Big bird55

iTrader: (1)

Yeah I know most of you guys are going to tell me to do a search... I have and have not found an answer to what I am looking for.

Right now I'm taking a break from college at Texas state. I have roughly 2 more years elfin my degree plan and I am having mixed thoughts on the degree and what I want to do for work the rest of my life. My degree is in construction science and management with a minor is business administration. But now I am at a crossroad. I'm interested in my degree field and everything but I truly do enjoy and stay interested in the automotive aspects more. My delima is finding a job after school and pay. Right now on my break period I'm working in a polymer plant making 21.16 an hour with no experience at all. For my current degree plan I'm not to sure on what the pay start off is. So I'm curious as to what most Sam graduates are able to get for start off pay and where it might cap off for them...... And how hard it was to find a job for them afterwards... I'm not wanting to get a job thats never going to take me anywhere or make my life stagnant. I want to work in a field I truly am going to enjoy.

What are your guys thoughts. What would you do? Can you get a job out of Sam and eventually work up to a nice pay?

BigBronco

iTrader: (2)

Go spend some time with the Manufacturing Engineering guys if you want to get a taste for what SAM has to offer.

You can practice on the bridgeports, CNC machines, etc.

Manufacturing is VERY strong in the Central Texas region. Work for companies like Samsung, Apple, Intel, Applied Materials, Thermon, C-Fan, BAE, etc.

If you are already doing Construction Science, I know you spend enough time in that building. Go talk with some of the professors and see what they have to say.


I am an Alumnus of the program, btw.

99FRC

iTrader: (5)

Stick to the degree plan!! The options for you are far greater with the college degree than with a trade degree. I see so many people that work much harder and are probably smarter than me, but make a fraction because they don't have that little piece of paper. It isn't industry specific either.

Big bird55

iTrader: (1)

An alumni that's neat. Sadly I'm not in San Marcos right now and I'm working in Houston... As far as getting on the machines they have become very very strict and only let certain students use them Ect. I have been on the machines some what. I worked in the foundry lab for them my last few months in the area. The only time I see them use the machines is for specific classes and they don't really want others to use them from what I have saw. I do know that when I was getting ready to head back home they where bringing in a haas 5 axis.

I was a manufacturing engineer but I was fucked over by the schools shitty summer counselor and I ended up where I am know....

I just have always enjoyed building and designing estimating Ect. I also had planned on attending Sam after my degree plan but have been second guessing myself because I am fearful of not find a job in that degree field.

Thanks for the advice so far guys

leeluther252

iTrader: (17)

I'll just copy and paste what I said to someone else that asked:

I went to SAM, finished, and work for a sponsor on this board. I don't spin wrenches though. I do parts sales and tech support. Most of us here make around 60-70k a year, 40hrs a week. SAM is a good school and you can learn a lot there, but it's not all rainbows and unicorns. I was about 30 when I went there and I had a real life and real responsibilities.

If you REALLY want to land a great job, you need to be there all day every day. You need to go to every event they have, and work on their cars/projects after hours. The people that do that are the ones that will get the good jobs. No matter what else you are told, this is the 100% truth. You will also most likely have to move away to get a job like that.

When I was getting close to finishing school I asked about job placement, and it wasn't very good. What I found is most people were being offered jobs in machine shops that had nothing to do with cars or motors and the pay was pretty poor. $15hr is horrible knowing you are paying $30k+ for school. Not to mention it isn't even in the field you were wanting to be in. I chose to stay at my current job for a while until I found the place where I'm at now. I found the job myself without the help of SAM. I have another friend who went there with me and had the same problem. He is now working at Circle D and extremely happy. He had to get that himself as well.

My biggest problem I had with SAM was the head class and the teacher at the time. To my knowledge he isn't there any longer but he didn't teach anything. Most of the time he goofed off, played Days of Thunder for us to watch, or worked of things that were pointless. We spent weeks trying to fit a Chevy exhaust plate on a Ford head. That wasn't going to fly with me so I would check in and go learn to port heads on my own. If it were up to me I would get a refund for the head class but I've never tried. I've been fortunate enough with money to be able to pay my loans off on my own.

All and all it really is a good school but you need to be there all the time. 12hrs a day 5-7 days a week. If you can't do that I wouldn't waist my money. If you can, then you have a real shot at landing a job at a big name racing shop if that's what you are wanting. Remember though, SAM is a machine shop. Meaning most of the jobs you will get will be honing and boring blocks, balancing rotating assemblies etc. However with experience and time, you would be able to build motors for some one at some point