starting to get into building mobile apps for Android and getting involved in open-source projects. Besides that I am not sure what else I can do until I start working. I do like how you mention that I should be able to build software with nothing more than a text editor and a compiler because I prefer to do it this way, but when you work at a company they have their own ways of doing things, so I have to be familiar with this kind of software whether I like it or not.

Originally Posted by Treburkulosis

What inspires me. Tits and Pussy.

most honest answer in the thread.

People who are better than I am inspire me. People who have more life experience than I do inspire me. People who can teach me something inspire me.

Originally Posted by mcr_driver

most honest answer in the thread.

Seems legit

Doing or seeing a solution to something that hasn't been done inspires me...

Harder and harder to get inspired these days, lol.

Originally Posted by nikkeiS2K

If someone is a mechanical engineer I assume that they want to work on something automotive related, but it seems like a huge let down if they are most likely going to work on HVAC systems don't you think? When I think of a person that works on HVAC systems I tend to think of a janitor or someone that just needs to go to trade school, but I guess I had the wrong idea.

Yeah, that's the general perception of people who don't know. What they don't see is the computational fluid dynamics required to design a smoke control system to keep an atrium safe while people evacuate a building during a fire, or how the dew point temperature of the air coming out of your air conditioning unit is more critical than the actual air temperature.

It irks me when the janitorial staff is placed under the domain of the engineering department, and a typical building engineering staff contains no degreed mechanical engineers, much less professionally licensed engineers.

There are laws against using the word "Engineering" in a company name or description when that company has no licensed engineers on staff. They are enforced occasionally, but never make the 6:00 news.

Apparently, this subject is a hot button with me, so I promise this will be my last post on this thread.

The engineers (civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical) who design the public environment (buildings, roads, traffic control, bridges, etc) are first and foremost charged with protecting the public safety. First, do no harm.

The same is true for engineers who design products that people use. Our cars are becoming safer because engineers are charged with protecting the safety of those using the products, especially when they are travelling 160 mph down the highway.

Believe me, if you are a degreed mechanical engineer working in a position with an engineering title, you are most likely being challenged to bring your education and experience to bear on the task at hand. It's a rare non-engineer that would be able to perform your work, no matter what field you are in.

It's not a letdown to work in the HVAC industry. It's a lot more complicated and challenging than you think. If you are really interested in why it's not a trade job, go to www.ashrae.org and poke around a bit. Who do you think are trying to figure out how to design net-zero-energy buildings?

Originally Posted by wildirish317

Yeah, that's the general perception of people who don't know. What they don't see is the computational fluid dynamics required to design a smoke control system to keep an atrium safe while people evacuate a building during a fire, or how the dew point temperature of the air coming out of your air conditioning unit is more critical than the actual air temperature.

It irks me when the janitorial staff is placed under the domain of the engineering department, and a typical building engineering staff contains no degreed mechanical engineers, much less professionally licensed engineers.

There are laws against using the word "Engineering" in a company name or description when that company has no licensed engineers on staff. They are enforced occasionally, but never make the 6:00 news.

Apparently, this subject is a hot button with me, so I promise this will be my last post on this thread.

The engineers (civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical) who design the public environment (buildings, roads, traffic control, bridges, etc) are first and foremost charged with protecting the public safety. First, do no harm.

The same is true for engineers who design products that people use. Our cars are becoming safer because engineers are charged with protecting the safety of those using the products, especially when they are travelling 160 mph down the highway.

Believe me, if you are a degreed mechanical engineer working in a position with an engineering title, you are most likely being challenged to bring your education and experience to bear on the task at hand. It's a rare non-engineer that would be able to perform your work, no matter what field you are in.

It's not a letdown to work in the HVAC industry. It's a lot more complicated and challenging than you think. If you are really interested in why it's not a trade job, go to www.ashrae.org and poke around a bit. Who do you think are trying to figure out how to design net-zero-energy buildings?

I learned a lot from this insightful post. Thanks!

Originally Posted by wildirish317

Yeah, that's the general perception of people who don't know. What they don't see is the computational fluid dynamics required to design a smoke control system to keep an atrium safe while people evacuate a building during a fire, or how the dew point temperature of the air coming out of your air conditioning unit is more critical than the actual air temperature.

It irks me when the janitorial staff is placed under the domain of the engineering department, and a typical building engineering staff contains no degreed mechanical engineers, much less professionally licensed engineers.

There are laws against using the word "Engineering" in a company name or description when that company has no licensed engineers on staff. They are enforced occasionally, but never make the 6:00 news.

Apparently, this subject is a hot button with me, so I promise this will be my last post on this thread.

The engineers (civil, structural, mechanical, and electrical) who design the public environment (buildings, roads, traffic control, bridges, etc) are first and foremost charged with protecting the public safety. First, do no harm.

The same is true for engineers who design products that people use. Our cars are becoming safer because engineers are charged with protecting the safety of those using the products, especially when they are travelling 160 mph down the highway.

Believe me, if you are a degreed mechanical engineer working in a position with an engineering title, you are most likely being challenged to bring your education and experience to bear on the task at hand. It's a rare non-engineer that would be able to perform your work, no matter what field you are in.

It's not a letdown to work in the HVAC industry. It's a lot more complicated and challenging than you think. If you are really interested in why it's not a trade job, go to www.ashrae.org and poke around a bit. Who do you think are trying to figure out how to design net-zero-energy buildings?

I'm glad there are people like you who get excited about doing that kind of work. I knew guys in school who got pumped designing concrete and analyzing structures but I could never get into it. I know this isn't true, but I always felt like I was working in a slow and tech-dumb industry when I was doing civil & construction work, just wasn't very exciting.

This is a prevailing misconception that Mechanical Engineers the world over (possible exception of Germany) have had to contend with for generations. People think they fix cars for a living. They don't. MECHANICS fix cars for a living. Mechanical Engineers design cars and just about everything else on the planet. Look around you. Everthing you see and touch owes its existance to some Mech Eng at some point in its manufacture. Whether it be the object itself or the machines that make them.

Originally Posted by VaderDave

I'm not sure what it is about this forum that periodically drives people to write these manifestos.

Manifestos?

Originally Posted by rosenrot88

Manifestos?

Yes.

Originally Posted by VaderDave

I'm not sure what it is about this forum that periodically drives people to write these manifestos.

youre on another vader roll

Originally Posted by Five_seveN

youre on another vader roll

That sounds like something you'd get at a trendy sushi place.

Originally Posted by VaderDave

Yes.

"Declarations" might be a better word given the context but what's your point?

Originally Posted by RayPooley

"Declarations" might be a better word given the context but what's your point?

I'll let someone wiser than I am restate the question:

Originally Posted by RayPooley

Sounds like one of those bullsh*t human resources job inteview questions. What is this? Oprah?

Fast Cars, shooting Stars, and all of the lights!